Simon Bridges ,Michael Woodhouse. Are being Total Dicks.Politicing While we are facing a National crisis.Stay at home and Stop being a Dick Simon.Michael Woodhouse Stop taking cheap shots which haven't got any Scientific evidence or are pure lies.Outhouse claimed the 130 health workers infected were because of lack of PPE and proper safety in our hospitals.Fact Healthcare workers returning from overseas were infected passing Covid onto other workers before our borders were closed.Outhouse is a lying little S*?t
Most NZr are not silly ,should do a like poll on Bridges Woodhouse Hoskings not one of them would make 10%, My wife is from a blue family of 18, one of them put on facebook blue is not my favorite colour, almost all the family including children clicked Like, the three of them are going to come out of this so very disliked
dont forget about some certain mp's shoving up billboards all around wellington and the hutt right before lockdown stating how labour have done such a good job with covid19.
(It also makes me smile with the recollection of Stark, Ben Elton's comic novel about the reality of the company in the Stark consortium escape spaceship for those who brought about the end of the world).
Rising S Co. has planted about 10 private bunkers in New Zealand over the past several years. The average cost is $3 million for a shelter weighing about 150 tons, but it can easily go as high as $8 million with additional features like luxury bathrooms, game rooms, shooting ranges, gyms, theatres and surgical beds.
Anyone know if the resource consents on those will be in the public domain? eg the one in Canterbury that can house 300 people.
Quite possibly unconsented. If you're trying to hide from the zombie apocalypse, you wouldn't want the zombies to be able to just look up where you're hiding.
Thought it was more like negative 3 per barrel. Maybe a different benchmark.
The one I read was the calculated benchmark price for crude oil delivered to some town in Ohio in June.
They’re acutely short of oil storage space in the US. They’re rolling out old badges and storing oil in those because they have no tanks, and they’re starting to run out of those. Soon it will be cheaper to store oil in oil tankers parked offshore than it is to land it.
Meanwhile Brent Crude is about to go under USD30 / Barrel.
Personally I was suspicious of two VLCC oil tankers, from the same company, that collided in clear weather years ago, when the charter rates fell through the floor.
It will be a giggle in the rooms of Auckland ZB, Herald, Bridges, Paula, and the Kauri girl.
There are a couple of other serious problems that ought to get attention, however.
The major one is the ongoing violence of degraded dirty men who go about Killing and Violating their wives. They also force their evil on the children of the family.
The numbers attached to male violence are way way beyond the Current Coronova Virus.
However, there is a further treachery in Aotearoa. It is carried out by the Land Lord. The Land Lord makes the Virus look like a Xmas treat.
We must get rid of all Violent Men – on long long, penalties.
We also, must come together and refuse to pay Taxes on Housing until the Government itself pays for Just and Fair Housing.
As far as I can tell, all impetus to do anything has bounced off the heads of Jacinda et al. So many interesting alternatives on how to run things, all offered in vain. Opportunity lost. Although, was it really an opportunity if there was no intention to act? For a long time our governments have been mediocre middle management of the status quo. If reinfection rates begin again, there'll be no reason to do anything but stand by and console the bereaved – something Ardern is good at… "sympathising". "A population winnowing virus", or something like that. Nothing to really need a change for. Apparently we can afford to lose thousands, and blame them for not protecting themselves.
[lprent: Please try to stick to one handle, like the one you were using yesterday. I’ll let this one through. But be advised that shifting handles tends to be viewed by me as a pointer to a troll. I really don’t like trolls and I tend to express that strongly. Please read our policy and learn not to attract my moderating attention. ]
The worst is yet to come says the Director General of the WHO.
Hopefully we will be spared because of the brilliant management of the crisis thus far by the government and the health professional working in conjunction with on another.
There are just four nations in the world that look like they are going to crush the curve (excluding China who nobody trusts), New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan and South Korea. This is a remarkable alignment for us.
The Koreans in particular are technically minded, have a top-notch health care system, they are culturally wired for fast responses, their first instinct isn't to lie about everything, and they believe in math. They have provided the world with the best and most holistic information about this virus. I've been treating their dataset as the gold standard. This is a country with it's act together; we need partners like them to keep our technology systems running.
Taiwan is another nation in a similar position. While there is obvious political threats with the CCP poised to invade as soon as it thinks the world is not looking, the Taiwanese are an example of what China could and should have been if the CCP thugs were not running the mainland as a giant slave labour camp.
Australia is also responding well and is a fabulous supplier of raw materials with the potential for almost total energy independence if it wants to go there. It's already talking about rebooting local manufacturing as part of it's recovery efforts.
Together with NZ's superb agricultural exports (and as I write this I'm conscious that sustainable and regenerative techniques should be a core element of a high quality strategy) these four nations could readily form a new regional alliance. All four have competent and compatible governance, all four have high trust societies, and all four bring specific unique attributes to the trade table.
Yes the NZ economy has been hit hard by this event, but we are not on our own. We have some great strategic partners to reach out to who are highly compatible with us. Our relationship with China will remain significant, but no-one wants to be so dependent on them ever again.
We have a high-trust society with Australia? Like the kid who meets this guy who says come home with me and see my collection of Barbie dolls, train set, etchings.
I think you've misread a tad … I wasn't referring so much to the trust relationship between these four countries, as within their own societies.
Yes NZ and Australia have some significant political difficulties that we should be looking to resolve, but in every other social and economic respect they are both relatively high trust societies compared to many other nations.
I seem to read a lot here by various commenters about "sustainable and regenerative farming". The term is never explained, it is just used. I come from a farming background and have relatives who still farm, so I have a reasonable knowledge on current farming practises, with dairy and also sheep and beef. Not that I want to actually farm. After all I left the farming life.
What is different about "sustainable and regenerative" farming to the current form of NZ farming. Is it basically the same, though with a few tweaks? Or is it intended to signal a radical change in NZ farming? I suspect the latter, given who uses these references. And if so, how do those advocating this see that farming should change.
I'll probably be well advised to defer to people like weka and Paul G who've paid a lot more attention to this topic than I have for specific examples.
Having said that, as a matter of strong principle, I believe agriculture is one of the primary responsibilities of government. Farmers themselves are constrained by the need to stay in business this month, this year. While many do take a long-term view of their soil management, it is government that needs to take a long-term view of the whole picture. In this NZ already does pretty well, we always have.
But we do consistently fall short in some aspects; and in this there are more than a few alternative farmers who have consistently demonstrated that it's possible to farm productively with fewer inputs, less intensive stocking, better nutrient management, and improved animal welfare.
Personally I'm no fan of 'radical changes'. I don't think that's either achievable or even desirable to impose destabilising disruption. But if we took a more patient multi-decadal approach there are many 'tweaks' that we could implement, that as a whole would add up to something quite transformative over time.
Very different to the current, short term, model of "high input" agriculture.
Which relies on imported feed, fertiliser and depletion of soils and other resources, to make a short term gain.
I come from farming families too. Many wouldn't have been impressed with the current industrial farming.
There were some who took the view, "the only good tree is one that has been pruned to the ground" but most considered looking after the farm, soil and waterways, for the future, was part of farming.
A couple, in particular, were very proud that on their farms, they still had native stream life, unlike many other countries.
They would be horrified at the current, Federated Farmers, attitude.
I've been following with my son, he's been studying, farm management.
Even incremental improvements, in things like crop, animal rotation, once a day instead of twice daily milking, natural fertilisers, and preventing nitrates being lost to waterways, can improve both the environment, and farm efficiency.
Like wise the Canterbury Dairy farm and the Maniototo sheep farm. All high light that Traditional industrial farming is not as profitable ,sustainable nor is it kind to animals.
[Another typo in your user handle. Please be more careful!]
The most recent episode of Country Calendar provides a reasonably accessible example. Blurb:
Faced with falling profits, the owner of a big Central Otago station makes a radical move into regenerative agriculture and finds the profits soon flow.
Their was a reg a neg farmer on country calendar Sunday. (Usually they replay it early the next weekend) ,doing some interesting stuff.
Of course he was one of those high energy clever people so for it to catch on the government would need to capture his learnings and bottle it for easy digestion of the the rest of us.
We are in a hard left nationalist environment now. It beggars belief that a member of the neoliberal elite has held such a position for so long. A Galloway or Rachel Stewart type personality would provide the much needed journalistic rigour and intensity to reignite the show in my opinion.
Cripes, Kathryn has so much knowledge in her head, can handle a wide range of expertise, has a pleasant manner, and maintains her interest and energy in the frustrating world we create – don't diss her for sounding frazzled as she broadcasts from her bathroom or wherever. My feeling is that her questions become too long as she makes a short scenario around the problem or situation she is wanting to 'elucidate'.
Now Lisa Owen at the end of the day has apparently been employed to sound frazzled, high pitched, fast talking and sounds like a middle-class female exasperated with the world, with an upward whine to much of her pronouncements. What a turn-off.
Grey: Agree with you totally re Lisa Owen. A bit grating-she needs to take chill pill.
I wasn't dissing Ryan….I just think that show can be stressful where a whole series of interviews are done in a row on important topics…..but we need a show that does all of those interviews. I don't think it is just because we are in lock-down. It started before this.
My solution is two presenters….a bit more variation and a different character. Maybe a rotating second presenter.
Ryan has sounded tired and has not been laughing/getting laughs from the Friday comedians.
You're right Bearded Git I could imagine she is tired, you might be tempted to take a perk-up pill as artistic performers have often done. She might like that idea of a rotating second presenter but I would be afraid they would put on Jim Mora or the like. Someone who would be subtly, or not so, putting the self-satisfied, right wing approach which gives me such a pain I turn off, which negates the value of the public broadcaster to me.
If someone else was put on they would need to be compatible and who knows what this cardboard Radionz management would choose? Would we get a whole lot of amusing chatter? A little bit of that is good, but soon there is a pall of death to an enjoyable and informative show with too much shallow hah hah aren't we smart stuff.
Matthew Hooton was written about the bureaucratic mandarins hampering the government’s ability to move fast, especially at the moment – he also suggested that some “aren't happy taking orders from 30-somethings of any gender.”
I have been reading of this problem with the government’s departments for some time. If this is the case, once the Covid situation is under control I hope heads will roll and our fresh new government will have a fresh new team to work with.
Call it the school of hard knocks or the university of life. The world has changed so much and people cannot continue to carry on as if there is no pandemic.
Just look at what has happened with the price of oil.
In time the restraints which Covid-19 is causing, some solutions will be found.
“ had Monday's health information been more favourable – or Ardern wanted to take a risk – it was clear the bureaucracy simply wasn't ready for a move to level 3 this Wednesday night anyway.
Like all prime ministers, Ardern relies on the same mediocre and incestuous Wellington bureaucracy that delivered her the KiwiBuild fiasco, worsening child poverty and last year's comedic Budget "hack".
