An average of 0.5 degrees above the norm is huge. (They don’t explicitly state it, but I’m assuming they are centigrade measurements).
Will governments change their commitments? No. They aren’t capable. They’re institutionally locked in to what they do – promote and protect ‘the market’; seek a market solution to a non-market phenomenon. Risible really.
New Zealand news at its most cringe-worthy.
After weeks off the radar, the European refugee crisis hits the news in the Herlad again.
Why?
Because its travel writer was on a luxury cruise on the Mediterranean and bumped into them.
Our MSM’s standard of news is just so bad.
The ink is barely dry on the TPP and New Zealand has the prospect of another giant free trade deal in the offing with the European Union taking the first steps towards an FTA with New Zealand.
It was announced early this morning that the EU Commission will seek to negotiate separate FTAs with both New Zealand and Australia as part of its trade strategy for the next four years.
The caveat is that talks will take in account “EU agricultural sensitivities.”‘
Looks like an interesting talk.
But is Jim Mora the right person to be MCing a debate on dumbing down the media?
Maybe this was intended irony.
‘Is the media being dumbed down, and what alternatives can online media offer audiences? What’s happening with quality journalism? Where’s it all heading and what are the implicatons for ordinary New Zealanders? Does it actually matter?
Radio New Zealand and Massey University are hosting a discussion about the future of journalism and the shape of the media today.
Auckland Art Gallery
What: The Shape of the Media
Where: Auckland Art Gallery Auditorium
When: 6:30 – 8pm, Friday 23 October 2015
Your MC for the evening will be Jim Mora, who along with Professor Graeme Turner – one of the leading figures in cultural and media studies in Australia and internationally – and a panel of locals, will debate the quality and value of the media.’
About 50,000 New Zealanders have hepatitis C, a blood-borne virus that causes inflammation of the liver.
Long term about 10% of people with Hepatitis C will die of complications including cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer. Most people with the disease suffer a long term chronic fatigue and carry with them an ever present fear of infecting close contacts.
Until recently, treatment was difficult – but now everything has changed.
Working with researchers around the world, including New Zealand’s Dr Ed Gane, a US pharmaceutical company called Pharmasset developed a tablet medication called Sofosbuvir which provides a high cure rate with far fewer side effects than everything previously used to treat hepatitis C .
We are now close to being able to think about eradicating hepatitis C entirely, in the same way that we eradicated smallpox and have nearly eradicated polio.
In November 2011, Pharmasset was acquired by Gilead for $11 billion. Since then, Gilead have made over $22 billion marketing Sofosbuvir under its brand name ‘Sovaldi’.
Gilead is asking $1,000 per tablet, around $84,000 per patient.
That means it would cost $4,200,000,000 to cure nearly everyone in NZ who has hepatitis C – and we all know that is not going to happen.
There is an alternative. Manufacturers in places like China and India who do not recognize patents, are producing these drugs at around 1/50th of Gilead’s price – that’s around $2,000 per treatment.
For that price, New Zealand could cure nearly all of its 50,000 or so hep C sufferers for around $100 mil instead of $4,200 mil.
Think about that for a moment – it means that for the money that John Key spent on the flag – so far, we could have cured 1 in 4 of New Zealand’s hep C sufferers – already.
This tells us what the TPPA is going to cost us. We will pay more, much more for medical treatment and very few of us will be treated. And perhaps worst of all, our aspirations for a better life for all of us through science will be ruthlessly choked back.
If you, or anyone you know has hep C, then you should check out the FixHepC Buyers Club which is helping people access the medication that they need to clear hep C and testing it, for less than $3,000 Aus.
“It’s possible and in fact highly probably that patents will run for a little bit longer and that means the Government will have to pay for the original drug as opposed to the generic for a little bit longer,” Key said on Tuesday as he headed into National’s mid-morning caucus meeting.
Tracey I’ve explained the difference between data exclusivity and patents from a pharmaceutical point of view previously. I’ll try to link back to previous comment latter today.
would you also be able to explain the motivation for the industry’s desire for extended data protection IF it has no impact on financial return? a return derived almost exclusively from publicly funded purchases? Oh and a brief discourse on “evergreening’ wouldnt go amiss either.
“The extra costs to PHARMAC under the TPP are a nothing. Your comment regarding business was usual for access to biologics has more to do with PHARMACs operating policies and procedures and the way they manage their budget than any trade agreement and will continue to do so.”
“There was extended – and quite informative – discussion”
From the very limited perspective I was discussing, I had three concerns:
1. A trade deal should improve access and that is not happening with the TPP. I don’t like that we’ve traded away improved access to biologics now for primary produce exports in the future. It’s cetainly not a ‘free’ trade deal.
2. The cost of administration and a possible delay in the availability of generics has to be met, even if it isn’t much in overall health system spending. I worry (not expect) health funding – who knows for what – will be affected by an increased (at best, no reduction in) cost of Pharmac doing business. Specifically that it may be met through reduced, rather than improved access to biologics for people with auto-immune diseases. The effect may not be much in health system terms, but in personal terms it is huge.
3. I don’t agree that three biologics, as NZ has, for treating inflammatory arthritis is sufficient given the variable nature of the disease. This has bugger all to do with superiority of one drug over another and much to do with how a patient responds to the biologic they’re given.
As an aside – maybe if social and wider government costs were taken into account in Pharmac decision criteria there would be a bit more money available for these very expensive drugs.
I may have led you slightly astray Miravox, apparently we have rituximab and tociluzimab available and funded in NZ for appropriate patients as well..so five agents not three.
I also completely agree with your comment regarding pHARMAC’s decision criteria which is not just an issue in this area of medicine.
I still think you misunderstand the effect of the trade deal on the availability of medicines which are more influenced by the PHARMAC ‘ops’ and budget in the first place, patent law in the second place and whether the companies in question actually registering the medicine in NZ.
define “very small”….esp. in terms of a health budget already under extreme pressure?
the subsequent discussion which highlighted purchases practices of Pharmac reinforces the role price plays on availability of treatments to NZ health practitioners…so yes we can keep to minor costs to Pharmac…but at what cost in terms of treatment options?…and if we ignore the likely legal challenges and chilling effect as demonstrated by Australias experience post FTA.
I dunno. Less than the cost of bribing Saudi princes? Less than the cost of passing legislative favours to the National Party’s owners? Less than the costs of having a massively incompetent bunch of self-interested troughers leveraging their time as MPs to build lucrative business careers (h/t Blabbermouth Lusk)…
Data exclusivity in its most basic interpretation is the protection of clinical test/trial data (safety and efficacy) required to be submitted to a regulatory agency and prevention of generic drug manufacturers from relying on this data in their own applications.
In NZ this is 5 years at present and moving to 8 years for biologics under this agreement.
To take the discussions on the Hep C drug discussed above (Yes it is outrageously priced in the regulated jurisdictions) the first major patent on this medicine which will be the substance patent expires in the middle of the 2020s, however the data exclusivity will have expired from a NZ perspective 5 years from the date it was registered by Medsafe – 2014.
Patent products the product, the process of producing it etc and applies to anyone copying that in toto for the period of the patent (which can be renewed) and data exclusivity relates to testing regimes as opposed to the creation.manufacturing processes of the drug itself?
If yes, thanks for the clarification. If no. Help.
Not quite, data exclusivity relates to the data generated from the testing.
When the medicine is registered by the regulator in a country like NZ they look at the manufacturing data regarding process, good manufacturing practices, sterility etc etc as well as the actual data from trials in animals and humans looking at safety and efficacy.
