Chinese President expands country’s military powers to defend interests abroad
Eryk Bagshawme 21:07, Jun 14 2022
“For the first time in a while, China’s state-owned enterprises, provincial and local governments, private companies, and citizens will be forced to compete for a piece of a pie that is no longer growing,”
[Craig Singleton, former US diplomat and a senior China fellow at the hawkish Washington think-tank the Foundation for Defence of Democracies]
While that is a great soundbite – it assumes two things. One is that human growth can be accurately modelled as bacteria in a petrie dish. Secondly it assumes our evolution will forever be constrained to just this one planet.
Over the long run of time, human development has seen us discover and exploit a series of new and previously unanticipated forms of resource. After millions of years of hunter-gatherer existence which never saw the total number of humans on the whole planet rise above 10m – suddenly we had agriculture that exploited the irrigation, fertilisation and transport capacity of major river basins. If it had the security benefit of being surrounded by desert – then like Egypt the resulting civilisation could sustain itself for thousands of years at a wholly new level.
Then in relatively quick succession the excess capacity released by agriculture allowed us to harness new energy sources – wind, coal, oil and gas. None of which were suspected before they became manifest – and allowed us to expand to almost 10b humans. And astonishingly enough in this past few decades only turn into an almost new species with a very stable – even declining – population growth rate. This shift could not have been imagined even so little as a century ago. Malthus would be astonished and dismayed at how badly his predictions have turned out.
In the interests of balance I do not want to paint an overly rosy picture here. History gives us no comfort, progress is not linear and locally it often reverses catastrophically. We are more than capable, in our collective distress and confusion, of self-inflicting terrible wounds upon ourselves
But if there is one crucial theme that motivates me to write here more than anything else it is this idea – that humanity is on the cusp of a unified, global adulthood that will see us shift toward new coherent purposes and motivations. In this sense I can agree with your quote above – the growth and turbulent period of childhood and adolescence could not last forever. Nor will we bound to our planetary mother indefinitely – we will leave home.
It's not a great soundbite. It's blunt and easily dismissed. It shouldn't be used by anyone who really intends to find solutions to the problems we are beset by here on planet earth, imo.
This however, is a great soundbite:
"unified, global adulthood that will see us shift toward new coherent purposes and motivations."
It's the kind of thing I hear from the yoga-mums, crystal-healers, GoddessWarriorwomen and shamanic-praticioners, many of whom set up tents outside of Parliament recently and plied their trade.
How curious that you've arrived at the same place they have, RedLogix 🙂
From a technical point of view, I’ve always baulked at the idea of a “finite” planet. I understand the sentiment and recognise that some resources are finite (those that can’t be restored) but think of the materials that rain down upon us from space; sunlight being the primary resource, but certainly not the only one. It seemed to me that the planet is in fact, increasing in substance.
There was once a dreadfully wicked hobgoblin. One day he had a simply marvelous idea. He was going to make a looking glass that would reflect everything that was good and beautiful in such a way that it would look dreadful or at least not very important. When you looked in it, you would not be able to see any of the good or the beautiful in yourself or in the world. Instead, this looking glass would reflect everything that was bad or ugly and make it look very important. The most beautiful landscapes would look like heaps of garbage, and the best people would look repulsive or would seem stupid. People's faces would be so changed that they could not be recognized, and if there was anything that a person was ashamed of or wanted to hide, you could be sure that this would be just the thing that the looking glass emphasized.
The hobgoblin set about making this looking glass, and when he was finished, he was delighted with what he had done. Anyone who looked into it could only see the bad and the ugly, and all that was good and beautiful in the world was distorted beyond recognition. One day the hobgoblin's assistants decided to carry the looking glass up to the heavens so that even the angels would look into it and see themselves as ugly and stupid.
They hoped that perhaps even God himself would look into it! But, as they reached the heavens, a great invisible force stopped them and they dropped the dreadful looking glass. And as it fell, it broke into millions of pieces.
And now came the greatest misfortune of all. Each of the pieces was hardly as large as a grain of sand, and they flew about all over the world. If anyone got a bit of glass in his eye there it stayed, and then he would see everything as ugly or distressing. Everything good would look stupid. For every tiny splinter of the glass possessed the same power that the whole glass had!
Some people got a splinter in their hearts, and that was dreadful, too, for then their hearts turned into lumps of ice and could no longer feel love. The hobgoblin watched all this and he laughed until his sides ached. ….
—from The Snow Queen, Hans Christian Andersen
More truth in these harsh old fables than we like to think.
Sounds like the story of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.
In Anderson's story the hobgoblin (“dreadfully wicked” is redundant, surely 🙂 at least, is happy. I wonder if he crafted the mirror itself to look beautiful? I suspect he will have, if he was intending that people would look into it.
In Anderson's story the hobgoblin (“dreadfully wicked” is redundant,
For plain English aficionados perhaps. But repetition and tautology are the stuff of fairy tales, the stimulation of the imagination and the passing on of possibly universal truths vanity, being happy with what we are etc.
I have a theory that not enough reading to people is being done, not enough fiction reading with a wide use of language. When you look at the words that trip up people (grown ups) this is evident. Hobgoblins and the hierarchy of goodies and baddies such as elves, goblins, fairies, pixies etc and the ability to use them today to describe behaviour.
Michael Wood, in his powerful speech about the motivations behind the occupiers of Parliament grounds, was stark proof of this. The reactions by others showing the depth of misunderstanding of what should be a common language and the inability to work through descriptive language with all its mechanisms, ie figures of speech had an impact on me
While we need to 'tell stories' ie frame ideas so they are easily understandable as opposed to chunks of scientific knowledge we might be wise to investigate whether nowadays people understand stories as a way of imparting ideas. Telling stories to adults as a way of passing on ideas relies on those adults having a background knowledge of stories and their function.
Little bit away from the Chinese link.
The phrase is better expressed, in my view, 'you cannot have endless growth' or 'you should not have endless growth' or we don't need endless growth or moving to the aspirational how do we stop endless growth for growths sake?
To explain that you have to marshall all those early stories, Shakespearean tales, truths from other countries (eg about giving people things as opposed to teaching people things), Biblical allusions, whakatauki eg Whatungarongaro te tangata, toitū te whenua. The people fade from view but the land remains. Today, this sacred land remains, and bears witness to a hope that is endemic to the human spirit…Also important are things such as work/life balance etc.
I agree with and enjoyed, all that you wrote there, Shanreagh. I wonder if you are a fan of storyteller Martin Shaw, or any others of his ilk – people who value highly, storytelling, recounting myths and the purpose of legend in our lives.
"Bearing in mind that much of the stuff we send into space falls back down again, only a few hundred tonnes of spacecraft have actually escaped Earth’s gravity since the first space programmes began.
This is tiny compared with the quantity of hydrogen and other gases that escape continuously into space from the upper atmosphere. This has been estimated at between ESA says 90 t per day 30,000 and 65,000 tonnes per year.
Earth also gains about 40,000 tonnes per year in the form of meteorites and space dust. Overall, though, the planet gets slightly lighter each year. But this only amounts to around a trillionth of a per cent, as Earth is very, very heavy at 5.97 × 1024 kilograms."
Nitrogen, pat, seems to be everywhere. Some of it is created by lightening, some by industry. The bulk of it though, seems to have arrived here from afar. Plants in my garden capture and sequester nitrogen in the form of nitrate, I believe, making it available for other plants to uptake. Birds eat those plants and their guano becomes the vehicle for further transfer of nitrogen in some form or other. Ammonia is in there somewhere. Urine from cows fed on urea-forced grass is high in nitrate content and the animal excretes it as fast as it can to avoid being poisoned. The carrying liquid filters down through the soil, into the groundwater and further out into the creeks and rivers. Some of it though, is converted by bacteria into N2O, a potent greenhouse gas. Industry devised a biocide to render inert the bacteria responsible for this conversion, but it proved unpalatable to the market so the production of N2O on New Zealand dairy farms continues unabated.
These observations may not be the case, in fact. Never the less, they paint a picture of complexity and wonder, at least to me 🙂
To my mind, anyone who believes that we ever will migrate to another planet is a naive young fool who has not seriously faced our failings. Writing science fiction is one thing: making space ships to travel such distances is another.
Especially when people are too 'optimistic' to face the 6th great extinction which is galloping towards us like the horses of the Apocolypse.
While that is a great soundbite – it assumes two things. One is that human growth can be accurately modelled as bacteria in a petrie dish. Secondly it assumes our evolution will forever be constrained to just this one planet.
Hi Red I think we need to sort out some terms. When we talk about 'human growth'. what do we mean by this term 'growth'?
I kind'a feel here Red, (and forgive me if I am wrong), but that you, (not I), have somewhat conflated human population growth with economic growth.
People are not bacteria, as the average standard of living in a society goes up, as personal liberty and opportunities become more available, as more of your offspring are likely to survive, people tend to prefer smaller families, https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53409521
This is the opposite of what happens to mindless bacteria in a petri dish. Without any faculty for personal choice, – provided with the resources to reproduce, bacteria reproduce exponentially, until they totally exhaust all the resources in the petri dish till they perish.
Ignoring people's personal choice and agency, and comparing humanity to bacteria in a petri dish is where the Malthusian nightmare of runaway overpopulation falls apart.
Human population and wealth are linked, but not directly.
However the general trend is that human population growth and average personal wealth are inversely proportional.
But average personal wealth is not what is referred to by economists when they are talking about 'Growth'.
Measures of Economic Growth & Living Standards – GDP, GDP/Capita, GNI, Green GDP
….let us consider different measures of economic growth….
[@ 4:43 minutes]
…..GDP just looks at output, the quantity of output. The quality of output has been ignored completely. ie The negative examples, of production are ignored completely and are not going to be included in our figure. Things like the cost of air pollution, resource depletion, environmental degradation, deforestation, loss of bio-diversity, desertification, All these negative examples are not going to be included at all……
….income inequality, nothing is mentioned in GDP. Nothing about the distribution of income at all…
….we can also argue that there are many other quality of life aspects that would increase living standards that GDP does not take into account. For example health outcomes. The level of healthcare, the level of education in society the level of freedom, of gender equality, the level of democracy. All these factors, clearly will increase living standards but are not taken into account.
Imperialism is being practiced all around the globe by the rival economic blocs. Where these rival economies can't expand their influence by soft power, they resort to hard power. Behind the velvet glove is the iron fist.
Where growth economies butt up against political borders they breach them, invasion and war is the result. When growth economies butt up against the carrying capacity of the planet, they breach those as well. Environmental destruction and climate collapse is the result.
Is war and climate collapse inevitable then?
No. But it will require a complete paradigm change.
Ancient slave economies have in common with modern growth economies that they also demand expansion. Slaves die, they grow too old to work, they win their freedom through manumission, they runaway, they rebel. Expansion and invasion and wars to capture new slaves. is as important to slave societies as invasion and wars to capture new markets and monopolise resources is to growth economies. But you knew that. You got the T-shirt.
A Russian talking head riffs on defending the descendants of former occupiers.
It assumes that the Russian Federation has the right to protect the descendants of former subjects of the Russian Empire, just like the descendants of citizens of the USSR
Thus, Russia had the right to protect the inhabitants of Gotland from discrimination by the Swedish authorities. It turns out that formally our country cannot claim the island, but it has the right to protect its inhabitants.
Tweet containing a screenshot of question from an Auckland University exam, that shows direct influence of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion on education.
A guaranteed fail if any Gender Critical thoughts are expressed. One such Gender Critical thought I immediately had was that it is Queer Theory that informs gender ideology. Transgender theory is yet another term that seeks to obfuscate.
Admittedly, passing this particular question is not on my to do list. But this approach influences the next cohort of sociologists. Gender Critical graduates, often counsellors or psychologists will be few and far between.
People who think this is a good thing, are usually unable to define what gender Critical is – other than 'mean'.
Why do we chastise teenage girls when they cut themselves, but celebrate them when they find a doctor to do it for them? When a teenage girl cuts herself, or starves herself, we try to help the human being. We do not sanctify the behavior. Why are we now celebrating a symptom?