Ministry of Health boss Ashley Bloomfield has been praised for his handling of Covid-19. But, last year, even his ministry was responsible for the measles vaccine crisis, seemed unable to competently allocate the $1.9 billion in mental health funding from last year's budget, and has now been unable to tell a believable story on the availability of PPE to frontline health staff.
Now – despite having over a month to get organised – his ministry has failed to implement the testing and tracking systems necessary for a move to level 3. Talk of a contact-tracing app remains just that. The Beehive even claims it had to push the health authorities to conduct the random population testing required to see how widespread asymptomatic and undiagnosed Covid-19 is in the community.
Sexism among senior officials may explain some of Ardern's inability to achieve purchase over the bureaucracy, although the iron-hold Helen Clark had over Wellington suggests otherwise. Ageism is probably a bigger factor. Whatever their departmental "values statements", too many mandarins aren't happy taking orders from 30-somethings of any gender.
The day the lockdown was announced, Ardern promised that the definition of "essential services" would be available by close of business so parents would know whether they should send their children to school the next day. Despite the Prime Minister signing off the list before the 6pm TV news, MBIE bureaucrats held up its release until closer to midnight.
Inexplicably, no one in the bureaucracy was fired for making a fool of the Prime Minister in an emergency.
Similarly, Ardern's announcement of the details of level 3 last Thursday was necessary to give organisations time to prepare, despite its negative effect on compliance.
But important rules Ardern announced quickly turned out to be wrong or unimplementable.
Similarly, Ardern's announcement of the details of level 3 last Thursday was necessary to give organisations time to prepare, despite its negative effect on compliance.
But important rules Ardern announced quickly turned out to be wrong or unimplementable.
In health, hospitals and other providers have not yet received promised information on what medical procedures will be allowed under level 3.
There is no clarity on how the courts are meant to reopen under level 3.
Other major sectors have only just received the rules for what level 3 means for their operations, with no time to digest them.
Hunters haven't been told what rules were meant to start applying from Thursday morning.
With such uncertainty, the country would have faced a fiasco had it moved to level 3 this week.
The delay until next Tuesday allows the Prime Minister to demand the bureaucracy fix the confusion around level 3 it created. She must make clear to the most senior mandarins that jobs should be on the line if they do not.”
Janet I would like to see the politicians have some say in the choice of which officials would be employed that they need to work with. The idea of apolitical pointyheads dedicated to doing good public service is a vision not realised in practicality. There cannot be too much control by business either on government – I remember Maris O'Rourke in Education saying with the neolib set up that she had to wait till 11 pm to present her material to the Minister, as she was preceded by all the business lobbyists.
So more balance.
And here are some paras on serving in a government in transition to neolib from a piece by this very amazing woman who after years of hard yakka in Education has left much to thank her for. She sets a standard for other civil servants in NZ.
The Ministry started in 1989 and from the beginning was coping with substantial work pressures due to the speed of the reforms; an education system in flux where everything had changed at once; and the task of bringing together a number of disparate and separately organised activities into a coherent whole and creating a workable organization. I found when I took up the job that I was running three different and difficult organizations with a demoralised, disillusioned and bitter staff largely opposed to the reforms.
The complexity of all this was vastly under-estimated. Add to this mix an election coming up in 1990 and a new Minister of Education Phil Goff. I was responsible for implementing the most extensive administrative reforms ever to occur in NZ education and in the run up to the 1990 election this generated much negative energy and what appeared to be muddle and chaos. All this at a time when the Minister, the government and the party wanted positive energy and a smooth running system. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t possible. And there were certainly times when a little wrist-slitting looked attractive. Labour lost the 1990 election, we had a new government and I had a new Minister Dr Lockwood Smith for the next 5 years.
I have always felt that success in a job is when no-one notices you have gone and the transition is smooth but the things you have implemented, the things you have DONE stay in place and last.
So by 1995 I had been in Wellington for almost seven years and had vaguely begun to feel it was time to move and that message went into the cosmos. I was head-hunted by the World Bank to be their first Director of Education. As a farewell my three ex Ministers had their photo taken together on the stairs and presented it to me with an award for bravery and courage under fire plus a copy of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak.
I hope not. One of New Zealand's strengths is that we do not have a politically appointed public service.
In fact I don't have to worry about this. There is simply no way that the PM, if she is re-elected, is going to overturn the basic systems of the public service.
Hooton, may well be right, that some civil servants don't find it so easy to work with young political leaders. That is not a systemic failure, it is simply part of the human condition. It exists in any organisation when the top leadership is quite a bit younger than their immediate subordinates. Over the years, I have seen a few examples of this, interestingly enough when I was much younger. But I have seen and experienced a lot more situations where youthful leadership drives energy and commitment from the wider team.
In any event it looks to me that our public service are doing an excellent job. Sure there may be some hiccups, which is hardly surprising given the size of the challenge. Not everything is going to work perfectly, not everyone finds their job easy to do, not everyone is completely up to speed, not everyone is equally competent.
Well I for one am deeply grateful that the director general of health has been a competent individual with all the background skills to have a decent understanding of public health.
Not the previous incumbent who had few relevant background skills " Mr Chuah was Chief Executive of Hutt Valley District Health Board. Mr Chuah is a qualified chartered accountant with more than 25 years health sector experience. " and didn't do so well.
It may not be "politicisation" but it is definitely neoliberalisation "anybody can be a manager – background skills not required." and the public service needs to rethink the criteria largely based on a neolib world view point.
In my experience the practice has been somewhat lacking, with bean counters, and cronies, typically with no knowledge of the sector, promoted beyond their competence level, in the two Government departments I'm most familiar with.
… he also suggested that some “aren't happy taking orders from 30-somethings of any gender
Christ, I can't say I blame them. Who the hell wants to take orders from Spice Girls fans and nauseating Millenials excitedly calling out "Cowabunga, Dude !" to each other ???
"Japan's exports fell more than forecast in March, down almost -12% year-on-year when a -9% fall was expected and the February fall was only -1%. It is almost certain April exports will fall much harder."
In an interconnected world what we do is only a small part of the equation…we can try to prop up sectors and open businesses asap but the fact remains demand has fallen off a cliff…and it isnt coming back anytime soon.
No different to the GFC.NZ will have sustain its economy by creating local demand.Until a vaccine is widely available.This is the time to fix homelessness by keeping the construction industry going building state houses and affordable houses. Infrastructure Transport bottlenecks.
very different to the GFC…that was a trust problem…nobody knew who was going to be left holding the baby so everything stopped…once the govs basically guaranteed those loses everyone went back to BAU….this is not a trust (liquidity) crisis….demand has plummeted and the environmental conditions mean that it cant return to prior levels anytime soon….liquidity isnt the problem.
Attempting to replace that global demand with national stimulus does not solve the problem when you need (not want) to import so much and almost guarantees a productivity loss
Pat so you have agreed with my argument but don't understand that trust has disappeared around the world already .whole industries have disappeared and will take 10 years to reestablish.So really the only option we have in the short term is to stimulate the local economy diversify as much as possible.The Financial fallout will be much higher than the GFC.But lessons learned will help countries who bailout mainstreet as opposed to Wall st will recover more quickly .Even Boris Johnston said overnight the biggest mistake made in the GFC was giving trillions to the corporates and forgetting about the people on the street he said he Won't be making that mistake this time.While Trump is letting all the money flow to the corporates while delaying and denying mainstreet funding.On Top of all his other f/ups the US is going to have a much longer slower recovery.
not sure how you get agreement with your claims from my reply…whether the lessons of the GFC will be learned is yet to be demonstrated and you completely miss the point about international v national economy.
Ever felt just a tad concerned that the affluent liberals who lead nominally 'left' parties might be a bit out of touch with the lives of the 'common man'? Don't worry, relax, it's all fine – check out Nancy Pelosi's fridge if you need more reassurance.
As opposed to The Man with the Golden Shower Shitter. I'd guess it's less than 50:50 that he even knows where his fridge is or what it even looks like, let alone what's in it.
It's also kinda hard to argue that Pelosi is way out of touch with her constituents.
California runs a jungle primary system when all the candidates from all the parties are tossed into one common pool, then the top two go on to fight it out one-on-one for the November general election. So it's quite common in California for the two candidates for any position in November to both be Dems.
Pelosi won her primary with 74%, second was Buttar (D) with 13%, third was Dennis (R) 8%.
Nah. He sends out minions like Chris Christie to get fresh ones. The congealed grease tastes better if it's just freshly cooled than if it's gone into a fridge.
Let me spell it out. Lots of people under neoliberalism are asset rich, but are an inch away from not having the cash flow to buy groceries. This is why even in NZ in wealthy towns there are food banks. If a family's mortgage requires two incomes to service and one of the couple loses their job, they're screwed.
It's also common knowledge that women and their kids take a drop in standard of living when a marriage ends.
People in the US who have lost their jobs because of covid come from all classes.
In all those scenarios people can own late model cars.
Read the article because it's pretty clear what is going on here.
I just got a flash back of an old commenter at this site called ' Randal' who used to berate the younger generations for their 'Hardly Davisons and flat screen TeeVees in the toilet' …
Did you bother to look at the photos in the mother jones link?
If not why don't you do so.
And not I will not be saying any such thing about it being fun to sleep in the streets covered by cardboard. Are you really so foolish as to regard such statements as equivalent?
In large parts of the US, if you need a car to get to work it's fairly likely to be more cost effective to drive something that's only a decade or so old, rather than pay the continual repairs on something older.
Then, when you lose that income from your job, keeping your car is still going to be a high priority. Because if you haven't got one, you won't be able to get back and forth to a new job.
I very happily walked around Manhattan on a number of visits. Does New York count as a "major" city? To be fair I was only on the Island. It is quite big though. It is amazing on a first visit. It seems as if you see something you have heard of on every corner. Then you get a bit blase.
I also walked a lot in Washington DC when I visited there. Only in DC though, not in the suburbs in the adjacent States.
And around San Francisco, although I was rather careful about where I went there. It might be only one block from a nice neighborhood to somewhere a bit scary.
It would still be pretty cold in Minneapolis at this time of year though I imagine.
22 million unemployed now, their loss of job comes with a loss of free health care and people are still waiting on their cheques from agent orange. How many of those cars are ticked up? Probably most of them.
It's getting pretty desperate over there and it's only just beginning for them.
Manhattan? You think every city in the states is like Manhattan? And Americans aren't particularly known for waiting for hours, sitting in their cars, for hand outs, it kinda goes against everything they stand for. Also I doubt most of those cars are paid for, like here, people get car loans, to look rich, then they go on blogs and harp about the poor.
As if there are not enough things to worry about these days – it is not a great time to have non-Covid health issues. Bloomfield et al say do not stop seeking medical help for non-Covid issues. But this is in a context when the health system is pre-occupied with Covid.
It has taken me 4 GP consultations at full cost – 2 on the phone, 2 in-person – to narrow down possibilities for the white stuff on my tonsil. In normal times it'd have probably taken 1 in-person consultation. I can afford it, others might not be able to.