When a company producing a generic copy of the medicine wants to get registration and supply the medicine they only have to supply the manufacturing data.
Don’t you think it is misleading to put this statement into your intro?
“Key said on Tuesday as he headed into National’s mid-morning caucus meeting.”
I, and probably most other people, read that as meaning Tuesday 13 October but when I looked at the link I discover it was about three months ago. Many things have changed since them haven’t they, and as NSD points out the longer period of patents, and hence increased prices, will not apply to these drugs.
Obviously Tim Groser did good work on holding the drug patents to existing times.
Are you saying you don’t think the IP provisions under the TPP would leave Pharmac (and our Govt) open to being sued by a company from a TPP country for buy a drug in breach of patent law?
Pharmac don’t buy drugs in breach of patent law. If they do, I,m assuming they and the company breaching the patent could be sued as of now anyway. You would know the law better than me I expect.
Individuals can purchase offshore and import for personal use to avoid these issues and medsafe rarely gets involved – need a reputable offshore supply obviously.
Understood, for clarity I was referring tot his part
“There is an alternative. Manufacturers in places like China and India who do not recognize patents, are producing these drugs at around 1/50th of Gilead’s price – that’s around $2,000 per treatment.”
People do need to be careful of sourcing overseas and from countries avoiding patents. There is a double-edged sword in here regarding drug efficacy.
For a so called Doctor Doh! Join the dots between USA high medicine for profit and TPP regulations on patents. Even Mr Liar Key has had to concede that medicine will cost more with TPP.
and there within is the problem savenz…northshore doc is that….not a patent attorney working for the most litigious industry in the world…even with the entire text of the patent provisions the overwhelming majority will not be able to foretell the potential for big pharma to protect their position….but one thing is for certain they are not seeking to reduce their return and they have had partial success….IT WILL COST THE TAXPAYER MORE.
Whether you think its justified to protect that data is a whole other argument, but it is disingenuous in the extreme (or perhaps naive) to hold that it is not going to have a financial cost.
Nope patent law in NZ remains unchanged – data exclusivity for biologic meds, which this is not, may be extended from 5 to 8 years.
I can join the dots because I understand the meaning of the word “not”. Do you?
The “logic” around here is along the lines of “The TPP is bad, so everything bad that I can think of must be in the TPP”. It makes it very difficult to discuss the real issues, and in doing so, undermines informed protest.
“There is an alternative. Manufacturers in places like China and India who do not recognize patents, are producing these drugs at around 1/50th of Gilead’s price – that’s around $2,000 per treatment.”
…. and doesn’t that just show that the TTPA is NOT actually about free trade the neo-libs are supposedly so fond of ….. and competition …. all those capitalist ideals.
I wonder where Simon Upton stands on this.
It seems to me we let ideology get in the way of practical concerns, and its a bloody lazy (and anti-intellectual) approach that’ll guarantee us some serious social problems in the very near future.
The pro-TTPA protectionists should try nursing a liver cancer sufferer till they pass on and watch their body eat itself up (much like an AIDS sufferer).
Of course they are. they might not find India as much of a push over as they suspect.
Corruption and a host of other problems aside, sovereignty and the way other nations treat their citizenry are liable to become big issues in any negotiations.
In a funny sort of way, perhaps thats because they understand (i.e. live with and respect) diversity, and all that comes with it. That’s something the ‘ism’ of the neoliberal doesn’t understand.
I imagine there’ll be a bloody big shit fight.
You can make a tablet for $1 after you’ve figured out what the tablet needs to have in it. You can’t do the figuring out part, which is the actual work involved, for $1 per tablet, which is why the company that did the actual work involved doesn’t charge $1 per tablet. It’s also why pharmaceutical companies don’t want people who didn’t spend the time, effort and money figuring out what the tablet needs to have in it, selling the tablets for $1. It’s not a difficult concept to grasp.
Gilead, the company asking us to pay $1,000 a tablet is not the company that did ‘actual work involved in figuring out what to put in the tablet.
The company that ‘figured out what what the tablet needs to have in it’ was Pharmasset. They did that figuring out with help from people like Prof Ed Gane, whose research is funded by us, the people of New Zealand.
In November 2011, Pharmasset was acquired by Gilead for $11 billion. Since then, Gilead have made over $22 billion marketing Sofosbuvir under its brand name ‘Sovaldi’.
Gilead is the company that is using the monopoly power that a patent gives it to market a tablet that costs $1 to manufacture for $1,000.
Gilead didn’t pay directly for the work involved in figuring out what the tablet had to have in it, but they sure as shit paid for it. If they paid $11 bil for Pharmasset, that’s effectively $11 bil for Pharmasset’s work in figuring out what tablets need to have in them. It’s lucky we have publicly-funded researchers like Ed Gane contributing to that figuring out, because otherwise it would have been an extra unknown $X bil on top for Pharmasset and that would be going directly on to the price of the tablets. Thanks to the public research contribution, Gilead has only the $1 manufacturing cost of the tablet, plus their operating costs, plus $11 billion to recover. If they’re gouging on top of that, sure it merits a complaint – but saying they could sell the tablets for $1 is ridiculous.
The $11 billion has already been recouped, so it’s manufacture plus operating costs plus prift for shareholders. We don’t know how far above $1/pill the latter is.
I’m also wondering if the developed world is subsidising the lesser profit in places like India which are getting the pills cheaper.
Anyone like to comment on why Labour has caved in so pathetically on the TPPA?
Is there a joint letter/ petition that could be sent to Shearer, Goff, Nash and King asking that they either come out in opposition to the TPP or they’ll be booted out next election?
Anyone like to comment on why Labour has caved in so pathetically on the TPPA?
Maybe they’ve come around to the same conclusion as Helen?
It has some pro’s and con’s, and it ain’t the greatest deal, but overall we are better in than out?
It is just a pity they at first they came out strongly opposing the TPPA and said they want nothing to do with it. Then Little does a complete turnaround and shows everyone that he is not a leaders arse. I know National will not want to see Little kicked out as leader as with him there, the election in 2017 is a sure win for them. Labour need to get a leader that is going to take a stand and enforce Labours policies and if National adopt one of their policies, they must not then turn around and call it bad just because National are doing it. As was mentioned on this site yesterday, Labour are in disarray and need to regroup fast if they want to avoid another humiliating defeat.
Opposing something you disagree with is fine, opposing something merely because the government is doing it is dumb
Labour needs to stop acting like a dog chasing every single car that goes past hoping to get some traction and concentrate on the issues that they really don’t agree with
National bad hasn’t worked for the last 7 years so its not going to suddenly start working now
Well ok fair enough but I guess what I mean is at the moment Labour seems to have a negative opinion and every single thing National put out and it makes Labour look negative for the sake of being negative
A better idea for them would be to ignore some of the small issues and focus on the big issues instead of trying to spread themselves so thin
After 7 years in Opposition they should not have to be told this shit.
Plus, they aren’t going to get into government in 2017 unless they start looking and acting like an alternative government. That means common media positions with Greens and NZFirst.
I see no poll shift starting that gets the current lot out until 2020. That’s a lot to play for.
Actually I think most supporters believe the opposite to Puckish Rogue that the Labour party’s problem is that it is NOT chasing National’s bad decisions at all, merely passively supporting them by a lack of effective action or a half baked measure like changing surveillance to 24 hrs without a warrant instead of 48 hours without a warrant. The idea of privacy and lack of accountability seems to have escaped them.