I don't share all of the wider views of my partner of 35+ yrs, and he, likewise does not share mine.
If however, he expresses a view that I agree with. That's it. A view I agree with.
Amazingly, this works in the wider world too. If someone with whom I have agreed with, says something I find objectionable, or abhorrent, I will take the time to challenge that view. However, despite that, we will still retain a point of agreement.
This is how robust discussions take place, and perspectives are widened.
I suspicion you're hinting that perhaps Heying has views that are perhaps not suitable for wider sharing? I am not very good at subtle or hints…obviously…so it would be appreciated if you could indicate which particular views of Heying's you are referring to. Just so I know what not to share.
I'm also interested in any comments on the topic you originally posted, Rosemary.
You know, the one about self-harming girls being offered surgery without even considering this approach may be state funded self-harm?
"But wait a minute—I pressed the top surgeon. He also offered this service to teens who claim they are “non-binary”—that is, declare a gender identity neither male nor female. How did he know that a non-binary person had no breasts? How could he be sure that a non-binary person had a nose?
“You know, I long ago stopped trying to totally understand this,” he said. "
It is so comforting to know that prisoners get compo when they jump the fence in order to escape but this worker is pulled over the table. What is wrong with our public service? Can we still call them by that name?
This is a logical consequence of what happens when employers shift their costs to workers and the workers are now "self-employed".
This has occurred across many businesses e.g. courier drivers, trucking, care giving, cleaning.
We stood by during the 80's and 90's as good employers who paid good wages were driven out as they couldn't compete against those who paid low wages and shifted their cots to employees – not just physical costs but sick leave, annual leave etc as well. It is a bit unfair to blame ACC it’s the wider problem causing this.
Still happening today. It is time this rort was stopped and an 8 hour working day, 40 hour working week with time and a half paid after that and on weekends. There are firms that charge you weekend work at time and a half and double time who don't pay that to their workers actually doing the work.
Dominic Drumm, owner of Westferry Property Services in Auckland, said he was competing with rivals that employed their cleaners as “contractors” allowing them to pay them less than he pays the people he employs directly.
It is so comforting to know that prisoners get compo when they jump the fence in order to escape
Don't let the ACC Amendment Act 2010 disentitling inmates from receiving compensation for injuries received while committing crime get in the way of your pearl clutching.
Just tested and then updated the site to WordPress 6.0. I've been a bit busy recently, but I have been stuck in a waiting room for a nurse to deal with a dressing for an infected finger.
Let me know if anything seems amiss. I still need to check and update the mobile version.
Open source project…. The flex is pretty good these days – the number of additional rules you have to use has been going down against standard wordpress.
I rather like the block editing, it has started to get to the point of being quite useful. The biggest hassle is the complications with existing plugins. At some point I'm going to need to remove the plugin support for the old editor so that there aren't conflicts with things like facebook and video on the block editor.
But next long work at home holiday, which I haven't had since 2017 due to lack of a suitable workspace at home, I'll do some upgrades. But that will be after we buy a new house with room for two separated home offices.
I'm going to have a look at doing a new skin for this site with some of the updated tools. Mostly just flexing the columns out of their rigid 1280px width limit, and providing a fold down to the menu
I've played with a number of the 'news' orientated tool kits like Newspaper (daily blog uses it). But they appear to be a failure in motion – they have regression / deprecated errors on each update of both the Newspaper and with the updates of WordPress.
The advantage with this desktop site skin has been its simplicity. It has been running with the same theme since 2010 with essentially few changes. Mostly what it lacks is the flex.
The mobile version we have been using since 2013 is pretty good and works well on phones. But I'd like to get up to the current version (that I have paid for about 18 months) that I haven't had time to integrate and test. I'd like to flex it out with the desktop version.
Talkback educated me about vaping yesterday( ZB 11.20am)
I have never really thought much about vaping, except how funny some vapers look surrounded by a huge cloud of mist. I have also noticed the prevalence of vaping amongst college pupils ( later confirmed).
The first caller I heard related a conversation he'd had with a principal of a large secondary school. The principal said vaping in his school was a pandemic. He had watched bright children and sport champions become withdrawn, lose interest in school, and start to look physically ill.
I couldn't see the connection with vaping.
The next caller put her 16 year old daughter on the phone. She spoke of all her friends vaping; their problems, and how she herself was trying to give up. Another caller threatened his son with boarding school and confiscation of his phone if he didn't stop vaping. It worked and apparently the caller said his son became a different person when he gave up vaping.
I again failed to see the connection between physical and mental decline and vaping.
The next caller filled in the blanks. He had worked for a company that imported bulk flavouring agents from China. These bulk drums had a warning: not for use by humans. These products were used by vape companies to manufacture different flavourings for vapers. As he said, original vaping products were reasonably safe. These new products were an unknown quantity, plus some flavours still had nicotine added.
So it's quite possible kids who are vaping, may be ingesting ingredients similar to synthetic drugs used in the past? That is a very scary thought.
New York Times Presents series of documentaries (the first season) has an episode on vaping, & the selling of it. Very good episode. & the Tesla one season 2 is an eye opener too.
Kiwibank – simultaneously putting existing home loan customers under financial stress by significantly raising their interest rates – while offering up to $10,000 to new home mortgage borrowers.
Let's be clear, banks will make profits whether the market goes down or up, because NZ homeowners are culturally reluctant to walk away from their homes even when under huge financial stress.
"Whether you're a first home buyer, looking for your next home or are ready to switch, get 1% of your new home loan with Kiwibank as a cash contribution, up to $10,000. This is a little extra to make life a little easier.
For example, if your new home loan with us is $540,000, you may be eligible for a cash contribution of $5,400."
Interest rates are going up because the cost of borrowing is,The yield on government 10 yr bonds rose to 4.24% and as the RBNZ (may update) said an investor in Auckland gets a higher return on government stock then a housing investment.
Housing in NZ is unsustainable as the cost of a median wage vs median house price is twice what is affordable.
The recent drivers were QE, low interest rates,and an inability to think by the Bourgeios on demand sect who thought they had an app for property investment.
Either 10% mortgage rates or a 40% fall in property price are needed for affordable homes (the loss will return the median price back around 24 months) the US fed has signalled a .5 rise tomorrow,the market is pricing .75,signalling to the fed they want the hit now to remove all doubt.
Won't these .75 speculators also win the most if the Fed goes above .75? I guess it will be a real imposition on them if the Fed only delivers .5 then.
Yes, I understand why the interest rates are going up.
My point – obviously badly made – was that banks will pass on those rises to existing customers without blinking, while using the profits generated by those customers, to encourage others to get into debt during a slowing/ falling market.
If it's culture which defines our relationship with property, it is a sick culture:
“New Zealand’s probably the one country that’s even more housing obsessed than Australia,” Economist Leith van Onselen of Australian blog Macrobusiness says.
Obsessed to the extent that the housing market has swallowed the economy, last year the value of New Zealand’s housing stock surged to nearly five times New Zealand’s GDP.
For context, Australia’s is not much better at just over four times, but the United States has housing stock valued at closer to twice its GDP last year.
One of the things Ardern and her government is trying to do is (gently) steer this country away from such obsession. People voted for it in huge numbers and they know it has to be done, so why the tears?
When talking about the cultural obsession with property, the demographics should be divided into homeowners, landlords and speculators. The latter two need further separation into degrees of investment.
The division is important.
The different groups have different reasons for both acquiring property, which affects the degrees to which they will sacrifice for their investment.
I do not recall Labour promising to crash housing prices though. House-owners have become attached to all that 'free' income for doing nothing productive.
No they didn't promise to crash home prices but they did promise to fix the housing market, part of which you could argue is to change the culture. No real sign of the latter yet but certainly signs of the former.
''About 50 protesters showed up outside of the new Te Aratai College in Linwood, waving flags and signs as cars tooting in support drove by.
They could be heard yelling "shame on police" and "give us our jobs back", while others shouted, "you have destroyed our lives"
You have destroyed our lives. Guys, you can bet that's going to generate hate. More hate than that aimed at Bennett or Key.
Now, I know what you are thinking. 50 to100 feral protesters ( depending on which news outlet), so what? Well, here's so what: each of those protesters probably has 10,000 or more Kiwis that agree with them IN THAT REGARD.
That's one stuff-up the government's responsible for: not making provision for people to get the jobs back once the mandates were lifted. They also could've hammered home that the mandates were temporary. It's all well and good in hindsight, but it would've reduced the pushback if they had've done that.
Agree. The government, and society in general, just moved on after the mandates were lifted without regard for those who had lost their jobs and had basically been thrown on the scrap heap. Stranger still, some employers didn't want them back. That's loyalty for you.
That's predicated on the assumption made by the government and some employers that people who refused to get the jab were both morally and legally reprehensible regardless of the reason for their refusal.
Forcing dedicated frontline staff out of their jobs, upending their lives, and duly fucking up the health system in the name of policy is the reprehensible thing here.
That's predicated on the correct assumption made by the government and some employers that the majority of people who refused to get the jab were both morally and legally reprehensible regardless of their excuses for their refusal.
No, let me fix it for you. The Covid jab was started before all final safety results were available to the Ministry of Health. Those results still may be outstanding( I'm not pulling my research out again)? This was clearly stated on the MOH website at the time. So we may be talking of ''buyer beware.'' being legislated against by the government.
You seem to be labouring under the delusion that viruses are rational and everyone had time to sit around and natter about it. This is a global war against a lethal enemy that has not signed the Geneva Convention, and does not wait around for fools to bray.
Viruses aren't alive. The medical fraternity tie themselves in knots to even explain what viruses are. Some say discarded strands of DNA..others say something else.
So, Bob is dead. He wakes up. Gets into a bed and hijacks the living occupants of said bed for his own purposes. But…bob is dead?
''For about 100 years, the scientific community has repeatedly changed its collective mind over what viruses are. First seen as poisons, then as life-forms, then biological chemicals, viruses today are thought of as being in a gray area between living and nonliving: they cannot replicate on their own but can do so in truly living cells and can also affect the behaviour of their hosts profoundly. ''
Thats scandelous Blade, the MoH releasing a vaccine before appropriate safety data is collected. You will of course be providing references to back up your allegation? and providing context about how significant a breach of protocol it was.
Now I'll just have to revise my thinking a bit due to the other govt criticism I am hearing, that the vaccine roll out was too slow.
''Medsafe has now renewed the provisional approval for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for 2 years, until 3 November 2023. Provisional Consent renewal is routine and has been applied previously to other medicines.
Provisional approval means the pharmaceutical company must meet certain conditions, including supplying more data from its clinical trials around the world as they progress. ''
Read the rest of the article. It may help your case. I look forward to your reply.
Its actually a missunderscandal (sorry I don't know of any English equivalent of this word).
Here's the explanation (to be fair it was very carefully hidden at the bottom of the short page in fine same size print),
"Under New Zealand legislation, there is no ability to have different levels of approval for one vaccine or medicine. For example, Medsafe cannot grant full consent for the Pfizer vaccine for adults and maintain provisional consent for adolescents 12 to 15 years old (or in future applications such as 5 – 11-year-olds). This is one of the reasons why Medsafe has not moved to full approval in New Zealand for this vaccine at this time. "
So rather than going ahead without safety results Medsafe is explicitly not going ahead without the safety results. More specifically in particular age categories. As we also know Medsafe had not yet in 2021 but later approved the vaccine for 5-11 year olds once that data became available in early 2022.
'' Medsafe had not yet in 2021 but later approved the vaccine for 5-11 year olds once that data became available in early 2022.''
EitherPfizer’s is giving us POSSIBLE tainted data, or Medsafe is a sleep at the wheel.
Did you read anything about this in our local media? I didn't. That's my point, questions remain that should have been answered before Medsafe gave the go ahead to vaccinate younger age groups.
You will find other links where BMJ replies to Facebook ''fact checkers''…and other where some scientists think the issues raised weren't indicative of data corruption.
