Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood has confirmed the government will do a full review of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme early next year.
It comes after the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner witnessed conditions she described as modern day slavery.
I have posted on this…many times on the Standard. Some might find it hard to believe 21st Century NZ could have "modern day slavery" …be sure it exists.
Brave whistleblowers and true Journalists expose it ! And also be very sure that under a nact govt…it would be modus operandi. (not deemed "slavery" of course)
Anyway, please support our Brothers and Sisters who are being exploited..by these scum. Stand Up !!
I agree, however I see that up to now, the main thrust of the law and pubic anger has been directed at the ‘middle management’ (or lower) so to speak, ie; the people who were directly responsible for organizing the crews etc (the easy low hanging fruit of course) but not one orchard owner or company director has had to face any legal action as far as I know.
Now if I have known that this exploitation of RSE workers has been wide spread for nearly a decade…then you can be absolutely sure that those same orchard owners, and company directors have been fully aware to what is going on their own properties for the past decade as well….so let’s see if any of them get caught up, face any sort of penalty, or even get called out in this new govt review….don’t hold your breath.
Police are investigating alleged assaults by an orchard owner against migrant workers in Central Otago, including an incident where a worker says he was made to lie on the floor, stood on, and sworn at.
Another Pacific Island worker alleged he had his ear pulled by the same man, while others say he regularly called the workers names including calling one man “lazy arse”.
Here is an example of the self proclaimed defenders of world democracy in action….the very same one that the Liberals class both here in NZ (and on TS) and abroad and their media, offer their support for in terms of it's foreign interventions….
As Afghan People Boil Grass to Eat, U.S. Refuses to Release $7 Billion of Frozen Afghan Assets
It would be very foolish for the US to hand over substantial money to the Afghan Taleban without enforceable conditions. The Taleban want full untagged control of aid funding, and there ain't no donor going to agree to that.
But with the intensity of hostility from the Taleban rulers, there are now no good analogues for mounting a substantial state-supporting effort in the absence of any UN security. Who in their right mind would even land a plane there let alone fly in to help. Obviously no women can assist now.
It is also pretty unreasonable to expect any decent UN-led effort would be any more successful than that generated over the last two decades. It is one of the most corrupt, repressive, unstable countries in the world. Nor is there any changing it.
"It would be very foolish for the US to hand over substantial money to the Afghan Taleban without enforceable conditions. The Taleban want full untagged control of aid funding, and there ain't no donor going to agree to that"…and yet the Western world do exactly that in the Ukraine..recognized without question as the most corrupt country in Europe, but then double standards are standard operating procedure in the US and it's European/Western enablers foreign policy…and by the way it's Taliban.
Or has this always gone on in this country un-reported?
More importantly, is it leading up to some sort of atrocity?
When he listened to the voicemail message, a female voice said: "Scummy little Maori". At 1.86cm and 115kg I thought they had rung the wrong number.
They called Taonui back – this time on his landline – and said: "Dirty Maori, we know Maori, f**king Maori, dirty Maori" and hung up again….
…..He knows aspects of his work – he was on Race Relations Conciliator Meng Foon's National Anti-Racism task force – have made him a target.
He was followed home last year. When he stopped in his driveway, the driver of the other vehicle got out and said: "It's good to know where you live, you black bastard."
The authorities need to take this matter seriously
These offenders need to be named and shamed and charged in a court of law.
You can’t tell me the police and security forces don’t have the means to detect and identify these offenders and the ability to lay charges. If this is not done in this case these petty fascists will become even more emboldened.
We all know what happened when the authorities didn’t take harassment against the Islamic community seriously
“Have fascists and racists become more emboldened?
Or has this always gone on in this country un-reported?”
It's always gone on, but technology has changed. Good in one sense (the abuse can be recorded as evidence, even insults on the street can be captured on cellphones).
Bad in another: racists can gather online and reinforce each other's bigotry. So yes, emboldened. As demonstrated by the many stories about extremist candidates this year.
Good on him for calling it out, and the messages of support are heartening, at least.
….the messages of support are heartening, at least.
More than 'at least' the outpouring of messages of support for Dr Rawiri Taonui were overwhelming. In my opinion this outflowing of public support is the most significant part of this reported matter.
Which is why I think it imperative that these racists need to be apprehended and named and shamed in public court.
"….racists can gather online and reinforce each other's bigotry"
Observer, what I think you have identified here, is that the online world has enabled minority like minded individuals to gather in virtual spaces where they can reinforce and encourage these views, and where they deludedly can convince each other of the rightness of these views divorced from reality.
Online reinforcement of extremist views bearing little relation to the lived reality and humanity of the targets of their prejudice, or the wider held more tolerant views of community they live in, can allow online extremism to grow and fester, until eventually it breaks out into the real world.
This is why it is imperative that these people need to named and shamed in the real world, so the communities they live and work in and the people they interact with on daily basis can be aware of them, and let them know that their views are unacceptable to the majority of us.
It is good to see that Dr Rawiri Taonui has raised this matter with the police and I see that he has received praise from some commentators for doing so.
It is up to the police now. Because of the power of social media and the serious real world consequences that can arise from the influence of unchecked online hate. When it breaks out into the real world this sort of behavour needs to be nipped in the bud and let know that it is not acceptable.
The public deserve to see a serious police investigation resulting in these people being brought up in court on these offences.
Too long has this sort of thing been ignored and downplayed by the authorities, and as we witnessed in Christchurch this can end in tragic results.
"Lack of local media reporting on significant internation developments on child and youth gender treatment is leaving NZ families to make life-changing decisions in an information vacuum"
This article is about the almost complete black out in media coverage on the closure of the Tavistock and the legal action 1000 families are taking against the gender identity clinic.
This had been extremely hard for some of us trying to blow the whistle on this and being smeared by others (not on this site ) for being anti trans and terfs etc.
I have to say a huge thank you to the Standard and all who work so hard on it. You have allowed us a space to raise concerns when we were shut down in almost every avenue we tried to raise these issues.
All we get is the local Labour MP tweeting her support for the people protesting against the recent therapists (CATA) conference in Nelson because they dared to hear from people who were up to date with the work in this area.
You will probably be aware that the debate in Rugby is coming to a quick head, with the different regulations between Australian and UK players now clear.
Thanks Ad. I have posted so many times Dr Ross Tucker a sports scientist take on treansgender women in sport, He says the advantage is significant and that trans women playing in women's rugby will cause more injuries (see the lint about the Guam women).
When talking about the MOH webiste info on blockers "Blockers are safe and fully reversible….."
"The rassuring statment now seems oddly out of step with the hesitancy being expressed internationally. Hesitancy which has seen a number of internationally renowned gender medicine clinics end the use of these drugs for under 18s within the last few years"
There have been quite a few people poking holes in the whole system of recent times. Issues around commercialization of journals among other things. Fake and ai generated nonsense papers have been finding there way into reputable journals for some time.
I hope somebody vets the Auckland council/local board candidates. Otherwise given the threat of stealth infiltration by VFF and the like I sadly won't be voting for any "independent" candidates this year unless I am personally familiar with them. It's not worth the risk – even one of these people out to make New Zealand "ungovernable" being elected would be one too many.
Yep, these journalists are on a righteous mission to seek out these terrible folk who are spreading disinformation regarding the safety of vaccines. Pleased to see Andrea Vance adding her name to the stable of fearless truthseekers.
A pity about Paula though. Someone remembered this piece she did back in the day when it was (obviously) ok to question the safety of a vaccine and (OMG!!!) to give oxygen to those conspiracy theorists who claim that Gardasil caused serious adverse effects…including deaths.
Aye – it's about who has pricing power in the market, and who doesn't. So it's essentially a political matter – both when inflation is imported and when imported inflation threatens to kick of a domestic wage-price spiral. Who escapes the pain and who cops it – a sh*t fight where the powerful win..
Profit is a lot of things. It is part of what funds future growth, sustains businesses through recessions and market changes, rewards investors who bear the greatest risk.
Did you bother to look at why the Mercury profit had risen so much?
It was caused by a one-off gain of a net $367m from the sale of Tilt renewables. This the profit, at $469m was $328m more than the previous year. However without the one-off sale it would have been less than the previous year wouldn't it?
It is all in their annual report if you had gone to the trouble of looking at it.
So every household in New Zealand has been paying an extra $200 a year for Comalco's sweetheart deal since – well a bloody long time I guess. Of course the unstated is that every retailer, farmer, tradesman, manufacturer have also been paying more. How much do those Comalco jobs cost everyone in total? I'm picking "way too much" as my answer.