Likewise agreeing with the Nats to keep TPP (if that is what he said and since there have been zero retractions from Labour that I can see we have to assume that is his intent) but flout the rules, which is plain stupid especially when you put forward a late half baked opposition to TPP but then appear too lazy to pull out later if someone actually voted you in.
That is why their ex supporters are angry and upset. Labour Fucked up yet again!
National is a comprehensive moral, economic and intellectual failure.
Labour could do a lot worse than promise to imprison all of them and audit everything they’ve done. Gerry would certainly have a lot of explaining to do – and I imagine Stephen Joyce’s media adventures are very far from the scrupulous standards required of real governments.
There may be lower and dirtier lifeforms than Gnats, in the unplumbed abysses off the Marianas Trench or the chthonic depths of the Krubera Caves, but they are by far the worst things that have ever sullied the light of day in NZ.
The reflex damning of Gnats is if anything an under-reaction.
IF that was the case then why not make that your publicly stated position and defend it….why prevaricate with “bottom lines” that are nothing more than scotch mist?
Using occams razor I’d suggest that Labour thought the TPPA deal was going to be really bad, thanks to all the doom and gloom spouted by all the “experts” (Jane Kelsey) and so they gambled and hoped it would make them look like a government
However they severly underestimated John Key (again) and he played Labour like a violin (remember all the talk about Pharmac?) and so now because the deal isn’t nearly as bad as anyone thought Labour have to start the dead rat swallowing…again
As I wrote in a previous comment, the models in use that ‘predict’ likely consequences are all over the show. On the TTIP, the one used by the governments had ridiculous assumptions built in and still only showed a marginal up-side.
When the same data was thrown through the UN Policy Model – a model that holds up quite well in real world scenarios apparently – everything was on the down side.
Labour share of gdp – down.
Government tax take – down
gdp – down.
Employment – down.
Financial instability – up.
The only winners were the corporates who get increased profit from that drop in labour’s share of gdp and who also get enhanced access to, among other things, formerly public service provision.
I don’t know what model was used to give a scenario for the TPPA. I have looked. I certainly haven’t seen any mention of the UN Policy Model.
We won’t know until everyone can lay their eyes on the detail. At the moment we have selective releases of information and selective figures and so far only a discussion of financial good or bad. People and society are more than just the financial implications of something.
Cleared out my mobile cookies, so posting again so it remembers me.
While I’m at it – Lynn the mobile theme is self-defeating. If you scroll to the bottom of the screen there’s a button to select whether you want the mobile site or the desktop one. But when you scroll down, it also stats loading new pays, which them pushes the mobile / desktop buttons out of view. It took me 4 attempts before I was able to successful press on the desktop link before it ran away from me.
Can the desktop option be placed at the top please as the device determines which theme it gets so often it switches back to mobile theme and is hard to get back to the more readable desktop theme.
Infinite scroll on the front page is a pain for that. I usually change using a page from the menu drop down or a short post.
My development time for TS this year has been severely constrained by colds, new jobs, and my parents getting fragile. All of which cut into the evening, weekend and holiday time required. But that is one that i should have done long ago. I brought a full license for the toolkit at the start of the year to do that and other tasks.
A while back I called into Kelvin Davis’ electoral office in Kaitaia. The lady fronting the office was approachable, informed, intelligent and respectful. She gave me useful answers to my inquiries and provided me with contact details of a couple of folk who might give further info.
With electoral staff like that….
This was shortly after Kelvin had done the walk against domestic violence.
And…he DID walk, with a small support crew. We saw them a couple of times on our peregrinations in the Far North.
Sadly….his electoral office has a thick glass or perspex security screen to protect staff from attack. There has been incidents.
Some folk just can’t see when they have something of real value available to them.
…”Pfizer and other pharmaceutical giants source antibiotics from dirty, dangerous factories in China.
These factories dump raw antibiotic waste straight into the environment.
That creates a perfect breeding ground for antibiotic resistant “superbugs” — which spread globally.
These superbugs have been called a “catastrophic threat” to public health, and could kill millions.
Months of behind-the-scenes digging into big pharma’s secretive operations has revealed these links for the first time. Pfizer and others are putting their profits ahead of our health, by buying cheap antibiotics from dangerous factories with a string of serious environmental and safety violations…
Overprescription of antibiotics and widespread use in factory farms are two of the known culprits behind antibiotic resistance. But pollution generated by the massive antibiotics production industry is an overlooked hidden killer. By dumping antibiotic waste into the environment, these factories create huge breeding grounds for superbugs. Concentrations of antibiotics in polluted waterways can be as high as in the bloodstream of someone on a full strength dose of antibiotics. And these are the factories that Pfizer, McKesson, Teva and other Western pharma giants are buying from.
…”This isn’t just a problem for China or for Pfizer customers. Modern air travel and trade mean that the rapid spread of infectious diseases is the new reality. Infectious superbugs that thrive in the waste dumped by these polluting factories in China quickly find their way into the bodies of children, adults and the elderly around the world, with fatal consequences.
The reason this happens is simple — Pfizer and other big pharmaceutical corporations make more money by relying on cheap, mass-produced antibiotics without strong environmental and safety procedures in place. And until now, no one has known. If we can change that, by generating a global outcry, we can get big pharma to stop buying from these dangerous factories.”…
Chooky
Thanks for that heads up. On top of Salvoj Zizer noting that there is eugenics thinking going on there, It is time that they started to come out of their materialistic nation-strutting phase of being big and better, and come into their philosophical stage of being respectful of people, ethical, wise, fair and responsible. There have to be some large nations that can hold to these tenets with more than devious lip-service.
I woke up this morning about 5am to get ready for work & on Stuff.co.nz was an article & headline on the frontpage “John Key supports euthanasia bill”, I just had a look online a few minutes ago & now it’s gone, curious.
The Curia or Curious polling must have come in and its now safe for the leader to say something. Conservative nz will think he’s a hero while the people who have dedicated their lives to get this on the radar get forgotten for now.
Imagine what a competent progressive government could have achieved with the $105 billion Bill English has pissed away like the ketone laden residue of an after match function.
“We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace–business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me–and I welcome their hatred.”
I think we will only get a leader of that kind when a groundswell of grass roots opposition produces one. At the moment we still expect managerial politics to make the sort of waves that can only be made with the backing of forceful political movements. Even Corbyn, with the People’s Assembly behind him, now treads a precarious path among a well networked mob with highly placed allies, media contacts, favours to call in, etc, etc.
FDR’s backbone was stiffened and his hand strengthened by massively popular socialist, communist and union movements of the day. Sit down strikes and worker riots.
Annette King is “excellent in the role – loyal, experienced, sensible in public statements, liked and respected by friend and foe, a safe pair of hands. ”
….but Jacinda Ardern is ” young, presentable and appears to have a popular following.”
Which is kinda what National has done, only in reverse.
Global inequality is growing, with half the world’s wealth now in the hands of just 1% of the population, according to a new report.
Under the purely competitive free-market paradigm then everyone would have an almost identical income and it would be a subsistence living (until we ran out of resources at which point most would simply die).
This growing inequality that we see is proof that we don’t have such a paradigm and that the paradigm that we do have is tilted in favour of the very few.
“Another theory is that megastructures have been placed in orbit, perhaps solar collectors catching energy from the star. Such hypothetical structures are known as Dyson swarms or spheres.
The weird star was the only one of 150,000 stars watched over four years to behave the way it does.
Kepler was looking for tiny dips in the amount of light emitted by the stars. The dips can be shadows cast by orbiting planets. Normally, they happen regularly and for a few days at most.