Seeing as how your of a legal mind you will understand the case is going poorly when the prosecution starts withdrawing charges. In this case a reduced charge of Medsafe being 'asleep at the wheel' having received the data, rather than proceeding without the data.
"EitherPfizer’s is giving us POSSIBLE tainted data, or Medsafe is a sleep at the wheel."
It seems also POSSIBLE that Pfizer gave us perfectly good data and Medsafe doesn't engage in narcoleptic automobile use. In fact with a large amount of real world vaccine usage data this producing basically similar performance to the trial (across multiple countries) this seems highly likely.
Since you were unaware of this story (I was aware of it) you will also want to understand that its related to the original adult vaccine trials and specifically one of the agencies (of 153) which carried out only one part of the trial. Fortunately the trial involved 152 other such agencies doing similar sub-trials and as far as we know only this one had anything like serious concerns involved in its work.
Frankly its unclear what your alleging here. Medsafe is not able to do FDA investigations, so if the FDA decided there is nothing to see here they can hardly draw any other conclusions.
and again, no Medsafe should not have waited for all age group trials to be completed before releasing the adult vaccine. This would have delayed vaccination start until January of 2022.
Why would you want to re-employ someone who has shown no regard for their colleagues' safety. Especially the health workers. No sympathy here.
You'll be pleased to know Sacha, that after a brief period of being paid as Peter's carer, the Universe returned to rights and that payment was cancelled because I chose not to take the Pfizer Product. Largely because it was new and experimental and I had spoken to too many people who had needed days incapacitated in bed to recover from their shots to risk leaving Peter without an experienced carer…even for a short while.
Peter refused it because of increasing neurological instability associated with his spinal cord injury made him very reluctant to risk exacerbating that…such issues being widely recorded adverse effects of the jab. The fact that neither of us felt free to discuss these concerns with any health professional made us even more reluctant. Censorship will have that effect.
We both got Covid in March. Got sick, didn't die, got better. No meds, no hospital. A few weeks later we organised to have a few hours per week of relief care so that I could go shopping and not have to worry about Peter being alone for hours. Local carer, suitably triple vaxxed, sits and chats (the times available were well outside our usual hands- on care times and the skills required are beyond their level of experience) while I do the necessary .
So, oh the bleeding irony, when said triple vaxxed (and morally and legally acceptable) carer went partying of a weekend, came here and chatted the following day and developed a sore throat and tested positive for Covid the day after.
So, Sacha. Explain to me how Peter and I are supposed to react to this.
The Pfizer Product does not prevent infection, transmission or symptomatic disease.
The mandates were never justified for any category of worker.
How is the health system holding up? You know, the one we were supposed to be saving by getting the jab? How many fully vaxxed health workers at any one time were absent from work at the various DHBs over the past two months?
I really appreciate your contributions on this subject, Rosemary. Your patience, eloquence and real life experience are a valuable contribution.
I sometimes want to engage with those who think everything is tickety-boo with the state's response, Pfizer's product rushed into the market with the FDA's asterisk concerning no other alternative/emergency and then mandating its use. Akin to another post here in TS about folk being anti-woke. There are similarities in the mindset: assuredness of their position and when evidence emerges suggesting it may not be as we have been led to believe, you get …. crickets. So I largely don't bother.
The video you posted a week (two weeks ?) ago, with the Scandinavian professor who would not now recommend the mRNA vaccines to anyone unless they were old or have serious health issues was sobering.
Christine Stabell-Benn (Danish) knows her stuff. She has done vaccines forever and it not afraid to acknowledge the bad with the good. She is a hard core scientist…who cares. Rare these days. This pre -dates Covid, and shows how all is not necessarily good in the vaccine arena.
…all is not necessarily good in the vaccine arena.
Absolutely – vaccines and other preventative health interventions aren't perfect. And yet, as Prof. Stabell Benn observes @13:30 minutes:
This makes vaccines the largest uptapped resource for improving health globally. – Prof. Stabell Benn
She knows her stuff, and further asserts that the polarised vaccine debate is hindering the wider acceptance of her research results, and delaying the development and roll-out of (more beneficial) live vaccines.
Seems that polarisation in the vaccine area might be counterproductive to improving health, so no (more) polarisation from me.
Thank you. And from my part I apologise for my 'tad personal' snark last night. Current events are unnerving to anyone following them closely and sometimes it spills over when it should not.
"They also could've hammered home that the mandates were temporary. "
That is precisely what they did do… over and over again. Especially Ardern. She emphasised it for all the media outlets. Something I particularly noticed though, there were few journalists, reporters and other commentators who picked up on it in their summaries. Not saying it was a deliberate ploy but yet another example of their often lazy reporting.
In NZ, poll size, and the inclinations of the pollsters, render may results dubious. They are more a vehicle for the bandwagon effect than an objective measure of public opinion.
The leader of Belarus has polls that claim 90% support. But there were massive nationwide street protests against his 're-election'. Generally speaking, that wouldn't occur were his polling genuine.
It's funny how the 'pull yourself up by your socks' types become victims immediately should hardship befall them. And by hardship, I mean nothing more than accumulating excess a little slower than the ridiculous rate they've grown accustomed to. The free ride has slowed a little due to global conditions.
"Ruined my life."
Such drama queens. So utterly incapable of self reflection their entire life is apparently ruined by local government – not their decisions, their efforts, their actions or their inability to adapt.
Worked alongside Inuit people in the Canadian Arctic in 2018. Quiet wiry people but you probably do not ever want to piss them off. Opposite of snowflakes.
At dinner one night I asked one of them where he came from – thinking he would FIFO'ing in from one of the 17 settlements that are spread out over the huge expanse of Nunavut. (Essentially it is a territory larger than Western Europe with a total population around the size of Gisbourne.)
Much to my bafflement he said 'Oh – around here'. ' Cambridge Bay?' I asked – being the nearest settlement I knew of. 'No – around here about 4km away'. Well that had me beat – because there is absolutely nothing but frozen wilderness for at least 100km in every direction. Turns out he really did grow up there – married and had four kid all in an tiny, isolated group of stone huts – lined with animal pelts and heated with seal oil lamps. Everything had to be hunted and processed by them the hard and dangerous way.
It was -25degC outside at the time – a temperature he was grumbling about. Because of climate change was about 30degC too fucking hot for him.
One of the more bizarre conversations I have ever had.
The British SAS did research on why some troopers were better suited to different climatic conditions. I would assume because some troopers handled certain conditions better than others. The conditions you describe would kill me. I can hardly function once the temp drops below -3 C. However, heat has little affect on me. I crave it. I find winter time hell.
I'm the exact opposite – I found the arctic cold invigorating. It is fair to say that what we get in NZ is that miserable damp cold around within five or ten degrees of zero – where nothing is properly dry and it is impossible to feel comfortable.
However when it gets below about -15degC however all the moisture in the air has frozen out and there is no liquid phase water left. Most of the time I was there it was between -20 and -40degC outside and that is a quite different experience.
In the camp there was no water except in the showers and kitchen that were constantly heated. I could shower and wrap a towel around me and walk 15m down the corridor to my room and my hair would be bone dry when I got there. Everything wet just sublimated dry instantly.
We had three major building about 2min walk apart to get between, and on my first week or so I would rug up with all my warm gear. But then I discovered if the wind was not too bad I could do it in my t-shirt – yes it was cold and I am no more immune to exposure or frostnip than anyone else – but I found that enjoyable. On other occasions I got to walk about 40min away from camp, but once I had gotten around a corner and out of sight I started to feel very isolated and alone. That was as far as I was prepared to go.
There was an alternative path for me to go from the back of the processing building and down to the camp by another route past the power plant. That was much less used and not well lit – but I enjoyed it until one night I got that sense something was watching. Sure enough we found wolf track the next morning just 10m or so from where I had been blithering along. Stuck to the main route after that.
The coldest we got to was -63degC including windchill, getting on the plane one morning. That was brutal – 2 minutes of that fully kitted up was quite enough.
"one night I got that sense something was watching"
That's an interesting experience, RedLogix. Experiments have been done to determine whether people can in fact "feel" hidden eyes upon them and it turns out, we can, in fact.
A disjointed comment probably done on the fly after seeing your fellow drones extinguished by a wasp. I see Robert is trolling in support, so I will take your korero with a grain of salt…ok, a pinch of honey.
''Such drama queens. So utterly incapable of self reflection their entire life is apparently ruined by local government – not their decisions, their efforts, their actions or their inability to adapt.''
I take it you mean central government?
The point has flown right over your head. What they are, aren't or what you think of them is immaterial. What one of them might do is.
So you've joined those losers making veiled threats now "What one of them might do is"
Should we be scared?
There's people losing their shit over the price of gas right now I can't help the precious dears if they've zero foresight.
As for the protestors, I couldn't care less how many 'real people' decided to get in bed with those white supremacist tossers. If you lie down with dogs…
For the record you aint a wasp you're an immature lightweight. Your contributions are garbage. You are as dumb as fuck.
Oh, man. I'm in love with this woman. Finally, someone with the guts to lay it on the line. This type of tokenism has riled me for some time. It is misread by liberals as everyone being on board with te reo and Maori culture. The reality is it's just white wokisters wanting to be able to say: ''US TOO!!
Quote:
"I encourage te reo use but in no way will I tolerate tokenistic use of reo by govt agencies as an attempt to show govt depts are culturally competent.''
No, you misunderstand. You misunderstand what I have written previously. If you are going to use te reo, you do it properly. And not on an ad hoc basis.
If on the face of it she wants less or no Te Reo if it is not done somehow properly, then the Minister is wrong on multiple counts.
– Use of Te Reo is strongly encouraged in most Departments whether she calls it 'tokenistic' or not.
– Use of Te Reo in most Departments isn't reversible now. It's been going on for many years and accelerated under this government.
– The Minister is not an arbiter of what is or is not 'tokenistic' whether she thinks she is or not. All Ministries get advice on how and when it is used, and most have specialists in-house.
– The Minister should instead should show where Ministries are doing this well, such as in the multiple mana whenua partnerships with DoC all over the place which are of course all bilingual.
It's the kind of timesome moral policing that achieves nothing except play into the hands of the media. Clearly she has tried to walk it all back with "misunderstood", but it was dumb and I am sure the PMs' department will have told her so.
He is right about what she is saying. I defer to this expert Māori leader about what language she wants to see in reports. Given the timing, the message may have been about the previous Minister. Why would my preferences matter.
Come, come, Robert, you know that we are not real men here on The Standard, (magnificent beards or not), but rather wokester wimps and "poor deluded fools". 🙂
I sense that Blade, despite being an organic farmer, au fait with the use of biochar, vortexes and seawater fertilisers, has a face as hairless as a baby's.
Of course Blade may claim to have cultivated a Methuselah-like beard to match his organic 10 acre lifestyle but I'll take that with a grain of bought-off-farm charcoal (how much charcoal did you say you bought, Blade, to cover your 10-acres needs? Quite a lot, I'd imagine and I imagine you imagine too!).
Aye, Robert, I see Blade as the most pretentious yet obvious troll that we have encountered to date. Pretentions of pure innocence combined with material that smacks of evil intent, and then volumnious denial.. often 'on an ad hoc basis'.
From where does Blade get all the time to contribute so generously?
And why does he put so much effort into doing so? And why does he somehow remind me of earlier trolls going under other names? Language patterns?
Yes I would love to visit Blade's organic farm too.
Implied allegations? Well, I am glad they are not full allegations! I am aging, and the only name of a past troll I can remember at the moment is a guy who went for a while by the name of Chuck. The site have already told me that such accusations are unwise, and that while they try to track such things, they cannot be sure that they are aware of all that is happening, but that I should refrain from accusations. That was years ago now.
So fair enough; I withdraw my 'implied allegations'.
I'd add "tone" and "underlying intent".
There was a guy, very clever indeed, who used to post here or on Frogblog, who talked about being “on the spectrum” and also this aspect of commenting patterns. He used an algorithmic programme of some sort (maybe built it himself” to determine whether “anonymous of Tawa” was also “anonymous of Helensville”. I wish I could remember his name. I wish he still posted here.