My understanding is that Comalco's last bite of the cherry was to gain enormous reductions in it's transmission charges – That will also be everyone in New Zealand subsidising them for that. FFS can we please let them dam smelter die to help the whole of New Zealand
If Tiwai had closed you would not have had the increased investment in generation in the NI,which reduces transmission losses and cost.Transmission costs have increased due to new capacity to allow for the possible closure of Tiwai.
Transpower has completed its Clutha to Upper Waitaki Lines project with the commissioning of the final works to replace conductor (the wire) on the Roxburgh to Livingstone section of the Roxburgh to Islington A 220 kV transmission line this week. The total project has nearly doubled the transmission capacity of the network for transfer northwards – particularly important for either new generation in the area or the potential closure of the aluminium smelter at Tiwai.
Even Tiwais closure would not mean cheaper electricity as the ERA wanted the removal of low user charges (over half of NZ) so a lot of fat cats can have EV.
Bangkok Hospital (Thailand) advice on Covid Vaccination…
COVID-19 vaccine is NOT recommended in:
People aged below 18
People who have had previous history of serious allergic reactions to vaccine (s)
People who have had blood transfusion, plasma or other blood component exchange, including immunoglobulin, antiviral drugs or antibody therapy against COVID-19 in the last 90 days
Patients with confirmed SARS-Cov-2 infection in the last 10 days. In such a case, COVID-19 vaccine can be considered at least 3 months after being infected.
Patients with underlying diseases who have shown uncontrollable symptoms, e.g. chest discomfort, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath and palpitation. If needed, vaccination needs to be advised by the specialists.
Patients with neurological diseases or nervous system disorders. If needed, vaccination needs to be advised by the specialists.
Pregnant or breastfeeding women or women who have planned for pregnancy. Vaccination might be considered if the expert’s opinion can be obtained.
Immunocompromised patients or patients who take immunosuppressant drugs. If needed, vaccination needs to be advised by the specialists.
People with coagulation disorders, e.g. bleeding and low platelet count (thrombocytopenia) and patients who take anticoagulant or antiplatelet medicines. If needed, vaccination needs to be advised by the specialists.
Cardiovascular Effects of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in Adolescents
Cardiovascular effects were found in 29.24% of patients, ranging from tachycardia, palpitation, and myopericarditis. Myopericarditis was confirmed in one patient after vaccination. Two patients had suspected pericarditis and four patients had suspected subclinical myocarditis. Conclusion: Cardiovascular effects in adolescents after BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccination included tachycardia, palpitation, and myocarditis. The clinical presentation of myopericarditis after vaccination was usually mild, with all cases fully recovering within 14 days. Hence, adolescents receiving mRNA vaccines should be monitored for side effects.
My personal confidence that Thailand's Covid deaths are understated = 100%
My personal confidence that Thailand's age demographics are a shit load different to New Zealand's and that they have far lower % of elderly and the health compromised = 100%
My personal confidence that you will continue flogging this dead horse for a very long time = 99%
IMHO Barfly may be right about Thailand understating its deaths. Third world countries tend not to have the resources to accurately report such things.
A few years ago a friend was found face down in a Thai marina. No investigation, no postmortem. The death certificate issued the day he was found offered no insight into how, when or why other than he drowned, was signed by the marina plod.
I would hazard a guess that the 4.2% difference between NZ and Thailand would include a longer surviving, more at risk population in New Zealand that is more likely to die of covid-related illness.
According to Rosemary's Demographics.
Thailand 60 + is 17% of the pop
NZ 65+ is 14.9%of the pop
Not fully like with like, but Thailand's population is percentage points fewer at the aged end.
the limiting factor here seems to be a lack of understanding of what variables are and role they play, and that correlation doesn't equal causation (nor does stacking facts next to each other inherently have meaning).
I assume more likely to take risks like swimming in a thunder storm. Less likely to be cautious.
Point was there will be various potential reasons and we can’t necessarily know just because of the data in front of us (but I like your guesses, lol, we should consider all the possibilities. Taller seems less likely to be a factor, being outside more more likely, and so on).
What facts exactly? As far as I can't tell Rosemary is speculating about something, but won't say directly what she means. Maybe you could explain it to me? Is she saying that an extra 54/million people die of covid because of the differences in vaccine policy? What's the connection? Where's the actual evidence?
Anything to say about the differing advice about who should get the Covid vax?
What was your point though? I really wish you would state the up front and directly.
Because here's what I saw you say,
Thailand and NZ have different covid death rates.
Thailand and NZ have different vax policies
Inference being that there is a connection. You don't say what the connection is. Which is why I pointed out the problem of not understanding evidence, and making assumptions about the proximity of data.
Anything to say about the 1 in 300 rate of myocarditis from the Pfizer shot for 11-18 year olds in the study?
where did you get the 1 in 300 rate from? The number 300 doesn't appear in your link. If you copy and paste the relevant bit and explain your thinking, I will have something to say. As it is, I don't know what you are on about
Thailand and NZ have very similar 'death from Covid' rates, and very different 'who should get the vaccine' advice.
I'm guessing you are trying to say that different vax practice should lead to more difference in death rates? Why?
It's already been outlined that the reasons for different rates in different countries comes from a range of variables. You can't just pick one and expect it to be meaningful.
I'd really encourage you to do a basic tutorial on how medical/health research and reporting works, the bit about variables and how/why they are 'controlled' for in particular. I'm not a scientist, and I don't have a huge knowledge in this area, but the basics go a long way.
I'm not being patronising there, I think you have some pertinent perspectives on the pandemic response, and like many others in the anti-response section of society, the lack of research/science literacy leads to extrapolating from science and data to poor analysis and arguments.
If you read the paper. there was 301 subject received their second shot of Pfizer. There subjects baseline heart readings were ascertained beforehand.
Over 29% showed measurable heart issues…some worryingly sub-clinical.
1 of the 301 was diagnosed with myocarditis.
I was rounding weka…rounding.
Sure, but I'm not going to read every paper someone posts online. The onus is on the person making the argument to make an actual argument (and use links/quotes to back that up).
Thanks for the excellent response. Two things: it’s highly misleading to try link overall population-wide reported death rates to the incidence of myocarditis in a small age-selected group. In NZ such link has not been established nor confirmed (yet).
Secondly, rounding from 301 to 300 is a red herring. Rosemary’s reckon is that this number is so much higher than other reported ones for the incidence of myocarditis.
Thailand and NZ have very similar 'death from Covid' rates, …
Yes, depending on where you look and what number you pick it would indeed suggest that reported mortality rates are fairly similar. However, this can be very misleading if the ways of reporting are very different. Therefore, more objective observers tend to use excess death or excess death rates for comparisons. I’m sure that you can find it, if you want to 😉
Here's my lay person opinion about the relevance of
Anything to say about the 1 in 300 rate of myocarditis from the Pfizer shot for 11-18 year olds in the study?
300 seems to me to be quite a small sample. If the same population was studied at say 5,000 people, we might find that the 1 in 300 rate drops. In the abstract the conclusion is that teens have these particular cardiac events post-vax, and teens getting vaxed should be monitored for side effects.
You could ask people with better medical science literacy than me what a useful study number would be (I made up the 5,000).
They're not claiming that their research shows 1 in 300 teens get pericarditis. You are making that claim and the evidence you have presented doesn't support that. Best we can say is that in this small study 1 of the 300 teens got pericarditis, and we can ask should there be follow up studies to see if this is a valid %?
The other thing is that we can't see from the abstract how they controlled for variables. Once the paper is printed, people with sufficient medical science literacy will read the paper and critique whether its methodology is sound. That is a crucial part of medical research, examination of methodology.
beyond that, as you probably know, my position on covid vaccination is that vaccinations come at a cost to some individuals but protect populations. The validity of that approach depends on how many individual people it's ok to harm in the process of protecting the whole population.
I also think that one of the ways we are failing is by minimising vaccine harm and thus failing to adequately support the people who end up with health problems.
On the other side, we are doing pretty much the same with adverse reactions to covid infection, including long covid.
I see both sides dismissing harm. Pro-vax minimise vax harm. the 'covid's not so bad' side minimise the disability created by covid infections. Neither is helping the people being harmed by those positions.
Further, the people arguing against covid vax generally have poor science literacy and are undermining their own arguments by this. Wakefield and the subsequent anti-vax movement have done a massive amount of damage to the pre-anti-vax movements that sought to promote health prevention via other means. We now have a chasm between people who have faith in vaccines and people who have faith in holistic medicine, when we should be working together.