So, the GP who looked at my throat today says it's not strep throat. It's either a stone (which is not a problem) or a growth (which is a problem). And she's referring me to a throat specialist.
Another GP had taken a throat swab a couple of weeks ago. The lab refused to process it, cos too busy with Covid. The GPs queried it, and now the lab has agreed to process it. But now they can't find my original swab. So the GP took another swab today.
So I probably have another few weeks to wait to find out if I have a problem or not.
I had thought maybe the GPs thought I was worrying needlessly by keeping going back to them: first when the antibiotics didn't work, then to ask why I hadn't had the results for my throat swab. The receptionist then booked me in for a phone consult with the young GP who did the swab.
But, next thing, the older more-experienced GP who had given me the antibiotics, phoned me, asked to see me in person, and cancelled the phone consult with the other GP. I got the impression she thought I maybe just had a non-problematic stone, and thus, that I was worrying needlessly.
Turned out, I think the older GP didn't want to say on the phone she was concerned that it might be a growth. In the car park, in full PPE, after she'd checked my throat, said it could be a growth or a stone, and said she was referring me to a throat specialist another car pulled up. The GP looked around and said it wasn't a very private space for this conversation.
She also seemed keen for my swab to be analysed. So, it was a bit of a shock, but it does show it's worth keeping on insisting on consultations & info about non-Covid concerns.
sounds like someone reviewed your situation, which is a good thing. They all seemed swamped that week or so around lockdown, but I'm guessing they've got more time now to be paying attention.
Also around the beginning and first couple of weeks of lock down, GPs were being instructed to do phone and video consultations as much as possible. People really didn't have much of an idea of how widespread C-19 might be in NZ communities.
And also part of the situation where our public health system has been allowed to atrophy over the last few decades.
While the testing and tracing capacity had been built up "exceptionally well", Prof Baker told Morning Report it was still not quite there yet.
"The wider question we need to come back to when the dust is settled is why did New Zealand allow its public health infrastructure to get to such a poor point? And we had so many warnings of this … a lot of us were saying for a long time that we were not ready for a pandemic. It's a very tough way to learn.
Labour and National are responsible for decades of under-funding of our public health system.
I hope the Ardern government follow through on claims they will work to rebuild the system, once the pandemic has been dealt with.
I'm afraid the question that needs to be answered is why did the Government do nothing to prepare for this between the end of January and the middle of March? Why did they not buy PPE then instead of finally putting money into it in the middle of April?
They just sat there.
[Simple task for you: shows us that you’re not lying this time, thanks – Incognito]
If Alwyn's 'considered' opinion @18.1 passed the sniff test, then I'd be surprised that the opposition National party didn't hold the Government to account re PPE supply, in a timely fashion (“end of January and the middle of March“). Maybe the opposition National party just sat there?
From his reply @18.1.1.1 it's clear that Alwyn was lying – no surprises there.
Before I start this "simple task" would you please tell me what you would regard as satisfactory evidence? It is, of course, generally accepted that it is almost impossible to demonstrate that something does not, and never has, existed. In this case I really don't think that the Government are going to give me access to all the accounts of the Health Department and you will possibly claim that because there might be a purchase of a mask hidden away somewhere I haven't proved my point.
So, before I take this task of Sisyphus on what evidence will you accept?
[When I said “simple task”, I meant it, not a “task of Sisyphus”. You know how it works here: when you make a statement(s) of fact, you need to (be able to) back it up with evidence for it to be judged a fact and not merely some made up shit that sounds good to you but is nevertheless made up BS and/or anti-Government propaganda. In this case, for example, you could link to a statement by the Director General of Health, the Minister of Health, or the Prime Minister showing that everything you said @ 18.1 is factually true and correct. To avoid wasting more time on you than is necessary and to stop your troll-like diversions, I have put you in Pre-Moderation to intercept your comments until you comply with this repeated Moderation request and complete your simple task or until I move you to the Blacklist – Incognito]
I'm afraid the question that needs to be answered is why did the Government do nothing to prepare for this between the end of January and the middle of March? Why did they not buy PPE then instead of finally putting money into it in the middle of April?
They just sat there.
Not very hard to show some evidence that the government did NOT "just sit there"
On 25 February, Ministry of health is reported as saying that they had already begun planning for a possible spread of the pandemic to NZ. This includes preparing to have the necessary protective medical equipment.
Mind you, imagine having the task (be it paid employment or self-anointed holy quest) of trying to sow enough alarm and despondency about the this government's covid response so that people should vote tory.
The NZ response broke the chart (damn can’t embed pic properly).
WA has a similar size population and has over the past 2 weeks had around 10 new cases. Yesterday there were none. It has been under a regime very similar to the Level 3 we are moving to. The borders are closed even to other Australians.
To expand upon "so?", how does that help Alwyn sow enough discontent to make nact seem palatable to the electorate?
WA has a number of different factors that might aid in keeping their numbers low, including the ability to do sub-national border control and possibly the heat.
Quite. Being a fuckwit about the pandemic is quite the position.
I'd be very surprised if alwyn lasts much longer let alone until the election campaign proper. We're now into that time of the election cycle when it's just easier to ban until after the election.
I must admit to noticing a distinct lack of tolerance on this site for any opinion that is questioning of the ministry response, preparedness or plans for non Covid related care during and as we exit Level 4 lockdown.
Really? You haven't seen Rosemary, myself and others talking about PPE?
People don't get modded for criticising the govt or the MoH. People get modded for astroturfing and trolling, and then creating work for the mods. Longstanding patterns of behaviour where the mods have to spend time repeating themselves tends to fuck us off because we all have better things to do with our time. This is what alwyn's problem is.
I did see Rosemary's comments and the number of people pooh poohing, you were certainly one of the notable exceptions prepared to discuss her concerns.
Carolyn's been putting up solid information and analysis too.
I think there's an unsaid agreement that in a time of crisis one doesn't want to undermine confidence in the ability of authorities to manage what we are going through. That's different from not critiquing at all or having no tolerance for critique. In the post I put up last week criticising the MoH on the PPE issue, the comments were evenhanded debate across a range of opinions, quite a bit of disagreement, from memory none of the bullshit that alwyn just did here.
I think you make a fair point that tolerance levels here are lower than usual; mine certainly are, as you undoubtedly have noticed. I think this is not too hard to understand. So, if you want to criticise you may have to watch the way you do this more than usual. You may also have to present more solid support for your reckons. Small words matter as they can substantially change the message. Please keep in mind that challenging your critique, even when valid, is not the same as fawning of the Government or the PM. My tolerance for these sorts of stupid simple-minded comebacks is near-zero.
Your final link was that the Department was assessing the situation.
That is fine. However after that date I never saw anything about whether they did get any more gear. Then we had report after report that said there was plenty of gear, from the DOH and complaints that we can't get any from the front line.
After that we had some individuals, and I haven't checked the names, but I think Mowbray, Morgan and Tindall were involved who were buying and importing the gear. At about mid March there were stories from importers that the Government was desperately trying to get some supplies but that nothing was available.
Now, a few days ago we had a Press Release that there was going to be a couple of hundred million available to buy it.
However I never saw anything until mid March then that they were actually buying the damn stuff. Looking at it? Yes. Buying it? Nothing for a long time.
I started gathering the links to justify my statements, thinking that you might at least consider them. Statements like "We didn't order any supplies at all" from the Minister weren't there. Surprise, surprise. On the other hand there was nothing until mid-March that they were going to put any money into getting any PPE.
However I collected –
The evidence, in repeated stories, that in spite of the claims by the DOH about all their stuff in stock, people on the front line couldn't get the items.
Then the reports by people who supply this stuff in New Zealand of the sudden heavy demand from the Government to import gowns by air but the orders couldn't be met. These were completely new orders and Government interest.This was just after the lock-down.
Then the statements by Robertson, repeated somewhat later by Clark that they were going to put a lot of money into buying the PPE goods. A couple of hundred million in fact. This was after the lock-down of course, and was the first time they had ever mentioned buying any.
Then I thought about what was likely to happen from some moderator or other who had said that
"I'd be very surprised if alwyn lasts much longer let alone until the election campaign proper. We're now into that time of the election cycle when it's just easier to ban until after the election."
And then I remembered being banned for a couple of months by the aforesaid moderator for saying that Shaw was out of the country on Census day. My evidence was rejected because it was a newspaper story from, if I remember accurately, the day before the Census saying Shaw would be up in the Islands with the PM on Census day. This was in the future tense and therefore not evidence at all apparently so I was banned.
Then I thought about how many people still post here who actually discuss interesting things in a rational manner. There are still 3 or 4 but that is all. There used to be posts by people like Colonial Viper, or Puckish Rogue or best of all Lanthanide. All gone and hardly anyone except for the KDS sufferers left.
So I have decided, stuff it. Why go to any trouble knowing I will shortly be banned again because I might say something truthful about the Green Party and their coming demise and be banned instantly. There isn't enough here worth reading any more.
I'm off. I'm afraid I can't say "Thanks for all the fish"
If you make factual statements here then you need to be able to back them up. If you cannot find anything to support your statements with then they were most likely just your opinions.
We don’t mind opinions at all, as long as they don’t masquerade as ‘facts’.
This rule is as old as the site, I believe [see what I did there?].
The reason why that Moderator mused that you might not last here is your pattern behaviour. It is not personal, but it is highly likely that it does become self-fulfilling if you believe it is. Moderation takes time and these are stressful times so Moderators do look for ways to avoid the extra burden of having to deal with recidivist behaviour.
Relitigating (past) Moderation is never going to help anybody; you only dig in and a deeper hole.
This is nothing new either.
The irony is that if you want to discuss things in a rational manner you need to be able to distinguish between fact and fiction. The three commenters whom you mentioned all have (considerable) history here. Just like you, they have chosen self-exile from the site quite a few years ago. Only one is currently serving a long ban because he dug in, just like you, and when offered a way out, he didn’t accept!? Yet, oddly enough, he’s still trying to send comments to the site!?
The fact you hold these three commenters in such high regard is quite telling. Even more telling is that you brandish with broad brush everybody else here as “KDS sufferers”. I could easily list quite a few regular commenters who would not fit that brand at all. I think it shows your prejudice towards this site and the people who comment here.
There’s nothing rational about cutting your nose off despite your face. I know this all too well because I’m somewhat of an expert in this.
Lastly, it is well known that you feel some (…) antipathy towards the Greens. This is not a bannable offence at all! However, the truth-threshold is higher than for more general topics and the tolerance for BS is correspondingly lower. If you want to criticise the Green Party then the onus is on you to make it correct and compelling yet you inevitably fail in this regard. I assume this is because you don’t distinguish clearly enough between fact and fiction and because of your demonstrable anti-Green bias.
In summary, if you accuse us of banning you, please know why and what you were banned for and be honest about it. Please don’t make up lame excuses that we cannot handle the truth about the Green Party, for example. It is not becoming of a mature adult who claims to want a rational and civil discussion here.
