This is the outcome when a pandemic becomes rampant in a country which has a very high population. The logistics of being prepared for Covid in heavily populated countries is massive.
It is a very worrying time for anyone who has family in India. International aid will probably be required. This can be said for Brazil as well.
I am watching to see what will happen in Melbourne as the infectious man in Perth flew to Melbourne. Probably a domino effect shutting state borders in Australia.
I have not been in favour of a trans – Tasman bubble at this stage in the Covid pandemic. Covid is such an unpredictable bastard on so many levels and to jeopardise hard won gains is/was foolish.
It's looking like the bubble is pretty much a fizzer from a tourism pov so far.
Most, as in pretty much all, users of the services into Queenstown are New Zealanders going to see the whanu, to and from the wider southern region. We haven't had an Australian through the gallery, or heard any in the street, but the town's quite busy with New Zealanders with the school holidays.
I was working above Queenstown airport yesterday and two flights came in from Australia that we so light they were able to slow and go off the taxiway 2/3 the way down the runway, and without much effort. Domestic flights were having to use the full length to stop and some were working hard to do so, it's a very short runway.
Also noticing a change in language around town about interest in travel. It's gone from "strong bookings", ie the best rooms have been grabbed for the peak times and wholesale bookings for resale the week before travel as ski packages, to " strong search interest" or even "oh, there's a bit of search interest". We'll see what happens come July and August.
It's looking that people in Australia and New Zealand are being very responsible with their travel and trying to keep their exposure within definable bubbles. The VFF category is easily contact traced, it's mostly within a family bubble rather than out in the wider community as individuals. VFF is also very good for our community and individual wellbeing, and with most New Zealanders having family or friends in Australia the ability to travel and meet with them is something we need to do as soon as we are able. The risks are no different to travel in/out of Auckland, or interstate in Aussie, during an out break and we can manage that fine.
Nearly all the statements / press releases I've seen from industry players pleading for, or praising, the bubble can be interpreted as efforts to kick the bank manager can as far down the road as is physically possible.
Quite possible all they are going to achieve is a sore toe. With a couple of local examples it might be a very sore toe.
we never expected any 'tourism' from the bubble expansion here in Rotorua, just maybe a few people coming home without having to go into quarantine or people coming to visit.
And to be honest, where would the money come from to travel also. Oz may be subsidizing people into travelling but here we say nah nah nah to that.
Were the border to close like it has in Western Australia, not having to pay for a bed needed to have been considered. Some people on trans – Tasman trips could be weighting up relocating closer to family.
Air New Zealand said customers were being given the option to rebook, put their flight into credit or receive a refund if they purchased a refundable ticket.
Further to my comments above about flight loadings into ZQN, this popped up on my FB feed, sums up the bubble very well. The flight is NZ264 from Melbourne to Queenstown yesterday.
Hopefully it works, edit, does if you click on the FB link
Well put.
In my opinion, your considered and insightful eyewitness account, coming as it does from an insider's point of view deserves, to be more widely published and read.
Could you forward it to the admin of this website for consideration as a post.
This aligns with the mood of the nation on opening borders. Most just do not want it. It's nice that some families can visit each other, but mostly this was done to shut up mouthy right wingers.
Again, most responsible people simply do not want to travel for leisure at this time.
Incredible the tourism industry and airlines got this so wrong.
Turns out yet another bit of anti-Russian cold war propaganda disseminated by the rabid war mongering Liberal press and their useful idiots is just another piece of fake news…anyone else see a pattern forming here?
Yes you are right, every year it seems that MSM, and sadly pretty much all so called Liberal MSM entrench themselves further as nothing more than voice boxes for war, conflict and division when called upon to do so.
When the most effective medium for whistle blowers in our life times in the shape of Julian Assange is publicly humiliated, tortured and imprisoned, our media remain almost silent..but then to illustrate just how effective their propaganda model is, MSM actually get the public worked up enough over the openly racist and super dodgy Navaldy to protest and cry foul about him, but not Assange..that is really saying something disturbing about the effectiveness of mass media manipulation, even after four years of Russia gate, conducted by the most powerful information gathering organizations ever to exist that led to absolutely nothing, you would think people would learn, however in many cases, apparently not.
The news was hot with tales of Russian doping dastardliness…oh those Russians ..
We were subjected to weeks of Russian depravity on the field, the cheating bastards !!
But when those athletes took their case to appeal, and had the opportunity to cross examine the "whistleblower" Rodchenkov…he didn't come out well..28 athletes had their ban overturned and 7 medals were returned .
Quietly forgotten .We are left instead with the initial outrage
Thanks francesca, I wasn't aware of those developments in that story. This state fueled propaganda is getting pretty out of control…I just had my official complaint to RNZ over their coverage of the Douma poisoning rejected because the stories are over ten weeks old. However as I said in my complaint, I wasn’t complaining about their coverage at the time, I am complaining that they haven’t covered any of the recent developments of that that story which debunk the original accusations.
"Returning to the United Nations, veteran German diplomat and former top UN official Hans von Sponeck calls for an end to the stonewalling of accountability for the OPCW's cover-up of its April 2018 Douma chemical weapons probe."
‘
“I just had my official complaint to RNZ over their coverage of the Douma poisoning rejected because the stories are over ten weeks old.”
Adrian Thornton
Kia ora Adrian, It is a shame that RNZ rejected your complaint on grounds that it was over ten theeks old, rather than over your dispute of the facts of the Douma poisoning.
It is a disapointment, because if RNZ had bothered to go into the substance of your complaint more deeply it would have been instructive for all of us.
However if you want to cut and paste a copy of your complaint to RNZ to this forum, I for one would be interested in reading it to decide for myself if it has any merit.
And while on the subject of Liberal fake news…here is a great piece from one of the very few remaining US journalists that is worth a damn..Matt Taibbi
Rachel Maddow is Bill O'Reilly
After hyping a fake story for a year, cable's leading anchor doesn't blink and moves on to the next fable
It's interesting to consider the New Zealand equivalents of these U.S. personalities. Our own versions of Matt Taibbi would be John Stephenson, Nicky Hager, Gordon Campbell, Paula Penfold. (John Campbell has been excellent in challenging the powerful, and has angered many politicians, including Helen Clark, Gerry Brownlee, and the Prime Minister of Samoa; however, his credulous acceptance of the Russiagate conspiracy theory would amuse and appal Matt Taibbi.)
Bill O'Reilly: sadly this country has far more replicas of that ill-informed but opinionated right winger than it does of Matt Taibbi. The list is long and depressing: Mike Hosking, Karl Du Fresne, David Farrar, Neil Miller, Sean Plunket, Richard Harman, Bill Ralston, Duncan Garner, Barry Soper, Heather Du Plessis-Allan, … ad nauseam.
Rachel Maddow: Who's a New Zealand woman who has earned a reputation as an intelligent and perceptive interviewer, but has done much to erode that reputation by uncritically aligning herself with the right wing of the Democratic Party and its glum bunch of ideological warriors? Step forward, Dame KIM HILL.
Speaking of Kim Hill, Adrian, did you hear Jennifer Robinson this morning politely but firmly telling her that her statements about Julian Assange were false? It was the most complete demolition job done on her since another Australian human rights champion, John Pilger, took her to task for retailing Pentagon talking points in 2003.
Hi Morrissey, yes I tuned in especially to see how Kim would handle that interview, it went pretty much as I expected, Kim knows enough to know when she is on the wrong side of history, so was never going to seriously tangle with Robinson on Assange, just like she quickly backed off her guest (sorry forgot their name) who was on her show to talk about conspiracy theories recently, when he used Russia gate as an example of a contemporary conspiracy theory…it has been obvious from the outset, if these liberals talking heads had any confidence in these things, they would be only happy to interview Greenwald, Taibbi, Mate' etc, but of course never did and never will…enough said.
I was still shocked to hear her repeat the lie about him irresponsibly releasing files on WikiLeaks. Judging by her hesitant tone, I don't think she actually believed a word of what she was saying, but she said it all the same.