[deleted – I will restore your comment when you have complied with the moderation request. This is costing me time, so if you keep this up I will simply move you to the Black List. I have no time and am not in the mood for your games – Incognito]
Have you bothered to look at excess mortality in Thailand during the pandemic and compared this to NZ? You might be in for a surprise, one that might not suit your biased narrative.
MOH is not going to change anything based on or because of this ‘study’.
Yep. What's a little heart damage for teenagers, eh? They'll get over it, eh?
Of course our Ministry of Health will not change their advice on this prospective study, but the Danish Ministry of Health has changed their Covid vaccine advice.
With quite strict limits on who is allowed to have the shots.
….which is Christine Stabell-Benns 'study' from May.
Video here, again, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_nKoybyMGg ….and its interesting to note that the Danish Health Ministry seems to have largely followed her advice and made it very difficult for under 18 year olds to get the Pfizer shot…because the risk of adverse effects outweigh the benefits.
I presume you are an epidemiologist? A public health expert? A medical doctor? A vaccinologist? A medical statistician?
Any qualification or hands-on experience that makes your reckons more credible than the actual professionals?
[You insinuated that there were vaccine-induced heart attacks reported in that study that you linked that is not (yet) peer-reviewed. You back it up and show where exactly this is mentioned. You’re in Pre-Mod until you’ve provided this particular piece of information because I’ve no inclination chasing you down your usual rabbit holes – Incognito]
…you can take your pick from the definitions offered.
Any happening that causes measurable changes in a young person's baseline indicators of heart health is very, very serious.
Rather than address the study…it is an actual study Incognito, not the idle reckons of some anonymous denizen of the internet…commentors simply mock, joke and trivialize.
Referencing Christine Stabell-Benn and the Danish Ministry of Health indicates a slide down a rabbit hole?
Dear Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the Goddess…please let it not be such as yourself setting policy for our Ministry of Health.
Hint. Denmark, and Thailand, change their advice and policies on Covid vaccinations according to the latest available data.
[Nice deflection 🙂
Anything to say about the 1 in 300 rate of myocarditis from the Pfizer shot for 11-18 year olds in the study?
lol. Like a heart attack.
And
What’s a little heart damage for teenagers, eh?
One more chance for you to put up the support for your misleading and exaggerated comments, from the study you linked to; I have no time today to play your games – Incognito]
so this is a really good example of what I was just talking about regarding medical science literacy. I agree with Incognito that the paper doesn't mention heart attacks at all.
It says,
The most common cardiovascular effects were tachycardia (7.64%), shortness of breath (6.64%), palpitation (4.32%), chest pain (4.32%), and hypertension (3.99%)
And peri/myocarditis.
None of those are a heart attack.
I don't know if you know this and were using hyperbole. Or if you don't in fact know what a heart attack is. Either way, it's exactly this kind of mistake that undermines the vax concerned argument. Science people and public health people, and those that have faith in them, (the ones that need to be convinced) will never take such arguments seriously when they make such fundamental mistakes.
Where did I 'insinuate' that there were vaccine induced heart attacks?
Here,
What ‘heart attacks’?????
Yep. What's a little heart damage for teenagers, eh? They'll get over it, eh?
I can see how it could be read both ways, but the onus is on you to communicate effectively and clarify.
FWIW, you can't provide the evidence that Incognito is asking for, because it's not there, so just take responsibility for the miscommunication and acknowledge that no heart attacks happened in that study and we can move on.
Let me assure you Rosemary, I was in no way making light of heart attacks. A careful reading of 10.1.1.3.2 will show I was in fact making light of being struck by lightning.
Hard to get that information…there are a couple of studies from Israel that counted emergency heart issues incidents before the vaccine roll out and after and found a considerably higher number in the after group.
…has a handy wee chart that might at least tell you what the myocarditis rate due to covid rate they reckoned… 455 per million infections in the 12-17 age group.
The Thai study suggests at least 3000 cases per 1 million second doses of Pfizer.
Exactly! Yet, you’re more than happy & willing to extrapolate your reckons to conclusions without having the info nor the skills & expertise to interpret that info. Any scientist knows that extrapolating (usually in a simplistic uninformed unconditional linear fashion) from a small sample (e.g. a small trial) to a much larger one (e.g. a whole population) is nothing more than a gamble, a stab in the dark and the extrapolated number has such an enormous error (aka uncertainty) that it is essentially meaningless. The way to mitigate this is to have a robust mechanistic model that is validated (aka calibrated), which can be used to make predictions & extrapolations with more acceptable (aka realistic and meaningful) confidence intervals. What you and other amateurs tend to do is essentially hand waving (and barking up wrong trees).
To illustrate the pitfalls of extrapolation:
In the space of one hundred and seventy six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over a mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oölitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing-pole. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long, and Cairo [Illinois] and New Orleans will have joined their streets together and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.
Hard to get that information…there are a couple of studies from Israel that counted emergency heart issues incidents before the vaccine roll out and after and found a considerably higher number in the after group.
What that tells us is that emergency heart issues increased later in the pandemic. It doesn't tell us why. eg vax, covid, stress, or some other aspect of the group that we can't see.
The Thai study suggests at least 3000 cases per 1 million second doses of Pfizer.
no, it really doesn't. See explanations above. You are suggesting that, not the study.
that's a great Mark Twain quote. I'm guessing he was writing that in a time when there was a lot of tension in the US between science and the religious power embedded in society? People with a strong attachment to their gut sense and belief/convention struggling with rationality.
(not that I think gut sense is wrong/bad, I see the problem nowdays as it being misapplied and misusing science in the process).
If consensus expert medical opinion shifts, from advocating vaccination against COVID-19 to saying these vaccines do more harm than good, then I'll stop lining up for free boosters. Until then I'll be a fast follower of MoH advice on the best ways to avoid complications from COVID-19 infections – that includes boosters.
If Rosemary's continuing crusade here persuades a few Kiwis not to protect themselves, then that's a shame (and shameful, imho), but it's their choice.
Will anti-vaccine activism in the USA reverse global goals?
(1 August 2022) US anti-vaccine activism under the banner of health freedom (also referred to as medical freedom) has produced tragic and even deadly consequences. The loss of life has been massive. Since 1 May 2021, when President Biden’s administration announced that COVID-19 vaccines would become widely and freely available, at least 200,000 unvaccinated Americans have lost their lives potentially needlessly because they refused to have a COVID immunization.
Kind of annoying the way that google bombards with ads after you buy something.
I started to look for a new desk on the weekend to replace a very small desk that I have suffered with with since 2016 – including working at home during lock-downs. I changed jobs last September just as we went into lockdown again (damnit). So I didn't get a chance to try working from home with a better desk.
As it was a remote job, and I already knew I wasn't productive working at home (probably because of desk and lack of deskspace) I moved to local shared workspace, and was the only one there during that lockdown and since.
The cubicle at the workplace worked perfectly after I got a ultra wide screen and a height adjustable tray for it. Turned out that part of the problem was focal length with my progressives to the screen at eye height. Another part was my home screen resolution was just too damn high for the screen size.
However this workplace has been sold – so I have to move. Time for a new desk for home, and for whatever house we buy over the next few months to get more home office space. I'll try a the new desk.
1.8m x 0.8m white because that is exactly the size that works for me. The old desk was about 1.0m x 0.7m and glass with a fixed screen riser.
Standing desk with dual electric motors. Not because I'm likely to spend much time standing – but because I find that I'm pretty sensitive to desk/seat heights to get the correct hand/eye levels.
So on Tuesday I had a look at the one at showroom that I selected off the net. Got them to get a wide custom corner radius so we don't cripple ourselves when we walk into a corner. Paid for it in Wednesday via the net after confirming the custom change.
Since Tuesday I have been bombarded by ads via google for standing desks. At least half from the place I brought it from.
On monday I brought and paid-for a set of yubikey from yubico. Today the bloody net is starting to push similar devices.
What gets me is that the ads start days after I have already made a ddision an dbrought something.
Who do they cater to – people who always dither?
Grrr… I might have to put a ad-blocker in. Or start just blocking google from tracking me.
Anyway in a few weeks I should have half-way decent class desk available if anyone wants one and they live in Auckland and can pick it up….
Most people don’t need to be as functionally finicky about gear as I have to be. I might even throw in a older high end logitech mouse that will happily work on a glass desk if I can find where I stashed it.
Yeah just having the same experience. I've been doing on-line searches for rear wheel bearings for my 1991 Volvo 360 GLT which I am rebuilding. (Have had one since 1984 when I bought one new, Military sales, when serving in Singapore.)
Now inundated by Google with ads for all manner of wheel bearings!