For the record: you have chosen to leave the site of your own accord.
I always liked the quote about "luck" from golfer Gary Player. He said that people always told him how "lucky" he was in playing out of a bunker and getting close to the hole.
His response was that he found that the more he practiced the luckier he was.
A wee while ago I had a debate with a colleague about whether it should be "clinical practise" as oppoosed to "clinical practice". It took some time, and involved colleague pointing to scholarly articles referring to clinical practise as "clinical practice", and me asking about how one would distinguish between the clinical practice at which the clinical practise was being practised and the clinical practise practised at the clinical practice even if only in a practice of the practise at the practice.
Last time they make me write rather than count, I hope. 👿
Lovely! The whole thing is easily settled if one substitutes the word 'advise' for 'practise' and 'advice' for 'practice'.
No problem with advice and advise, because we pronounce them differently.
But practise and practice (owing to stupid English spelling non-system) are pronounced the same, hence the massive error-rate, which annoys us true pedants.
P.S. It should be 'clinically practise' and 'clinical practice'. No other options available.
The best thing to do is to take turn about. That way one can be reasonably sure of a 50% right – 50% wrong scenario no matter what word is in contention. 😎
There are even bigger questions behind this though. Maybe others can help? Had bits of the health service needed for this epidemic been effectively privatised draining money away from essential government maintained services and making it more difficult to ramp up quickly because there needs to be contract renegotiations?
Healthline which has been quite a part of the response seems to be a multi year (8? 9? years) costing $257? million for the basics over these years. I struggle with who is actually running this and if money is being drained into supersized salaries for some and profits as well? Anybody know anything?
Just breathe. It's only a tweet. Wait to see what actually eventuates.
Even if it becomes something substantial, MAGog will quickly come under a lot of pressure from the only people he gives even a tiny rats about to start letting people back in. To help keep wages and salaries low.
This and the so called skills shortage lists have just been used to keep wages down across the economy and avoid doing any training. Some of the visa's have terms way beyond the time it would take to train people. It has also given lousy employers a free pass- some of them no one but somebody desperate for a visa would work for,
If true, another huge variable in the worlds future. For all his sins, I guess there is stability, albeit based on evil, in NK. If true, and he passes away and the old order collapses, could be a refugee crisis for China.
Interesting. It would have enormous consequences if there were to be a collapse of the Nth Korean regime. The dissolution of strong man regimes is rarely peaceful, and it could entail sustained cooperation between the Chinese, Sth Korean and American armed services to manage the humanitarian and refugee fallout alone.
A fast moving crisis in Nth Korea could determine the power balance in East Asia for decades. If you look at just the 20th century, East/West Germany, North/South Yemen, North/South Vietnam it was predicted that these divided nations would be very likely to ever recombine … yet all three did during events that lasted just weeks, not even months.
Big Fat Caveat. No-one really knows what is happening in the hermit kingdom, which makes early reports like this highly conditional. If true however, the timing would be appalling ….
So, it’s finally happened,
That thing you were afraid of,
Something’s come from overseas,
And taken your jobs,
Made it unsafe to walk the streets,
Kept you trapped in your home.
A dirty disease,
Your proud nation, gone.
But not me. Or me.
Or me. Or me.
No, you clap for me now.
You cheer as I toil,
Bringing food to your family,
Bringing food from your soil.
Propping up your hospitals,
Not some foreign invader.
Delivery driver. Teacher. Life saver.
Don’t say ‘go home’,
Don’t say ‘not here’,
You know how it feels for home to be a prison,
You know how it feels to live in fear.
So you clap for me now.
All this love you are bringing,
But don’t forget when it’s no longer quiet,
Don’t forget when you can no longer hear the birds singing,
Or see clear waters, that I crossed for you,
To make lives filled with peace,
And bring peace to your life too.
Come all you Gretas,
You Malalas,
You immigrants,
See what we have learned.
It only takes the smallest thing,
To change the world.
The world’s largest investment banks have provided more than $700bn of financing for the fossil fuel companies most aggressively expanding in new coal, oil and gas projects since the Paris climate change agreement, figures show.
The financing has been led by the Wall Street giant JPMorgan Chase, which has provided $75bn (£61bn) to companies expanding in sectors such as fracking and Arctic oil and gas exploration, according to the analysis.
The New York bank is one of 33 powerful financial institutions to have provided an estimated total of $1.9tn to the fossil fuel sector between 2016 and 2018.
The data shows the most aggressively expanding coal-mining operations, oil and gas companies, fracking firms and pipeline companies have received $713.3bn in loans, equity issuances and debt underwriting services from 2016 to mid-2019.
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
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Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
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 ...
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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 ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...
The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
Late one afternoon in March 1860 a man in a thin green velveteen jacket and a wide-awake hat arrived on foot at a sheep station named Glenmark, about 65 kilometres north of Christchurch. The man was in his mid-fifties but he looked older. Several people who met him that day ...
If building one of Auckland’s possible waterfront stadiums was funded privately, it would need to hold a sold-out Ed Sherran concert every weekday for 25 years. That’s Rob Hamlin’s finding – he’s a senior marketing lecturer at the University of Otago. “It’s not going to happen; forget about it,” he ...
Comment: The debate over the future relationship between news and social media is bringing us closer to a long-overdue reckoning. Social media isn’t trying to kill journalism, because social media has never really cared about journalism. Social media is resolutely in the attention business. News propels some attention — perhaps ...
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, Monday 6 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
For the past 12 years, Georgia-Rose Brown has balanced on the brink of making an Olympic Games – but always landed gracefully on the wrong side. Reaching the Olympics is a dream the gymnast has harboured since she was a six-year-old; a dream that would dwindle every four years, yet ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A new Commonwealth Prac Payment will provide students with $319.50 a week when they are on clinical and professional placements. The payment will be means tested and start from July 1 next year, which ...
Asia Pacific Report About 500 people honoured Palestinian journalists in the heart of the New Zealand city of Auckland today for their brave coverage of Israel’s War on Gaza, now in its seventh month with almost 35,000 people killed, mostly women and children. Marking the annual May 3 World Press ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
Simon Bridges ,Michael Woodhouse. Are being Total Dicks.Politicing While we are facing a National crisis.Stay at home and Stop being a Dick Simon.Michael Woodhouse Stop taking cheap shots which haven't got any Scientific evidence or are pure lies.Outhouse claimed the 130 health workers infected were because of lack of PPE and proper safety in our hospitals.Fact Healthcare workers returning from overseas were infected passing Covid onto other workers before our borders were closed.Outhouse is a lying little S*?t
Most NZr are not silly ,should do a like poll on Bridges Woodhouse Hoskings not one of them would make 10%, My wife is from a blue family of 18, one of them put on facebook blue is not my favorite colour, almost all the family including children clicked Like, the three of them are going to come out of this so very disliked
dont forget about some certain mp's shoving up billboards all around wellington and the hutt right before lockdown stating how labour have done such a good job with covid19.
labour started politicising this long ago.
Since 19 October 2017?
Reading this Herald article about bunkers available for the rich, brings to mind that this will be an infection of a different kind.
(It also makes me smile with the recollection of Stark, Ben Elton's comic novel about the reality of the company in the Stark consortium escape spaceship for those who brought about the end of the world).
Really curious what kind of visa the dude at the start of that article has. And what will happen to him when it runs out.
Anyone know if the resource consents on those will be in the public domain? eg the one in Canterbury that can house 300 people.
Quite possibly unconsented. If you're trying to hide from the zombie apocalypse, you wouldn't want the zombies to be able to just look up where you're hiding.
Did you just call council staff zombies? 😛
I'm not sure they'd be talking to the media if they were unconsented.
so ultimately for a "king" and his support staff . In other words, self indulgence. Is that really the the kind of person we need in NZ ?
I was scratching my head at the 300 people one.
A remake of Logan’s Run.
they're going to kill anyone over 21?
Nah, of course not! Only Boomers.
you can actually build these pretty cheaply. I'd kinda love to do this if I ever built a house.
Check this out, good watch
There's now such a glut of oil that oil is selling for US$-30 a barrel.
That's effectively paying those US producers to keep it in the ground – or find massive above-ground storage.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/20/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html
I'm sure it won't last but …
That's a particularly weird moment.
Thought it was more like negative 3 per barrel. Maybe a different benchmark.
The one I read was the calculated benchmark price for crude oil delivered to some town in Ohio in June.
They’re acutely short of oil storage space in the US. They’re rolling out old badges and storing oil in those because they have no tanks, and they’re starting to run out of those. Soon it will be cheaper to store oil in oil tankers parked offshore than it is to land it.
Meanwhile Brent Crude is about to go under USD30 / Barrel.
At this rate they will need to just keep it in the ground
The May oil contracts expires tomorrow,at expiration they are required to take physical delivery at cushing Oklahoma.
Can't see much of a future in oil future trading.
Oil futures minus $US37/barrel.
Watching the tanker charter rates.
Huge demand for ships for temporary storage. Already cheaper to store it offshore.
Oil futures have gone negative.
Won't be investing in oil companies.
How long before it starts getting 'lost' at sea.
Yep. Expect a few, "insurance jobs".
Personally I was suspicious of two VLCC oil tankers, from the same company, that collided in clear weather years ago, when the charter rates fell through the floor.
Seemed a bit too, coincidental. 😀
Seventy years of prices.
https://www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-oil-price-history-chart
It's a bizarre time to be alive.
I trade oil, it's not oil. oil was at $22 last I checked. It was some weird measurement.
Futures.
Which means infused might well consider selling, lol
I've been shorting since covid kicked in.
the shit that happened today though was crazy.
The Covid 19 is a very serious issue.
It will be a giggle in the rooms of Auckland ZB, Herald, Bridges, Paula, and the Kauri girl.
There are a couple of other serious problems that ought to get attention, however.
The major one is the ongoing violence of degraded dirty men who go about Killing and Violating their wives. They also force their evil on the children of the family.
The numbers attached to male violence are way way beyond the Current Coronova Virus.
However, there is a further treachery in Aotearoa. It is carried out by the Land Lord. The Land Lord makes the Virus look like a Xmas treat.
We must get rid of all Violent Men – on long long, penalties.
We also, must come together and refuse to pay Taxes on Housing until the Government itself pays for Just and Fair Housing.
As far as I can tell, all impetus to do anything has bounced off the heads of Jacinda et al. So many interesting alternatives on how to run things, all offered in vain. Opportunity lost. Although, was it really an opportunity if there was no intention to act? For a long time our governments have been mediocre middle management of the status quo. If reinfection rates begin again, there'll be no reason to do anything but stand by and console the bereaved – something Ardern is good at… "sympathising". "A population winnowing virus", or something like that. Nothing to really need a change for. Apparently we can afford to lose thousands, and blame them for not protecting themselves.