It raises, yet again, serious questions about her judgement and her integrity. It also raises questions about the judgement and integrity of her producer, who must have been aware of the questions and allegations she had prepared.
Yes I noticed her half hearted tone during that exchange as well..I don't believe there is any question about RNZ's producers or management, they represent New Zealand's own version of The Guardian, who have proved that they are one of the greatest threats to any serious progressive Left Wing project ever getting traction.
They are just centrist free market liberals who defend that ideology just as much as every other ideologue defends theirs..myself included, the only difference is that I happen to be fighting for the right one and they are not.
Robinson had the best answer too, that when misinformation gets repeated enough in the mainstream press people start to believe it – a brilliant indirect jab at RNZ. Let me guess.. this will be Robinson's first and last interview on this rather odious station.
At the time it seemed the more pressing bounty for Trump to eliminate was the one out on the Venezuelan president. But that is still being put up by the Biden administration.
And for all the talk of New Zealand ‘sucking up” to China or being the “West’s woke weak link” from some British MPs and news outlets, it really reeks more of a long post-colonial confusion within the UK about what its role in the world is. It is still struggling to get used to its diminished importance as the structural power centre of the world moves east.
True yes. But the UK still over- estimates its place as a world power. My comment was more in relation to the patently stupid responses coming from sections of the UK media.
In short, NZ is once again showing its ability to be slightly ahead of the rest of the 5 – Eye countries. It happened in the mid 1980s when we moved on the insane escalation of nuclear weaponry. We stuck to our guns and eventually they fell into line and followed us… not the other way round.
My assessment would be the 'sections of UK media' are likely acting at the behest of the dominant 'partner' rather than any inflated sense of importance….and would contest the notion that any of the other 5 eyes members have followed our anti nuclear position….rather it is studiously ignored.
… would contest the notion that any of the other 5 eyes members have followed our anti nuclear position….rather it is studiously ignored.
They aren't as transparent as NZ, but both East and West did agree to limit the number of nuclear weapons they held which was an accomplishment of sorts – along with the world-wide anti-nuclear movement.
Of course since then the sabre rattling has restarted on both sides but I'm too old now to care much about it. Its all so puerile in my humble opinion.
I would say it is less their imperial power, than their status as a centre of culture. One cannot have a clown PM like Boris or a clown President like Trump and expect the world to take you seriously. The VRWC, in choosing populism over public interest policy, has, like the later Roman emperors, condemned their nations to decline and loss of influence.
"About a year ago the decision was made that the merger/takeover would proceed and the Ministry of Culture and Heritage outsourced the policy function to PwC, an accounting firm, to make a business case. (Note the term ‘business’. The framework is the commercialisation of RNZ – even had PwC much expertise in public policy, its advice will be trapped in a Rogernomic framework.)"
Our governments have abdicated the formation of public policy to the idealogues of neoliberalism for decades past so its unsurprising the same mistakes are being perpetuated….this wont change until we redevelop in house capability/capacity
This is the real locus and range of political choice and debate in the UK, i.e. what sort of Tory government are they going to get – Dodgy Dave, Clown Boris or Dry Stick Theresa – hard or soft Brexit, austerity or not so much austerity, etc. The Murdoch propaganda machine has done its job.
Get used to the Tories, AB. The Labour Party, which under Jeremy Corbyn became the biggest political party in Europe, has been reduced to a pile of ashes by the Blairite rump. We will never see another Labour government in Britain.
Kim couldve been a lot more demonstratedly ill informed i reckon morrissey T he corporate news talking points she did mention didnt extend to many of the familiar smears no mention of sweden etc didnt even repeat the one about him being mean to his cat !!Im not in love with lots of stuff the boss,s in rnz manage but at least they allowed kim to say assanges name a few times and have i think a quite pleasant interview with JR.
The things with legacy ………one does not really get to choose how people remember one, or what ones legacy is. I have seriously never come across anyone more detached from the reality of poverty than the current crew that runs this labour government. Out of touch, arrogant, useless.
Fears of an emerging "motel generation" are beginning to grow in Hawke's Bay as the number of children living in emergency accommodation spikes.
Ministry of Social Development data revealed to Hawke's Bay Today shows there are now 3888 children living in emergency housing nationwide – 225 in Hawke's Bay alone.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Hawke's Bay Today that while alternatives to emergency housing are sometimes worse, the Government is not satisfied with the current arrangements.
However, Ardern said she did not believe that a "motel generation" of children would be part of her legacy as Prime Minister.
Dear Leader, it is already your legacy. It will always be your legacy. No matter how much you protests to the contrary, if you want the good you need to also acknowledge your failures and when it comes to housing, poor people and their poor kids your legacy stinks to high heavens right next to the legacy of John Key. Two peas, one pod.
Sabine, if you're implying that there's really nothing of substance to choose between the two, then I respectfully disagree with your opinion. I know which ‘pea‘ I prefer.
I Eat My Peas with Honey (by Anonymous)
I eat my peas with honey;
I’ve done it all my life.
It makes the peas taste funny,
But it keeps them on the knife.
To some people, truffles, bonbons, pralines and Roses are just chocolates. Distinctions are useful or inconvenient, depending on the narrative (AKA wheel-barrow) one wants to push.
It seems to me that you don't know much about chocolate. Only that could explain you considering roses as 'just chocolate' while in effect it is 'just rubbish' as is the motel warehousing policy of this government. Chocolates would be the government stopping to continue to do what did not work under National, considering that they are so different. But then i hear there are people who consider Cadbury chocolate. Some just can't be helped.
I am a bit surprised that Davidson and Menendez have not been more vocal in having MSD pay the rent shortfall so people do not need to live in a motel.
The urgency of avoiding people living in a motel needs immediate attention and action. Introducing the old special benefit and having allowable costs worked in the past before temporary additional supplement replaced it apart from some still being paid a special benefit.
The Greens can do no more then Labour could when National warehoused people in motels and rundown properties for top dollar. Crow, from the back benches to no avail.
there is literally no difference between this under National in 2014
Winz will loan people money to rent out a motel room as emergency housing, when there is nowhere else to put them.
People then have to repay the debt, and many say that is just not possible.
Earlier this week, when asked what people living in cars or garages should do, Prime Minister John Key had a simple reply.
"My really strong advice is to go and see Work and Income," he said, "and we'll see what we can do, because I think people very often don't understand what's available to them.
2019
The government now spends more than $3 billion per year on housing assistance – with more and more of that money being spent on motels.
Emergency housing grants, which cover short term accommodation, were introduced in July 2016 as a stop gap measure but are increasingly being used for longer stays as the housing crisis bites.
There are 1899 households in private motels, with 381 of those in motels for more than three months at a cost of $1500 each a week.
Figures show it's big business for some motels, with five providers alone receiving $20m in the last three years to provide shelter for the homeless.
The top earner is an Auckland motelier, Auckland Astro Residences – it's been paid $6.1 million.
The Government is defending its decision to charge those staying in motels as emergency housing rent.
It announced Thursday, as part of a $300m homelessness package, that those who stayed in motels as a form of emergency housing longer than seven days would now be charged rent equivalent to 25 per cent of their income – the same amount charged for those in public and transitional housing.
Fears of an emerging "motel generation" are beginning to grow in Hawke's Bay as the number of children living in emergency accommodation spikes.
Ministry of Social Development data revealed to Hawke's Bay Today shows there are now 3888 children living in emergency housing nationwide – 225 in Hawke's Bay alone.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Hawke's Bay Today that while alternatives to emergency housing are sometimes worse, the Government is not satisfied with the current arrangements.
However, Ardern said she did not believe that a "motel generation" of children would be part of her legacy as Prime Minister.
i would like to know if the 25% that people in emergency housing have to pay of their benefits for the pleasure to be housed unsafely, over crowded, amongst gangs, drug, booze, abuse, violence are truly charged. I remember people here getting upset and writing posts about the dastardly nationalistas and paula benefit who charged emergency housed with the costs – refundable 5 NZD a week. I would really like to know if they went ahead with it, mind i would not put it past them. Callous is as callous does, and these guys are callous.