PS. It the car gets used very little just the odd run once a month, down the coast to the beach. It's kept (along with my 1957 R50 BMW motorbike also recently rebuilt) for sentimental reasons. The Beemer has been ridden halfway round the world, starting in Pretoria South Africa, up through Africa, around the continent, then down through the middle east (as you could do in the late 50's – early 60's) India, then shipped to Perth, across the Nullibor to Melbourne and finally to NZ in wellington when I bought it in the mid 60's.
I was looking for a rug a year or so ago and was bombarded with ads for rugs. Still get them now and then. I bought some shoes and a cell blanket online a few months ago and have had blanket coverage of shoes and blankets ever since. Never ending.
Hand with slightly cupped palm down on cutting surface, insert goods between the two, slide in a reasonably large pair of scissors and chop, chop, away using using cupped palm to contain goods. Better than a grinder.
"I refuse to stand by while people are living in cars" Leader of the opposition Jacinda Ardern, 2020
The housing crisis could be fixed with the stroke of a pen.
Pick up your pen Prime Minister, stop standing by, make it illegal for perfectly good homes to be left empty.
Fine the owners to pressure them to sell or rent these homes out. Fix the housing crisis with your pen.
Stop standing by.
Prime Minister Ardern. Why are you doing this?
Are the "Wealth Storing" creeps more important to you, than the suffering of families and children living in cars?
What Auckland’s ‘ghost homes’ could do for the housing crisis
There are about 40,000 'ghost houses' in Auckland. Cat MacLennan asks if a tax on these empty homes could help house homeless people and low-income workers.
….According to the 2018 Census, there are approximately 40,000 empty private homes in Auckland. That is 7.3 percent of the total, up from 6.6 percent in the previous Census in 2013. And Auckland is not the only place in Aotearoa with vacant homes at a time when accommodation is expensive and in short supply…
….a significant number are empty simply because the owners are focused on capital gains. This is now an international phenomenon. In England it is called “buy to leave,” in New York it is described as “warehousing,” while in British Columbia it is known as “wealth storing”.
190,000 empty houses in New Zealand. If only 10% of those were inhabited there would be no housing crisis. FFS this is a PM who had a nuclear moment re climate and we're now importing 30% more coal
"The city only wants to target large companies. All apartments set for the potential take-over belong to owners of multiple housing units. Moreover, the flats have to be empty for more than two years and there may not be a record of recent power use. This should ensure that second homes are not included.
Vacancies are a worldwide issue. In the US, there are 18.9 million vacant homes – compared to 3.5 million homeless. This means there are more than five times as many vacant apartments as there are homeless people. It is the same in Europe: more than 11 million homes lie empty, while 4 million people have no roof over their heads."
Not only do we have homeless unhoused while homes are empty, we have RSE workers housed in appalling conditions, and areas where people don't come to live even though there are desirable jobs because of the lack of housing.
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 ...
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 higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
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. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
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 ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Chartres, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine & Health, University of Sydney shutterstockAhmet Misirligul/Shutterstock You go to the gym, eat healthy and walk as much as possible. You wash your hands and get vaccinated. You control your health. This is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Hendriks, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Curtin University Children and young people may be seeing news headlines about men murdering women or footage of people rallying to call for action. Perhaps they or their friends have even gone to the protests. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
Labour market figures came in softer than the Reserve Bank had forecast, but they won’t be enough to move the needle on interest rates, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Unemployment ...
The campaign will engage the community and encourage submissions on the bill to the New Zealand government by the closing submission deadline of Friday 31st of May 2024 4pm. ...
The paper raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand's political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency plays in that. ...
The Urban Habitat Collective was an attempt to built an innovative new form of apartment building in Wellington. Here’s why it failed, and why the idea could still work, writes co-founder Bronwen Newton. When we started the Urban Habitat Collective in November 2018, we thought we were starting a revolution, ...
Two decades ago this week, a controversial law that attempted to define ownership of the foreshore and seabed prompted a formidable display of outrage and kōtahitanga as 15,000 marched to parliament. Jamie Tahana looks back.‘Hīkoi, hīkoi,” they chanted by the thousands as the biggest Māori march in a generation ...
Why has New Zealand slipped from third to 12th on Quality of Death Indexes over the past decade or so? Hospice New Zealand Chief Executive Wayne Naylor has a list of reasons. “We don’t have a current national strategy – the Government hasn’t renewed our 2001 strategy, so we don’t ...
While women’s sport is exploding in Aotearoa and around the world, you still don’t hear a lot of talk about athletes and their periods, RED-S, breastfeeding and visible panty-lines. SASS (Suze and Sez Sports)Talk isn’t afraid to have that kōrero.LockerRoom founder Suzanne McFadden and Olympian broadcaster Sarah ...
On an unusually hot night in January 2019, a little boy’s lifeless body was found face up in a small town’s sewage oxidation pond. To the police, it was an open and shut case: three-year-old Lachlan Jones had run away from his home in the Southland town of Gore, climbed ...
A Labour Party Member’s Bill aims to plug a culpability gap between manslaughter and health and safety breaches The post New push for corporate killing laws appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Terence O’Brien had the rare and no doubt undesired distinction of rising to one of the most exalted positions in New Zealand diplomacy, then being unceremoniously recalled to Wellington without explanation just when his career was at its zenith. What is perhaps more surprising is that he appears to have ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 2 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter has apologised in Parliament after National accused her of intimidating and attacking one of its ministers in the House. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Prime Minister and state and territory leaders met on Wednesday as the national cabinet to discuss a crisis gripping Australia – the horrific number of women murdered this year. The killings have shocked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Radhika Raghav, Teaching Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Otago Netflix Indian director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known for his big-budget Bollywood production, featuring grand sets, star casts, meticulously choreographed dance sequences and lavish costumes, jewellery and furnishings. ...
Sir Robert devoted his life to disability rights after living in institutions in his younger years, says Kaihautū Tika Hauātanga | Disability Rights Commissioner Prudence Walker. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University Violence against women is not a women’s problem to solve, it is a whole of society problem to solve; and men in particular have to take responsibility. Those were the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Allen, Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of Newcastle Snapshot freddy/ShutterstockPlans to revive an old coal-fired power station using bioenergy are being considered in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Similar plans for the station ...
Responding to the long-awaited release of judges’ special allowances, including free air travel and hotels for spouses, generous sabbaticals, and access to limousines, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Alex Murphy said: “In what world does your employer ...
Analysis - The United States has unveiled plans to boost the weapons trade with Australia and the UK, on the same day that Winston Peters is expected to sketch NZ's position on AUKUS. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University Since Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum in October 2023, diverse commentaries have sought to explain why it failed. But what does an analysis of media ...
Lawyers representing two iwi as well as the Māori Women’s Welfare League on Wednesday asked the Court of Appeal to overturn last week’s High Court decision on the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to summons Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Tribunal is currently investigating the Government’s decision to repeal section 7AA of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will introduce legislation to ban deepfake pornography and provide more funding for the eSafety Commission to pilot age-assurance technologies. The contribution of internet sites to gender-based violence was one major issue ...
Average ordinary time hourly earnings, as measured by the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES), increased 5.2 percent in the year to the March 2024 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. Annual wage cost inflation, as measured by the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dimitrios Salampasis, FinTech Capability Lead | Senior Lecturer, Emerging Technologies and FinTech, Swinburne University of Technology Clem Onojeghuo/Unsplash In the digital era, the job market is increasingly becoming a minefield – demanding and difficult to navigate. According to the Australian Bureau ...
As of the March 2024 quarter, we can now look back on 20 years of data related to youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET), as collected by the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), according to figures released by Stats NZ today. "The ...
Thousands of workers attended public events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch today to celebrate International Workers’ Day (May Day), but union representatives are urging caution and vigilance over the Government’s blatantly "anti-worker" ...
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in the March 2024 quarter, compared with 4.0 percent in the previous quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
The PSA is warning the Government that the sensitive information of New Zealanders held by various agencies will fall into the wrong hands if the latest round of proposed cuts goes ahead. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Talitha Best, Professor of Psychology, CQUniversity Australia Victoria Rodriguez/Unsplash How do sugar rushes work? – W.H, age nine, from Canberra What a terrific question W.H! Let’s explore this, starting with some of the basics. What is sugar? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karinna Saxby, Research Fellow, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne MART PRODUCTION/Pexels Increasing income support could help keep women and children safe according to new work demonstrating strong links between financial insecurity and domestic violence. ...
ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark A Gregory, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, RMIT University The telecommunications industry faces a major shakeup following the release of the post-incident report on last November’s 12-hour Optus outage. Telecommunications companies will have to share more information with customers during future ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Eden Denyer, bookseller at Unity Books Auckland.Weirdest question/request you’ve had on the shop floorA mother came in looking for anything we might have on Alaskan bison as that was her little boy’s ...