[lprent: Please try to stick to one handle, like the one you were using yesterday. I’ll let this one through. But be advised that shifting handles tends to be viewed by me as a pointer to a troll. I really don’t like trolls and I tend to express that strongly. Please read our policy and learn not to attract my moderating attention. ]
Oil has reached a negative price as storage facilities run out of capacity. This is … weird. And for the moment it's not good for green alternatives.
Also Saudi Arabia, Russia, Canada, Venezuela and other major producers must be nervous.
I believe It is a leading indicator of a depression, not just caused by a massive consumption drop caused by Covid.
Plant a garden – just because we live in NZ doesn't insulate us entirely from major currency issues.
Here it is for the record when the nay-sayers and Trump blame the WHO when it happens:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12326244
The worst is yet to come says the Director General of the WHO.
Hopefully we will be spared because of the brilliant management of the crisis thus far by the government and the health professional working in conjunction with on another.
There are just four nations in the world that look like they are going to crush the curve (excluding China who nobody trusts), New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan and South Korea. This is a remarkable alignment for us.
The Koreans in particular are technically minded, have a top-notch health care system, they are culturally wired for fast responses, their first instinct isn't to lie about everything, and they believe in math. They have provided the world with the best and most holistic information about this virus. I've been treating their dataset as the gold standard. This is a country with it's act together; we need partners like them to keep our technology systems running.
Taiwan is another nation in a similar position. While there is obvious political threats with the CCP poised to invade as soon as it thinks the world is not looking, the Taiwanese are an example of what China could and should have been if the CCP thugs were not running the mainland as a giant slave labour camp.
Australia is also responding well and is a fabulous supplier of raw materials with the potential for almost total energy independence if it wants to go there. It's already talking about rebooting local manufacturing as part of it's recovery efforts.
Together with NZ's superb agricultural exports (and as I write this I'm conscious that sustainable and regenerative techniques should be a core element of a high quality strategy) these four nations could readily form a new regional alliance. All four have competent and compatible governance, all four have high trust societies, and all four bring specific unique attributes to the trade table.
Yes the NZ economy has been hit hard by this event, but we are not on our own. We have some great strategic partners to reach out to who are highly compatible with us. Our relationship with China will remain significant, but no-one wants to be so dependent on them ever again.
The country which could have the worst outcome is Mexico. 1 in 7 have diabetes and 70 % are obese. Both are known to cause Covid-19 complications.
1 in 1000 in 30 states in the US are infected with Covid-19.
There are so many unknowns with the virus and this is making it difficult to manage the economy in real time.
Health workers have my respect the most, they are selfless and then essential workers.
That's our new de facto trade agreement right there.
Thanks for the summary RedL. It's an interesting overview – about South Korea etc.
We have a high-trust society with Australia? Like the kid who meets this guy who says come home with me and see my collection of Barbie dolls, train set, etchings.
I think you've misread a tad … I wasn't referring so much to the trust relationship between these four countries, as within their own societies.
Yes NZ and Australia have some significant political difficulties that we should be looking to resolve, but in every other social and economic respect they are both relatively high trust societies compared to many other nations.
But yes a reasonable point.
Red Logix,
I seem to read a lot here by various commenters about "sustainable and regenerative farming". The term is never explained, it is just used. I come from a farming background and have relatives who still farm, so I have a reasonable knowledge on current farming practises, with dairy and also sheep and beef. Not that I want to actually farm. After all I left the farming life.
What is different about "sustainable and regenerative" farming to the current form of NZ farming. Is it basically the same, though with a few tweaks? Or is it intended to signal a radical change in NZ farming? I suspect the latter, given who uses these references. And if so, how do those advocating this see that farming should change.
It is one of the many ways you can farm sustainably.
Regenerative farming is a pastural side shoot of Permaculture.
One of the NZ leaders in regenerative farming is
https://www.mangarara.co.nz/family-farm-produce/
I'll probably be well advised to defer to people like weka and Paul G who've paid a lot more attention to this topic than I have for specific examples.
Having said that, as a matter of strong principle, I believe agriculture is one of the primary responsibilities of government. Farmers themselves are constrained by the need to stay in business this month, this year. While many do take a long-term view of their soil management, it is government that needs to take a long-term view of the whole picture. In this NZ already does pretty well, we always have.
But we do consistently fall short in some aspects; and in this there are more than a few alternative farmers who have consistently demonstrated that it's possible to farm productively with fewer inputs, less intensive stocking, better nutrient management, and improved animal welfare.
Personally I'm no fan of 'radical changes'. I don't think that's either achievable or even desirable to impose destabilising disruption. But if we took a more patient multi-decadal approach there are many 'tweaks' that we could implement, that as a whole would add up to something quite transformative over time.
Very different to the current, short term, model of "high input" agriculture.
Which relies on imported feed, fertiliser and depletion of soils and other resources, to make a short term gain.
I come from farming families too. Many wouldn't have been impressed with the current industrial farming.
There were some who took the view, "the only good tree is one that has been pruned to the ground" but most considered looking after the farm, soil and waterways, for the future, was part of farming.
A couple, in particular, were very proud that on their farms, they still had native stream life, unlike many other countries.
They would be horrified at the current, Federated Farmers, attitude.
Wayne you probably have zero interest,but watch Country Calendar on Sunday nights for a glimpse into seriously innovative and successful farming
It's awe inspiring
Don't know if you can get it
On Demand but last CC would tell you all you need to know …sustainable sheep faring
The limitations are to be found in crippling bank mortgages,the biggest hindrance to better animal husbandry and farming practises
Yes that Country Calendar episode was very impressive. Imagine the amazing benefits if that farming system was widely adopted!
I've been following with my son, he's been studying, farm management.
Even incremental improvements, in things like crop, animal rotation, once a day instead of twice daily milking, natural fertilisers, and preventing nitrates being lost to waterways, can improve both the environment, and farm efficiency.
The last Country Calendar screened, showcased a King Country farmer walking the talk.
You should be able to view it on TVNZ on demand.
Like wise the Canterbury Dairy farm and the Maniototo sheep farm. All high light that Traditional industrial farming is not as profitable ,sustainable nor is it kind to animals.
[Another typo in your user handle. Please be more careful!]
Wayne,
The most recent episode of Country Calendar provides a reasonably accessible example. Blurb:
TVNZ OnDemand: Country Calendar 2020 e7 (should also be on YouTube in the next week of so)
Points that I took from it:
Edit: snap with multiple commenters on CC episode, obviously took too long to write …
Thank you everyone for your comments. I will have a look at the Country Calendar episode.
Their was a reg a neg farmer on country calendar Sunday. (Usually they replay it early the next weekend) ,doing some interesting stuff.
Of course he was one of those high energy clever people so for it to catch on the government would need to capture his learnings and bottle it for easy digestion of the the rest of us.
Kathryn Ryan sounding a bit frazzled on Nine to Noon today. Maybe its time they gave her a shorter slot somewhere else and tried a new face?
Most likely frustration with the logistics of broadcasting under the lockdown.
But I agree it’s well past time Nine to Noon had a bit of a refresh.
Maybe co-presenters would give her a breather between intense interviews.
Suggestions for the identity of a new co-presenter please.
Alex Perrottet did a good job looking after Morning Report (or was it Checkpoint?) a while back.
Karyn Hay might be a good unorthodox choice.
Could Jesse Mulligan move to Nine to Noon? And still do his telly stuff (I never watch that).
I like listening to Alison Ballance on Our Changing World.
Colin Peacock? He’s certainly made Mediawatch unmissable.
Mahinerangi Forbes would be awesome!
Not sure about Mulligan-he is fine where he is- but the rest are excellent options.
Karyn Hay has been doing a great job at 10PM I think that is her?
Jesse's better off where he can be the smartarse 6th former at the back that he is.
On Sunday last Sunday, Anthony Hill, the health and disability commissioner did not look or sound his vibrant self.
It may of been the topic which was a serious one, (care during labour and maternity complications).
We are in a hard left nationalist environment now. It beggars belief that a member of the neoliberal elite has held such a position for so long. A Galloway or Rachel Stewart type personality would provide the much needed journalistic rigour and intensity to reignite the show in my opinion.
Cripes, Kathryn has so much knowledge in her head, can handle a wide range of expertise, has a pleasant manner, and maintains her interest and energy in the frustrating world we create – don't diss her for sounding frazzled as she broadcasts from her bathroom or wherever. My feeling is that her questions become too long as she makes a short scenario around the problem or situation she is wanting to 'elucidate'.
Now Lisa Owen at the end of the day has apparently been employed to sound frazzled, high pitched, fast talking and sounds like a middle-class female exasperated with the world, with an upward whine to much of her pronouncements. What a turn-off.
Grey: Agree with you totally re Lisa Owen. A bit grating-she needs to take chill pill.
I wasn't dissing Ryan….I just think that show can be stressful where a whole series of interviews are done in a row on important topics…..but we need a show that does all of those interviews. I don't think it is just because we are in lock-down. It started before this.
My solution is two presenters….a bit more variation and a different character. Maybe a rotating second presenter.
Ryan has sounded tired and has not been laughing/getting laughs from the Friday comedians.
You're right Bearded Git I could imagine she is tired, you might be tempted to take a perk-up pill as artistic performers have often done. She might like that idea of a rotating second presenter but I would be afraid they would put on Jim Mora or the like. Someone who would be subtly, or not so, putting the self-satisfied, right wing approach which gives me such a pain I turn off, which negates the value of the public broadcaster to me.
If someone else was put on they would need to be compatible and who knows what this cardboard Radionz management would choose? Would we get a whole lot of amusing chatter? A little bit of that is good, but soon there is a pall of death to an enjoyable and informative show with too much shallow hah hah aren't we smart stuff.
If she'd shut up for 5 minutes she would last longer.
Matthew Hooton was written about the bureaucratic mandarins hampering the government’s ability to move fast, especially at the moment – he also suggested that some “aren't happy taking orders from 30-somethings of any gender.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12326190
I have been reading of this problem with the government’s departments for some time. If this is the case, once the Covid situation is under control I hope heads will roll and our fresh new government will have a fresh new team to work with.
Call it the school of hard knocks or the university of life. The world has changed so much and people cannot continue to carry on as if there is no pandemic.
Just look at what has happened with the price of oil.
In time the restraints which Covid-19 is causing, some solutions will be found.
Hi Janet. Any chance of summarizing that article a little more?
I am very keen to learn more, but have cancelled my NZH subs to their online site some time ago.
Have cut and pasted paragraphs … hope that helps.
“ had Monday's health information been more favourable – or Ardern wanted to take a risk – it was clear the bureaucracy simply wasn't ready for a move to level 3 this Wednesday night anyway.
Like all prime ministers, Ardern relies on the same mediocre and incestuous Wellington bureaucracy that delivered her the KiwiBuild fiasco, worsening child poverty and last year's comedic Budget "hack".
Ministry of Health boss Ashley Bloomfield has been praised for his handling of Covid-19. But, last year, even his ministry was responsible for the measles vaccine crisis, seemed unable to competently allocate the $1.9 billion in mental health funding from last year's budget, and has now been unable to tell a believable story on the availability of PPE to frontline health staff.