They truly are two peas in a pod. A blue pea, a red pea in the pod of NZ. And neither one of them consider the homeless their constituency unless its e lection time, or time to hug a baby for the cameras to show some ‘kindness’ and some ‘gentleness’ for the poor unfortunate people this country has no place and no use for.
There is a reason why the government do not want to bridge the gap by paying a shortfall in rent to prevent people needing to live in motels.
Menendez needs to do costings, once the accommodation supplement and temporary additional support caps are reached the shortfall would be $100 – $200 a week. Compare this to the cost of a motel.
I think the government do not want to send a signal to landlords that the government will subsidise a person's rent past a point. Government probably think this would slow an increase in market rents. Subsidising motel owners is preferred.
never mind asking an associate minister, there will be no answers.
In 2018, a parliamentary inquiry said introducing the new test should be done immediately. “Any delay in implementing primary HPV screening will have significant adverse effects and risks.”
It described unnecessary cervical cancer as a “serious threat”.
Ginny Niwa was eventually diagnosed with cervical cancer in the UK after having clear smear tests in NZ. In the UK, she was told her cancer would have been there for at least three years. She's advocating for a new test that the Government has failed to fund. She is pictured with her daughter Indi Niwa, 17 months.
Stuff asked Associate Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall what she thought of diagnoses being missed because of the delay, if she supports funding for primary HPV testing, and when a new programme should be implemented.
In a statement, spokeswoman Ranjani Ponnuchetty said: “The Minister is working hard on this issue. Regarding any funding decisions, they are matters for Government Budgets.”
She should have just said that at this stage she could not comment. Ask the minister. It would have had more value then "the minister is working 'hard''. That is a quote worthy of a Trumpian spokesperson.
In the future it is possible that some women will be able to take their own sample for HPV testing. There are still questions to address regarding how self-sampling would work in New Zealand and how women would be supported for any follow up testing or treatment required.
The Ministry of Health is funding further research about the acceptability and feasibility of self-sampling in New Zealand and is also investigating the effectiveness of different self-sampling devices.
Any self-sample test needs to be as safe and effective as a sample collected by a smear taker.
Māori doctors are urging the Ministry of Health to reconsider postponing a self-swabbing cervical cancer programme they say is more effective, less invasive and more affordable.
This here is the money quote that strikes right into the heart.
It was due to be rolled out in 2018, but the government put it on ice.
For those who prefer a self test, the method needs to be available. Those who want the current method they should be able to access it.
Cervical cancer screening reduces cervical cancer, especially when caught at the pre cancer stage or insitu stage. The HPV jab is also in the tool kit.
The below par up take of HPV vaccination needs to be looked into due to being effective for other cancers associated with HPV. I did not realise 2 injections were required.
"…But it was hated by landlords, real-estate investors and members of Germany’s conservative political parties. The lawsuit against the cap was filed by 284 parliamentary members of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP)."
"Last week’s ruling represents a defeat for Berlin’s housing movement, but it may yet prove to be a pyrrhic victory for the city’s landlords and speculators. Anger over the nullification of the rent cap is fuelling support for the expropriation and remunicipalisation of thousands of units of public housing that had been privatised. Some activists would like to go further and expropriate empty flats."
Rent controls are a political issue. When it comes to being homeless there are property investors who look the other way, a political party says no rent control and banks allow too much money to be loaned so high rent is required to pay the bank.
Having different interest rates, a high one for a property investor and a low one for a first home buyer.
Everything is a political issue….i find it curious that after 5 years of (presumably) a political decision, possibly at local level it has been legally challenged by the political class.
As noted in the piece, the victory(?) may well be pyrrhic…when something is unsustainable , one thing is certain….it wont continue.
That article illustrates very well how international and intractable the accomodation crisis is. When rental housing is the best, or only, investment with any sort of return and perceived lowish risk the shit's going to hit the fan for the poor bastards that have to rent.
We'll see if the imminent rise in interest rates, with a flow on to deposit rates will start to ease things for tenants.
Not so much ponzi, but the last reasonable investment with the perception of a manageable risk.
Housing will generally give you 5%, pretty risk free. Bank investments, the best my bank is offering is 0.90%. What are you going to do? The Share Market and Managed Funds offer better returns, comparable or maybe better than housing but require more knowledge and present more risk. Also most of the people putting their money into housing now were around when fortunes went down the gurgler in 1987 and 2008, often their fortunes, so are a tad wary of those sorts of investments now.
Agree 1% is a poor return (esp with bail in) but I suspect that many are due to find out that RE is no less susceptible to losses ….and ponzi is exactly what it is, increasing credit to sustain existing credit, and it all has to be underpinned by an (shrinking) economy with only one direction for servicing costs.
The folly will be obvious after the event…all too late.
Pat
That should be published as a poster! Could everyone of an activist nature, copy this message without name or other information to distract the eye, on half of an A4 sheet (a size easier to find a place for on a bulletin board etc), in about 14 font, clear and easily read, and pin, staple, bluetack – whatever is appropriate, somewhere in a public place. And repeat in about two weeks somewhere else etc. It could be a new way of breaking through the great disease of Plum Smugness (ie the boy with the pie who pulled out a plum. This was a sly rhyme about a trusted servant who stole the title to lands hidden in a pie!
Just these words – (under the heading of Financial Loss for Real Estate investors – a simple, striking and unwelcome message.)!
Financial Loss for Real Estate Investors ie Houses
Real Estate is susceptible to losses ….
and Ponzi is exactly what it is,
increasing credit to sustain existing credit, and
it all has to be underpinned by a (shrinking) economy
with only one direction for servicing costs.
The folly will be obvious after the event…all too late.
…Chris Roberts dissect the meaning of the nursery rhyme "Little Jack Horner." It's about a real estate swindle in 16th-century England. Roberts is the author of Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme.
You think the real estate market is treacherous today, try England in the late 1530s. That's what the nursery rhyme "Little Jack Horner" is really all about. ..
`Little Jack Horner sat in a corner eating his Christmas pie.
He stuck in a thumb and pulled out a plum and said,
"What a good boy am I."'
Where to begin with this? This is talking about the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII taking property from the Catholic Church. Jack, as we know, is actually called Thomas Horner. Now he was a steward to the Abbot of Glastonbury during the reign of Henry VIII. This is how the story goes: He was entrusted to take some title deeds of properties to Henry VIII as a bribe so the abbot could keep the main monastery, but was prepared to give away some of the lesser properties.
Now the title deeds were held and sealed in a pie, and Jack's off to London. But instead of delivering the bribe to Henry VIII, he helps himself to the pie, puts his hand in, pulls out a plum piece of real estate–in this case, a place called Mells Manor-
And the CDU/CSU – the federal german and bavarian state capitalists are neither Christian nor social.
As for the FDP – years ago they almost got taken over by students in a concerted effort to swamp membership for this party- so much fun, but sadly they found out too soon and stopped accepting membership request. This Party is useless on its own and can only get traction as part of a coalition and is usually considered a 'filler party' for the above mentioned Parties if they have to have a coalition partner that will be silent and roll over on demand.
And yes, while Germany is a federation we do have a Free State with its on set of laws – Bavaria, we have a free State City Hamburg with very much its own set of laws. Sadly Berlin – to new a town in terms of German history never got elevated to a 'free' status. And thus like in the eighties is still run by the same set of hostage takers it was in the 80s when we squatted due to no availablity of flats.
It should have done some some years ago to be honest.
this is a good rundown on the "Hafenstadt Occupation" in Hamburg that has been a thing now since the seventies. And interstingly enough it saved a lot of beautiful houses and complexes in Hamburg, one of them the 'Porttown' which is just stunning. One of the Oldest ones would be the "alte Flora' a building which has been occupied since 1986 🙂 (giggles with delight)
the beginning of the occupation of empty buidings in Berlin.
and this is repeated throughout Germany but these would be the most known towns for it. Ah, when the left was radical. Good times.
I am not sure how to convert these links into english language, but the first has a nice list of of occupied buildings and pictures to give an idea just what you can occupy if you put your heart to it. Some of these buildings are grandios.