NZCTU Economist Craig Renney said new data released by Statistics New Zealand shows the need for Government to act now, with unemployment rising from 3.4% to 4.3%. ...
The outpouring of anger over Maiki Sherman’s hyperbolic presentation of this week’s ‘nightmare’ poll is itself an overreaction, argues Stewart Sowman-Lund. Politicians love nothing more than to pretend they don’t care about polls. This week, deputy prime minister Winston Peters said he didn’t give a “rat’s derriere” about a TVNZ ...
Asia Pacific Report Ngāti Kahungunu in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay region has become the first indigenous Māori iwi (tribe) to sign a resolution calling for a “ceasefire in Palestine”, reports Te Ao Māori News. Reporter Te Aniwaniwa Paterson talked to Te Otāne Huata, who has been organising peace rallies ...
By Dale Luma in Port Moresby “We want grants and not concessional loans,” is the crisp message from Papua New Guinea businesses directly affected by the Black Wednesday looting four months ago. The businesses, which lost millions after the January 10 rioting and looting, say they need grants as part ...
Happy May Day. Join a union. Q: What’s worse than a staff break room where the only place to sit and have a cup of tea is on a teetering stack of old pornography magazines? A: Your boss replacing the magazine stacks with chairs that are “heartily encrusted with ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Former opposition leader Matthew Wale has been announced as the second prime ministerial candidate ahead of the election in Solomon Islands tomorrow. He will face off against former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele, who was announced by the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation ...
We get but one birthday a year – why not make it last as long as possible by scheduling as many meals with friends and family as you can? This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. How do you celebrate your birthday? Do you celebrate at ...
A Koi Tū discussion paper released today proposes sweeping changes to New Zealand’s media industry. The principal’s key author, Gavin Ellis, explains how journalists have a key role to play in making others value their role in society. This is an abridged version of a piece first published on knightlyviews.com ...
The Government’s spending cuts are again targeting support for Māori with proposed reform of the agency charged with advising on Māori wellbeing and development. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Douglas, Honorary Senior Lecturer, UNSW Aviation., UNSW Sydney The history of budget jet airlines in Australia is a long road littered with broken dreams. New entrants have consistently struggled to get a foothold. Low-cost carrier Bonza has just become the industry’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rosalind Dixon, Director, Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, UNSW Sydney Australia is finally having a sustained conversation about violence against women and what we can do about it. It is more than time. Australian women and girls continue to experience ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne stockfour/Shutterstock Preliminary bulk billing data released this week shows a 2.1% rise in bulk billing up to March. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Schulz, Senior Lecturer, University of Adelaide Australia is once again grappling with how we can stop gendered violence in our country. Protests over the weekend show there is enormous community anger over the number of women who are dying and National ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University AnastasiaDudka/Shutterstock What if the government was doing everything it could to stop thieves making off with our money, except the one thing that could really work? That’s how it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Harrington, Senior Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies, University of Canterbury The Conversation It seems to be a time of old favourites. This month our experts have recommended two new seasons – the second season of Alone Australia (although ...
I have posted on this…many times on the Standard. Some might find it hard to believe 21st Century NZ could have "modern day slavery" …be sure it exists.
Brave whistleblowers and true Journalists expose it ! And also be very sure that under a nact govt…it would be modus operandi. (not deemed "slavery" of course)
Anyway, please support our Brothers and Sisters who are being exploited..by these scum. Stand Up !!
I agree, however I see that up to now, the main thrust of the law and pubic anger has been directed at the ‘middle management’ (or lower) so to speak, ie; the people who were directly responsible for organizing the crews etc (the easy low hanging fruit of course) but not one orchard owner or company director has had to face any legal action as far as I know.
Now if I have known that this exploitation of RSE workers has been wide spread for nearly a decade…then you can be absolutely sure that those same orchard owners, and company directors have been fully aware to what is going on their own properties for the past decade as well….so let’s see if any of them get caught up, face any sort of penalty, or even get called out in this new govt review….don’t hold your breath.
Hi Adrian. I do (and have previously) note your concern for our Brother and Sister Workers. I will be following this particular case for sure !
Stand Up !
Here is an example of the self proclaimed defenders of world democracy in action….the very same one that the Liberals class both here in NZ (and on TS) and abroad and their media, offer their support for in terms of it's foreign interventions….
As Afghan People Boil Grass to Eat, U.S. Refuses to Release $7 Billion of Frozen Afghan Assets
It would be very foolish for the US to hand over substantial money to the Afghan Taleban without enforceable conditions. The Taleban want full untagged control of aid funding, and there ain't no donor going to agree to that.
Taliban Want to Control Aid Funds, a Red Line for Donors – WSJ
Prior to the Taleban takeover last year about 80% of Afghanistan's income came from donors.
Afghanistan earthquake: What foreign aid is getting in? – BBC News
But with the intensity of hostility from the Taleban rulers, there are now no good analogues for mounting a substantial state-supporting effort in the absence of any UN security. Who in their right mind would even land a plane there let alone fly in to help. Obviously no women can assist now.
It is also pretty unreasonable to expect any decent UN-led effort would be any more successful than that generated over the last two decades. It is one of the most corrupt, repressive, unstable countries in the world. Nor is there any changing it.
Good luck to the remaining donors.
"It would be very foolish for the US to hand over substantial money to the Afghan Taleban without enforceable conditions. The Taleban want full untagged control of aid funding, and there ain't no donor going to agree to that"…and yet the Western world do exactly that in the Ukraine..recognized without question as the most corrupt country in Europe, but then double standards are standard operating procedure in the US and it's European/Western enablers foreign policy…and by the way it's Taliban.
70% of Western weapons sent to Ukraine don’t reach troops – CBS
https://www.rt.com/russia/560419-ukraine-weapons-lost-cbs/
Completely irrelevant to whether as you claimed the US ought to be giving finance to the Afghan Taleban. Also, terrible source.
"It would be very foolish for the US to hand over substantial money to the Afghan Taleban without enforceable conditions."
Whose f**king money is it anyway? Sure as s**t doesn't belong to the US.
Would you really let people starve on the strange notion that it is good for them? Oh yeah – Ad Allbright !!!!
What to make of this?
Have fascists and racists become more emboldened?
Or has this always gone on in this country un-reported?
More importantly, is it leading up to some sort of atrocity?
The authorities need to take this matter seriously
These offenders need to be named and shamed and charged in a court of law.
You can’t tell me the police and security forces don’t have the means to detect and identify these offenders and the ability to lay charges. If this is not done in this case these petty fascists will become even more emboldened.
We all know what happened when the authorities didn’t take harassment against the Islamic community seriously
I hope to see these people in court very soon
“Have fascists and racists become more emboldened?
Or has this always gone on in this country un-reported?”
It's always gone on, but technology has changed. Good in one sense (the abuse can be recorded as evidence, even insults on the street can be captured on cellphones).
Bad in another: racists can gather online and reinforce each other's bigotry. So yes, emboldened. As demonstrated by the many stories about extremist candidates this year.
Good on him for calling it out, and the messages of support are heartening, at least.
More than 'at least' the outpouring of messages of support for Dr Rawiri Taonui were overwhelming. In my opinion this outflowing of public support is the most significant part of this reported matter.
Which is why I think it imperative that these racists need to be apprehended and named and shamed in public court.
"….racists can gather online and reinforce each other's bigotry"
Observer, what I think you have identified here, is that the online world has enabled minority like minded individuals to gather in virtual spaces where they can reinforce and encourage these views, and where they deludedly can convince each other of the rightness of these views divorced from reality.
Online reinforcement of extremist views bearing little relation to the lived reality and humanity of the targets of their prejudice, or the wider held more tolerant views of community they live in, can allow online extremism to grow and fester, until eventually it breaks out into the real world.
This is why it is imperative that these people need to named and shamed in the real world, so the communities they live and work in and the people they interact with on daily basis can be aware of them, and let them know that their views are unacceptable to the majority of us.
It is good to see that Dr Rawiri Taonui has raised this matter with the police and I see that he has received praise from some commentators for doing so.
It is up to the police now. Because of the power of social media and the serious real world consequences that can arise from the influence of unchecked online hate. When it breaks out into the real world this sort of behavour needs to be nipped in the bud and let know that it is not acceptable.
The public deserve to see a serious police investigation resulting in these people being brought up in court on these offences.