You may be amused to know I once attended a four day flow form workshop at Taruna College in 1988 led by none other than John Wilkes himself.
I was living in Kawerau at the time and it was in the immediate aftermath of Cyclone Bola. I had taken my mountain bike through the old Motu Road (and struggled through some monumental slips) and stayed with a friend who ran 2,000 acres of hill country farm north of Matawai. It took four days to reach him, and he was incredibly surprised anyone turned up at all. Stayed a week to help him get some fences sorted and then headed out to the coast. Went north and stayed at my home marae then, south to Hastings. A bit of an adventure just getting there.
The course was most memorable for the remarkable collection of other people there. PP was of course there, but lots of other really fascinating people with far more real life experience than I had. I enjoyed it immensely even if I did feel like a bit of an imposter is such rare company.
Still plan on building one when we get back to NZ. I have a perfect spot for it in mind. Will be nine bowls long at least, four chambers each – and very beautiful if I have my way.
PP stayed here with us, back in the day. Will you hand-form your flow form bowls from clay? I had a simple form here long ago, but it's been lost somehow. I love the swish. I keep axolotyls now and bet they'd love a spin in one, for an invigorating short-while, at least 🙂
The only ones I have seen were cast in some form. I had not thought of hand making them in clay but it makes sense if you want each one to be slightly different.
It has interested me to know how the claims of "champions of small hardworking kiwis/small business owners" (otherwise known as the National party) stand up. So I did a little "unscientific" research – using Wiki – to see what "Start-up/self-employed" experience the current National party Caucus had. Several (and I got bored after reading the first 13 ranked profiles) went straight from Academia into consultancies/political staffing jobs. Many, like the leader appeared to have walked into already well established and bankrolled organisations, or inherited considerable wealth. None would appear to have been from "battling little Kiwi" backgrounds.
So I would suggest they are hardly justified in calling out the government MPs as "out of touch/lacking experience".
… (I got bored after reading the first 13 ranked profiles) went straight from Academia into consultancies.
If you had struggled to the bitter end, I doubt the outcome would have been any different.
When you say they went from Academia… bear in mind most went to expensive private schools where one's shot at academic prowess and consultancy work had far more to do with who Daddy knew than any budding talent.
I did a similar exercise an election or three ago here based on the number of teachers and academics that National loved to disparage were found on the Labour benches.. There were many in National….
Genter, “Her financial hero is American Herman Daly, who was one of the first economists to talk about the incompatibility of infinite economic growth in a finite world.”
Makes you wonder where we are heading. Constant need to increase population and grow the economy might be a disaster in the long run.
I think you might be mixing up two different aspects of ACC. Prisoners do not get earnings related compensation (compo) because they are not wage or salary-earners.
Both injured people would be entitled to any private medical treatment for their injuries being heavily subsidised by ACC, provided they could prove their injuries were caused by an accident and not by disease. (nb This might sound straight forward, but it is surprisingly complex, particularly where age -related degeneration might be a factor in any injury caused by an accident.)
Damn, I was hoping Lynn's upgrade would fix the problems I have in posting. It hasn't, but I only had to go through part of the usual rigmarole to be able to post here, so things might be looking up. But it has dropped to the bottom again. Apologies
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
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When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
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Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
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A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
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In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
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Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
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TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
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April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
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Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
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Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
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New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
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Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Asia Pacific Report Following an open letter by Auckland University academics speaking out in support of their students’ right to protest against the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, a group of academics at Otago University have today also called on New Zealand academic institutions to “repair colonial violence” and end ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda J. Graham, Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology Ryan Tauss/ Unsplash, CC BY Two male students have been expelled from a Melbourne private school for their involvement in a list ranking female students. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The Reserve Bank is now assuming Australians will see no interest rate cuts this year – and quite possibly none before the next federal election, due next May. That’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University The Victorian budget offered more of the same on Tuesday, with the only change being how the budget papers were packaged. The usual shrink wrap was gone, hinting at savings in the pages ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Coalition is demanding extensive amendments to the government’s legislation targeting non-citizens who refuse to co-operate with their removal. In a dissenting report to the senate inquiry into the legislation, the Coalition says it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanita Yadav, Senior Research Fellow, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University Brett Boardman/Belvoir The complex and grappling issue of violence against women takes centre stage in the soul-stirring solo dance drama Nayika: A Dancing Girl. During a dinner conversation ...
Disruption to patient care from a nationwide junior doctors strike is bordering on unsafe, a senior doctor claims, despite what health officials say. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Ground Picture/Shutterstock The anti-cancer drug abemaciclib (also known as Vernezio) has this month been added to the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) to treat certain ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic McAfee, Postdoctoral researcher, marine ecology, University of Adelaide Robbie Porter, OzFish Unlimited Around Australia, hundreds of people are coming together to help a once-prized, but decimated and largely forgotten marine ecosystem. They’re busy restoring Australia’s native oyster and mussel reefs. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Webb, Lecturer, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology Austin Human/Unsplash How does Earth stop meteors from hitting Earth and hurting people? –Asher, 6 years 11 months, New South Wales Alright, let’s embark on a meteor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rory Mulcahy, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of the Sunshine Coast Professional sports organisations regularly promote and develop initiatives to support diversity, equity and inclusion. While sport has the power to change attitudes by sparking conversations about political issues and social ...
Comment: The weekly Monday post-Cabinet press conference is a useful forum for observing Christopher Luxon and how he is developing into the job of Prime Minister. He attempts to convey the impression of a man of action, speaking fast, delivering memorised National Party strategies in a connect-the-slogans kind of way, ...
Double votes, missing ballot boxes, tired tech and stressed staff: how tick-tallying went astray at last year’s election. Cast your mind back to November 2023, that bleary-eyed post-election period duringwhichwewaited, andwaited, for a coalition deal to be hammered out. A distraction from the hotel-hopping of our ...
International audiences are starting to discover what New Zealand already knew about After the Party.When After the Party aired in New Zealand last year, the response was fast and furious. In his preview for Rec Room, Duncan Greive said it was a “gritty, wrenching and highly confronting” series. By ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shahram Akbarzadeh, Convenor of the Middle East Studies Forum (MESF), and Acting Director the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University Iran’s leadership has been a direct beneficiary of the months-long war in Gaza. With every missile that Israel fires ...
Claire Mabey reviews the haunting and sexy debut novel from Sinéad Gleeson, who is about to touch down in Aotearoa for a string of live events.When Irish writer Sinéad Gleeson was in Aotearoa in 2018 with her spectacular collection of essays, Constellations, she told me she was working on ...
PNG Post-Courier Bougainville Affairs Minister Manasseh Makiba has described the Post-Courier’s front page story yesterday regarding a meeting between Bougainville and national government leaders as “sensationalised” and without substance. The Autonomous Bougainville Government (AGB) had warned it might use “other avenues to gain its independence” should the PNG government “continue ...
Where some saw the worst press conference given by the government to date, Anna Rawhiti-Connell recognised girl maths game.Nicola Willis, recently exasperated by comparisons to Ruth Richardson, said she was “a bit sick of being compared with every female finance minister that’s ever been out there.”Some think that’s ...
The March results are reported against forecasts based on the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2023 (HYEFU 2023), published on 20 December 2023 and the results for the same period for the previous year. ...
Jamie Arbuckle, the district councillor who became an MP but decided to keep getting paid for both roles, will instead donate one salary to charity. ...
Adding gender to the Human Rights Act would simply make the implicit explicit. So why is it so controversial? Paul Thistoll explain. At present, Aotearoa’s 1993 Human Rights Act (HRA) includes sex, marital status, religious belief, ethical belief (meaning a lack of religious belief), colour, race, ethnicity or national origin, ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, an 18-year-old who’s studying and working in hospo shares their approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Transmasc Age: 18 Ethnicity: Pākehā/Māori Role: Student, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kelsey, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Resources Minister Shane Jones has reportedly asked officials for advice on whether oil and gas companies could be offered “bonds” as compensation if drilling rights offered by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Gleeson, Associate Professor of Law, Macquarie University Shutterstock The Albanese government is weighing up the costs of delivering an election promise to protect religious people from discrimination in Commonwealth law. Such protections were relatively uncontroversial when included in state anti-discrimination ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yen Ying Lim, Associate Professor, Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University Pexels/Andrea Piacquadio Dementia is often described as “the long goodbye”. Although the person is still alive, dementia slowly and irreversibly chips away at their memories and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Judy Bush, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne Adam Calaitzis/Shutterstock I met with a friend for a walk beside Merri Creek, in inner Melbourne. She had lived in the area for a few years, and as we walked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Throsby, Distinguished Professor of Economics, Macquarie University Arts companies and individual artists in Australia are supported by government arts agencies, philanthropists, industry bodies, private donors and patrons. However, it is frequently overlooked that a major source of support for the arts ...
Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa, a new incorporated society dedicated to ending harmful drug policies, officially launched today, seeks a new fit-for-purpose drug law for Aotearoa New Zealand, rooted in science, experience and evidence. ...
The Corrections Minister admits he "muddied the water" after he and the Prime Minister repeatedly provided incorrect information about a $1.9 billion prison spend-up. ...
It took a post-post-cabinet statement to confirm that 810 new beds will be built at Waikeria, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Lili Tokaduadua was only 15 when she left her family in Fiji to pursue her netball dream in New Zealand. She’d been playing the sport for 10 years and was offered a netball scholarship at Auckland’s Howick College. Now, in her first year out of high school, the 19-year-old defender ...
The beloved local grocers lost a legal challenge to stop a new cycleway outside their store. Joel MacManus reports. In the annals of New Zealand legal history, there are a few brave people who have dared to stand up to the powers that be, no matter how bleak the odds ...
How what we produce and what we eat connects us to the world beyond our shores, visualised. Walking around a supermarket or vege shop, it might be obvious that everything on the shelves came from somewhere. But you might ...
A $1.8b funding boost for Pharmac still won’t enable it to buy more drugs, raising questions about the Government’s approach to the agency The post Can Pharmac do more with the same pot of money? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Professor Jemma Geoghegan, of the University of Otago, Otakou Whakaihu Waka, co-leads a Te Niwha project aimed at understanding how and where avian influenza could affect Aotearoa New Zealand, as the highly infectious H5N1 virus spreads globally. The virus has now spread to all continents except Oceania and was recently ...
Thirty years on from Rwanda’s genocide, is guilt over the atrocities is blinding the world to the true nature of its current leadership? The post The repressive underside of Rwanda’s regime appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: Last week, important recommendations for our criminal justice system were made by the international community. Every five years, each member of the United Nations has its human rights practices reviewed. This rolling event – the Universal Periodic Review – is the culmination of a government reporting on its human ...
Highly pathogenic avian influenza – H5N1, or bird flu – has been flying around the world since the late 1990s. New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands are so far free of it, but now it’s been discovered in mainland Antarctica and scientists say it’s only a matter of time ...
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The following interview with auto electrician and former caver Stu Berendt, 68, of Charleston on the West Coast, came about because he was part of the caving team that found the rare and amazing fossil remains of the giant Haast eagle, the subject of one of the year’s best books, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Stokan, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County If you live in one of the most economically deprived neighborhoods in your city, you might think the government is directing a smaller share of public funds to your community. ...
Wansolwara The news media’s crucial role in climate change and environment journalism was the focus of The University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme 2024 World Press Freedom Day celebrations. The European Union Ambassador to the Pacific, Barbara Plinkert, and Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna were the chief ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Adams, Professor of Corporate Law & Academic Director of UNE Sydney campus, University of New England Last August, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched legal proceedings against Qantas. The consumer watchdog accused the airline of selling thousands of tickets ...