But the light from KIC 8462852, 1480 light years away, darkens at irregular intervals by as much as 20 per cent and can stay dark for up to 80 days.”
Well,I would have thought that the star passing through an interstellar dust cloud wouldn’t have the same behaviour, because the dust cloud wouldn’t be that dense. Hmmm. Unless the interstellar cloud was beginning to gather around a planet or something. So a mix of cloud and planet.
“Police in Israel are moving to quell a WAVE of Palestinian attacks…”
Did someone from the Israeli consulate write that for Warwick Burke to read out?
Radio NZ National, Thursday 15 October 2015
That nasty piece of hysterical distortion was intoned, as ominously as possible, by veteran newsreader Warwick Burke halfway through the 4 p.m. news. I’m sure that whoever wrote that crap for him was consciously stirring up that image of feral untermenschen descending as “a wave” on the poor citizens of Jerusalem, but surely only the most brutally committed, ideologically blind, ignorant-beyond-all-hope zealot would actually believe it.
The idea that the Palestinians are inflicting terror on Israelis is, of course, the exact inversion of the truth…..
That’s a very lazy “analysis”, tinfoilhat. You sound just like the late Garth George.
The violence in the Occupied West Bank is almost entirely one-way. Pretending there is a “cycle” of violence only minimizes what the IDF and the fanatical, heavily armed illegal “settlers” do every day.
The robots are hard at it, recycling the same crap…
“Coming up after the break: A new WAVE of attacks sees Israel RAMP up security!”
—-Simon Dallow, Television One news, 6:15 p.m., Thursday 15.10.15
The orgy of ignorance continues….
After the break, Wendy “Fist Pumper” Petrie tells her viewers of the “worrying upsurge” in violence, “as Israel tries to stop a WAVE of violence!”
She cuts to a simply outrageous report by an MSNBC churnalist, who notes in apparent high seriousness: “This deadly escalation has also seen PALESTINIAN victims… The fear is that this is not part of the REGULAR CYCLE OF VIOLENCE….”
They also get kinda mad when people occupy their country and bomb them, looking for terrorists that didn’t exist in that country until the above behaviour.
Gabby, I know you’re being light-hearted, and yes it’s okay to make jokes, even about the occupation—but let’s bear in mind that the Palestinians suffer extreme mob violence every day, year after year, and have suffered that violence since the illegal occupation of the West Bank began in 1967.
That this violence is systematically ignored by the Israeli police and the media does not make it any less real.
radionz is increasingly a political disinformation mouthpiece for the right wing:
…..only this morning on Morning Report did they have on a USA commentator who argued at length that Hillary Clinton won the debate against with Bernie Sanders ( link not put up…wonder why?)
…and the other day Catherine Ryan had on a Jewish commentator who concluded at length that the Syrian problems were all about Russia and how bad it is and how bad Putin is…all the bad things he has done in other areas
…no mention of Israel’s claims to the Golan Heights …a large part of which belongs to Syria…and the other part is under Israel control…a trophy after one of their wars…and is contested by the UN
…no doubt Israel would like ALL of the Golan Heights….so why was USA stirring up trouble in Syria again?….and against the democratically elected Assad? ( nothing said unsurprisingly)
He was young and dumb, and couldn’t resist temptation. As smart as he is, even Assange never came to grips with how depraved, dishonest and desperate the British and U.S. elite actually are.
“The damage caused by shrapnel to the aircraft involved in flight MH17 could not have been caused by a modern Russian BUK missile, the manufacturers of the weapon Almaz-Antey have stated….
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 ...
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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 ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
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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. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
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 ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
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 ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
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 ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
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 ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
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 ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
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 ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
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 English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. 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 ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
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. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
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 ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears ...
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I wonder………will information like this change our government’s commitment to do something about climate change?
Global heat records tumble again as El Nino boosts September warmth
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/73030055/global-heat-records-tumble-again-as-el-nino-boosts-september-warmth
An average of 0.5 degrees above the norm is huge. (They don’t explicitly state it, but I’m assuming they are centigrade measurements).
Will governments change their commitments? No. They aren’t capable. They’re institutionally locked in to what they do – promote and protect ‘the market’; seek a market solution to a non-market phenomenon. Risible really.
New Zealand news at its most cringe-worthy.
After weeks off the radar, the European refugee crisis hits the news in the Herlad again.
Why?
Because its travel writer was on a luxury cruise on the Mediterranean and bumped into them.
Our MSM’s standard of news is just so bad.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11529301
Another deal that is NOT a free trade deal.
‘NZ – EU FTA takes giant step
The ink is barely dry on the TPP and New Zealand has the prospect of another giant free trade deal in the offing with the European Union taking the first steps towards an FTA with New Zealand.
It was announced early this morning that the EU Commission will seek to negotiate separate FTAs with both New Zealand and Australia as part of its trade strategy for the next four years.
The caveat is that talks will take in account “EU agricultural sensitivities.”‘
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11529418
Looks like an interesting talk.
But is Jim Mora the right person to be MCing a debate on dumbing down the media?
Maybe this was intended irony.
‘Is the media being dumbed down, and what alternatives can online media offer audiences? What’s happening with quality journalism? Where’s it all heading and what are the implicatons for ordinary New Zealanders? Does it actually matter?
Radio New Zealand and Massey University are hosting a discussion about the future of journalism and the shape of the media today.
Auckland Art Gallery
What: The Shape of the Media
Where: Auckland Art Gallery Auditorium
When: 6:30 – 8pm, Friday 23 October 2015
Your MC for the evening will be Jim Mora, who along with Professor Graeme Turner – one of the leading figures in cultural and media studies in Australia and internationally – and a panel of locals, will debate the quality and value of the media.’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/about/events
The Fix Hep C Buyers Club
About 50,000 New Zealanders have hepatitis C, a blood-borne virus that causes inflammation of the liver.
Long term about 10% of people with Hepatitis C will die of complications including cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer. Most people with the disease suffer a long term chronic fatigue and carry with them an ever present fear of infecting close contacts.
Until recently, treatment was difficult – but now everything has changed.
Working with researchers around the world, including New Zealand’s Dr Ed Gane, a US pharmaceutical company called Pharmasset developed a tablet medication called Sofosbuvir which provides a high cure rate with far fewer side effects than everything previously used to treat hepatitis C .
We are now close to being able to think about eradicating hepatitis C entirely, in the same way that we eradicated smallpox and have nearly eradicated polio.
In November 2011, Pharmasset was acquired by Gilead for $11 billion. Since then, Gilead have made over $22 billion marketing Sofosbuvir under its brand name ‘Sovaldi’.
Gilead is asking $1,000 per tablet, around $84,000 per patient.
That means it would cost $4,200,000,000 to cure nearly everyone in NZ who has hepatitis C – and we all know that is not going to happen.
There is an alternative. Manufacturers in places like China and India who do not recognize patents, are producing these drugs at around 1/50th of Gilead’s price – that’s around $2,000 per treatment.
For that price, New Zealand could cure nearly all of its 50,000 or so hep C sufferers for around $100 mil instead of $4,200 mil.
Think about that for a moment – it means that for the money that John Key spent on the flag – so far, we could have cured 1 in 4 of New Zealand’s hep C sufferers – already.
This tells us what the TPPA is going to cost us. We will pay more, much more for medical treatment and very few of us will be treated. And perhaps worst of all, our aspirations for a better life for all of us through science will be ruthlessly choked back.