Too long has this sort of thing been ignored and downplayed by the authorities, and as we witnessed in Christchurch this can end in tragic results.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/07/christchurch-shooting-agencies-accused-of-ignoring-years-of-warnings-the-muslim-community-was-in-danger.html
We need a swift police investigation with results. Dr Rawiri Taonui police complaint needs to be taken seriously.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/gender-questioning-kids-being-let-down
"Lack of local media reporting on significant internation developments on child and youth gender treatment is leaving NZ families to make life-changing decisions in an information vacuum"
This article is about the almost complete black out in media coverage on the closure of the Tavistock and the legal action 1000 families are taking against the gender identity clinic.
This had been extremely hard for some of us trying to blow the whistle on this and being smeared by others (not on this site ) for being anti trans and terfs etc.
I have to say a huge thank you to the Standard and all who work so hard on it. You have allowed us a space to raise concerns when we were shut down in almost every avenue we tried to raise these issues.
All we get is the local Labour MP tweeting her support for the people protesting against the recent therapists (CATA) conference in Nelson because they dared to hear from people who were up to date with the work in this area.
You will probably be aware that the debate in Rugby is coming to a quick head, with the different regulations between Australian and UK players now clear.
Rugby 2022: Rugby Australia stance on transgender players to remain (smh.com.au)
Also this month, there was a conference in Ottawa in which this developing set of regulations was discussed
Rugby: Olympic champion Ellia Green finds liberation in transition – NZ Herald
Given how slowly many other spheres of sporting rule change, this is actually a pretty quick response that is well on its way to global stabilisation.
https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-04-17-guam-coach-female-players-injured-trans-athlete.html#
Thanks Ad. I have posted so many times Dr Ross Tucker a sports scientist take on treansgender women in sport, He says the advantage is significant and that trans women playing in women's rugby will cause more injuries (see the lint about the Guam women).
More from the article I linked above
When talking about the MOH webiste info on blockers "Blockers are safe and fully reversible….."
"The rassuring statment now seems oddly out of step with the hesitancy being expressed internationally. Hesitancy which has seen a number of internationally renowned gender medicine clinics end the use of these drugs for under 18s within the last few years"
Bookmarking for later,
https://twitter.com/FrancescoNicoli/status/1559815190815903746
There have been quite a few people poking holes in the whole system of recent times. Issues around commercialization of journals among other things. Fake and ai generated nonsense papers have been finding there way into reputable journals for some time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scholarly_publishing_stings
https://www.science.org/content/article/two-elite-medical-journals-retract-coronavirus-papers-over-data-integrity-questions
10/10 for Andrea Vance:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/129598951/the-covid19-conspiracy-theorists-targeting-northlands-local-elections
Now it is up to all her fellow journalists to do the hard yards and name the rest of them. Maybe some have started. I hope so.
I hope somebody vets the Auckland council/local board candidates. Otherwise given the threat of stealth infiltration by VFF and the like I sadly won't be voting for any "independent" candidates this year unless I am personally familiar with them. It's not worth the risk – even one of these people out to make New Zealand "ungovernable" being elected would be one too many.
Yep, these journalists are on a righteous mission to seek out these terrible folk who are spreading disinformation regarding the safety of vaccines. Pleased to see Andrea Vance adding her name to the stable of fearless truthseekers.
A pity about Paula though. Someone remembered this piece she did back in the day when it was (obviously) ok to question the safety of a vaccine and (OMG!!!) to give oxygen to those conspiracy theorists who claim that Gardasil caused serious adverse effects…including deaths.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2015/11/cause-or-coincidence-teen-dies-after-gardasil-vaccine.html
It is going to be very interesting how this Fearless Journalist reconciles her work today with her work back then.
But wage increases will cause inflation! /s
https://twitter.com/labourcartel/status/1560026230988034049
Profit is unpaid wages/taxes.
Can I please use your comment in a post?
Absolutely!
😎 thanks!
Aye – it's about who has pricing power in the market, and who doesn't. So it's essentially a political matter – both when inflation is imported and when imported inflation threatens to kick of a domestic wage-price spiral. Who escapes the pain and who cops it – a sh*t fight where the powerful win..
“Profit is unpaid wages/taxes.“
Profit is a lot of things. It is part of what funds future growth, sustains businesses through recessions and market changes, rewards investors who bear the greatest risk.
Did you bother to look at why the Mercury profit had risen so much?
It was caused by a one-off gain of a net $367m from the sale of Tilt renewables. This the profit, at $469m was $328m more than the previous year. However without the one-off sale it would have been less than the previous year wouldn't it?
It is all in their annual report if you had gone to the trouble of looking at it.
https://indd.adobe.com/view/3d4b71af-e25a-4f7b-9860-9478b32541dc
Wait, what?
Facts?
Don't tell them the facts. That will upset them. No, no, no, they are excessive profits.
Well well well…….
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2208/S00245/authority-imposes-interim-restrictions-on-very-large-electricity-contracts.htm
So every household in New Zealand has been paying an extra $200 a year for Comalco's sweetheart deal since – well a bloody long time I guess. Of course the unstated is that every retailer, farmer, tradesman, manufacturer have also been paying more. How much do those Comalco jobs cost everyone in total? I'm picking "way too much" as my answer.
My understanding is that Comalco's last bite of the cherry was to gain enormous reductions in it's transmission charges – That will also be everyone in New Zealand subsidising them for that. FFS can we please let them dam smelter die to help the whole of New Zealand
Complete madness.
If Tiwai had closed you would not have had the increased investment in generation in the NI,which reduces transmission losses and cost.Transmission costs have increased due to new capacity to allow for the possible closure of Tiwai.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/power-bill-changes-bring-fairness-charges
Even Tiwais closure would not mean cheaper electricity as the ERA wanted the removal of low user charges (over half of NZ) so a lot of fat cats can have EV.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/power-bill-changes-bring-fairness-charges
Thailand. Covid deaths … 455/million.
New Zealand Covid deaths… 509/million
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
New Zealand Ministry of Health advice on Covid vaccination….
Recommended for children over 5 and pregnant women etc etc
https://www.health.govt.nz/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-vaccines
Bangkok Hospital (Thailand) advice on Covid Vaccination…
COVID-19 vaccine is NOT recommended in:
https://www.bangkokhospital.com/en/content/symptoms-to-know-after-getting-the-covid-19-vaccine
And I'll pop this up again…since it is such an important piece of work.
https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202208.0151/v1
Cardiovascular Effects of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in Adolescents
Cardiovascular effects were found in 29.24% of patients, ranging from tachycardia, palpitation, and myopericarditis. Myopericarditis was confirmed in one patient after vaccination. Two patients had suspected pericarditis and four patients had suspected subclinical myocarditis. Conclusion: Cardiovascular effects in adolescents after BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccination included tachycardia, palpitation, and myocarditis. The clinical presentation of myopericarditis after vaccination was usually mild, with all cases fully recovering within 14 days. Hence, adolescents receiving mRNA vaccines should be monitored for side effects.
The comments make for an interesting read.
My personal confidence that Thailand's Covid deaths are understated = 100%
My personal confidence that Thailand's age demographics are a shit load different to New Zealand's and that they have far lower % of elderly and the health compromised = 100%
My personal confidence that you will continue flogging this dead horse for a very long time = 99%
Evidence to support your claims? Zero.
You theory is based on what? New Zealand/Western superiority? Racism?
And you can easily look up the demographics…no need to guess…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_New_Zealand
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Thailand
Covid Deaths: NZ 509/m UK 2711/m USA 3221/m
IMHO Barfly may be right about Thailand understating its deaths. Third world countries tend not to have the resources to accurately report such things.
A few years ago a friend was found face down in a Thai marina. No investigation, no postmortem. The death certificate issued the day he was found offered no insight into how, when or why other than he drowned, was signed by the marina plod.
Wow….well that graphically says it all.
NZ 2018 715,200 people aged 65+ years (15.2% of the population).
https://www.ehinz.ac.nz/indicators/population-vulnerability/age-profile/
Thailand 2016 11% of the Thai population are 65 years or older.
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/thailand/publication/thailand-economic-monitor-june-2016-aging-society-and-economy
I would hazard a guess that the 4.2% difference between NZ and Thailand would include a longer surviving, more at risk population in New Zealand that is more likely to die of covid-related illness.
According to Rosemary's Demographics.
Thailand 60 + is 17% of the pop
NZ 65+ is 14.9%of the pop
Not fully like with like, but Thailand's population is percentage points fewer at the aged end.