Now – despite having over a month to get organised – his ministry has failed to implement the testing and tracking systems necessary for a move to level 3. Talk of a contact-tracing app remains just that. The Beehive even claims it had to push the health authorities to conduct the random population testing required to see how widespread asymptomatic and undiagnosed Covid-19 is in the community.
Sexism among senior officials may explain some of Ardern's inability to achieve purchase over the bureaucracy, although the iron-hold Helen Clark had over Wellington suggests otherwise. Ageism is probably a bigger factor. Whatever their departmental "values statements", too many mandarins aren't happy taking orders from 30-somethings of any gender.
The day the lockdown was announced, Ardern promised that the definition of "essential services" would be available by close of business so parents would know whether they should send their children to school the next day. Despite the Prime Minister signing off the list before the 6pm TV news, MBIE bureaucrats held up its release until closer to midnight.
Inexplicably, no one in the bureaucracy was fired for making a fool of the Prime Minister in an emergency.
Similarly, Ardern's announcement of the details of level 3 last Thursday was necessary to give organisations time to prepare, despite its negative effect on compliance.
But important rules Ardern announced quickly turned out to be wrong or unimplementable.
Similarly, Ardern's announcement of the details of level 3 last Thursday was necessary to give organisations time to prepare, despite its negative effect on compliance.
But important rules Ardern announced quickly turned out to be wrong or unimplementable.
In health, hospitals and other providers have not yet received promised information on what medical procedures will be allowed under level 3.
There is no clarity on how the courts are meant to reopen under level 3.
Other major sectors have only just received the rules for what level 3 means for their operations, with no time to digest them.
Hunters haven't been told what rules were meant to start applying from Thursday morning.
With such uncertainty, the country would have faced a fiasco had it moved to level 3 this week.
The delay until next Tuesday allows the Prime Minister to demand the bureaucracy fix the confusion around level 3 it created. She must make clear to the most senior mandarins that jobs should be on the line if they do not.”
Janet I would like to see the politicians have some say in the choice of which officials would be employed that they need to work with. The idea of apolitical pointyheads dedicated to doing good public service is a vision not realised in practicality. There cannot be too much control by business either on government – I remember Maris O'Rourke in Education saying with the neolib set up that she had to wait till 11 pm to present her material to the Minister, as she was preceded by all the business lobbyists.
So more balance.
And here are some paras on serving in a government in transition to neolib from a piece by this very amazing woman who after years of hard yakka in Education has left much to thank her for. She sets a standard for other civil servants in NZ.
The Ministry started in 1989 and from the beginning was coping with substantial work pressures due to the speed of the reforms; an education system in flux where everything had changed at once; and the task of bringing together a number of disparate and separately organised activities into a coherent whole and creating a workable organization. I found when I took up the job that I was running three different and difficult organizations with a demoralised, disillusioned and bitter staff largely opposed to the reforms.
The complexity of all this was vastly under-estimated. Add to this mix an election coming up in 1990 and a new Minister of Education Phil Goff. I was responsible for implementing the most extensive administrative reforms ever to occur in NZ education and in the run up to the 1990 election this generated much negative energy and what appeared to be muddle and chaos. All this at a time when the Minister, the government and the party wanted positive energy and a smooth running system. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t possible. And there were certainly times when a little wrist-slitting looked attractive. Labour lost the 1990 election, we had a new government and I had a new Minister Dr Lockwood Smith for the next 5 years.
I have always felt that success in a job is when no-one notices you have gone and the transition is smooth but the things you have implemented, the things you have DONE stay in place and last.
So by 1995 I had been in Wellington for almost seven years and had vaguely begun to feel it was time to move and that message went into the cosmos. I was head-hunted by the World Bank to be their first Director of Education. As a farewell my three ex Ministers had their photo taken together on the stairs and presented it to me with an award for bravery and courage under fire plus a copy of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak.
https://commonwealthwomensvoices.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/maris-o%E2%80%99rourke/
I hope not. One of New Zealand's strengths is that we do not have a politically appointed public service.
In fact I don't have to worry about this. There is simply no way that the PM, if she is re-elected, is going to overturn the basic systems of the public service.
Hooton, may well be right, that some civil servants don't find it so easy to work with young political leaders. That is not a systemic failure, it is simply part of the human condition. It exists in any organisation when the top leadership is quite a bit younger than their immediate subordinates. Over the years, I have seen a few examples of this, interestingly enough when I was much younger. But I have seen and experienced a lot more situations where youthful leadership drives energy and commitment from the wider team.
In any event it looks to me that our public service are doing an excellent job. Sure there may be some hiccups, which is hardly surprising given the size of the challenge. Not everything is going to work perfectly, not everyone finds their job easy to do, not everyone is completely up to speed, not everyone is equally competent.
Well I for one am deeply grateful that the director general of health has been a competent individual with all the background skills to have a decent understanding of public health.
Not the previous incumbent who had few relevant background skills " Mr Chuah was Chief Executive of Hutt Valley District Health Board. Mr Chuah is a qualified chartered accountant with more than 25 years health sector experience. " and didn't do so well.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/95381385/directorgeneral-of-health-chai-chuah-fully-owns-38m-dhb-funding-botchup?rm=m
It may not be "politicisation" but it is definitely neoliberalisation "anybody can be a manager – background skills not required." and the public service needs to rethink the criteria largely based on a neolib world view point.
Agree with the principle.
In my experience the practice has been somewhat lacking, with bean counters, and cronies, typically with no knowledge of the sector, promoted beyond their competence level, in the two Government departments I'm most familiar with.
Christ, I can't say I blame them. Who the hell wants to take orders from Spice Girls fans and nauseating Millenials excitedly calling out "Cowabunga, Dude !" to each other ???
Hell on Earth.
RNZ and others are working from home.
"Japan's exports fell more than forecast in March, down almost -12% year-on-year when a -9% fall was expected and the February fall was only -1%. It is almost certain April exports will fall much harder."
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/104622/us-oil-prices-collapse-us-economic-activity-sinks-japanese-exports-dive-china-cuts
In an interconnected world what we do is only a small part of the equation…we can try to prop up sectors and open businesses asap but the fact remains demand has fallen off a cliff…and it isnt coming back anytime soon.
No different to the GFC.NZ will have sustain its economy by creating local demand.Until a vaccine is widely available.This is the time to fix homelessness by keeping the construction industry going building state houses and affordable houses. Infrastructure Transport bottlenecks.
very different to the GFC…that was a trust problem…nobody knew who was going to be left holding the baby so everything stopped…once the govs basically guaranteed those loses everyone went back to BAU….this is not a trust (liquidity) crisis….demand has plummeted and the environmental conditions mean that it cant return to prior levels anytime soon….liquidity isnt the problem.
Attempting to replace that global demand with national stimulus does not solve the problem when you need (not want) to import so much and almost guarantees a productivity loss
Pat so you have agreed with my argument but don't understand that trust has disappeared around the world already .whole industries have disappeared and will take 10 years to reestablish.So really the only option we have in the short term is to stimulate the local economy diversify as much as possible.The Financial fallout will be much higher than the GFC.But lessons learned will help countries who bailout mainstreet as opposed to Wall st will recover more quickly .Even Boris Johnston said overnight the biggest mistake made in the GFC was giving trillions to the corporates and forgetting about the people on the street he said he Won't be making that mistake this time.While Trump is letting all the money flow to the corporates while delaying and denying mainstreet funding.On Top of all his other f/ups the US is going to have a much longer slower recovery.
not sure how you get agreement with your claims from my reply…whether the lessons of the GFC will be learned is yet to be demonstrated and you completely miss the point about international v national economy.
Ever felt just a tad concerned that the affluent liberals who lead nominally 'left' parties might be a bit out of touch with the lives of the 'common man'? Don't worry, relax, it's all fine – check out Nancy Pelosi's fridge if you need more reassurance.
As opposed to The Man with the Golden
ShowerShitter. I'd guess it's less than 50:50 that he even knows where his fridge is or what it even looks like, let alone what's in it.Totally – I'm going for the lesser of two fridges.
It's also kinda hard to argue that Pelosi is way out of touch with her constituents.
California runs a jungle primary system when all the candidates from all the parties are tossed into one common pool, then the top two go on to fight it out one-on-one for the November general election. So it's quite common in California for the two candidates for any position in November to both be Dems.
Pelosi won her primary with 74%, second was Buttar (D) with 13%, third was Dennis (R) 8%.
Drumpster
Hamberders.
Nah. He sends out minions like Chris Christie to get fresh ones. The congealed grease tastes better if it's just freshly cooled than if it's gone into a fridge.
Early days of a pandemic and the idiot-left mirrors the idiot-right.
ffs
https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1252344011131465728
Hoskings changes decades old global terminology and claims there are 7 business days in a week. Someone should tell business that.
But then this is yet another example of the slow erosion of the gains made for working families with the introduction of the 40 hour week.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12326116
I don't imagine Hoskings himself believed what he was saying but he'd backed himself into a corner.
Keeping 'Murica great.
MADA, Make America Diseased Again.
And hungry, again.
https://twitter.com/pdacosta/status/1252165627713933312
https://www.motherjones.com/food/2020/04/these-photos-show-the-staggering-food-bank-lines-across-america/
Those lines, quite heart breaking, what a pity there aren't protests against the obscene wealth discrepancy over there.
I find it hard to see that people are really desperate when they are driving to the food bank in a late model automobile.
poverty blindness is a thing.
Let me spell it out. Lots of people under neoliberalism are asset rich, but are an inch away from not having the cash flow to buy groceries. This is why even in NZ in wealthy towns there are food banks. If a family's mortgage requires two incomes to service and one of the couple loses their job, they're screwed.
It's also common knowledge that women and their kids take a drop in standard of living when a marriage ends.
People in the US who have lost their jobs because of covid come from all classes.
In all those scenarios people can own late model cars.
Read the article because it's pretty clear what is going on here.
I just got a flash back of an old commenter at this site called ' Randal' who used to berate the younger generations for their 'Hardly Davisons and flat screen TeeVees in the toilet' …
People berating beneficiaries for having smart phones used to be a thing too.
Weka
Hey Alwyn are you saying that lots of people drive to food banks in late model cars? Do me a favour.
Next you will be saying its fun to sleep on the streets covered by cardboard.
Alwyn is correctly reporting the photos as in the link above..
https://www.motherjones.com/food/2020/04/these-photos-show-the-staggering-food-bank-lines-across-america/
Luxury!
Did you bother to look at the photos in the mother jones link?
If not why don't you do so.
And not I will not be saying any such thing about it being fun to sleep in the streets covered by cardboard. Are you really so foolish as to regard such statements as equivalent?
Moderation note for you here: https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21-04-2020/#comment-1704763.
OK, I've just seen it. I appended a question to it.
In large parts of the US, if you need a car to get to work it's fairly likely to be more cost effective to drive something that's only a decade or so old, rather than pay the continual repairs on something older.