Why do we privatise? It's the latest economic fashion. Unfortunately they don't change economic OS as fast as clothing fashions. You have to put up with obvious bad management even criminality for so many decades it turns into an era. When it should be seen to be a glitch in a good record and quickly abandoned when noticed.
The UK government had had a postal service since 1516. I see from Wikipedia that a directive came from the EU to privatise it and that was done in 2012. I am so ignorant, I didn't think that the EU did this sort of thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mail#Privatisation
There had been lots of complaints about it before that. Poor delivery service: Often a miserable, underpaid temp, who stuffs all the mail for six flats through the door in one torn and crumpled bundle because he or she is so frightened of being penalised by the manager for not meeting a preposterous delivery target that there is no time even to take the rubber bands off.
In beefing the delivery targets to unmanageable sizes per worker, then sacking postmen for failing to meet them, in axing the second post and generally thumping down the iron fist, the Royal Mail managed this year to make a £321m operating profit. They celebrated by imposing an immediate pay freeze on the workers.
2009/Oct.18 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/oct/18/victoria-coren-royal-mail
Then they had started jailing the small subpostmasters for theft and hiding the fact that discrepancies were likely to be caused by faults in their tech caused by their Horizon operating system.
The Post Office ultimately settled the civil claim brought by more than 550 claimants for £57.75m, without admitting liability, in December 2019.
Justice Fraser found Horizon contained “bugs, errors and defects” and that there was a “material risk” shortfalls in branch accounts were caused by the system.
……Subpostmasters’ lives were “irreparably ruined”, as they lost their jobs, homes and marriages after they were prosecuted by the Post Office – which knew the Fujitsu-developed IT system had “faults and bugs from the earliest days of its operation”, the court of appeal heard last month.
A pregnant subpostmaster was jailed and said the baby stopped her from thinking about suicide. One man, imprisoned, found himself crying every day. Their names have been blackened, their ability to get work affected, they had to declare themselves criminals n forms at the airport etc. They felt forced to plead guilty as advised by their barristers, rather than take on the mighty power of the now unscrupulous Postal Service, once held in high esteem. These two people were both Indian. I just note that as of interest amongst all the disturbing facts of this dreadful business of the UKPost
Thanks Grey, disturbing info on UK Post. The idea of public service has been affected/infected by the pernicious profit motive pandemic. Too late for a vaccine?
No profit from the pandemic – vaccine for all!
Global Health Day 2021 Statement: On the 7th of April, we celebrate Global Health. The COVID-19 pandemic has showed us how vital health and care services are to our lives and our societies. The pandemic has also demonstrated that only publicly owned, not for profit health and social care services are able to efficiently cope with major health crises and, most importantly, ensure accessibility for all citizens, regardless of economic status. Finally, COVID-19 has shown that health and social care are public goods.
Public services can guarantee the right to care for all. They can ensure the preparedness and resilience of health and care services for future health emergencies. One of the main lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic is that, more than ever, we need to protect health and care from commercialisation and privatisation. No one should be making a profit from the pandemic.
Marketisation and Privatisation in Criminal Justice (2020) As privatisation, outsourcing and the impact of market cultures spread further across the system, the authors look ahead to future developments and signpost the way to reform in a ‘post-market’ criminal justice sphere.
Introduction Criminal justice used to be thought of as a field that ought to be autonomous from politics and the economy, with the management of crime and punishment being seen as essentially the responsibility of the state. Now, however, it is widely agreed that decades of marketisation and privatisation have blurred the institutional boundaries and functions of the public sector with those of for-profit and civil society interests in many parts of the penal/welfare complex. The ‘mixed market’ in criminal justice services, pursued by successive governments since the 1980s, accelerated sharply in the wake of the Austerity Agenda and the reconstruction of the social economy post the banking crisis of 2007. The ascendancy of market imaginaries is such that their influence on policing, prisons, probation, legal services and the courts, let alone numerous ancillary services from prisoner transport to interpretation services, is seemingly irreversible.
On Kneejerk Negativism, Cardi B, And Linda Manz (August 2020) Evidently, the government has looked at (a) the deadly role that incompetent private security firms have played in the deadly outbreak of community transmission in Melbourne and (b) at the role of private security staff in the latest privacy breach committed here. Serco and the private prisons fiasco had already shown that the profit motive is all but incompatible with maintaining high standards of security.
What Is a Capitalist Economy Example? New Zealand is a prime example of a capitalist economy. This wealthy country in the Asian Pacific region has systemically deregulated and privatized many industrial and professional sectors since the 1980s. Its judicial system recognizes and enforces private property interests and contracts. Government subsidies are low, and an open, liberal attitude to global trade and investment is well-established. Tariffs are low on imports and exports, which comprise around 50% of New Zealand's GDP. https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/042215/what-difference-between-capitalist-system-and-free-market-system.asp
Unravelling + reMAKING the public good Part 2: Unravelling privatisation Unravelling and then reMAKING the public good is not something to be done alone or at high speed. In Part 1, we introduced the idea of the public good and what it might mean for helping us to achieve an Australia reMADE. In Part 2 we look at the way privatisation and marketisation threaten the public good.
Good reading there Drowsy – (you aren't!). That ReMADE approach, I’m thinking now about our new health project. Is Labour attempting this with the Health Project meant to give our health system a vaccine against poor management? It needs to go to the very source of the flow of medical services – the Ministry of Health (or as Rosemary McDonald has sarcastically described as the Misery of Health.)
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – 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 (I will report on them ...
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 ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
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 ...
The beloved local grocers lost a legal challenge to stop a new cycleway outside their store. Joel MacManus reports. In the annals of New Zealand legal history, there are a few brave people who have dared to stand up to the powers that be, no matter how bleak the odds ...
How what we produce and what we eat connects us to the world beyond our shores, visualised. Walking around a supermarket or vege shop, it might be obvious that everything on the shelves came from somewhere. But you might ...
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The following interview with auto electrician and former caver Stu Berendt, 68, of Charleston on the West Coast, came about because he was part of the caving team that found the rare and amazing fossil remains of the giant Haast eagle, the subject of one of the year’s best books, ...
A $1.8b funding boost for Pharmac still won’t enable it to buy more drugs, raising questions about the Government’s approach to the agency The post Can Pharmac do more with the same pot of money? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Professor Jemma Geoghegan, of the University of Otago, Otakou Whakaihu Waka, co-leads a Te Niwha project aimed at understanding how and where avian influenza could affect Aotearoa New Zealand, as the highly infectious H5N1 virus spreads globally. The virus has now spread to all continents except Oceania and was recently ...
Thirty years on from Rwanda’s genocide, is guilt over the atrocities is blinding the world to the true nature of its current leadership? The post The repressive underside of Rwanda’s regime appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: Last week, important recommendations for our criminal justice system were made by the international community. Every five years, each member of the United Nations has its human rights practices reviewed. This rolling event – the Universal Periodic Review – is the culmination of a government reporting on its human ...
Highly pathogenic avian influenza – H5N1, or bird flu – has been flying around the world since the late 1990s. New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands are so far free of it, but now it’s been discovered in mainland Antarctica and scientists say it’s only a matter of time ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Stokan, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County If you live in one of the most economically deprived neighborhoods in your city, you might think the government is directing a smaller share of public funds to your community. ...
Wansolwara The news media’s crucial role in climate change and environment journalism was the focus of The University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme 2024 World Press Freedom Day celebrations. The European Union Ambassador to the Pacific, Barbara Plinkert, and Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna were the chief ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Adams, Professor of Corporate Law & Academic Director of UNE Sydney campus, University of New England Last August, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched legal proceedings against Qantas. The consumer watchdog accused the airline of selling thousands of tickets ...
This episode of A View From Afar was recorded LIVE on May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, May 5, 2024 at 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Taylor, Assistant Professor, Bond University Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures At the crux of the critical response to Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Challengers is one word: “sexy”. The film charts a love triangle between three up-and-coming tennis players: Tashi (Zendaya), ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Stewart, Professor of Public Policy, ADFA Canberra, UNSW Sydney For years, First Nations people have been telling governments they want to be listened to. In particular, they want more ownership of the programs and services that are supposed to help them. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Why do trees have bark? Julien, age 6, Melbourne. This is a great question, Julien. We are so familiar with bark on trees, that most of us ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love a dark comedy: Bodkin (Netflix, May 9)An English podcaster, an Irish podcaster and American podcaster walk into a pub and…make a TV show? ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...