The tropics help, too. As would well ventilated homes, community activities conducted outside, plant based diets and obesity rates a third of ours.
more vitamin D from sun exposure, different hemispheres and thus seasons, timing of covid waves etc probably factor in as well.
the limiting factor here seems to be a lack of understanding of what variables are and role they play, and that correlation doesn't equal causation (nor does stacking facts next to each other inherently have meaning).
to wit, what are the potential reasons for this?
https://twitter.com/UberFacts/status/1555820218307551233
Because men are taller?
More likely to be outside in a thunderstorm?
Just kidding!
I assume more likely to take risks like swimming in a thunder storm. Less likely to be cautious.
Point was there will be various potential reasons and we can’t necessarily know just because of the data in front of us (but I like your guesses, lol, we should consider all the possibilities. Taller seems less likely to be a factor, being outside more more likely, and so on).
Males taking their disputes to the highest available authority.
lol
Nicely deflected there weka.
Anything to say about the differing advice about who should get the Covid vax?
Anything to say about the 1 in 300 rate of myocarditis from the Pfizer shot for 11-18 year olds in the study?
lol. Like a heart attack.
Thanks again for yr efforts, Rosemary.
I am reminded that it is politically unwise to be correct too soon.
Interesting that facts can seemingly countered with reckons and anecdotes when the righteous do it.
What facts exactly? As far as I can't tell Rosemary is speculating about something, but won't say directly what she means. Maybe you could explain it to me? Is she saying that an extra 54/million people die of covid because of the differences in vaccine policy? What's the connection? Where's the actual evidence?
What was your point though? I really wish you would state the up front and directly.
Because here's what I saw you say,
Inference being that there is a connection. You don't say what the connection is. Which is why I pointed out the problem of not understanding evidence, and making assumptions about the proximity of data.
where did you get the 1 in 300 rate from? The number 300 doesn't appear in your link. If you copy and paste the relevant bit and explain your thinking, I will have something to say. As it is, I don't know what you are on about
Thailand and NZ have very similar 'death from Covid' rates, and very different 'who should get the vaccine' advice.
If you read the paper. there was 301 subject received their second shot of Pfizer. There subjects baseline heart readings were ascertained beforehand.
Over 29% showed measurable heart issues…some worryingly sub-clinical.
1 of the 301 was diagnosed with myocarditis.
I was rounding weka…rounding.
thanks for explaining.
I'm guessing you are trying to say that different vax practice should lead to more difference in death rates? Why?
It's already been outlined that the reasons for different rates in different countries comes from a range of variables. You can't just pick one and expect it to be meaningful.
I'd really encourage you to do a basic tutorial on how medical/health research and reporting works, the bit about variables and how/why they are 'controlled' for in particular. I'm not a scientist, and I don't have a huge knowledge in this area, but the basics go a long way.
I'm not being patronising there, I think you have some pertinent perspectives on the pandemic response, and like many others in the anti-response section of society, the lack of research/science literacy leads to extrapolating from science and data to poor analysis and arguments.
Sure, but I'm not going to read every paper someone posts online. The onus is on the person making the argument to make an actual argument (and use links/quotes to back that up).
@ weka
Thanks for the excellent response. Two things: it’s highly misleading to try link overall population-wide reported death rates to the incidence of myocarditis in a small age-selected group. In NZ such link has not been established nor confirmed (yet).
https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/COVID-19/safety-report-44.asp
Secondly, rounding from 301 to 300 is a red herring. Rosemary’s reckon is that this number is so much higher than other reported ones for the incidence of myocarditis.
Yes, depending on where you look and what number you pick it would indeed suggest that reported mortality rates are fairly similar. However, this can be very misleading if the ways of reporting are very different. Therefore, more objective observers tend to use excess death or excess death rates for comparisons. I’m sure that you can find it, if you want to 😉
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-03-08-2022/#comment-1903615
Here's my lay person opinion about the relevance of
300 seems to me to be quite a small sample. If the same population was studied at say 5,000 people, we might find that the 1 in 300 rate drops. In the abstract the conclusion is that teens have these particular cardiac events post-vax, and teens getting vaxed should be monitored for side effects.
You could ask people with better medical science literacy than me what a useful study number would be (I made up the 5,000).
They're not claiming that their research shows 1 in 300 teens get pericarditis. You are making that claim and the evidence you have presented doesn't support that. Best we can say is that in this small study 1 of the 300 teens got pericarditis, and we can ask should there be follow up studies to see if this is a valid %?
The other thing is that we can't see from the abstract how they controlled for variables. Once the paper is printed, people with sufficient medical science literacy will read the paper and critique whether its methodology is sound. That is a crucial part of medical research, examination of methodology.
beyond that, as you probably know, my position on covid vaccination is that vaccinations come at a cost to some individuals but protect populations. The validity of that approach depends on how many individual people it's ok to harm in the process of protecting the whole population.
I also think that one of the ways we are failing is by minimising vaccine harm and thus failing to adequately support the people who end up with health problems.
On the other side, we are doing pretty much the same with adverse reactions to covid infection, including long covid.
I see both sides dismissing harm. Pro-vax minimise vax harm. the 'covid's not so bad' side minimise the disability created by covid infections. Neither is helping the people being harmed by those positions.
Further, the people arguing against covid vax generally have poor science literacy and are undermining their own arguments by this. Wakefield and the subsequent anti-vax movement have done a massive amount of damage to the pre-anti-vax movements that sought to promote health prevention via other means. We now have a chasm between people who have faith in vaccines and people who have faith in holistic medicine, when we should be working together.
[deleted – I will restore your comment when you have complied with the moderation request. This is costing me time, so if you keep this up I will simply move you to the Black List. I have no time and am not in the mood for your games – Incognito]
Mod note
What ‘heart attacks’?????
Have you bothered to look at excess mortality in Thailand during the pandemic and compared this to NZ? You might be in for a surprise, one that might not suit your biased narrative.
MOH is not going to change anything based on or because of this ‘study’.
What ‘heart attacks’?????
Yep. What's a little heart damage for teenagers, eh? They'll get over it, eh?
Of course our Ministry of Health will not change their advice on this prospective study, but the Danish Ministry of Health has changed their Covid vaccine advice.
With quite strict limits on who is allowed to have the shots.
You can find the Danish Ministry site through here… https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-coronavirus-denmark-idUSL1N2ZS0J8 (No doubt you will find this site more credible than, say, this link https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4072489 )
….which is Christine Stabell-Benns 'study' from May.
Video here, again, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_nKoybyMGg ….and its interesting to note that the Danish Health Ministry seems to have largely followed her advice and made it very difficult for under 18 year olds to get the Pfizer shot…because the risk of adverse effects outweigh the benefits.
I presume you are an epidemiologist? A public health expert? A medical doctor? A vaccinologist? A medical statistician?
Any qualification or hands-on experience that makes your reckons more credible than the actual professionals?
[You insinuated that there were vaccine-induced heart attacks reported in that study that you linked that is not (yet) peer-reviewed. You back it up and show where exactly this is mentioned. You’re in Pre-Mod until you’ve provided this particular piece of information because I’ve no inclination chasing you down your usual rabbit holes – Incognito]
Mod note
Where did I 'insinuate' that there were vaccine induced heart attacks?
I referenced a common saying…
https://www.quora.com/Where-did-the-phrase-Im-as-serious-as-a-heart-attack-come-from-And-what-does-it-really-mean
…you can take your pick from the definitions offered.
Any happening that causes measurable changes in a young person's baseline indicators of heart health is very, very serious.
Rather than address the study…it is an actual study Incognito, not the idle reckons of some anonymous denizen of the internet…commentors simply mock, joke and trivialize.
Referencing Christine Stabell-Benn and the Danish Ministry of Health indicates a slide down a rabbit hole?
Dear Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the Goddess…please let it not be such as yourself setting policy for our Ministry of Health.
Hint. Denmark, and Thailand, change their advice and policies on Covid vaccinations according to the latest available data.
[Nice deflection 🙂
And
One more chance for you to put up the support for your misleading and exaggerated comments, from the study you linked to; I have no time today to play your games – Incognito]
Mod note
so this is a really good example of what I was just talking about regarding medical science literacy. I agree with Incognito that the paper doesn't mention heart attacks at all.
It says,
And peri/myocarditis.
None of those are a heart attack.
I don't know if you know this and were using hyperbole. Or if you don't in fact know what a heart attack is. Either way, it's exactly this kind of mistake that undermines the vax concerned argument. Science people and public health people, and those that have faith in them, (the ones that need to be convinced) will never take such arguments seriously when they make such fundamental mistakes.
Here,
I can see how it could be read both ways, but the onus is on you to communicate effectively and clarify.
FWIW, you can't provide the evidence that Incognito is asking for, because it's not there, so just take responsibility for the miscommunication and acknowledge that no heart attacks happened in that study and we can move on.