Then, when you lose that income from your job, keeping your car is still going to be a high priority. Because if you haven't got one, you won't be able to get back and forth to a new job.
I guess Will Rogers had it right then.
"We are the first nation in the history of the world to go to the poor house in an automobile."
Of course he also said, just as accurately.
"I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."
Have you ever set out to walk anywhere in a major US city?
https://www.google.com/maps/search/von+maur+Minneapolis/@44.8531085,-93.4329738,2926m/data=!3m1!1e3
I very happily walked around Manhattan on a number of visits. Does New York count as a "major" city? To be fair I was only on the Island. It is quite big though. It is amazing on a first visit. It seems as if you see something you have heard of on every corner. Then you get a bit blase.
I also walked a lot in Washington DC when I visited there. Only in DC though, not in the suburbs in the adjacent States.
And around San Francisco, although I was rather careful about where I went there. It might be only one block from a nice neighborhood to somewhere a bit scary.
It would still be pretty cold in Minneapolis at this time of year though I imagine.
22 million unemployed now, their loss of job comes with a loss of free health care and people are still waiting on their cheques from agent orange. How many of those cars are ticked up? Probably most of them.
It's getting pretty desperate over there and it's only just beginning for them.
Unfortunately that is so very true. But plenty of money pouring in to the coffers of the fossil fuel companies courtesy of the Donald.
https://www.vox.com/2020/4/20/21224659/coronavirus-stimulus-money-oil-prices-fossil-fuels-bailout
Manhattan? You think every city in the states is like Manhattan? And Americans aren't particularly known for waiting for hours, sitting in their cars, for hand outs, it kinda goes against everything they stand for. Also I doubt most of those cars are paid for, like here, people get car loans, to look rich, then they go on blogs and harp about the poor.
I see people struggling, lining up to get food and feel empathy, you see the same thing and make a snide comment and troll, it's quite revealing.
As if there are not enough things to worry about these days – it is not a great time to have non-Covid health issues. Bloomfield et al say do not stop seeking medical help for non-Covid issues. But this is in a context when the health system is pre-occupied with Covid.
It has taken me 4 GP consultations at full cost – 2 on the phone, 2 in-person – to narrow down possibilities for the white stuff on my tonsil. In normal times it'd have probably taken 1 in-person consultation. I can afford it, others might not be able to.
So, the GP who looked at my throat today says it's not strep throat. It's either a stone (which is not a problem) or a growth (which is a problem). And she's referring me to a throat specialist.
Another GP had taken a throat swab a couple of weeks ago. The lab refused to process it, cos too busy with Covid. The GPs queried it, and now the lab has agreed to process it. But now they can't find my original swab. So the GP took another swab today.
So I probably have another few weeks to wait to find out if I have a problem or not.
that's not good. Fingers crossed they sort these issues out now going forward and put better systems in place.
Thanks, weka. It is a worry for me.
But I also wonder how many others are having difficulty getting appropriate medical attention for potentially serious, non-Covid conditions
I think it's an issue. Overseas reports suggest that less people are going to GPs and A and E for serious problems.
Yes. Very likely.
I had thought maybe the GPs thought I was worrying needlessly by keeping going back to them: first when the antibiotics didn't work, then to ask why I hadn't had the results for my throat swab. The receptionist then booked me in for a phone consult with the young GP who did the swab.
But, next thing, the older more-experienced GP who had given me the antibiotics, phoned me, asked to see me in person, and cancelled the phone consult with the other GP. I got the impression she thought I maybe just had a non-problematic stone, and thus, that I was worrying needlessly.
Turned out, I think the older GP didn't want to say on the phone she was concerned that it might be a growth. In the car park, in full PPE, after she'd checked my throat, said it could be a growth or a stone, and said she was referring me to a throat specialist another car pulled up. The GP looked around and said it wasn't a very private space for this conversation.
She also seemed keen for my swab to be analysed. So, it was a bit of a shock, but it does show it's worth keeping on insisting on consultations & info about non-Covid concerns.
sounds like someone reviewed your situation, which is a good thing. They all seemed swamped that week or so around lockdown, but I'm guessing they've got more time now to be paying attention.
Yes. That's very likely.
Also around the beginning and first couple of weeks of lock down, GPs were being instructed to do phone and video consultations as much as possible. People really didn't have much of an idea of how widespread C-19 might be in NZ communities.
And also part of the situation where our public health system has been allowed to atrophy over the last few decades.
No interviews from Winston today.
Wonder why.
Perhaps the fish are biting?
Or possibly the horse kicked him?
He’s at L5, which means physical distancing from the paparazzi by at least 200 m. I’m sure Simon will be happy to talk though, about relevant stuff.
Both very droll … lol
RNZ Reports:
Labour and National are responsible for decades of under-funding of our public health system.
I hope the Ardern government follow through on claims they will work to rebuild the system, once the pandemic has been dealt with.
I'm afraid the question that needs to be answered is why did the Government do nothing to prepare for this between the end of January and the middle of March? Why did they not buy PPE then instead of finally putting money into it in the middle of April?
They just sat there.
[Simple task for you: shows us that you’re not lying this time, thanks – Incognito]
I don't believe you.
I am hurt, truly hurt, that you would say such a thing. Mind you if you don't believe that you would be right.
If Alwyn's 'considered' opinion @18.1 passed the sniff test, then I'd be surprised that the opposition National party didn't hold the Government to account re PPE supply, in a timely fashion (“end of January and the middle of March“). Maybe the opposition National party just sat there?
From his reply @18.1.1.1 it's clear that Alwyn was lying – no surprises there.
See my Moderation note @ 2:19 PM.
"Simple task for you"
Before I start this "simple task" would you please tell me what you would regard as satisfactory evidence? It is, of course, generally accepted that it is almost impossible to demonstrate that something does not, and never has, existed. In this case I really don't think that the Government are going to give me access to all the accounts of the Health Department and you will possibly claim that because there might be a purchase of a mask hidden away somewhere I haven't proved my point.
So, before I take this task of Sisyphus on what evidence will you accept?
[When I said “simple task”, I meant it, not a “task of Sisyphus”. You know how it works here: when you make a statement(s) of fact, you need to (be able to) back it up with evidence for it to be judged a fact and not merely some made up shit that sounds good to you but is nevertheless made up BS and/or anti-Government propaganda. In this case, for example, you could link to a statement by the Director General of Health, the Minister of Health, or the Prime Minister showing that everything you said @ 18.1 is factually true and correct. To avoid wasting more time on you than is necessary and to stop your troll-like diversions, I have put you in Pre-Moderation to intercept your comments until you comply with this repeated Moderation request and complete your simple task or until I move you to the Blacklist – Incognito]
Alwyn:
Not very hard to show some evidence that the government did NOT "just sit there"
On 23 January, there is a report that the government had started rolling out their pandemic response plan.
On 25 February, Ministry of health is reported as saying that they had already begun planning for a possible spread of the pandemic to NZ. This includes preparing to have the necessary protective medical equipment.
On 27 Feb, it's reported the Ministry of Health is assessing how much PPE they have in DHBs and how much they need to order from overseas.
Doesn't look like just sitting there. No wonder you don't want to look for the evidence.
It does look like a health system that was not aywhere near prepared for a pandemic when the news of it broke.
Cheers for that.
Mind you, imagine having the task (be it paid employment or self-anointed holy quest) of trying to sow enough alarm and despondency about the this government's covid response so that people should vote tory.
The NZ response broke the chart (damn can’t embed pic properly).
https://twitter.com/belindajanenz/status/1251650473624399873
I suspect some of the Australian states would be very similar to our plot line if they were broken out.
So?
WA has a similar size population and has over the past 2 weeks had around 10 new cases. Yesterday there were none. It has been under a regime very similar to the Level 3 we are moving to. The borders are closed even to other Australians.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-interactive/2020/apr/20/coronavirus-australia-numbers-how-many-new-cases-today-deaths-death-toll-covid-19-stats-graph-map-by-postcode
To expand upon "so?", how does that help Alwyn sow enough discontent to make nact seem palatable to the electorate?
WA has a number of different factors that might aid in keeping their numbers low, including the ability to do sub-national border control and possibly the heat.
Quite. Being a fuckwit about the pandemic is quite the position.
I'd be very surprised if alwyn lasts much longer let alone until the election campaign proper. We're now into that time of the election cycle when it's just easier to ban until after the election.
I must admit to noticing a distinct lack of tolerance on this site for any opinion that is questioning of the ministry response, preparedness or plans for non Covid related care during and as we exit Level 4 lockdown.
Really? You haven't seen Rosemary, myself and others talking about PPE?
People don't get modded for criticising the govt or the MoH. People get modded for astroturfing and trolling, and then creating work for the mods. Longstanding patterns of behaviour where the mods have to spend time repeating themselves tends to fuck us off because we all have better things to do with our time. This is what alwyn's problem is.
I did see Rosemary's comments and the number of people pooh poohing, you were certainly one of the notable exceptions prepared to discuss her concerns.
Carolyn's been putting up solid information and analysis too.
I think there's an unsaid agreement that in a time of crisis one doesn't want to undermine confidence in the ability of authorities to manage what we are going through. That's different from not critiquing at all or having no tolerance for critique. In the post I put up last week criticising the MoH on the PPE issue, the comments were evenhanded debate across a range of opinions, quite a bit of disagreement, from memory none of the bullshit that alwyn just did here.
I think you make a fair point that tolerance levels here are lower than usual; mine certainly are, as you undoubtedly have noticed. I think this is not too hard to understand. So, if you want to criticise you may have to watch the way you do this more than usual. You may also have to present more solid support for your reckons. Small words matter as they can substantially change the message. Please keep in mind that challenging your critique, even when valid, is not the same as fawning of the Government or the PM. My tolerance for these sorts of stupid simple-minded comebacks is near-zero.
Your final link was that the Department was assessing the situation.
That is fine. However after that date I never saw anything about whether they did get any more gear. Then we had report after report that said there was plenty of gear, from the DOH and complaints that we can't get any from the front line.
After that we had some individuals, and I haven't checked the names, but I think Mowbray, Morgan and Tindall were involved who were buying and importing the gear. At about mid March there were stories from importers that the Government was desperately trying to get some supplies but that nothing was available.
Now, a few days ago we had a Press Release that there was going to be a couple of hundred million available to buy it.
However I never saw anything until mid March then that they were actually buying the damn stuff. Looking at it? Yes. Buying it? Nothing for a long time.
I started gathering the links to justify my statements, thinking that you might at least consider them. Statements like "We didn't order any supplies at all" from the Minister weren't there. Surprise, surprise. On the other hand there was nothing until mid-March that they were going to put any money into getting any PPE.
However I collected –
The evidence, in repeated stories, that in spite of the claims by the DOH about all their stuff in stock, people on the front line couldn't get the items.