How worried should we be about the cloud? This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. I currently have a few thousand unread emails languishing in my inbox, mostly old marketing newsletters and piles of unread science journal press releases. I have a similar number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies College of Arts and Sciences Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies, Northern State University Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Murakami Wood, Professor of Critical Surveillance and Securities Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa The skyline of Riyadh, the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.(Shutterstock) There is a long history of planned city building by both governments ...
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The Boil Up’s Lucinda Bennett considers the oyster – from freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. In Carmen Maria Machado’s short story ‘Eight Bites’, a woman begins her last supper before bariatric surgery with “a cavalcade ...
Asia Pacific Report A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine. They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by ...
The Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...
Keeping up with online communication can be exhausting, so Fran Barclay enlisted the help of Meta’s new ‘intelligent assistant’ to respond to all her messages. Could her mates tell the difference? For centuries, technology has ruled the ways in which we communicate. From the dawn of written language, to the ...
Jamie Arbuckle, a councillor who has become an member of parliament, says he has settled into having two roles so comfortably he's going to keep both pay cheques. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Boccabella, Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW Sydney There’s a good reason your local volunteer-run netball club doesn’t pay tax. In Australia, various nonprofit organisations are exempt from paying income tax, including those that do charitable work, such as churches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Creative Writing and English Literature, Flinders University NetflixComedy is opening up spaces for silences to be broken and trauma stories to be told. In 2018, Hannah Gadsby started a revolution with Nanette, asking audiences to rethink ...
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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; ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
You thought lockdowns were bad
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/21/system-has-collapsed-india-descent-into-covid-hell?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1plYafJ-zVxWIYPIcVeuoU8mFGDC5uPNDyPK3BsjvrAXPoWTUePkwQlF4#Echobox=1619005174
This is the outcome when a pandemic becomes rampant in a country which has a very high population. The logistics of being prepared for Covid in heavily populated countries is massive.
It is a very worrying time for anyone who has family in India. International aid will probably be required. This can be said for Brazil as well.
Flight hesitancy, is it a thing?
Kiwis stuck in Perth might be giving people second thoughts.
And when they do come back, will they have to go into isolation hotels?
Probably.
Food for thought.
Travel paused between New Zealand and Western Australia due to Covid-19 outbreak
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/124940177/transtasman-bubble-travel-paused-between-new-zealand-and-western-australia-due-to-covid19-outbreak
I am watching to see what will happen in Melbourne as the infectious man in Perth flew to Melbourne. Probably a domino effect shutting state borders in Australia.
I have not been in favour of a trans – Tasman bubble at this stage in the Covid pandemic. Covid is such an unpredictable bastard on so many levels and to jeopardise hard won gains is/was foolish.
It's looking like the bubble is pretty much a fizzer from a tourism pov so far.
Most, as in pretty much all, users of the services into Queenstown are New Zealanders going to see the whanu, to and from the wider southern region. We haven't had an Australian through the gallery, or heard any in the street, but the town's quite busy with New Zealanders with the school holidays.
I was working above Queenstown airport yesterday and two flights came in from Australia that we so light they were able to slow and go off the taxiway 2/3 the way down the runway, and without much effort. Domestic flights were having to use the full length to stop and some were working hard to do so, it's a very short runway.
There's been a bit of flight cancellation by Air New Zealand in/out of ZQN but that's adjusting to an unknown demand. Also a bit in the media about low demand after the first few days as they picked up the slack from customers who delayed travel after the announcement to avoid MIQ. https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/travel/2021/04/trans-tasman-travel-bubble-air-nz-cuts-flights-as-demand-lags-behind-expectations.html https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/transtasman-travel-bubble-the-big-difference-between-australia-and-new-zealand/RCSUOZZDR5CI2V6J6LVN66THAI/
Also noticing a change in language around town about interest in travel. It's gone from "strong bookings", ie the best rooms have been grabbed for the peak times and wholesale bookings for resale the week before travel as ski packages, to " strong search interest" or even "oh, there's a bit of search interest". We'll see what happens come July and August.
It's looking that people in Australia and New Zealand are being very responsible with their travel and trying to keep their exposure within definable bubbles. The VFF category is easily contact traced, it's mostly within a family bubble rather than out in the wider community as individuals. VFF is also very good for our community and individual wellbeing, and with most New Zealanders having family or friends in Australia the ability to travel and meet with them is something we need to do as soon as we are able. The risks are no different to travel in/out of Auckland, or interstate in Aussie, during an out break and we can manage that fine.
Independent leisure tourism is a bit trickier and people get that. Australian tourism has trouble getting Australians to travel to leisure destinations internally and has spent AUD 1.2 billion subsidising domestic airfares to try and get them traveling (and save their tourism industry) People don't want to travel and be around perceived strangers. We're seeing the same here with mainstream resorts doing a starve but less mainstream places just down the road having good trade because people feel they will be less crowded and less "tourist".
good post graeme. maybe the tourists are being more responsible than some in the tourist industry.
Nearly all the statements / press releases I've seen from industry players pleading for, or praising, the bubble can be interpreted as efforts to kick the bank manager can as far down the road as is physically possible.
Quite possible all they are going to achieve is a sore toe. With a couple of local examples it might be a very sore toe.
Looking forward to the Blanket Bay 5 night special coming down from $6k soon. Yeah nah sigh.
we never expected any 'tourism' from the bubble expansion here in Rotorua, just maybe a few people coming home without having to go into quarantine or people coming to visit.
And to be honest, where would the money come from to travel also. Oz may be subsidizing people into travelling but here we say nah nah nah to that.
Hearing about first hand observation is good.
Were the border to close like it has in Western Australia, not having to pay for a bed needed to have been considered. Some people on trans – Tasman trips could be weighting up relocating closer to family.
I expect a refundable ticket is also required.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/124940177/transtasman-bubble-travel-paused-between-new-zealand-and-western-australia-due-to-covid19-outbreak
In other words, caveat emptor.
When it comes to re booking or putting a flight into credit can this be done more than once?
No doubt a fee is involved.
Further to my comments above about flight loadings into ZQN, this popped up on my FB feed, sums up the bubble very well. The flight is NZ264 from Melbourne to Queenstown yesterday.
Hopefully it works, edit, does if you click on the FB link
https://www.facebook.com/788747364/videos/10159228270852365/
@ Graeme
Well put.
In my opinion, your considered and insightful eyewitness account, coming as it does from an insider's point of view deserves, to be more widely published and read.
Could you forward it to the admin of this website for consideration as a post.
Contact
This aligns with the mood of the nation on opening borders. Most just do not want it. It's nice that some families can visit each other, but mostly this was done to shut up mouthy right wingers.
Again, most responsible people simply do not want to travel for leisure at this time.
Incredible the tourism industry and airlines got this so wrong.
NZ cannot even manage cervical screening and to think a trans – Tasman bubble can be managed, give me a break.
Turns out yet another bit of anti-Russian cold war propaganda disseminated by the rabid war mongering Liberal press and their useful idiots is just another piece of fake news…anyone else see a pattern forming here?
U.S. Intel Walks Back Claim Russians Put Bounties on American Troops
https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-intel-walks-back-claim-russians-put-bounties-on-american-troops
Thank you.
But according to some any alt-media that doesn't agree with the MSM is by default working for the Ruskies.
Yes you are right, every year it seems that MSM, and sadly pretty much all so called Liberal MSM entrench themselves further as nothing more than voice boxes for war, conflict and division when called upon to do so.
When the most effective medium for whistle blowers in our life times in the shape of Julian Assange is publicly humiliated, tortured and imprisoned, our media remain almost silent..but then to illustrate just how effective their propaganda model is, MSM actually get the public worked up enough over the openly racist and super dodgy Navaldy to protest and cry foul about him, but not Assange..that is really saying something disturbing about the effectiveness of mass media manipulation, even after four years of Russia gate, conducted by the most powerful information gathering organizations ever to exist that led to absolutely nothing, you would think people would learn, however in many cases, apparently not.