This episode of A View From Afar was recorded LIVE on May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, May 5, 2024 at 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Taylor, Assistant Professor, Bond University Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures At the crux of the critical response to Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Challengers is one word: “sexy”. The film charts a love triangle between three up-and-coming tennis players: Tashi (Zendaya), ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Stewart, Professor of Public Policy, ADFA Canberra, UNSW Sydney For years, First Nations people have been telling governments they want to be listened to. In particular, they want more ownership of the programs and services that are supposed to help them. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Why do trees have bark? Julien, age 6, Melbourne. This is a great question, Julien. We are so familiar with bark on trees, that most of us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Nasser, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of Technology Sydney PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is an important ligament in the knee. It runs from the thigh bone (femur) to the shin bone (tibia) and helps stabilise ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne I covered the May 2 United Kingdom local government elections for The Poll Bludger. The Blackpool South parliamentary byelection was also held, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...
Latest Caspian Report. The comment thread is useful too:
You can't have endless growth on a finite planet.
You can't have endless growth on a finite planet.
While that is a great soundbite – it assumes two things. One is that human growth can be accurately modelled as bacteria in a petrie dish. Secondly it assumes our evolution will forever be constrained to just this one planet.
Over the long run of time, human development has seen us discover and exploit a series of new and previously unanticipated forms of resource. After millions of years of hunter-gatherer existence which never saw the total number of humans on the whole planet rise above 10m – suddenly we had agriculture that exploited the irrigation, fertilisation and transport capacity of major river basins. If it had the security benefit of being surrounded by desert – then like Egypt the resulting civilisation could sustain itself for thousands of years at a wholly new level.
Then in relatively quick succession the excess capacity released by agriculture allowed us to harness new energy sources – wind, coal, oil and gas. None of which were suspected before they became manifest – and allowed us to expand to almost 10b humans. And astonishingly enough in this past few decades only turn into an almost new species with a very stable – even declining – population growth rate. This shift could not have been imagined even so little as a century ago. Malthus would be astonished and dismayed at how badly his predictions have turned out.
In the interests of balance I do not want to paint an overly rosy picture here. History gives us no comfort, progress is not linear and locally it often reverses catastrophically. We are more than capable, in our collective distress and confusion, of self-inflicting terrible wounds upon ourselves
But if there is one crucial theme that motivates me to write here more than anything else it is this idea – that humanity is on the cusp of a unified, global adulthood that will see us shift toward new coherent purposes and motivations. In this sense I can agree with your quote above – the growth and turbulent period of childhood and adolescence could not last forever. Nor will we bound to our planetary mother indefinitely – we will leave home.
It's not a great soundbite. It's blunt and easily dismissed. It shouldn't be used by anyone who really intends to find solutions to the problems we are beset by here on planet earth, imo.
This however, is a great soundbite:
"unified, global adulthood that will see us shift toward new coherent purposes and motivations."
It's the kind of thing I hear from the yoga-mums, crystal-healers, GoddessWarriorwomen and shamanic-praticioners, many of whom set up tents outside of Parliament recently and plied their trade.
How curious that you've arrived at the same place they have, RedLogix 🙂
Good. I like it when – despite our outwardly different lives and views – we discover that nonetheless we share a lot more common humanity than not.
From a technical point of view, I’ve always baulked at the idea of a “finite” planet. I understand the sentiment and recognise that some resources are finite (those that can’t be restored) but think of the materials that rain down upon us from space; sunlight being the primary resource, but certainly not the only one. It seemed to me that the planet is in fact, increasing in substance.
There was once a dreadfully wicked hobgoblin. One day he had a simply marvelous idea. He was going to make a looking glass that would reflect everything that was good and beautiful in such a way that it would look dreadful or at least not very important. When you looked in it, you would not be able to see any of the good or the beautiful in yourself or in the world. Instead, this looking glass would reflect everything that was bad or ugly and make it look very important. The most beautiful landscapes would look like heaps of garbage, and the best people would look repulsive or would seem stupid. People's faces would be so changed that they could not be recognized, and if there was anything that a person was ashamed of or wanted to hide, you could be sure that this would be just the thing that the looking glass emphasized.
The hobgoblin set about making this looking glass, and when he was finished, he was delighted with what he had done. Anyone who looked into it could only see the bad and the ugly, and all that was good and beautiful in the world was distorted beyond recognition. One day the hobgoblin's assistants decided to carry the looking glass up to the heavens so that even the angels would look into it and see themselves as ugly and stupid.
They hoped that perhaps even God himself would look into it! But, as they reached the heavens, a great invisible force stopped them and they dropped the dreadful looking glass. And as it fell, it broke into millions of pieces.
And now came the greatest misfortune of all. Each of the pieces was hardly as large as a grain of sand, and they flew about all over the world. If anyone got a bit of glass in his eye there it stayed, and then he would see everything as ugly or distressing. Everything good would look stupid. For every tiny splinter of the glass possessed the same power that the whole glass had!
Some people got a splinter in their hearts, and that was dreadful, too, for then their hearts turned into lumps of ice and could no longer feel love. The hobgoblin watched all this and he laughed until his sides ached. ….
—from The Snow Queen, Hans Christian Andersen
More truth in these harsh old fables than we like to think.
Sounds like the story of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.
In Anderson's story the hobgoblin (“dreadfully wicked” is redundant, surely 🙂 at least, is happy. I wonder if he crafted the mirror itself to look beautiful? I suspect he will have, if he was intending that people would look into it.
For plain English aficionados perhaps. But repetition and tautology are the stuff of fairy tales, the stimulation of the imagination and the passing on of possibly universal truths vanity, being happy with what we are etc.
I have a theory that not enough reading to people is being done, not enough fiction reading with a wide use of language. When you look at the words that trip up people (grown ups) this is evident. Hobgoblins and the hierarchy of goodies and baddies such as elves, goblins, fairies, pixies etc and the ability to use them today to describe behaviour.
Michael Wood, in his powerful speech about the motivations behind the occupiers of Parliament grounds, was stark proof of this. The reactions by others showing the depth of misunderstanding of what should be a common language and the inability to work through descriptive language with all its mechanisms, ie figures of speech had an impact on me
While we need to 'tell stories' ie frame ideas so they are easily understandable as opposed to chunks of scientific knowledge we might be wise to investigate whether nowadays people understand stories as a way of imparting ideas. Telling stories to adults as a way of passing on ideas relies on those adults having a background knowledge of stories and their function.
Little bit away from the Chinese link.
The phrase is better expressed, in my view, 'you cannot have endless growth' or 'you should not have endless growth' or we don't need endless growth or moving to the aspirational how do we stop endless growth for growths sake?
To explain that you have to marshall all those early stories, Shakespearean tales, truths from other countries (eg about giving people things as opposed to teaching people things), Biblical allusions, whakatauki eg Whatungarongaro te tangata, toitū te whenua. The people fade from view but the land remains. Today, this sacred land remains, and bears witness to a hope that is endemic to the human spirit…Also important are things such as work/life balance etc.
I agree with and enjoyed, all that you wrote there, Shanreagh. I wonder if you are a fan of storyteller Martin Shaw, or any others of his ilk – people who value highly, storytelling, recounting myths and the purpose of legend in our lives.
Newstalk ZB. Obviously got a heavy dose of those splinters.
It seemed to me that the planet is in fact, increasing in substance.
Absolutely. I am a great fan of mysteries.
Tangibly, dust from space, drawn here by our gravitational field, settles upon us at a surprising rate!
Accretion certainly.
However there is a lot of atmosphric skimming as gases escape the gravitational pull in a semi-random walk.
The atmosphere gets replaced from nuclear heating from the earths core releasing bound gases.
The question is where the balance lies. But ultimately it is likely to be like Mars.
But it will take some time.
40kt of meteorite and interstellar dust PA.
https://www.nature.com/articles/380323a0
So it's not dandruff!
I knew it!
Discovered in Canterbury no less.
theres always a but…
"Bearing in mind that much of the stuff we send into space falls back down again, only a few hundred tonnes of spacecraft have actually escaped Earth’s gravity since the first space programmes began.
This is tiny compared with the quantity of hydrogen and other gases that escape continuously into space from the upper atmosphere. This has been estimated at between ESA says 90 t per day 30,000 and 65,000 tonnes per year.
Earth also gains about 40,000 tonnes per year in the form of meteorites and space dust. Overall, though, the planet gets slightly lighter each year. But this only amounts to around a trillionth of a per cent, as Earth is very, very heavy at 5.97 × 1024 kilograms."
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/lastword/mg24232301-200-has-all-the-hardware-sent-into-space-affected-earths-gravity/#ixzz7WEebt6XC
What, all of it, Poission?
all of it
Just the measurements from upward radar at UC.
Dissipation is part of the second law of TD,
Nitrogen, pat, seems to be everywhere. Some of it is created by lightening, some by industry. The bulk of it though, seems to have arrived here from afar. Plants in my garden capture and sequester nitrogen in the form of nitrate, I believe, making it available for other plants to uptake. Birds eat those plants and their guano becomes the vehicle for further transfer of nitrogen in some form or other. Ammonia is in there somewhere. Urine from cows fed on urea-forced grass is high in nitrate content and the animal excretes it as fast as it can to avoid being poisoned. The carrying liquid filters down through the soil, into the groundwater and further out into the creeks and rivers. Some of it though, is converted by bacteria into N2O, a potent greenhouse gas. Industry devised a biocide to render inert the bacteria responsible for this conversion, but it proved unpalatable to the market so the production of N2O on New Zealand dairy farms continues unabated.
These observations may not be the case, in fact. Never the less, they paint a picture of complexity and wonder, at least to me 🙂
i think you are correct….however it will first take a catastrophe of some magnitude to happen to bring it all about……
"Nor will we bound to our planetary mother indefinitely – we will leave home."
Leaving behind a smouldering mess?
Striking out for some an unspoiled planet that we can … well, you know.
Getting off the planet in a clever device doesn't make us "grown-ups". Just look at those who are leading the way on this (Mr Musk et al.)
Grown-ups?
Hobgoblin help us!
To my mind, anyone who believes that we ever will migrate to another planet is a naive young fool who has not seriously faced our failings. Writing science fiction is one thing: making space ships to travel such distances is another.
Especially when people are too 'optimistic' to face the 6th great extinction which is galloping towards us like the horses of the Apocolypse.
Fix this planet now, or face extinction.
(I like the idea of a hobgoblin, though..)
Hi Red I think we need to sort out some terms. When we talk about 'human growth'. what do we mean by this term 'growth'?
I kind'a feel here Red, (and forgive me if I am wrong), but that you, (not I), have somewhat conflated human population growth with economic growth.
People are not bacteria, as the average standard of living in a society goes up, as personal liberty and opportunities become more available, as more of your offspring are likely to survive, people tend to prefer smaller families, https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53409521
This is the opposite of what happens to mindless bacteria in a petri dish. Without any faculty for personal choice, – provided with the resources to reproduce, bacteria reproduce exponentially, until they totally exhaust all the resources in the petri dish till they perish.
Ignoring people's personal choice and agency, and comparing humanity to bacteria in a petri dish is where the Malthusian nightmare of runaway overpopulation falls apart.
Human population and wealth are linked, but not directly.
However the general trend is that human population growth and average personal wealth are inversely proportional.
But average personal wealth is not what is referred to by economists when they are talking about 'Growth'.
Oops! Forgot to include the link:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/300613347/chinese-president-expands-countrys-military-powers-to-defend-interests-abroad
Looks like a perfect, albeit ancient, prescription of empire building. How very unimaginative of Xi.
Unimaginative? Certainly Ancient? Hardly.
Growth economies demand expansion
Imperialism is being practiced all around the globe by the rival economic blocs. Where these rival economies can't expand their influence by soft power, they resort to hard power. Behind the velvet glove is the iron fist.
Where growth economies butt up against political borders they breach them, invasion and war is the result. When growth economies butt up against the carrying capacity of the planet, they breach those as well. Environmental destruction and climate collapse is the result.
Is war and climate collapse inevitable then?
No. But it will require a complete paradigm change.
Social Justice is climate justice.
It's very ancient. Been there, done that, got the "I Survived the Bronze Age Collapse of 1200 BCE" T-shirt. The Romans had similar trouble.