If you, or anyone you know has hep C, then you should check out the FixHepC Buyers Club which is helping people access the medication that they need to clear hep C and testing it, for less than $3,000 Aus.
http://fixhepc.com/getting-treated.html
Here’s a Sydney Morning Herald article about the Fix Hep C Buyers Club
Good on them but under our new regime the imperial masters should be suing them into oblivion any day now
Don’t see what this has got to do with the tppa at all.
For those with an interest Pharmac is currently working on this area.
This is what it has to do with TPPA:
“It’s possible and in fact highly probably that patents will run for a little bit longer and that means the Government will have to pay for the original drug as opposed to the generic for a little bit longer,” Key said on Tuesday as he headed into National’s mid-morning caucus meeting.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/70605894/john-key-says-nzs-drug-bill-set-to-rise-under-tpp-but-patients-protected
Northshoredoc in denial about the TPP.
No, NSD prefers to debate issues using facts rather than ill-informed rhetoric.
Knowing how Pharmac works is not shilling for the man.
Nope patent law in NZ remains unchanged – data exclusivity for biologic meds, which this is not, may be extended from 5 to 8 years.
BUT won’t that be one law that needs to be changed to accommodate the TPP agreement IF its provisions on patent protection are different?
Tracey I’ve explained the difference between data exclusivity and patents from a pharmaceutical point of view previously. I’ll try to link back to previous comment latter today.
would you also be able to explain the motivation for the industry’s desire for extended data protection IF it has no impact on financial return? a return derived almost exclusively from publicly funded purchases? Oh and a brief discourse on “evergreening’ wouldnt go amiss either.
Who said it would have no impact on financial return? I appreciate you think NSD did. He didn’t.
“The extra costs to PHARMAC under the TPP are a nothing. Your comment regarding business was usual for access to biologics has more to do with PHARMACs operating policies and procedures and the way they manage their budget than any trade agreement and will continue to do so.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-06102015/#comment-1079772
So in fact NSD said “a nothing” – ie: very small. There was extended – and quite informative – discussion with Miravox.
“There was extended – and quite informative – discussion”
From the very limited perspective I was discussing, I had three concerns:
1. A trade deal should improve access and that is not happening with the TPP. I don’t like that we’ve traded away improved access to biologics now for primary produce exports in the future. It’s cetainly not a ‘free’ trade deal.
2. The cost of administration and a possible delay in the availability of generics has to be met, even if it isn’t much in overall health system spending. I worry (not expect) health funding – who knows for what – will be affected by an increased (at best, no reduction in) cost of Pharmac doing business. Specifically that it may be met through reduced, rather than improved access to biologics for people with auto-immune diseases. The effect may not be much in health system terms, but in personal terms it is huge.
3. I don’t agree that three biologics, as NZ has, for treating inflammatory arthritis is sufficient given the variable nature of the disease. This has bugger all to do with superiority of one drug over another and much to do with how a patient responds to the biologic they’re given.
As an aside – maybe if social and wider government costs were taken into account in Pharmac decision criteria there would be a bit more money available for these very expensive drugs.
I may have led you slightly astray Miravox, apparently we have rituximab and tociluzimab available and funded in NZ for appropriate patients as well..so five agents not three.
I also completely agree with your comment regarding pHARMAC’s decision criteria which is not just an issue in this area of medicine.
I still think you misunderstand the effect of the trade deal on the availability of medicines which are more influenced by the PHARMAC ‘ops’ and budget in the first place, patent law in the second place and whether the companies in question actually registering the medicine in NZ.
define “very small”….esp. in terms of a health budget already under extreme pressure?
the subsequent discussion which highlighted purchases practices of Pharmac reinforces the role price plays on availability of treatments to NZ health practitioners…so yes we can keep to minor costs to Pharmac…but at what cost in terms of treatment options?…and if we ignore the likely legal challenges and chilling effect as demonstrated by Australias experience post FTA.
I dunno. Less than the cost of bribing Saudi princes? Less than the cost of passing legislative favours to the National Party’s owners? Less than the costs of having a massively incompetent bunch of self-interested troughers leveraging their time as MPs to build lucrative business careers (h/t Blabbermouth Lusk)…
Thanks Doc, much appreciated. Not trying to dis you just trying to understand
Hi Tracey
Data exclusivity in its most basic interpretation is the protection of clinical test/trial data (safety and efficacy) required to be submitted to a regulatory agency and prevention of generic drug manufacturers from relying on this data in their own applications.
In NZ this is 5 years at present and moving to 8 years for biologics under this agreement.
To take the discussions on the Hep C drug discussed above (Yes it is outrageously priced in the regulated jurisdictions) the first major patent on this medicine which will be the substance patent expires in the middle of the 2020s, however the data exclusivity will have expired from a NZ perspective 5 years from the date it was registered by Medsafe – 2014.
Bear with me
Patent products the product, the process of producing it etc and applies to anyone copying that in toto for the period of the patent (which can be renewed) and data exclusivity relates to testing regimes as opposed to the creation.manufacturing processes of the drug itself?
If yes, thanks for the clarification. If no. Help.
Not quite, data exclusivity relates to the data generated from the testing.
When the medicine is registered by the regulator in a country like NZ they look at the manufacturing data regarding process, good manufacturing practices, sterility etc etc as well as the actual data from trials in animals and humans looking at safety and efficacy.
When a company producing a generic copy of the medicine wants to get registration and supply the medicine they only have to supply the manufacturing data.
8 years is better than what the drug companies wanted – they get 12 years of data protection in the US.
Don’t you think it is misleading to put this statement into your intro?
“Key said on Tuesday as he headed into National’s mid-morning caucus meeting.”
I, and probably most other people, read that as meaning Tuesday 13 October but when I looked at the link I discover it was about three months ago. Many things have changed since them haven’t they, and as NSD points out the longer period of patents, and hence increased prices, will not apply to these drugs.
Obviously Tim Groser did good work on holding the drug patents to existing times.
Are you saying you don’t think the IP provisions under the TPP would leave Pharmac (and our Govt) open to being sued by a company from a TPP country for buy a drug in breach of patent law?
Pharmac don’t buy drugs in breach of patent law. If they do, I,m assuming they and the company breaching the patent could be sued as of now anyway. You would know the law better than me I expect.
Individuals can purchase offshore and import for personal use to avoid these issues and medsafe rarely gets involved – need a reputable offshore supply obviously.
Understood, for clarity I was referring tot his part
“There is an alternative. Manufacturers in places like China and India who do not recognize patents, are producing these drugs at around 1/50th of Gilead’s price – that’s around $2,000 per treatment.”
People do need to be careful of sourcing overseas and from countries avoiding patents. There is a double-edged sword in here regarding drug efficacy.
The FixHepC Buyers Club doesn’t buy drugs, it tests them.
http://fixhepc.com/blog/item/16-testing-provisions-patient-safety.html
http://fixhepc.com/getting-treated/supply-chain-integrity.html
For a so called Doctor Doh! Join the dots between USA high medicine for profit and TPP regulations on patents. Even Mr Liar Key has had to concede that medicine will cost more with TPP.
and there within is the problem savenz…northshore doc is that….not a patent attorney working for the most litigious industry in the world…even with the entire text of the patent provisions the overwhelming majority will not be able to foretell the potential for big pharma to protect their position….but one thing is for certain they are not seeking to reduce their return and they have had partial success….IT WILL COST THE TAXPAYER MORE.
Whether you think its justified to protect that data is a whole other argument, but it is disingenuous in the extreme (or perhaps naive) to hold that it is not going to have a financial cost.