Let me assure you Rosemary, I was in no way making light of heart attacks. A careful reading of 10.1.1.3.2 will show I was in fact making light of being struck by lightning.
Rosemary.
What is the rate of myocarditis in young people who havn't had a covid shot?
What is the rate of myocarditis in young people who havn't had a covid shot and got covid?
KJT.
Hard to get that information…there are a couple of studies from Israel that counted emergency heart issues incidents before the vaccine roll out and after and found a considerably higher number in the after group.
The Newsroom article I linked to…https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/some-perspective-on-vaccine-side-effects
…has a handy wee chart that might at least tell you what the myocarditis rate due to covid rate they reckoned… 455 per million infections in the 12-17 age group.
The Thai study suggests at least 3000 cases per 1 million second doses of Pfizer.
A bit of a difference.
Exactly! Yet, you’re more than happy & willing to extrapolate your reckons to conclusions without having the info nor the skills & expertise to interpret that info. Any scientist knows that extrapolating (usually in a simplistic uninformed unconditional linear fashion) from a small sample (e.g. a small trial) to a much larger one (e.g. a whole population) is nothing more than a gamble, a stab in the dark and the extrapolated number has such an enormous error (aka uncertainty) that it is essentially meaningless. The way to mitigate this is to have a robust mechanistic model that is validated (aka calibrated), which can be used to make predictions & extrapolations with more acceptable (aka realistic and meaningful) confidence intervals. What you and other amateurs tend to do is essentially hand waving (and barking up wrong trees).
To illustrate the pitfalls of extrapolation:
Mark Twain – Life on the Mississippi
What that tells us is that emergency heart issues increased later in the pandemic. It doesn't tell us why. eg vax, covid, stress, or some other aspect of the group that we can't see.
no, it really doesn't. See explanations above. You are suggesting that, not the study.
that's a great Mark Twain quote. I'm guessing he was writing that in a time when there was a lot of tension in the US between science and the religious power embedded in society? People with a strong attachment to their gut sense and belief/convention struggling with rationality.
(not that I think gut sense is wrong/bad, I see the problem nowdays as it being misapplied and misusing science in the process).
It's obvious: men have more iron in their blood, because they don't lose it through menstruation.
These things are not difficult…
It's because many men have a bolt spot.
😂
Now you know how we get them – respect!
Another reason is that many men wear tin foil hats.
If consensus expert medical opinion shifts, from advocating vaccination against COVID-19 to saying these vaccines do more harm than good, then I'll stop lining up for free boosters. Until then I'll be a fast follower of MoH advice on the best ways to avoid complications from COVID-19 infections – that includes boosters.
If Rosemary's continuing crusade here persuades a few Kiwis not to protect themselves, then that's a shame (and shameful, imho), but it's their choice.
She ought to have had the bat phone with her but hey, I'd be playing up too if I were PM and had Russia camped on the back doorstep.
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1560018591688302595
This is darkly comic, I guess … 2022 in headlines:
"Newshub Live – Emergency Minister Kieran McAnulty gives flooding update, also expected to be quizzed on bullying claims"
"So Minister, apart from all the poor people losing their homes and hope, communities feeling crushed, what about the real news?"
Some dude from Hamilton never won battle of the bands despite being just the cleverest and now everyone, just everyone knows who he is! Rockn rolla!
Kind of annoying the way that google bombards with ads after you buy something.
I started to look for a new desk on the weekend to replace a very small desk that I have suffered with with since 2016 – including working at home during lock-downs. I changed jobs last September just as we went into lockdown again (damnit). So I didn't get a chance to try working from home with a better desk.
As it was a remote job, and I already knew I wasn't productive working at home (probably because of desk and lack of deskspace) I moved to local shared workspace, and was the only one there during that lockdown and since.
The cubicle at the workplace worked perfectly after I got a ultra wide screen and a height adjustable tray for it. Turned out that part of the problem was focal length with my progressives to the screen at eye height. Another part was my home screen resolution was just too damn high for the screen size.
However this workplace has been sold – so I have to move. Time for a new desk for home, and for whatever house we buy over the next few months to get more home office space. I'll try a the new desk.
1.8m x 0.8m white because that is exactly the size that works for me. The old desk was about 1.0m x 0.7m and glass with a fixed screen riser.
Standing desk with dual electric motors. Not because I'm likely to spend much time standing – but because I find that I'm pretty sensitive to desk/seat heights to get the correct hand/eye levels.
So on Tuesday I had a look at the one at showroom that I selected off the net. Got them to get a wide custom corner radius so we don't cripple ourselves when we walk into a corner. Paid for it in Wednesday via the net after confirming the custom change.
Since Tuesday I have been bombarded by ads via google for standing desks. At least half from the place I brought it from.
On monday I brought and paid-for a set of yubikey from yubico. Today the bloody net is starting to push similar devices.
What gets me is that the ads start days after I have already made a ddision an dbrought something.
Who do they cater to – people who always dither?
Grrr… I might have to put a ad-blocker in. Or start just blocking google from tracking me.
Anyway in a few weeks I should have half-way decent class desk available if anyone wants one and they live in Auckland and can pick it up….
Most people don’t need to be as functionally finicky about gear as I have to be. I might even throw in a older high end logitech mouse that will happily work on a glass desk if I can find where I stashed it.
Yeah just having the same experience. I've been doing on-line searches for rear wheel bearings for my 1991 Volvo 360 GLT which I am rebuilding. (Have had one since 1984 when I bought one new, Military sales, when serving in Singapore.)
Now inundated by Google with ads for all manner of wheel bearings!
PS. It the car gets used very little just the odd run once a month, down the coast to the beach. It's kept (along with my 1957 R50 BMW motorbike also recently rebuilt) for sentimental reasons. The Beemer has been ridden halfway round the world, starting in Pretoria South Africa, up through Africa, around the continent, then down through the middle east (as you could do in the late 50's – early 60's) India, then shipped to Perth, across the Nullibor to Melbourne and finally to NZ in wellington when I bought it in the mid 60's.
I hate to think what it'd be like if I started looking other furniture!
Time to don a VPN before browsing for goods and a custom identity. Or even better spoofing one.Who do I dislike….
😈
I was looking for a rug a year or so ago and was bombarded with ads for rugs. Still get them now and then. I bought some shoes and a cell blanket online a few months ago and have had blanket coverage of shoes and blankets ever since. Never ending.
Dr Martens and sheepskin boots for me lol
With it being a great harvest this season, I searched for a grinder to make vaping the medicinal buds easier.
I was surprised to find there are plenty of single men in my area who apparently want to f%#k me…
Nutri
Bullet
Hand with slightly cupped palm down on cutting surface, insert goods between the two, slide in a reasonably large pair of scissors and chop, chop, away using using cupped palm to contain goods. Better than a grinder.
So what do you do when the crop is excessive – does it or the oil freeze?
Search for the medicinal properties of the active ingredients on the net? It would probably be a more interesting read.
I keep away from freezing, well cured, low light and little oxygen. Agee jars are ideal.
"I
refuse tostand by while people are living in cars" Leader of the opposition Jacinda Ardern, 2020The housing crisis could be fixed with the stroke of a pen.
Pick up your pen Prime Minister, stop standing by, make it illegal for perfectly good homes to be left empty.
Fine the owners to pressure them to sell or rent these homes out. Fix the housing crisis with your pen.
Stop standing by.
Prime Minister Ardern. Why are you doing this?
Are the "Wealth Storing" creeps more important to you, than the suffering of families and children living in cars?
People Living In Cars Has Quadrupled Under Labour
https://community.scoop.co.nz/2022/07/people-living-in-cars-has-quadrupled-under-labour-2/
190,000 empty houses in New Zealand. If only 10% of those were inhabited there would be no housing crisis. FFS this is a PM who had a nuclear moment re climate and we're now importing 30% more coal
Like this?
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2007/S00143/barcelona-warns-companies-rent-out-your-empty-apartments-or-we-will-take-them-over.htm
"The city only wants to target large companies. All apartments set for the potential take-over belong to owners of multiple housing units. Moreover, the flats have to be empty for more than two years and there may not be a record of recent power use. This should ensure that second homes are not included.
Vacancies are a worldwide issue. In the US, there are 18.9 million vacant homes – compared to 3.5 million homeless. This means there are more than five times as many vacant apartments as there are homeless people. It is the same in Europe: more than 11 million homes lie empty, while 4 million people have no roof over their heads."
Not only do we have homeless unhoused while homes are empty, we have RSE workers housed in appalling conditions, and areas where people don't come to live even though there are desirable jobs because of the lack of housing.