Ancient slave economies have in common with modern growth economies that they also demand expansion. Slaves die, they grow too old to work, they win their freedom through manumission, they runaway, they rebel. Expansion and invasion and wars to capture new slaves. is as important to slave societies as invasion and wars to capture new markets and monopolise resources is to growth economies. But you knew that. You got the T-shirt.
A Russian talking head riffs on defending the descendants of former occupiers.
It assumes that the Russian Federation has the right to protect the descendants of former subjects of the Russian Empire, just like the descendants of citizens of the USSR
Thus, Russia had the right to protect the inhabitants of Gotland from discrimination by the Swedish authorities. It turns out that formally our country cannot claim the island, but it has the right to protect its inhabitants.
https://ren-tv.translate.goog/blog/iurii-gorodnenko/980271-rossiiskie-poddannye-vstupaiut-v-nato?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Tweet containing a screenshot of question from an Auckland University exam, that shows direct influence of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion on education.
A guaranteed fail if any Gender Critical thoughts are expressed. One such Gender Critical thought I immediately had was that it is Queer Theory that informs gender ideology. Transgender theory is yet another term that seeks to obfuscate.
Admittedly, passing this particular question is not on my to do list. But this approach influences the next cohort of sociologists. Gender Critical graduates, often counsellors or psychologists will be few and far between.
People who think this is a good thing, are usually unable to define what gender Critical is – other than 'mean'.
https://twitter.com/rosey_nz/status/1536780422247378944?t=V4FSHXv7T9bvtRm1Q2zklg&s=19
Morena Molly. I subscribe to evolutionary biologist Heather Heying's substack, and this popped into my inbox this morning. It is an exchange of letters between Heying and Abigail Shrier in 2020, and makes an interesting read. If that link fails… https://naturalselections.substack.com/p/the-torment-and-tragedy-of-teenage?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&s=r
Why do we chastise teenage girls when they cut themselves, but celebrate them when they find a doctor to do it for them? When a teenage girl cuts herself, or starves herself, we try to help the human being. We do not sanctify the behavior. Why are we now celebrating a symptom?
Thanks, Rosemary. I've read that and also recommend it.
It is useful to google an author, say Heather Heying, to inform whether to share their wider views.
I don't share all of the wider views of my partner of 35+ yrs, and he, likewise does not share mine.
If however, he expresses a view that I agree with. That's it. A view I agree with.
Amazingly, this works in the wider world too. If someone with whom I have agreed with, says something I find objectionable, or abhorrent, I will take the time to challenge that view. However, despite that, we will still retain a point of agreement.
This is how robust discussions take place, and perspectives are widened.
…perspectives are widened. Yes. Sometimes I think perhaps that folks are afraid that if they widen their perspective their brains might fall out.
Now that image is firmly planted in my brain I'm going back out to deal to some more kikuyu.
it's also how community and society sustain themselves rather than say falling into irreconcilable divisions and then war.
Gidday Matiri.
I suspicion you're hinting that perhaps Heying has views that are perhaps not suitable for wider sharing? I am not very good at subtle or hints…obviously…so it would be appreciated if you could indicate which particular views of Heying's you are referring to. Just so I know what not to share.
I'm also interested in any comments on the topic you originally posted, Rosemary.
You know, the one about self-harming girls being offered surgery without even considering this approach may be state funded self-harm?
Shocking! They spell out if you take a gender critical position you will fail! Our universities are requiring "right think". 1984 folks.
I will be interested to hear how Hipkins et al respond to this
It is so comforting to know that prisoners get compo when they jump the fence in order to escape but this worker is pulled over the table. What is wrong with our public service? Can we still call them by that name?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/west-auckland-scaffolder-fighting-for-acc-compensation-after-losing-both-arms/LCWTHUUOLKYHEZGEOPF6ITHFBM/
This is a logical consequence of what happens when employers shift their costs to workers and the workers are now "self-employed".
This has occurred across many businesses e.g. courier drivers, trucking, care giving, cleaning.
We stood by during the 80's and 90's as good employers who paid good wages were driven out as they couldn't compete against those who paid low wages and shifted their cots to employees – not just physical costs but sick leave, annual leave etc as well. It is a bit unfair to blame ACC it’s the wider problem causing this.
Still happening today. It is time this rort was stopped and an 8 hour working day, 40 hour working week with time and a half paid after that and on weekends. There are firms that charge you weekend work at time and a half and double time who don't pay that to their workers actually doing the work.
Dominic Drumm, owner of Westferry Property Services in Auckland, said he was competing with rivals that employed their cleaners as “contractors” allowing them to pay them less than he pays the people he employs directly.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/128954704/the-massive-industry-in-which-companies-pretend-to-have-no-employees
Don't let the ACC Amendment Act 2010 disentitling inmates from receiving compensation for injuries received while committing crime get in the way of your pearl clutching.
//
Just tested and then updated the site to WordPress 6.0. I've been a bit busy recently, but I have been stuck in a waiting room for a nurse to deal with a dressing for an infected finger.
Let me know if anything seems amiss. I still need to check and update the mobile version.
Interesting how they are moving not only towards full site block editing but flexbox for layouts. Trouble keeping up. 🙂
Open source project…. The flex is pretty good these days – the number of additional rules you have to use has been going down against standard wordpress.
I rather like the block editing, it has started to get to the point of being quite useful. The biggest hassle is the complications with existing plugins. At some point I'm going to need to remove the plugin support for the old editor so that there aren't conflicts with things like facebook and video on the block editor.
But next long work at home holiday, which I haven't had since 2017 due to lack of a suitable workspace at home, I'll do some upgrades. But that will be after we buy a new house with room for two separated home offices.
I'm going to have a look at doing a new skin for this site with some of the updated tools. Mostly just flexing the columns out of their rigid 1280px width limit, and providing a fold down to the menu
I've played with a number of the 'news' orientated tool kits like Newspaper (daily blog uses it). But they appear to be a failure in motion – they have regression / deprecated errors on each update of both the Newspaper and with the updates of WordPress.
The advantage with this desktop site skin has been its simplicity. It has been running with the same theme since 2010 with essentially few changes. Mostly what it lacks is the flex.
The mobile version we have been using since 2013 is pretty good and works well on phones. But I'd like to get up to the current version (that I have paid for about 18 months) that I haven't had time to integrate and test. I'd like to flex it out with the desktop version.
Talkback educated me about vaping yesterday( ZB 11.20am)
I have never really thought much about vaping, except how funny some vapers look surrounded by a huge cloud of mist. I have also noticed the prevalence of vaping amongst college pupils ( later confirmed).
The first caller I heard related a conversation he'd had with a principal of a large secondary school. The principal said vaping in his school was a pandemic. He had watched bright children and sport champions become withdrawn, lose interest in school, and start to look physically ill.
I couldn't see the connection with vaping.
The next caller put her 16 year old daughter on the phone. She spoke of all her friends vaping; their problems, and how she herself was trying to give up. Another caller threatened his son with boarding school and confiscation of his phone if he didn't stop vaping. It worked and apparently the caller said his son became a different person when he gave up vaping.
I again failed to see the connection between physical and mental decline and vaping.
The next caller filled in the blanks. He had worked for a company that imported bulk flavouring agents from China. These bulk drums had a warning: not for use by humans. These products were used by vape companies to manufacture different flavourings for vapers. As he said, original vaping products were reasonably safe. These new products were an unknown quantity, plus some flavours still had nicotine added.
So it's quite possible kids who are vaping, may be ingesting ingredients similar to synthetic drugs used in the past? That is a very scary thought.
Thats across the entire vaping community it seems.
I asked a colleagues what's in their vape as it looked like detergent and the volume of smoke was huge.
He didn't know know nor did the rest of the vapers at the 'spot'. All professionals oblivious to what they're sucking on.
It's becoming a strange… and dangerous world, TC.
But not vapid.
Quite the leap you have there.
Maybe. Why?
Why would someone catastrophise without evidence?
''So it's quite possible kids who are vaping, may be ingesting ingredients similar to synthetic drugs used in the past?''
flavourings —> drugs
Says more about you than about 'kids'.
Really?
Flavourings -> unknown ingredients.
Synthetic drugs -> unknown ingredients.
Deleterious physical and mental effects noted in both cases.
? – Used at the end of a sentence to indicate a question. · (figuratively, informal) A state of doubt or uncertainty.
I'm afraid I must conclude you MAY be a troll… albeit a clever one.
Unlike poor Robert above.
Remember that conjecture word, Blade. There's conjecture, reckons and a third place where the discombobulated gather to share their wares.
Am struggling to see for what flavourings might be used if not for humans.
The problem as always is nicotine, regardless of what else they put with it. Cigarette companies doing an end-run around regulators.
New York Times Presents series of documentaries (the first season) has an episode on vaping, & the selling of it. Very good episode. & the Tesla one season 2 is an eye opener too.
Kiwibank – simultaneously putting existing home loan customers under financial stress by significantly raising their interest rates – while offering up to $10,000 to new home mortgage borrowers.
Let's be clear, banks will make profits whether the market goes down or up, because NZ homeowners are culturally reluctant to walk away from their homes even when under huge financial stress.
https://www.kiwibank.co.nz/personal-banking/home-loans/getting-a-home-loan/cash-contribution/
Interest rates are going up because the cost of borrowing is,The yield on government 10 yr bonds rose to 4.24% and as the RBNZ (may update) said an investor in Auckland gets a higher return on government stock then a housing investment.
Housing in NZ is unsustainable as the cost of a median wage vs median house price is twice what is affordable.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1026956/house-price-to-income-ratio-new-zealand/
The recent drivers were QE, low interest rates,and an inability to think by the Bourgeios on demand sect who thought they had an app for property investment.
Either 10% mortgage rates or a 40% fall in property price are needed for affordable homes (the loss will return the median price back around 24 months) the US fed has signalled a .5 rise tomorrow,the market is pricing .75,signalling to the fed they want the hit now to remove all doubt.
Won't these .75 speculators also win the most if the Fed goes above .75? I guess it will be a real imposition on them if the Fed only delivers .5 then.
They would have already priced in 1/2 of the next signaled rise,and decreased a trade cost.
So all this commentary demanding interest rate rises is also conveniently lobying to reduce the costs of financial trades?
Altruism is not a motive of traders.(kpi's and bonuses are)
Yes, I understand why the interest rates are going up.
My point – obviously badly made – was that banks will pass on those rises to existing customers without blinking, while using the profits generated by those customers, to encourage others to get into debt during a slowing/ falling market.
If it's culture which defines our relationship with property, it is a sick culture:
One of the things Ardern and her government is trying to do is (gently) steer this country away from such obsession. People voted for it in huge numbers and they know it has to be done, so why the tears?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/128954010/its-the-interest-rates-stupid–house-prices-and-interest-rates-create-political-pain
Australias is higher now,as they experienced the same bubble (despite the population decreasing by 500K) 10t$
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/total-value-dwellings/latest-release
Ah, well. The NZ government is delivering results!
High priced unaffordable homes is a bad result,
But we are now below Australia's housing to GDP ratio. You have to recognise that as an achievement by the NZ Labour government.
OCR in australia is 0.85,here 2,we rose in nov last year.
The median multiple in NZ is just over 9 (down slightly this year) in Australia it is 8.
The median multiple (median house to median income) has increased 50% under labour making the houses the most unaffordable globally.
https://www.interest.co.nz/property/house-price-income-multiples
Take that to the electorate
When talking about the cultural obsession with property, the demographics should be divided into homeowners, landlords and speculators. The latter two need further separation into degrees of investment.
The division is important.
The different groups have different reasons for both acquiring property, which affects the degrees to which they will sacrifice for their investment.
I do not recall Labour promising to crash housing prices though. House-owners have become attached to all that 'free' income for doing nothing productive.
No they didn't promise to crash home prices but they did promise to fix the housing market, part of which you could argue is to change the culture. No real sign of the latter yet but certainly signs of the former.