Nope patent law in NZ remains unchanged – data exclusivity for biologic meds, which this is not, may be extended from 5 to 8 years.
I can join the dots because I understand the meaning of the word “not”. Do you?
The “logic” around here is along the lines of “The TPP is bad, so everything bad that I can think of must be in the TPP”. It makes it very difficult to discuss the real issues, and in doing so, undermines informed protest.
Own goal.
Oops – here’s the Sydney Morning Herald link:
‘Dallas buyers club’ site for hepatitis C drug inundated with inquiries http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/fixhepc-the-buyers-club-for-hepatitis-c-drug-inundated-with-inquiries-20151002-gjzud9.html via @smh
“There is an alternative. Manufacturers in places like China and India who do not recognize patents, are producing these drugs at around 1/50th of Gilead’s price – that’s around $2,000 per treatment.”
…. and doesn’t that just show that the TTPA is NOT actually about free trade the neo-libs are supposedly so fond of ….. and competition …. all those capitalist ideals.
I wonder where Simon Upton stands on this.
It seems to me we let ideology get in the way of practical concerns, and its a bloody lazy (and anti-intellectual) approach that’ll guarantee us some serious social problems in the very near future.
The pro-TTPA protectionists should try nursing a liver cancer sufferer till they pass on and watch their body eat itself up (much like an AIDS sufferer).
China and India are the primary targets for future ‘trade agreements’
Of course they are. they might not find India as much of a push over as they suspect.
Corruption and a host of other problems aside, sovereignty and the way other nations treat their citizenry are liable to become big issues in any negotiations.
In a funny sort of way, perhaps thats because they understand (i.e. live with and respect) diversity, and all that comes with it. That’s something the ‘ism’ of the neoliberal doesn’t understand.
I imagine there’ll be a bloody big shit fight.
“”It’s not OK that you can make a $1 tablet and market it for $1000. That’s obscene,”
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/big-pharmaceuticals-and-the-hepatitis-c-drug-trail-dubbed-a-miracle-cure-20150924-gjtupf.html#ixzz3oZVCempS
Hands up all those who still think Big Pharma are in it for the good of human kind.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention Huggin.
There are these little wars going on, largely under the radar, that deserve much higher profiles.
You can make a tablet for $1 after you’ve figured out what the tablet needs to have in it. You can’t do the figuring out part, which is the actual work involved, for $1 per tablet, which is why the company that did the actual work involved doesn’t charge $1 per tablet. It’s also why pharmaceutical companies don’t want people who didn’t spend the time, effort and money figuring out what the tablet needs to have in it, selling the tablets for $1. It’s not a difficult concept to grasp.
Gilead, the company asking us to pay $1,000 a tablet is not the company that did ‘actual work involved in figuring out what to put in the tablet.
The company that ‘figured out what what the tablet needs to have in it’ was Pharmasset. They did that figuring out with help from people like Prof Ed Gane, whose research is funded by us, the people of New Zealand.
In November 2011, Pharmasset was acquired by Gilead for $11 billion. Since then, Gilead have made over $22 billion marketing Sofosbuvir under its brand name ‘Sovaldi’.
Gilead is the company that is using the monopoly power that a patent gives it to market a tablet that costs $1 to manufacture for $1,000.
Gilead didn’t pay directly for the work involved in figuring out what the tablet had to have in it, but they sure as shit paid for it. If they paid $11 bil for Pharmasset, that’s effectively $11 bil for Pharmasset’s work in figuring out what tablets need to have in them. It’s lucky we have publicly-funded researchers like Ed Gane contributing to that figuring out, because otherwise it would have been an extra unknown $X bil on top for Pharmasset and that would be going directly on to the price of the tablets. Thanks to the public research contribution, Gilead has only the $1 manufacturing cost of the tablet, plus their operating costs, plus $11 billion to recover. If they’re gouging on top of that, sure it merits a complaint – but saying they could sell the tablets for $1 is ridiculous.
The $11 billion has already been recouped, so it’s manufacture plus operating costs plus prift for shareholders. We don’t know how far above $1/pill the latter is.
I’m also wondering if the developed world is subsidising the lesser profit in places like India which are getting the pills cheaper.
The cost of manufacture for the last tablet is $1.
The parallel imported tablet costs around $10
Gilead’s tablet costs $1,000
Gilead has already recouped the $11 billion that it paid for Pharmasset.
That’s what capitalism does. It chokes back the life of the many so that a few can have much.
Anyone like to comment on why Labour has caved in so pathetically on the TPPA?
Is there a joint letter/ petition that could be sent to Shearer, Goff, Nash and King asking that they either come out in opposition to the TPP or they’ll be booted out next election?
Chris Trotter says it so clearly.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/10/14/flouting-the-rules-why-has-andrew-little-rejected-a-winning-tppa-strategy-for-a-guaranteed-loser/
Do you know if Labour have listed the Law changes they will NOT support which will be needed to enforce/enact the TPP
Anyone like to comment on why Labour has caved in so pathetically on the TPPA?
Maybe they’ve come around to the same conclusion as Helen?
It has some pro’s and con’s, and it ain’t the greatest deal, but overall we are better in than out?
It is just a pity they at first they came out strongly opposing the TPPA and said they want nothing to do with it. Then Little does a complete turnaround and shows everyone that he is not a leaders arse. I know National will not want to see Little kicked out as leader as with him there, the election in 2017 is a sure win for them. Labour need to get a leader that is going to take a stand and enforce Labours policies and if National adopt one of their policies, they must not then turn around and call it bad just because National are doing it. As was mentioned on this site yesterday, Labour are in disarray and need to regroup fast if they want to avoid another humiliating defeat.
I sure as hell won’t be donating to Labour leading to 2017 unless they can figure out how to be an Opposition and Oppose something.
With regard to Labour’s positioning, I think CV was more on the money with disdain and rage compared to Trotter’s perplexed surprise.
Opposing something you disagree with is fine, opposing something merely because the government is doing it is dumb
Labour needs to stop acting like a dog chasing every single car that goes past hoping to get some traction and concentrate on the issues that they really don’t agree with
National bad hasn’t worked for the last 7 years so its not going to suddenly start working now
Yeah nah. TPPA was the biggest story on the political landscape for months, and essentially Labour passed on it.
There’s stuff worth having a crack at. That was one of them.
Labour’s nuance ended up just looking like lack of political guts.
Well ok fair enough but I guess what I mean is at the moment Labour seems to have a negative opinion and every single thing National put out and it makes Labour look negative for the sake of being negative
A better idea for them would be to ignore some of the small issues and focus on the big issues instead of trying to spread themselves so thin
After 7 years in Opposition they should not have to be told this shit.
Plus, they aren’t going to get into government in 2017 unless they start looking and acting like an alternative government. That means common media positions with Greens and NZFirst.
I see no poll shift starting that gets the current lot out until 2020. That’s a lot to play for.
+1
You’ve forgotten 2002 to November 2008 aye PR. Cos negative clearly DOES work but it needs a decent and well financed machine along side it.
+1
Nah, National were wrong then as well…all they did was build Helen Clark into an almost mythological entity
Mind you a bouyant interantional economy certainly doesn’t hurt getting reelected either
Do you read what you write afterwards?
“Opposing something you disagree with is fine, opposing something merely because the government is doing it is dumb”
Which doesn’t explain
a. your support of this government on all it does (or most);
b. your failure to have voted once for Labour between 1999 and 2008
opposing something merely because the government is doing it
So when you’re making decisions you only ever consider the pros and pay no attention to the cons?
Yeah nah – opposing argument is essential to good decision making.