Then the reports by people who supply this stuff in New Zealand of the sudden heavy demand from the Government to import gowns by air but the orders couldn't be met. These were completely new orders and Government interest.This was just after the lock-down.
Then the statements by Robertson, repeated somewhat later by Clark that they were going to put a lot of money into buying the PPE goods. A couple of hundred million in fact. This was after the lock-down of course, and was the first time they had ever mentioned buying any.
Then I thought about what was likely to happen from some moderator or other who had said that
"I'd be very surprised if alwyn lasts much longer let alone until the election campaign proper. We're now into that time of the election cycle when it's just easier to ban until after the election."
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21-04-2020/#comment-1704912
And then I remembered being banned for a couple of months by the aforesaid moderator for saying that Shaw was out of the country on Census day. My evidence was rejected because it was a newspaper story from, if I remember accurately, the day before the Census saying Shaw would be up in the Islands with the PM on Census day. This was in the future tense and therefore not evidence at all apparently so I was banned.
Then I thought about how many people still post here who actually discuss interesting things in a rational manner. There are still 3 or 4 but that is all. There used to be posts by people like Colonial Viper, or Puckish Rogue or best of all Lanthanide. All gone and hardly anyone except for the KDS sufferers left.
So I have decided, stuff it. Why go to any trouble knowing I will shortly be banned again because I might say something truthful about the Green Party and their coming demise and be banned instantly. There isn't enough here worth reading any more.
I'm off. I'm afraid I can't say "Thanks for all the fish"
@ Alwyn,
Thank you for the response, which I released from Pre-Moderation as you can tell; I thought you’d given up and it seems you have indeed.
I will respond to it later, for the record.
For the record:
If you make factual statements here then you need to be able to back them up. If you cannot find anything to support your statements with then they were most likely just your opinions.
We don’t mind opinions at all, as long as they don’t masquerade as ‘facts’.
This rule is as old as the site, I believe [see what I did there?].
The reason why that Moderator mused that you might not last here is your pattern behaviour. It is not personal, but it is highly likely that it does become self-fulfilling if you believe it is. Moderation takes time and these are stressful times so Moderators do look for ways to avoid the extra burden of having to deal with recidivist behaviour.
Relitigating (past) Moderation is never going to help anybody; you only dig in and a deeper hole.
This is nothing new either.
The irony is that if you want to discuss things in a rational manner you need to be able to distinguish between fact and fiction. The three commenters whom you mentioned all have (considerable) history here. Just like you, they have chosen self-exile from the site quite a few years ago. Only one is currently serving a long ban because he dug in, just like you, and when offered a way out, he didn’t accept!? Yet, oddly enough, he’s still trying to send comments to the site!?
The fact you hold these three commenters in such high regard is quite telling. Even more telling is that you brandish with broad brush everybody else here as “KDS sufferers”. I could easily list quite a few regular commenters who would not fit that brand at all. I think it shows your prejudice towards this site and the people who comment here.
There’s nothing rational about cutting your nose off despite your face. I know this all too well because I’m somewhat of an expert in this.
Lastly, it is well known that you feel some (…) antipathy towards the Greens. This is not a bannable offence at all! However, the truth-threshold is higher than for more general topics and the tolerance for BS is correspondingly lower. If you want to criticise the Green Party then the onus is on you to make it correct and compelling yet you inevitably fail in this regard. I assume this is because you don’t distinguish clearly enough between fact and fiction and because of your demonstrable anti-Green bias.
In summary, if you accuse us of banning you, please know why and what you were banned for and be honest about it. Please don’t make up lame excuses that we cannot handle the truth about the Green Party, for example. It is not becoming of a mature adult who claims to want a rational and civil discussion here.
For the record: you have chosen to leave the site of your own accord.
Stay safe and well, Alwyn.
I was going to warn you that comment would attract attention.
But then I didn't.
Good luck…
I always liked the quote about "luck" from golfer Gary Player. He said that people always told him how "lucky" he was in playing out of a bunker and getting close to the hole.
His response was that he found that the more he practiced the luckier he was.
You certainly do get a lot of practice responding to moderation notes. Am unsure why you're not better at avoiding them.
I think that the views I express may differ from many others on this site.
That is only my impression of course. I could easily be wrong and they are really in the main stream of remarks here.
C'est la vie.
Throwing shade at the mods, now? Implying that you take up so much moderator time because of your differing views?
'practised' alwyn. You will get it right with more practice.
I like your persistence..
Yours in selective pedantry
Sorry but it is a valid alternative spelling and is the one used in the country where he said it. He was in the USA at the time.
https://www.google.com/search?q=practiced&oq=practiced&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l7.3742j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
But it wasn't a direct quote from written material. The spelling was your own.
McFlock is right, alwyn. A direct quote should be given in quotation marks.
And NZ's official language is British English, not US English.
How dare you debase our language, alwyn!!
Yours in righteous pedantry
A wee while ago I had a debate with a colleague about whether it should be "clinical practise" as oppoosed to "clinical practice". It took some time, and involved colleague pointing to scholarly articles referring to clinical practise as "clinical practice", and me asking about how one would distinguish between the clinical practice at which the clinical practise was being practised and the clinical practise practised at the clinical practice even if only in a practice of the practise at the practice.
Last time they make me write rather than count, I hope. 👿
Lovely! The whole thing is easily settled if one substitutes the word 'advise' for 'practise' and 'advice' for 'practice'.
No problem with advice and advise, because we pronounce them differently.
But practise and practice (owing to stupid English spelling non-system) are pronounced the same, hence the massive error-rate, which annoys us true pedants.
P.S. It should be 'clinically practise' and 'clinical practice'. No other options available.
Licence and license, I always get it wrong. Is there a simple rule?
The trick I learned in school was "ice is a thing you slip on".
Interesting re: "clinically practise". The entire thing still confuses me a bit, but that makes sense.
Practise, license, etc – switch the word to 'advise/advice' in that sentence, and you will instinctively pronounce the right choice.
-se = verb. -ce = noun
The best thing to do is to take turn about. That way one can be reasonably sure of a 50% right – 50% wrong scenario no matter what word is in contention. 😎
There are even bigger questions behind this though. Maybe others can help? Had bits of the health service needed for this epidemic been effectively privatised draining money away from essential government maintained services and making it more difficult to ramp up quickly because there needs to be contract renegotiations?
Healthline which has been quite a part of the response seems to be a multi year (8? 9? years) costing $257? million for the basics over these years. I struggle with who is actually running this and if money is being drained into supersized salaries for some and profits as well? Anybody know anything?
Good questions. I'd like to know the answers, too.
Trump is about to suspend all immigration into the United States.
OMG this is the neo-right moment writ large.
Just breathe. It's only a tweet. Wait to see what actually eventuates.
Even if it becomes something substantial, MAGog will quickly come under a lot of pressure from the only people he gives even a tiny rats about to start letting people back in. To help keep wages and salaries low.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/20/politics/donald-trump-immigration-halt-coronavirus/index.html
Sure I will wait for the Executive Order to be signed.
Shutting the borders at both airport and Mexican border is a great base-energiser.
But great to see his polls going down again. Nice and quick for a "flag-rally" bump.
Pretty much the same as NZ at the moment; it's really only open to returning citizens and people who can show their travel is essential. It's my understanding everyone needs to obtain prior permission to even get on the plane.
Having said that I'm with you on the underlying sentiment; the era of relatively open borders is over for a while; maybe quite a while.
NZ 2019/20 brought in 150000 on temporary work visas,will this continue under border control?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/119826510/call-for-freeze-on-temporary-visa-numbers-a-sixfold-increase-with-no-consultation
This and the so called skills shortage lists have just been used to keep wages down across the economy and avoid doing any training. Some of the visa's have terms way beyond the time it would take to train people. It has also given lousy employers a free pass- some of them no one but somebody desperate for a visa would work for,
Needs to stop .
Have they only just closed all of their borders?
Didn't we close ours to all but NZ citizens like 4 weeks or so ago?
Kangaroo on the deserted streets of Adelaide.
https://www.twitter.com/Protect_Wldlife/status/1252342963323023360
Nature is healing. We are the virus.
https://ruinmyweek.com/funny/nature-is-healing-we-are-the-virus/
Excellent wit in there
Kinda dry and wry.
Just love the way wild animals and birds (peacocks) are taking over human territory all around the world. And we think we are superior:
And in NZ:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12326127
ROFL !!! Those goats were hilarious !!! Gonna show the girls, thanks so much for sharing 🙂
Brilliant
Kim Jong Un on his deathbed?
If true, another huge variable in the worlds future. For all his sins, I guess there is stability, albeit based on evil, in NK. If true, and he passes away and the old order collapses, could be a refugee crisis for China.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/04/20/politics/kim-jong-un-north-korea/index.html
Interesting. It would have enormous consequences if there were to be a collapse of the Nth Korean regime. The dissolution of strong man regimes is rarely peaceful, and it could entail sustained cooperation between the Chinese, Sth Korean and American armed services to manage the humanitarian and refugee fallout alone.
A fast moving crisis in Nth Korea could determine the power balance in East Asia for decades. If you look at just the 20th century, East/West Germany, North/South Yemen, North/South Vietnam it was predicted that these divided nations would be very likely to ever recombine … yet all three did during events that lasted just weeks, not even months.
Big Fat Caveat. No-one really knows what is happening in the hermit kingdom, which makes early reports like this highly conditional. If true however, the timing would be appalling ….
Since the story is seemingly not based on hard evidence, there is not much point in getting too excited.
It never rains but it pours.
The world’s largest investment banks have provided more than $700bn of financing for the fossil fuel companies most aggressively expanding in new coal, oil and gas projects since the Paris climate change agreement, figures show.
The financing has been led by the Wall Street giant JPMorgan Chase, which has provided $75bn (£61bn) to companies expanding in sectors such as fracking and Arctic oil and gas exploration, according to the analysis.
The New York bank is one of 33 powerful financial institutions to have provided an estimated total of $1.9tn to the fossil fuel sector between 2016 and 2018.
The data shows the most aggressively expanding coal-mining operations, oil and gas companies, fracking firms and pipeline companies have received $713.3bn in loans, equity issuances and debt underwriting services from 2016 to mid-2019.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/13/top-investment-banks-lending-billions-extract-fossil-fuels
That's GOLD 🙂
Cinny, I think you had replied to that tiktok I posted.
Sorry, I took it down. It came from facebook and you never can tell how far they have their tentacles into your private IT settings.
Funny though. @kyscottt if you want to find it.
Thanks MB for the tiktok addy 🙂 Miss 15 looked it up on her phone, she loved it 🙂
She said…. 'mum this girl is drunk, what is she on about….'
'listen carefully darling do you recognise that voice?'
'omg mummmmm it's trump'
'yes, and this is what he is like in his daily pressers too'
'wow!'
Ireland's Covid-19 numbers are frightening.
They currently have 15,652 cases, 687 deaths and 77 recovered. The population of Ireland is only 4.9 million.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/ireland/
could have been us.