Here's one for Sanctuary, Louis, Tony Veitch and Stu Munro.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/protesters-gather-at-opening-of-te-aratai-college-in-christchurch-as-jacinda-ardern-speaks/M7WHTEHTYVFXZNJI4ME3NPQW4E/
Quote:
''About 50 protesters showed up outside of the new Te Aratai College in Linwood, waving flags and signs as cars tooting in support drove by.
They could be heard yelling "shame on police" and "give us our jobs back", while others shouted, "you have destroyed our lives"
You have destroyed our lives. Guys, you can bet that's going to generate hate. More hate than that aimed at Bennett or Key.
Now, I know what you are thinking. 50 to100 feral protesters ( depending on which news outlet), so what? Well, here's so what: each of those protesters probably has 10,000 or more Kiwis that agree with them IN THAT REGARD.
My original post.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14-06-2022/#comment-1894276
That's one stuff-up the government's responsible for: not making provision for people to get the jobs back once the mandates were lifted. They also could've hammered home that the mandates were temporary. It's all well and good in hindsight, but it would've reduced the pushback if they had've done that.
Agree. The government, and society in general, just moved on after the mandates were lifted without regard for those who had lost their jobs and had basically been thrown on the scrap heap. Stranger still, some employers didn't want them back. That's loyalty for you.
Why would you want to re-employ someone who has shown no regard for their colleagues' safety. Especially the health workers. No sympathy here.
So removing yourself from the work place shows no regard for your colleagues' safety?
People who cared did that before it became compulsory. The whingers who shat on parliament’s lawn were not amongst those.
That's predicated on the assumption made by the government and some employers that people who refused to get the jab were both morally and legally reprehensible regardless of the reason for their refusal.
Refusing to play your part in universal public health protections is practically reprehensible. Dress it up however you like.
Dress 1 – previous allergic reactions to vaccinations.
Forcing dedicated frontline staff out of their jobs, upending their lives, and duly fucking up the health system in the name of policy is the reprehensible thing here.
That's predicated on the correct assumption made by the government and some employers that the majority of people who refused to get the jab were both morally and legally reprehensible regardless of their excuses for their refusal.
FIFY.
No, let me fix it for you. The Covid jab was started before all final safety results were available to the Ministry of Health. Those results still may be outstanding( I'm not pulling my research out again)? This was clearly stated on the MOH website at the time. So we may be talking of ''buyer beware.'' being legislated against by the government.
You seem to be labouring under the delusion that viruses are rational and everyone had time to sit around and natter about it. This is a global war against a lethal enemy that has not signed the Geneva Convention, and does not wait around for fools to bray.
Viruses aren't alive. The medical fraternity tie themselves in knots to even explain what viruses are. Some say discarded strands of DNA..others say something else.
So, Bob is dead. He wakes up. Gets into a bed and hijacks the living occupants of said bed for his own purposes. But…bob is dead?
How the hell does that work?
Addendum:
''For about 100 years, the scientific community has repeatedly changed its collective mind over what viruses are. First seen as poisons, then as life-forms, then biological chemicals, viruses today are thought of as being in a gray area between living and nonliving: they cannot replicate on their own but can do so in truly living cells and can also affect the behaviour of their hosts profoundly. ''
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-viruses-alive-2004/
Thats scandelous Blade, the MoH releasing a vaccine before appropriate safety data is collected. You will of course be providing references to back up your allegation? and providing context about how significant a breach of protocol it was.
Now I'll just have to revise my thinking a bit due to the other govt criticism I am hearing, that the vaccine roll out was too slow.
Not the link I wanted, but near enough.
https://covid.immune.org.nz/news-insights/provisional-approval-pfizer-vaccine-extended
Quote:
''Medsafe has now renewed the provisional approval for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for 2 years, until 3 November 2023. Provisional Consent renewal is routine and has been applied previously to other medicines.
Provisional approval means the pharmaceutical company must meet certain conditions, including supplying more data from its clinical trials around the world as they progress. ''
Read the rest of the article. It may help your case. I look forward to your reply.
Thanks. That link has totally changed my mind.
Its actually a missunderscandal (sorry I don't know of any English equivalent of this word).
Here's the explanation (to be fair it was very carefully hidden at the bottom of the short page in
finesame size print),"Under New Zealand legislation, there is no ability to have different levels of approval for one vaccine or medicine. For example, Medsafe cannot grant full consent for the Pfizer vaccine for adults and maintain provisional consent for adolescents 12 to 15 years old (or in future applications such as 5 – 11-year-olds). This is one of the reasons why Medsafe has not moved to full approval in New Zealand for this vaccine at this time. "
So rather than going ahead without safety results Medsafe is explicitly not going ahead without the safety results. More specifically in particular age categories. As we also know Medsafe had not yet in 2021 but later approved the vaccine for 5-11 year olds once that data became available in early 2022.
Your welcome.
https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2635
This article dated: BMJ 2021;375:n2635
You wrote:
'' Medsafe had not yet in 2021 but later approved the vaccine for 5-11 year olds once that data became available in early 2022.''
Either Pfizer’s is giving us POSSIBLE tainted data, or Medsafe is a sleep at the wheel.
Did you read anything about this in our local media? I didn't. That's my point, questions remain that should have been answered before Medsafe gave the go ahead to vaccinate younger age groups.
You will find other links where BMJ replies to Facebook ''fact checkers''…and other where some scientists think the issues raised weren't indicative of data corruption.
Again that's not the point.
You are also welcome.
Seeing as how your of a legal mind you will understand the case is going poorly when the prosecution starts withdrawing charges. In this case a reduced charge of Medsafe being 'asleep at the wheel' having received the data, rather than proceeding without the data.
"Either Pfizer’s is giving us POSSIBLE tainted data, or Medsafe is a sleep at the wheel."
It seems also POSSIBLE that Pfizer gave us perfectly good data and Medsafe doesn't engage in narcoleptic automobile use. In fact with a large amount of real world vaccine usage data this producing basically similar performance to the trial (across multiple countries) this seems highly likely.
Since you were unaware of this story (I was aware of it) you will also want to understand that its related to the original adult vaccine trials and specifically one of the agencies (of 153) which carried out only one part of the trial. Fortunately the trial involved 152 other such agencies doing similar sub-trials and as far as we know only this one had anything like serious concerns involved in its work.
Frankly its unclear what your alleging here. Medsafe is not able to do FDA investigations, so if the FDA decided there is nothing to see here they can hardly draw any other conclusions.
and again, no Medsafe should not have waited for all age group trials to be completed before releasing the adult vaccine. This would have delayed vaccination start until January of 2022.
"I'm not pulling my research out again"
From where?
whistles nonchalantly
I considered responding to Blade, Robert, but you put it much more elegantly than I ever could.
Fundamentally sound, Robert.
Cheers, gentlemen.
Lol…you poor deluded fools. I can understand Robert having difficulties, but the rest of you? And you Veitch. You wrote:
''I considered responding to Blade, Robert, but you put it much more elegantly than I ever could.''
You give credit to a troll?
Tony declined to respond, Blade.
Not give credit.
Mac1’s comment is…fundamentally sound.
Blade – you have taught me that there is such a thing as a malicious bleeding heart.
Thanks
Why would you want to re-employ someone who has shown no regard for their colleagues' safety. Especially the health workers. No sympathy here.
You'll be pleased to know Sacha, that after a brief period of being paid as Peter's carer, the Universe returned to rights and that payment was cancelled because I chose not to take the Pfizer Product. Largely because it was new and experimental and I had spoken to too many people who had needed days incapacitated in bed to recover from their shots to risk leaving Peter without an experienced carer…even for a short while.
Peter refused it because of increasing neurological instability associated with his spinal cord injury made him very reluctant to risk exacerbating that…such issues being widely recorded adverse effects of the jab. The fact that neither of us felt free to discuss these concerns with any health professional made us even more reluctant. Censorship will have that effect.
We both got Covid in March. Got sick, didn't die, got better. No meds, no hospital. A few weeks later we organised to have a few hours per week of relief care so that I could go shopping and not have to worry about Peter being alone for hours. Local carer, suitably triple vaxxed, sits and chats (the times available were well outside our usual hands- on care times and the skills required are beyond their level of experience) while I do the necessary .
So, oh the bleeding irony, when said triple vaxxed (and morally and legally acceptable) carer went partying of a weekend, came here and chatted the following day and developed a sore throat and tested positive for Covid the day after.
So, Sacha. Explain to me how Peter and I are supposed to react to this.
The Pfizer Product does not prevent infection, transmission or symptomatic disease.
The mandates were never justified for any category of worker.
How is the health system holding up? You know, the one we were supposed to be saving by getting the jab? How many fully vaxxed health workers at any one time were absent from work at the various DHBs over the past two months?
I really appreciate your contributions on this subject, Rosemary. Your patience, eloquence and real life experience are a valuable contribution.
I sometimes want to engage with those who think everything is tickety-boo with the state's response, Pfizer's product rushed into the market with the FDA's asterisk concerning no other alternative/emergency and then mandating its use. Akin to another post here in TS about folk being anti-woke. There are similarities in the mindset: assuredness of their position and when evidence emerges suggesting it may not be as we have been led to believe, you get …. crickets. So I largely don't bother.
The video you posted a week (two weeks ?) ago, with the Scandinavian professor who would not now recommend the mRNA vaccines to anyone unless they were old or have serious health issues was sobering.
Thanks again for your efforts.
Your appreciation is appreciated gsays.
Christine Stabell-Benn (Danish) knows her stuff. She has done vaccines forever and it not afraid to acknowledge the bad with the good. She is a hard core scientist…who cares. Rare these days. This pre -dates Covid, and shows how all is not necessarily good in the vaccine arena.
Absolutely – vaccines and other preventative health interventions aren't perfect. And yet, as Prof. Stabell Benn observes @13:30 minutes:
She knows her stuff, and further asserts that the polarised vaccine debate is hindering the wider acceptance of her research results, and delaying the development and roll-out of (more beneficial) live vaccines.
Seems that polarisation in the vaccine area might be counterproductive to improving health, so no (more) polarisation from me.
Thank you. And from my part I apologise for my 'tad personal' snark last night. Current events are unnerving to anyone following them closely and sometimes it spills over when it should not.
Cheers.
Thanks RL. Apologies from me too; all the best to you and yours.
"They also could've hammered home that the mandates were temporary. "
That is precisely what they did do… over and over again. Especially Ardern. She emphasised it for all the media outlets. Something I particularly noticed though, there were few journalists, reporters and other commentators who picked up on it in their summaries. Not saying it was a deliberate ploy but yet another example of their often lazy reporting.
And each of these students probably has 10,000 or more of their countryfolk agreeing with them..
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300613657/prime-minister-mobbed-for-selfies-during-christchurch-high-school-visit
Reckons are easy.
Political polls reckon better.
Polling (like any other kind of survey) is tricky.
Here's the story of a famous one.
In NZ, poll size, and the inclinations of the pollsters, render may results dubious. They are more a vehicle for the bandwagon effect than an objective measure of public opinion.
The leader of Belarus has polls that claim 90% support. But there were massive nationwide street protests against his 're-election'. Generally speaking, that wouldn't occur were his polling genuine.
It's funny how the 'pull yourself up by your socks' types become victims immediately should hardship befall them. And by hardship, I mean nothing more than accumulating excess a little slower than the ridiculous rate they've grown accustomed to. The free ride has slowed a little due to global conditions.
"Ruined my life."
Such drama queens. So utterly incapable of self reflection their entire life is apparently ruined by local government – not their decisions, their efforts, their actions or their inability to adapt.
Is "snowflake" the appropriate term here?
No, that's cultural appropriation.
Whose culture? Inuit?
No. The Inuit have at least 20 different words for a 'Snowflake'. My culture is limited by straight talk to calling a snowflake a snowflake.
Worked alongside Inuit people in the Canadian Arctic in 2018. Quiet wiry people but you probably do not ever want to piss them off. Opposite of snowflakes.