Actually I think most supporters believe the opposite to Puckish Rogue that the Labour party’s problem is that it is NOT chasing National’s bad decisions at all, merely passively supporting them by a lack of effective action or a half baked measure like changing surveillance to 24 hrs without a warrant instead of 48 hours without a warrant. The idea of privacy and lack of accountability seems to have escaped them.
Likewise agreeing with the Nats to keep TPP (if that is what he said and since there have been zero retractions from Labour that I can see we have to assume that is his intent) but flout the rules, which is plain stupid especially when you put forward a late half baked opposition to TPP but then appear too lazy to pull out later if someone actually voted you in.
That is why their ex supporters are angry and upset. Labour Fucked up yet again!
That’s why they are called Nat LIte, ged it?
National is a comprehensive moral, economic and intellectual failure.
Labour could do a lot worse than promise to imprison all of them and audit everything they’ve done. Gerry would certainly have a lot of explaining to do – and I imagine Stephen Joyce’s media adventures are very far from the scrupulous standards required of real governments.
There may be lower and dirtier lifeforms than Gnats, in the unplumbed abysses off the Marianas Trench or the chthonic depths of the Krubera Caves, but they are by far the worst things that have ever sullied the light of day in NZ.
The reflex damning of Gnats is if anything an under-reaction.
IF that was the case then why not make that your publicly stated position and defend it….why prevaricate with “bottom lines” that are nothing more than scotch mist?
Using occams razor I’d suggest that Labour thought the TPPA deal was going to be really bad, thanks to all the doom and gloom spouted by all the “experts” (Jane Kelsey) and so they gambled and hoped it would make them look like a government
However they severly underestimated John Key (again) and he played Labour like a violin (remember all the talk about Pharmac?) and so now because the deal isn’t nearly as bad as anyone thought Labour have to start the dead rat swallowing…again
given that TPP was initiated by Labour occams razor would suggest that their position was likely to be support and defend.
Thats true, kudos to Phil Goff and Helen Clark for their work on it
or shared blame…depending on your viewpoint.
Can’t see any positives at all.
As I wrote in a previous comment, the models in use that ‘predict’ likely consequences are all over the show. On the TTIP, the one used by the governments had ridiculous assumptions built in and still only showed a marginal up-side.
When the same data was thrown through the UN Policy Model – a model that holds up quite well in real world scenarios apparently – everything was on the down side.
Labour share of gdp – down.
Government tax take – down
gdp – down.
Employment – down.
Financial instability – up.
The only winners were the corporates who get increased profit from that drop in labour’s share of gdp and who also get enhanced access to, among other things, formerly public service provision.
I don’t know what model was used to give a scenario for the TPPA. I have looked. I certainly haven’t seen any mention of the UN Policy Model.
“but overall we are better in than out?”
We won’t know until everyone can lay their eyes on the detail. At the moment we have selective releases of information and selective figures and so far only a discussion of financial good or bad. People and society are more than just the financial implications of something.
Cleared out my mobile cookies, so posting again so it remembers me.
While I’m at it – Lynn the mobile theme is self-defeating. If you scroll to the bottom of the screen there’s a button to select whether you want the mobile site or the desktop one. But when you scroll down, it also stats loading new pays, which them pushes the mobile / desktop buttons out of view. It took me 4 attempts before I was able to successful press on the desktop link before it ran away from me.
Can the desktop option be placed at the top please as the device determines which theme it gets so often it switches back to mobile theme and is hard to get back to the more readable desktop theme.
Infinite scroll on the front page is a pain for that. I usually change using a page from the menu drop down or a short post.
My development time for TS this year has been severely constrained by colds, new jobs, and my parents getting fragile. All of which cut into the evening, weekend and holiday time required. But that is one that i should have done long ago. I brought a full license for the toolkit at the start of the year to do that and other tasks.
Got to give a shoutout to Kelvin Davis for flying over to Australia about the NZ citizens held in camps.
There’s a guy who knows how to make a good fist of a small portfolio.
Most other Labour spokespeople could learn a good lesson from him.
A while back I called into Kelvin Davis’ electoral office in Kaitaia. The lady fronting the office was approachable, informed, intelligent and respectful. She gave me useful answers to my inquiries and provided me with contact details of a couple of folk who might give further info.
With electoral staff like that….
This was shortly after Kelvin had done the walk against domestic violence.
And…he DID walk, with a small support crew. We saw them a couple of times on our peregrinations in the Far North.
Sadly….his electoral office has a thick glass or perspex security screen to protect staff from attack. There has been incidents.
Some folk just can’t see when they have something of real value available to them.
Thanks for the great feedback! Just to let you know I have changed that horrible Perspex security screen – it was too constricting!
You take care Chrissy, and keep up the good work!
The Western corporate BIG Pharmaceutical industry is contributing to the global rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs
‘Drug giant Pfizer buying antibiotics from dangerous factories’
http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/corporatenews/storyoftheday/entryid/1822/drug-giant-pfizer-buying-antibiotics-from-dangerous-factories.aspx
…”Pfizer and other pharmaceutical giants source antibiotics from dirty, dangerous factories in China.
These factories dump raw antibiotic waste straight into the environment.
That creates a perfect breeding ground for antibiotic resistant “superbugs” — which spread globally.
These superbugs have been called a “catastrophic threat” to public health, and could kill millions.
Months of behind-the-scenes digging into big pharma’s secretive operations has revealed these links for the first time. Pfizer and others are putting their profits ahead of our health, by buying cheap antibiotics from dangerous factories with a string of serious environmental and safety violations…
Overprescription of antibiotics and widespread use in factory farms are two of the known culprits behind antibiotic resistance. But pollution generated by the massive antibiotics production industry is an overlooked hidden killer. By dumping antibiotic waste into the environment, these factories create huge breeding grounds for superbugs. Concentrations of antibiotics in polluted waterways can be as high as in the bloodstream of someone on a full strength dose of antibiotics. And these are the factories that Pfizer, McKesson, Teva and other Western pharma giants are buying from.
‘Corporate Death Factory’
http://paov.ca/mediamenu/alternative-news/4098-corporate-death-factory1434046503
…”This isn’t just a problem for China or for Pfizer customers. Modern air travel and trade mean that the rapid spread of infectious diseases is the new reality. Infectious superbugs that thrive in the waste dumped by these polluting factories in China quickly find their way into the bodies of children, adults and the elderly around the world, with fatal consequences.
The reason this happens is simple — Pfizer and other big pharmaceutical corporations make more money by relying on cheap, mass-produced antibiotics without strong environmental and safety procedures in place. And until now, no one has known. If we can change that, by generating a global outcry, we can get big pharma to stop buying from these dangerous factories.”…
Well that sucks. China needs the rule of law now more than ever.
Chooky
Thanks for that heads up. On top of Salvoj Zizer noting that there is eugenics thinking going on there, It is time that they started to come out of their materialistic nation-strutting phase of being big and better, and come into their philosophical stage of being respectful of people, ethical, wise, fair and responsible. There have to be some large nations that can hold to these tenets with more than devious lip-service.
I woke up this morning about 5am to get ready for work & on Stuff.co.nz was an article & headline on the frontpage “John Key supports euthanasia bill”, I just had a look online a few minutes ago & now it’s gone, curious.
The Herald says so too.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/72994662/voluntary-euthanasia-bill-launched-by-david-seymour
I guess polling shows people want euthanasia looked at by govt but it’s better for ACT to pick it up than National.