Selective amnesia on display
The news was hot with tales of Russian doping dastardliness…oh those Russians ..
We were subjected to weeks of Russian depravity on the field, the cheating bastards !!
But when those athletes took their case to appeal, and had the opportunity to cross examine the "whistleblower" Rodchenkov…he didn't come out well..28 athletes had their ban overturned and 7 medals were returned .
Quietly forgotten .We are left instead with the initial outrage
Thanks francesca, I wasn't aware of those developments in that story. This state fueled propaganda is getting pretty out of control…I just had my official complaint to RNZ over their coverage of the Douma poisoning rejected because the stories are over ten weeks old. However as I said in my complaint, I wasn’t complaining about their coverage at the time, I am complaining that they haven’t covered any of the recent developments of that that story which debunk the original accusations.
"Returning to the United Nations, veteran German diplomat and former top UN official Hans von Sponeck calls for an end to the stonewalling of accountability for the OPCW's cover-up of its April 2018 Douma chemical weapons probe."
‘
“I just had my official complaint to RNZ over their coverage of the Douma poisoning rejected because the stories are over ten weeks old.”
Adrian Thornton
Kia ora Adrian, It is a shame that RNZ rejected your complaint on grounds that it was over ten theeks old, rather than over your dispute of the facts of the Douma poisoning.
It is a disapointment, because if RNZ had bothered to go into the substance of your complaint more deeply it would have been instructive for all of us.
However if you want to cut and paste a copy of your complaint to RNZ to this forum, I for one would be interested in reading it to decide for myself if it has any merit.
Cheers J.
And while on the subject of Liberal fake news…here is a great piece from one of the very few remaining US journalists that is worth a damn..Matt Taibbi
Rachel Maddow is Bill O'Reilly
After hyping a fake story for a year, cable's leading anchor doesn't blink and moves on to the next fable
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/rachel-maddow-is-bill-oreilly
Or if you can't be bothered reading his piece, a short clip…
It's interesting to consider the New Zealand equivalents of these U.S. personalities. Our own versions of Matt Taibbi would be John Stephenson, Nicky Hager, Gordon Campbell, Paula Penfold. (John Campbell has been excellent in challenging the powerful, and has angered many politicians, including Helen Clark, Gerry Brownlee, and the Prime Minister of Samoa; however, his credulous acceptance of the Russiagate conspiracy theory would amuse and appal Matt Taibbi.)
Bill O'Reilly: sadly this country has far more replicas of that ill-informed but opinionated right winger than it does of Matt Taibbi. The list is long and depressing: Mike Hosking, Karl Du Fresne, David Farrar, Neil Miller, Sean Plunket, Richard Harman, Bill Ralston, Duncan Garner, Barry Soper, Heather Du Plessis-Allan, … ad nauseam.
Rachel Maddow: Who's a New Zealand woman who has earned a reputation as an intelligent and perceptive interviewer, but has done much to erode that reputation by uncritically aligning herself with the right wing of the Democratic Party and its glum bunch of ideological warriors? Step forward, Dame KIM HILL.
Speaking of Kim Hill, Adrian, did you hear Jennifer Robinson this morning politely but firmly telling her that her statements about Julian Assange were false? It was the most complete demolition job done on her since another Australian human rights champion, John Pilger, took her to task for retailing Pentagon talking points in 2003.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018792915/jennifer-robinson-fighting-for-assange-west-papua-and-public-education
Hi Morrissey, yes I tuned in especially to see how Kim would handle that interview, it went pretty much as I expected, Kim knows enough to know when she is on the wrong side of history, so was never going to seriously tangle with Robinson on Assange, just like she quickly backed off her guest (sorry forgot their name) who was on her show to talk about conspiracy theories recently, when he used Russia gate as an example of a contemporary conspiracy theory…it has been obvious from the outset, if these liberals talking heads had any confidence in these things, they would be only happy to interview Greenwald, Taibbi, Mate' etc, but of course never did and never will…enough said.
I was still shocked to hear her repeat the lie about him irresponsibly releasing files on WikiLeaks. Judging by her hesitant tone, I don't think she actually believed a word of what she was saying, but she said it all the same.
It raises, yet again, serious questions about her judgement and her integrity. It also raises questions about the judgement and integrity of her producer, who must have been aware of the questions and allegations she had prepared.
Yes I noticed her half hearted tone during that exchange as well..I don't believe there is any question about RNZ's producers or management, they represent New Zealand's own version of The Guardian, who have proved that they are one of the greatest threats to any serious progressive Left Wing project ever getting traction.
They are just centrist free market liberals who defend that ideology just as much as every other ideologue defends theirs..myself included, the only difference is that I happen to be fighting for the right one and they are not.
And then Kim asked Jennifer Robinson why she thought dis-information was so readily taken up by people.
Perhaps Kim you could stop producing it.
I was most impressed with Robinson. She refused to be subdued by Kim's attempt to mollify her.
@ Brigid +1
"Perhaps Kim you could stop producing it."
That was exactly what thought.
Robinson had the best answer too, that when misinformation gets repeated enough in the mainstream press people start to believe it – a brilliant indirect jab at RNZ. Let me guess.. this will be Robinson's first and last interview on this rather odious station.
At the time it seemed the more pressing bounty for Trump to eliminate was the one out on the Venezuelan president. But that is still being put up by the Biden administration.
I think this is a good summing up of NZ's position re – China and Nanaia Mahuta's most recent comments re – 5 Eyes:
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/124933898/new-zealand-isnt-sucking-up-to-china-by-learning-from-countries-mistakes
I say amen to that.
It is worth remembering that the dominant member of the 5 eyes alliance is the US….the UK is as subservient as the other 3
True yes. But the UK still over- estimates its place as a world power. My comment was more in relation to the patently stupid responses coming from sections of the UK media.
In short, NZ is once again showing its ability to be slightly ahead of the rest of the 5 – Eye countries. It happened in the mid 1980s when we moved on the insane escalation of nuclear weaponry. We stuck to our guns and eventually they fell into line and followed us… not the other way round.
My assessment would be the 'sections of UK media' are likely acting at the behest of the dominant 'partner' rather than any inflated sense of importance….and would contest the notion that any of the other 5 eyes members have followed our anti nuclear position….rather it is studiously ignored.
They aren't as transparent as NZ, but both East and West did agree to limit the number of nuclear weapons they held which was an accomplishment of sorts – along with the world-wide anti-nuclear movement.
Of course since then the sabre rattling has restarted on both sides but I'm too old now to care much about it. Its all so puerile in my humble opinion.
I would say it is less their imperial power, than their status as a centre of culture. One cannot have a clown PM like Boris or a clown President like Trump and expect the world to take you seriously. The VRWC, in choosing populism over public interest policy, has, like the later Roman emperors, condemned their nations to decline and loss of influence.
We don’t need no climate, let the mother fucker burn.
No Right Turn
Friday, April 23, 2021
Climate Change: Letting the world burn
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2021/04/climate-change-letting-world-burn.html
Alluded to yesterday by Incognito and highlighted again in this piece by Brian Easton,
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/destroying-public-service-broadcasting
"About a year ago the decision was made that the merger/takeover would proceed and the Ministry of Culture and Heritage outsourced the policy function to PwC, an accounting firm, to make a business case. (Note the term ‘business’. The framework is the commercialisation of RNZ – even had PwC much expertise in public policy, its advice will be trapped in a Rogernomic framework.)"
Our governments have abdicated the formation of public policy to the idealogues of neoliberalism for decades past so its unsurprising the same mistakes are being perpetuated….this wont change until we redevelop in house capability/capacity
I would like to see incognito's comment yesterday mentioned by Pat. Could you show me where, thanks.
23 April 2021 at 11:47 pm
and
23 April 2021 at 11:51 pm
Oh joy, they're eating each other.
https://twitter.com/MrHarryCole/status/1385341948484112385
This is the real locus and range of political choice and debate in the UK, i.e. what sort of Tory government are they going to get – Dodgy Dave, Clown Boris or Dry Stick Theresa – hard or soft Brexit, austerity or not so much austerity, etc. The Murdoch propaganda machine has done its job.