At dinner one night I asked one of them where he came from – thinking he would FIFO'ing in from one of the 17 settlements that are spread out over the huge expanse of Nunavut. (Essentially it is a territory larger than Western Europe with a total population around the size of Gisbourne.)
Much to my bafflement he said 'Oh – around here'. ' Cambridge Bay?' I asked – being the nearest settlement I knew of. 'No – around here about 4km away'. Well that had me beat – because there is absolutely nothing but frozen wilderness for at least 100km in every direction. Turns out he really did grow up there – married and had four kid all in an tiny, isolated group of stone huts – lined with animal pelts and heated with seal oil lamps. Everything had to be hunted and processed by them the hard and dangerous way.
It was -25degC outside at the time – a temperature he was grumbling about. Because of climate change was about 30degC too fucking hot for him.
One of the more bizarre conversations I have ever had.
The British SAS did research on why some troopers were better suited to different climatic conditions. I would assume because some troopers handled certain conditions better than others. The conditions you describe would kill me. I can hardly function once the temp drops below -3 C. However, heat has little affect on me. I crave it. I find winter time hell.
I'm the exact opposite – I found the arctic cold invigorating. It is fair to say that what we get in NZ is that miserable damp cold around within five or ten degrees of zero – where nothing is properly dry and it is impossible to feel comfortable.
However when it gets below about -15degC however all the moisture in the air has frozen out and there is no liquid phase water left. Most of the time I was there it was between -20 and -40degC outside and that is a quite different experience.
In the camp there was no water except in the showers and kitchen that were constantly heated. I could shower and wrap a towel around me and walk 15m down the corridor to my room and my hair would be bone dry when I got there. Everything wet just sublimated dry instantly.
We had three major building about 2min walk apart to get between, and on my first week or so I would rug up with all my warm gear. But then I discovered if the wind was not too bad I could do it in my t-shirt – yes it was cold and I am no more immune to exposure or frostnip than anyone else – but I found that enjoyable. On other occasions I got to walk about 40min away from camp, but once I had gotten around a corner and out of sight I started to feel very isolated and alone. That was as far as I was prepared to go.
There was an alternative path for me to go from the back of the processing building and down to the camp by another route past the power plant. That was much less used and not well lit – but I enjoyed it until one night I got that sense something was watching. Sure enough we found wolf track the next morning just 10m or so from where I had been blithering along. Stuck to the main route after that.
The coldest we got to was -63degC including windchill, getting on the plane one morning. That was brutal – 2 minutes of that fully kitted up was quite enough.
"one night I got that sense something was watching"
That's an interesting experience, RedLogix. Experiments have been done to determine whether people can in fact "feel" hidden eyes upon them and it turns out, we can, in fact.
I wonder how that works?
A disjointed comment probably done on the fly after seeing your fellow drones extinguished by a wasp. I see Robert is trolling in support, so I will take your korero with a grain of salt…ok, a pinch of honey.
''Such drama queens. So utterly incapable of self reflection their entire life is apparently ruined by local government – not their decisions, their efforts, their actions or their inability to adapt.''
I take it you mean central government?
The point has flown right over your head. What they are, aren't or what you think of them is immaterial. What one of them might do is.
So you've joined those losers making veiled threats now "What one of them might do is"
Should we be scared?
There's people losing their shit over the price of gas right now I can't help the precious dears if they've zero foresight.
As for the protestors, I couldn't care less how many 'real people' decided to get in bed with those white supremacist tossers. If you lie down with dogs…
For the record you aint a wasp you're an immature lightweight. Your contributions are garbage. You are as dumb as fuck.
Oh, man. I'm in love with this woman. Finally, someone with the guts to lay it on the line. This type of tokenism has riled me for some time. It is misread by liberals as everyone being on board with te reo and Maori culture. The reality is it's just white wokisters wanting to be able to say: ''US TOO!!
Quote:
"I encourage te reo use but in no way will I tolerate tokenistic use of reo by govt agencies as an attempt to show govt depts are culturally competent.''
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/former-conservation-minister-kiri-allan-calls-out-tokenistic-use-of-te-reo-at-doc/XAXTVIAQC2NXEUMJFOKN7NU2YY/
You misunderstand the Minister. She wants more Te Reo not less.
No, you misunderstand. You misunderstand what I have written previously. If you are going to use te reo, you do it properly. And not on an ad hoc basis.
That's possible too.
If on the face of it she wants less or no Te Reo if it is not done somehow properly, then the Minister is wrong on multiple counts.
– Use of Te Reo is strongly encouraged in most Departments whether she calls it 'tokenistic' or not.
– Use of Te Reo in most Departments isn't reversible now. It's been going on for many years and accelerated under this government.
– The Minister is not an arbiter of what is or is not 'tokenistic' whether she thinks she is or not. All Ministries get advice on how and when it is used, and most have specialists in-house.
– The Minister should instead should show where Ministries are doing this well, such as in the multiple mana whenua partnerships with DoC all over the place which are of course all bilingual.
It's the kind of timesome moral policing that achieves nothing except play into the hands of the media. Clearly she has tried to walk it all back with "misunderstood", but it was dumb and I am sure the PMs' department will have told her so.
No, he is right on this one. She wants meaningful reo or none.
Oh, please! Straight into perfect reo, tikanga and understanding of te Ao Maori?
Please think again.
It ain't easy.
Cut some slack.
Give a person a break.
Calm the farm.
People are trying. Trying to learn, accommodate, align, be respectful.
If they sound awkward, send them some love. How would YOU sound?
Be kind 🙂
He is right about what she is saying. I defer to this expert Māori leader about what language she wants to see in reports. Given the timing, the message may have been about the previous Minister. Why would my preferences matter.
"Oh, man."
Really?
Are you only addressing the men here on The Standard?
Come, come, Robert, you know that we are not real men here on The Standard, (magnificent beards or not), but rather wokester wimps and "poor deluded fools". 🙂
I sense that Blade, despite being an organic farmer, au fait with the use of biochar, vortexes and seawater fertilisers, has a face as hairless as a baby's.
Of course Blade may claim to have cultivated a Methuselah-like beard to match his organic 10 acre lifestyle but I'll take that with a grain of bought-off-farm charcoal (how much charcoal did you say you bought, Blade, to cover your 10-acres needs? Quite a lot, I'd imagine and I imagine you imagine too!).
Aye, Robert, I see Blade as the most pretentious yet obvious troll that we have encountered to date. Pretentions of pure innocence combined with material that smacks of evil intent, and then volumnious denial.. often 'on an ad hoc basis'.
From where does Blade get all the time to contribute so generously?
And why does he put so much effort into doing so? And why does he somehow remind me of earlier trolls going under other names? Language patterns?
Yes I would love to visit Blade's organic farm too.
How about an Open Day?
Trolls usually drop and run, and rarely engage with points of argument as Blade does. And demanding that people dox themselves is a really bad idea.
Fair enough.
On second thoughts,.. Rubbish.
We are not talking about what trolls usually do. We are talking about an individual who could well be an exception.
Secondly, did I actually demand that anybody do anything at all?
Good call, In Vino, and just what I thought… "Trolls usually" tries to obscure non-usual troll behaviour – well done you.
Trolls usually hide beneath the arches of bridges…
So if this troll isn't, he can't be a troll..
smiles
''And why does he put so much effort into doing so? And why does he somehow remind me of earlier trolls going under other names? Language patterns.''
Those are serious implied allegations. You will need to back that up. Give us some names so the site can have these checked out.
Implied allegations? Well, I am glad they are not full allegations! I am aging, and the only name of a past troll I can remember at the moment is a guy who went for a while by the name of Chuck. The site have already told me that such accusations are unwise, and that while they try to track such things, they cannot be sure that they are aware of all that is happening, but that I should refrain from accusations. That was years ago now.
So fair enough; I withdraw my 'implied allegations'.
Looking forward to further respectful debate.
Cool.
"Language patterns"
Spot on.
I'd add "tone" and "underlying intent".
There was a guy, very clever indeed, who used to post here or on Frogblog, who talked about being “on the spectrum” and also this aspect of commenting patterns. He used an algorithmic programme of some sort (maybe built it himself” to determine whether “anonymous of Tawa” was also “anonymous of Helensville”. I wish I could remember his name. I wish he still posted here.
You may be amused to know I once attended a four day flow form workshop at Taruna College in 1988 led by none other than John Wilkes himself.
I was living in Kawerau at the time and it was in the immediate aftermath of Cyclone Bola. I had taken my mountain bike through the old Motu Road (and struggled through some monumental slips) and stayed with a friend who ran 2,000 acres of hill country farm north of Matawai. It took four days to reach him, and he was incredibly surprised anyone turned up at all. Stayed a week to help him get some fences sorted and then headed out to the coast. Went north and stayed at my home marae then, south to Hastings. A bit of an adventure just getting there.
The course was most memorable for the remarkable collection of other people there. PP was of course there, but lots of other really fascinating people with far more real life experience than I had. I enjoyed it immensely even if I did feel like a bit of an imposter is such rare company.
Still plan on building one when we get back to NZ. I have a perfect spot for it in mind. Will be nine bowls long at least, four chambers each – and very beautiful if I have my way.
You never fail to amaze 🙂
PP stayed here with us, back in the day. Will you hand-form your flow form bowls from clay? I had a simple form here long ago, but it's been lost somehow. I love the swish. I keep axolotyls now and bet they'd love a spin in one, for an invigorating short-while, at least 🙂
The only ones I have seen were cast in some form. I had not thought of hand making them in clay but it makes sense if you want each one to be slightly different.
It has interested me to know how the claims of "champions of small hardworking kiwis/small business owners" (otherwise known as the National party) stand up. So I did a little "unscientific" research – using Wiki – to see what "Start-up/self-employed" experience the current National party Caucus had. Several (and I got bored after reading the first 13 ranked profiles) went straight from Academia into consultancies/political staffing jobs. Many, like the leader appeared to have walked into already well established and bankrolled organisations, or inherited considerable wealth. None would appear to have been from "battling little Kiwi" backgrounds.
So I would suggest they are hardly justified in calling out the government MPs as "out of touch/lacking experience".
Corporate work and business consulting does count as business experience.
Not in question. Much easier to take a few risks with other peoples' money – a bit like another of our whiz kid former PM's.
If you had struggled to the bitter end, I doubt the outcome would have been any different.
When you say they went from Academia… bear in mind most went to expensive private schools where one's shot at academic prowess and consultancy work had far more to do with who Daddy knew than any budding talent.
"who Daddy knew"
Elegant!
I did a similar exercise an election or three ago here based on the number of teachers and academics that National loved to disparage were found on the Labour benches.. There were many in National….
Here's the reference. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21072015/#comment-1048166
Quite an interesting discussion actually…..
Yes, that was interesting.
10 /10 to ianmac who wrote:
21 July 2015 at 10:33 am
Genter, “Her financial hero is American Herman Daly, who was one of the first economists to talk about the incompatibility of infinite economic growth in a finite world.”
Makes you wonder where we are heading. Constant need to increase population and grow the economy might be a disaster in the long run.
Sounds like the first 13 mirror the Prime Minister's experience….
… I assume you read the whole of my post.
"It was unclear what protesters outside the school were campaigning against."
https://twitter.com/1NewsNZ/status/1536887777970868224
They done like the evil media and they done like Marxism and someone's got a hang up on Satan. That seems the basis of their complaint.
We're getting lucky.
https://twitter.com/DigiEconomist/status/1536614407580569600
Response to foreign waka at 3
I think you might be mixing up two different aspects of ACC. Prisoners do not get earnings related compensation (compo) because they are not wage or salary-earners.
Both injured people would be entitled to any private medical treatment for their injuries being heavily subsidised by ACC, provided they could prove their injuries were caused by an accident and not by disease. (nb This might sound straight forward, but it is surprisingly complex, particularly where age -related degeneration might be a factor in any injury caused by an accident.)
Damn, I was hoping Lynn's upgrade would fix the problems I have in posting. It hasn't, but I only had to go through part of the usual rigmarole to be able to post here, so things might be looking up. But it has dropped to the bottom again. Apologies