That must be the case Weka. It is not like Key to have an actual stance on something so black & white. He usually acts all weaselly & slippery.
The Curia or Curious polling must have come in and its now safe for the leader to say something. Conservative nz will think he’s a hero while the people who have dedicated their lives to get this on the radar get forgotten for now.
Imagine what a competent progressive government could have achieved with the $105 billion Bill English has pissed away like the ketone laden residue of an after match function.
“We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace–business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me–and I welcome their hatred.”
-FDR October 31, 1936
This is the Labour Leader we need.
I think we will only get a leader of that kind when a groundswell of grass roots opposition produces one. At the moment we still expect managerial politics to make the sort of waves that can only be made with the backing of forceful political movements. Even Corbyn, with the People’s Assembly behind him, now treads a precarious path among a well networked mob with highly placed allies, media contacts, favours to call in, etc, etc.
FDR’s backbone was stiffened and his hand strengthened by massively popular socialist, communist and union movements of the day. Sit down strikes and worker riots.
These forces no longer exist today.
Oooh look!
The Herald wants a new Deputy Leader for Labour.
Annette King is “excellent in the role – loyal, experienced, sensible in public statements, liked and respected by friend and foe, a safe pair of hands. ”
….but Jacinda Ardern is ” young, presentable and appears to have a popular following.”
Which is kinda what National has done, only in reverse.
Obviously the secret to political success….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11529269
Half of world’s wealth now in hands of 1% of population – report
Under the purely competitive free-market paradigm then everyone would have an almost identical income and it would be a subsistence living (until we ran out of resources at which point most would simply die).
This growing inequality that we see is proof that we don’t have such a paradigm and that the paradigm that we do have is tilted in favour of the very few.
+1 Draco
whoa this could be big
“Another theory is that megastructures have been placed in orbit, perhaps solar collectors catching energy from the star. Such hypothetical structures are known as Dyson swarms or spheres.
The weird star was the only one of 150,000 stars watched over four years to behave the way it does.
Kepler was looking for tiny dips in the amount of light emitted by the stars. The dips can be shadows cast by orbiting planets. Normally, they happen regularly and for a few days at most.
But the light from KIC 8462852, 1480 light years away, darkens at irregular intervals by as much as 20 per cent and can stay dark for up to 80 days.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/73043524/unusual-far-away-star-could-be-orbited-by-massive-alien-structures
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere
just in time for the end of the world 😉
I’d have thought it passing through an irregular dust cloud would be more likely.
Well,I would have thought that the star passing through an interstellar dust cloud wouldn’t have the same behaviour, because the dust cloud wouldn’t be that dense. Hmmm. Unless the interstellar cloud was beginning to gather around a planet or something. So a mix of cloud and planet.
It is the end of the world as we know it and the beginning of a different world.
“Police in Israel are moving to quell a WAVE of Palestinian attacks…”
Did someone from the Israeli consulate write that for Warwick Burke to read out?
Radio NZ National, Thursday 15 October 2015
That nasty piece of hysterical distortion was intoned, as ominously as possible, by veteran newsreader Warwick Burke halfway through the 4 p.m. news. I’m sure that whoever wrote that crap for him was consciously stirring up that image of feral untermenschen descending as “a wave” on the poor citizens of Jerusalem, but surely only the most brutally committed, ideologically blind, ignorant-beyond-all-hope zealot would actually believe it.
The idea that the Palestinians are inflicting terror on Israelis is, of course, the exact inversion of the truth…..
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2015-10-12/israel-is-a-terrorist-state/
+1 – yeah people do get angry when settlers steal their land and kill them.
Violence begets violence begets violence, will anyone be brave enough to give peace a chance ?
yep.
But then someone shot the last Israeli PM to try.
That’s a very lazy “analysis”, tinfoilhat. You sound just like the late Garth George.
The violence in the Occupied West Bank is almost entirely one-way. Pretending there is a “cycle” of violence only minimizes what the IDF and the fanatical, heavily armed illegal “settlers” do every day.
The robots are hard at it, recycling the same crap…
“Coming up after the break: A new WAVE of attacks sees Israel RAMP up security!”
—-Simon Dallow, Television One news, 6:15 p.m., Thursday 15.10.15
The orgy of ignorance continues….
After the break, Wendy “Fist Pumper” Petrie tells her viewers of the “worrying upsurge” in violence, “as Israel tries to stop a WAVE of violence!”
She cuts to a simply outrageous report by an MSNBC churnalist, who notes in apparent high seriousness: “This deadly escalation has also seen PALESTINIAN victims… The fear is that this is not part of the REGULAR CYCLE OF VIOLENCE….”
Repeaters, not reporters
They also get kinda mad when people occupy their country and bomb them, looking for terrorists that didn’t exist in that country until the above behaviour.
They do seem to have got a bit stabby of late.
Gabby, I know you’re being light-hearted, and yes it’s okay to make jokes, even about the occupation—but let’s bear in mind that the Palestinians suffer extreme mob violence every day, year after year, and have suffered that violence since the illegal occupation of the West Bank began in 1967.
That this violence is systematically ignored by the Israeli police and the media does not make it any less real.
+1 Thanks Morrisey what a sad state of existence for Israel and Palestine citizens to face every day of their lives.
+100 Morrissey @ 17
radionz is increasingly a political disinformation mouthpiece for the right wing:
…..only this morning on Morning Report did they have on a USA commentator who argued at length that Hillary Clinton won the debate against with Bernie Sanders ( link not put up…wonder why?)
http://usuncut.com/politics/6-reasons-bernie-sanders-actually-owned-the-debate-despite-what-pundits-claim/
…and the other day Catherine Ryan had on a Jewish commentator who concluded at length that the Syrian problems were all about Russia and how bad it is and how bad Putin is…all the bad things he has done in other areas
…no mention of Israel’s claims to the Golan Heights …a large part of which belongs to Syria…and the other part is under Israel control…a trophy after one of their wars…and is contested by the UN
…no doubt Israel would like ALL of the Golan Heights….so why was USA stirring up trouble in Syria again?….and against the democratically elected Assad? ( nothing said unsurprisingly)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/15/stephen-harper-master-manipulator
Possibly the most depressing article I have ever read about politics and democracy
Five Facts About The Assange Siege
1. Assange has not been charged.
2. Assange does not “believe” there is an espionage case against him, it is a fact.
3. Assange has not “refused to come to trial or indeed be questioned”.
4. Assange did not “flee”.
5. Assange has already been cleared and the woman says the police made it up in order to “get him”.
https://justice4assange.com/Cambridge-Union-Statement-Fact.html
+100..setup job…but why, given he was warned, did he fall into the trap?
He was young and dumb, and couldn’t resist temptation. As smart as he is, even Assange never came to grips with how depraved, dishonest and desperate the British and U.S. elite actually are.
The other side of the story:
‘BUK manufacturer says Russian-made air defenses ‘absolutely’ not involved in MH17 crash’
https://www.rt.com/news/318653-buk-manufacturer-outdated-warhead/
“The damage caused by shrapnel to the aircraft involved in flight MH17 could not have been caused by a modern Russian BUK missile, the manufacturers of the weapon Almaz-Antey have stated….
The Russians will say anything, and have in fact done so.
The real story is mostly here https://www.bellingcat.com
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/201774803/using-dodgy-data-proved-problematic-woodhouse
gives new meaning to the word farce
This government is satire-proof. When Woodhouse dies, they could make some sturdy boots out of his hide.
Someone should suggest that to the reigning intellectual of parliament, David Seymour, and he’ll get the government to agree to it.