Get used to the Tories, AB. The Labour Party, which under Jeremy Corbyn became the biggest political party in Europe, has been reduced to a pile of ashes by the Blairite rump. We will never see another Labour government in Britain.
Jennifer Robinson: fighting for Assange, West Papua and public education. A number of commenters on this site should listen to this podcast.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018792915
Thanks aj. She politely but firmly refuted every one of Kim Hill's false statements about Assange.
Kim couldve been a lot more demonstratedly ill informed i reckon morrissey T he corporate news talking points she did mention didnt extend to many of the familiar smears no mention of sweden etc didnt even repeat the one about him being mean to his cat !!Im not in love with lots of stuff the boss,s in rnz manage but at least they allowed kim to say assanges name a few times and have i think a quite pleasant interview with JR.
That's a very fair point, weston. For all her faults, I still rate Kim Hill highly.
The things with legacy ………one does not really get to choose how people remember one, or what ones legacy is. I have seriously never come across anyone more detached from the reality of poverty than the current crew that runs this labour government. Out of touch, arrogant, useless.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/motel-generation-nearly-4000-kids-are-living-in-nz-motels/J475FISLJ6NTD43JUDF5ON4J5M/
Dear Leader, it is already your legacy. It will always be your legacy. No matter how much you protests to the contrary, if you want the good you need to also acknowledge your failures and when it comes to housing, poor people and their poor kids your legacy stinks to high heavens right next to the legacy of John Key. Two peas, one pod.
John Key and Jacinda Ardern.
Sabine, if you're implying that there's really nothing of substance to choose between the two, then I respectfully disagree with your opinion. I know which ‘pea‘ I prefer.
To some people, truffles, bonbons, pralines and Roses are just chocolates. Distinctions are useful or inconvenient, depending on the narrative (AKA wheel-barrow) one wants to push.
It seems to me that you don't know much about chocolate. Only that could explain you considering roses as 'just chocolate' while in effect it is 'just rubbish' as is the motel warehousing policy of this government. Chocolates would be the government stopping to continue to do what did not work under National, considering that they are so different. But then i hear there are people who consider Cadbury chocolate. Some just can't be helped.
Yeah. Everybody knows Hershey's Kisses are the only true chocolate.
Yeah, nah, life is like box of Roses chocolates, they’re all the same. With some people, you know exactly what you’re gonna get.
It is truly sad to me that you never in you life ate decent chocolate.
You should remedy this, but remember you always get what you pay for. And no one should pay for a box of Roses.
Life can and should be a box of good chocolates.
When I’m hangry, I have a Kit Kat. Now, that’s good chocolate!
Roses are for saying “thank you”, of course; you don’t buy them for yourself!
I am a bit surprised that Davidson and Menendez have not been more vocal in having MSD pay the rent shortfall so people do not need to live in a motel.
The urgency of avoiding people living in a motel needs immediate attention and action. Introducing the old special benefit and having allowable costs worked in the past before temporary additional supplement replaced it apart from some still being paid a special benefit.
The Greens can do no more then Labour could when National warehoused people in motels and rundown properties for top dollar. Crow, from the back benches to no avail.
there is literally no difference between this under National in 2014
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/76970605/homeless-in-motels-as-2m-for-emergency-housing-yet-to-be-released
to 2016
2019
Feb 2020
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/119500326/government-defends-charging-rent-for-emergency-motelstays
today
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/motel-generation-nearly-4000-kids-are-living-in-nz-motels/J475FISLJ6NTD43JUDF5ON4J5M/
i would like to know if the 25% that people in emergency housing have to pay of their benefits for the pleasure to be housed unsafely, over crowded, amongst gangs, drug, booze, abuse, violence are truly charged. I remember people here getting upset and writing posts about the dastardly nationalistas and paula benefit who charged emergency housed with the costs – refundable 5 NZD a week. I would really like to know if they went ahead with it, mind i would not put it past them. Callous is as callous does, and these guys are callous.
They truly are two peas in a pod. A blue pea, a red pea in the pod of NZ. And neither one of them consider the homeless their constituency unless its e lection time, or time to hug a baby for the cameras to show some ‘kindness’ and some ‘gentleness’ for the poor unfortunate people this country has no place and no use for.
Not sure putting people further into debt with accommodation loans is the same as charging them rent as a proportion of their income.
The use of motels themselves is shit, but better than the streets until someone figures out how to fix the housing market.
Experts in dairy intensification no more:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/124934463/first-farming-business-to-report-m-bovis-goes-under
Not remotely sad about this.
Reply to 10.2.1
There is a reason why the government do not want to bridge the gap by paying a shortfall in rent to prevent people needing to live in motels.
Menendez needs to do costings, once the accommodation supplement and temporary additional support caps are reached the shortfall would be $100 – $200 a week. Compare this to the cost of a motel.
Probably a reply not meant for my comment but I will chuck this in on the subject:
It is a poor indictment on the prevalent amateur landlord culture in this country that cheap motels are in better condition than most private rentals.
In some cases that would be the case.
I think the government do not want to send a signal to landlords that the government will subsidise a person's rent past a point. Government probably think this would slow an increase in market rents. Subsidising motel owners is preferred.
never mind asking an associate minister, there will be no answers.
She should have just said that at this stage she could not comment. Ask the minister. It would have had more value then "the minister is working 'hard''. That is a quote worthy of a Trumpian spokesperson.
this is from 2019
https://www.nsu.govt.nz/health-professionals/national-cervical-screening-programme/hpv-primary-screening/frequently-asked
This is from 2020
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/422865/funding-for-self-screening-cervical-cancer-test-delayed-again
it was advocated for by Maori in Auc 2020
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/422894/maori-doctors-urge-self-swab-cervical-cancer-tests
This here is the money quote that strikes right into the heart.
three years. some 90 women affected per year, 270 women since one of them Kiri Allen. I guess we don't care enough.
For those who prefer a self test, the method needs to be available. Those who want the current method they should be able to access it.
Cervical cancer screening reduces cervical cancer, especially when caught at the pre cancer stage or insitu stage. The HPV jab is also in the tool kit.
currently you can not self test.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300281486/hpv-vaccine-uptake-languishing-below-target-amid-rising-cancer-rates
The below par up take of HPV vaccination needs to be looked into due to being effective for other cancers associated with HPV. I did not realise 2 injections were required.
2 or 3 injections, depending on age. It’s free for people between 9 and 26 years of age.
NZ Bus loses in court. NZ Bus is owned by an Australian private equity firm. Wellington's bus issues started after that sale in 2018.
Why do we do this to ourselves?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/124941377/wellington-bus-lockout-to-end-after-court-grants-injunction-against-nz-bus
Good question. I guess profit for the few over rides the greater common good.
Rent controls
"…But it was hated by landlords, real-estate investors and members of Germany’s conservative political parties. The lawsuit against the cap was filed by 284 parliamentary members of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP)."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/23/berlin-rent-cap-defeated-landlords-empty
"Last week’s ruling represents a defeat for Berlin’s housing movement, but it may yet prove to be a pyrrhic victory for the city’s landlords and speculators. Anger over the nullification of the rent cap is fuelling support for the expropriation and remunicipalisation of thousands of units of public housing that had been privatised. Some activists would like to go further and expropriate empty flats."
The article shows how divisive rent control is between a tenant and a landlord and the extent a landlord will go to to stop it.
not just the investors but the politicians (who took the legal action)….the peoples representatives(?)
Rent controls are a political issue. When it comes to being homeless there are property investors who look the other way, a political party says no rent control and banks allow too much money to be loaned so high rent is required to pay the bank.
Having different interest rates, a high one for a property investor and a low one for a first home buyer.
Everything is a political issue….i find it curious that after 5 years of (presumably) a political decision, possibly at local level it has been legally challenged by the political class.
As noted in the piece, the victory(?) may well be pyrrhic…when something is unsustainable , one thing is certain….it wont continue.
That article illustrates very well how international and intractable the accomodation crisis is. When rental housing is the best, or only, investment with any sort of return and perceived lowish risk the shit's going to hit the fan for the poor bastards that have to rent.
We'll see if the imminent rise in interest rates, with a flow on to deposit rates will start to ease things for tenants.
The last ponzi standing?
Not so much ponzi, but the last reasonable investment with the perception of a manageable risk.
Housing will generally give you 5%, pretty risk free. Bank investments, the best my bank is offering is 0.90%. What are you going to do? The Share Market and Managed Funds offer better returns, comparable or maybe better than housing but require more knowledge and present more risk. Also most of the people putting their money into housing now were around when fortunes went down the gurgler in 1987 and 2008, often their fortunes, so are a tad wary of those sorts of investments now.
A rent strike could send a message to greedy landlords. Or not to pay the increase in rent.
Agree 1% is a poor return (esp with bail in) but I suspect that many are due to find out that RE is no less susceptible to losses ….and ponzi is exactly what it is, increasing credit to sustain existing credit, and it all has to be underpinned by an (shrinking) economy with only one direction for servicing costs.
The folly will be obvious after the event…all too late.
Pat
That should be published as a poster! Could everyone of an activist nature, copy this message without name or other information to distract the eye, on half of an A4 sheet (a size easier to find a place for on a bulletin board etc), in about 14 font, clear and easily read, and pin, staple, bluetack – whatever is appropriate, somewhere in a public place. And repeat in about two weeks somewhere else etc. It could be a new way of breaking through the great disease of Plum Smugness (ie the boy with the pie who pulled out a plum. This was a sly rhyme about a trusted servant who stole the title to lands hidden in a pie!
Just these words – (under the heading of Financial Loss for Real Estate investors – a simple, striking and unwelcome message.)!
Financial Loss for Real Estate Investors ie Houses
…Chris Roberts dissect the meaning of the nursery rhyme "Little Jack Horner." It's about a real estate swindle in 16th-century England. Roberts is the author of Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme.
You think the real estate market is treacherous today, try England in the late 1530s. That's what the nursery rhyme "Little Jack Horner" is really all about. ..
`Little Jack Horner sat in a corner eating his Christmas pie.
He stuck in a thumb and pulled out a plum and said,
"What a good boy am I."'
Where to begin with this? This is talking about the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII taking property from the Catholic Church. Jack, as we know, is actually called Thomas Horner. Now he was a steward to the Abbot of Glastonbury during the reign of Henry VIII. This is how the story goes: He was entrusted to take some title deeds of properties to Henry VIII as a bribe so the abbot could keep the main monastery, but was prepared to give away some of the lesser properties.
Now the title deeds were held and sealed in a pie, and Jack's off to London. But instead of delivering the bribe to Henry VIII, he helps himself to the pie, puts his hand in, pulls out a plum piece of real estate–in this case, a place called Mells Manor-
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5135080
Berlin has a nice history of squatting. 🙂
And the CDU/CSU – the federal german and bavarian state capitalists are neither Christian nor social.
As for the FDP – years ago they almost got taken over by students in a concerted effort to swamp membership for this party- so much fun, but sadly they found out too soon and stopped accepting membership request. This Party is useless on its own and can only get traction as part of a coalition and is usually considered a 'filler party' for the above mentioned Parties if they have to have a coalition partner that will be silent and roll over on demand.
And yes, while Germany is a federation we do have a Free State with its on set of laws – Bavaria, we have a free State City Hamburg with very much its own set of laws. Sadly Berlin – to new a town in terms of German history never got elevated to a 'free' status. And thus like in the eighties is still run by the same set of hostage takers it was in the 80s when we squatted due to no availablity of flats.
Squatting (and the like) may become the housing solution du jour
It should have done some some years ago to be honest.
this is a good rundown on the "Hafenstadt Occupation" in Hamburg that has been a thing now since the seventies. And interstingly enough it saved a lot of beautiful houses and complexes in Hamburg, one of them the 'Porttown' which is just stunning. One of the Oldest ones would be the "alte Flora' a building which has been occupied since 1986 🙂 (giggles with delight)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hausbesetzungen_in_Hamburg
or Berlin
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlacht_am_Fraenkelufer#:~:text=Ab%201979%20nahmen%20Besetzungen%20leerstehender,Haus%20Fraenkelufer%2048%20zu%20besetzen.
the beginning of the occupation of empty buidings in Berlin.
and this is repeated throughout Germany but these would be the most known towns for it. Ah, when the left was radical. Good times.
I am not sure how to convert these links into english language, but the first has a nice list of of occupied buildings and pictures to give an idea just what you can occupy if you put your heart to it. Some of these buildings are grandios.
Here are a few links about squatting if wanting to explore that theme.
2018 https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/108269114/an-australian-man-has-got-a-home-using-squatters-rights-and-theres-a-similar-law-in-new-zealand
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squatting_in_England_and_Wales
Under Section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, squatting in residential property became a criminal offence on 1 September 2012.
https://squattinglondon.wordpress.com/2017/11/01/an-early-history-of-british-squatting/
Why do we privatise? It's the latest economic fashion. Unfortunately they don't change economic OS as fast as clothing fashions. You have to put up with obvious bad management even criminality for so many decades it turns into an era. When it should be seen to be a glitch in a good record and quickly abandoned when noticed.
The UK government had had a postal service since 1516. I see from Wikipedia that a directive came from the EU to privatise it and that was done in 2012. I am so ignorant, I didn't think that the EU did this sort of thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mail#Privatisation
There had been lots of complaints about it before that. Poor delivery service: Often a miserable, underpaid temp, who stuffs all the mail for six flats through the door in one torn and crumpled bundle because he or she is so frightened of being penalised by the manager for not meeting a preposterous delivery target that there is no time even to take the rubber bands off.
In beefing the delivery targets to unmanageable sizes per worker, then sacking postmen for failing to meet them, in axing the second post and generally thumping down the iron fist, the Royal Mail managed this year to make a £321m operating profit. They celebrated by imposing an immediate pay freeze on the workers.
2009/Oct.18 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/oct/18/victoria-coren-royal-mail
Then they had started jailing the small subpostmasters for theft and hiding the fact that discrepancies were likely to be caused by faults in their tech caused by their Horizon operating system.
The Post Office ultimately settled the civil claim brought by more than 550 claimants for £57.75m, without admitting liability, in December 2019.
Justice Fraser found Horizon contained “bugs, errors and defects” and that there was a “material risk” shortfalls in branch accounts were caused by the system.
……Subpostmasters’ lives were “irreparably ruined”, as they lost their jobs, homes and marriages after they were prosecuted by the Post Office – which knew the Fujitsu-developed IT system had “faults and bugs from the earliest days of its operation”, the court of appeal heard last month.
Lawyers representing 42 former subpostmasters said evidence of serious defects in the Horizon system was “concealed from the courts, prosecutors and defence”, in order to protect the Post Office “at all costs”…
2021/Apr.23 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/apr/23/former-subpostmasters-expected-to-have-names-cleared-after-court-appeal
A pregnant subpostmaster was jailed and said the baby stopped her from thinking about suicide. One man, imprisoned, found himself crying every day. Their names have been blackened, their ability to get work affected, they had to declare themselves criminals n forms at the airport etc. They felt forced to plead guilty as advised by their barristers, rather than take on the mighty power of the now unscrupulous Postal Service, once held in high esteem. These two people were both Indian. I just note that as of interest amongst all the disturbing facts of this dreadful business of the UKPost
Geez
Chicken run: New Zealand Post will start delivering KFC to beat mail slump
Thanks Grey, disturbing info on UK Post. The idea of public service has been affected/infected by the pernicious profit motive pandemic. Too late for a vaccine?
Good reading there Drowsy – (you aren't!). That ReMADE approach, I’m thinking now about our new health project. Is Labour attempting this with the Health Project meant to give our health system a vaccine against poor management? It needs to go to the very source of the flow of medical services – the Ministry of Health (or as Rosemary McDonald has sarcastically described as the Misery of Health.)