Yes and you have to pay when it's a required procedure. The system can reject you even going on the waiting list.
There's far too much of that ! Surgeons have expressed to private patients they should've been already via public. Some fixing dhb botched efforts even.
In the regions, like Northland , this has been the case for many years….we are waiting on surgery from the same surgeon. be it public or private , and the private ones get the jump on those provided by New Zealand's free health system.
Seen it frequently – medical specialists engaging in cartel behaviour by charging very high prices that can be leveraged through private insurance – the consumer buys insurance or faces painful delay.
The profession also restricts access into the profession and then again into specialist colleges. Many people perfectly intellectually capable of being doctors, and who would love to be doctors, can't get admission to medical schools.
Short-term fix would be to pay the Cubans to train a thousand or so (including specialists) for us – then import them to work in the public sector.
Yeah but, I had to get a hip op with a 7 month wait because there is only so much money allocated to hip operations, so I paid for it myself because it would cost me more to employ someone for 8 months or so to run my farm, I dont have health insurance because I'm 70 and 3 years premiums is about the same money, 21K. BTW, because I got it done just as I needed a stick to walk, I was able to be back on the tractor after 2 weeks and full on after 4 weeks, the extra 6-7 months on public would have meant not being able to walk on the farm like 10 years before for the other leg.
If everybody, particularly us old buggers, got what they wanted right now the health bill would be stratospheric with ironicly a lot of waste, its complex why' but having huge numbers of highly trained and expensive specialist medical staff hanging around doing SFA in times of little demand is one reason and no, an orthopedic surgeon can not do bypasses or brain surgery. Sure the wait is twice as long as it needs to be but there aren't that many surgeons about.
Anyway the thing that surprised me was that the actual surgeons charge was only about 20-25% of the bill, now if you get a free one you don't see the breakdown of the costs, things like overnight stays in a private hospital are expensive ( but about the same as public maybe even cheaper ) although surprisingly only about the cost of a nights quarantine at the moment. I cut my bill down by doing a runner on the second day, you can be quite quick on crutches, must have been the drugs.
Private practice does serve a purpose by taking a load of the public system.
The only thing that I would change is a tax break for people who pay for themselves, maybe not nessecarily those with insurance, in my case I saved the government 20k or so, happy to do so even though I couldn't really afford it ( I drive a 4th-hand 20 year old car ) but it was going to cost me that anyway and ironicly if I had employed a manager if one could have been found I would have gotten tax relief on those expenses.
Specialists have huge expenses, their insurance costs are well over 100kp/a, there is a compulsory retraining period every year which they pay for themselves and generally a nurse or office person as well and they don't start earning until late 30s. It is a mugs game. Although I did appreciate the Maserati parked outside though I think the Toyota Corolla was my mans one.
Sure – it's more complex than my mischievous Cuban suggestion implies. But the reason we have such marked inequality is because some people can get into privileged positions where they can indulge in cartel behaviour, price gouging and ticket clipping, externalisation of their costs onto the public, or feast on income streams derived solely from the ownership of assets. And other people can't – and whether you can or can't bears little or no relation to effort, skill, or contribution to society.
Agreed AB but the cost of a surgeon is a world price and there is a world shortage. A Cuban would be a good surgeon no doubt but for your safety his English would have to be first class and his knowledge of Aus/NZ practice sharpened up and of course he would still have to pay for his own insurance because if he made a fuck up ACC would be on his case so I'll bet your Cuban would pretty soon be nailing down the world price for his efforts.
"Seen it frequently – medical specialists engaging in cartel behaviour by charging very high prices that can be leveraged through private insurance – the consumer buys insurance or faces painful delay."
That's the American system that the likes of Goldsmith and other Tories would like to see in this country
Why do you think the health system has been rundown with shit descovered in the walls of hospitals when this administration took over?
with private insurance two years ago i waited ….. six week for an appointment, three weeks for a scan, three weeks for an appointment, three weeks for the steroid injection.
i have frozen shoulder syndrom. Getting of the drugs was nice.
But when you only have one specialist per town you wait. With or without insurance.
So it is not about having a surgeon available, it is about the capacity within the public health system.
To avoid privatisation there needs to be a criteria a person reaches that they can access funding to have the treatment done privately but the government pays.
Those who have private health insurance would not like this. People are dying on the waiting list or when they are acute the surgery may be best done when not acute. Surgeon may recommend surgery in a month, 4-5 months go by and finally surgery but other factors can come into play underlying health issues not related to the actual surgery.
Also problems occur with referrals, and people die needlessly.
So it is not about having a surgeon available, it is about the capacity within the public health system.
Nope. The public health system would have the capacity – if the doctors weren't moonlighting for the private sector to make a higher profit for themselves. The effect of this is that the people on the public waiting lists are there longer.
To avoid privatisation there needs to be a criteria a person reaches that they can access funding to have the treatment done privately but the government pays.
Simpler, and better, to just get rid of the private system. Its existence is only making the whole system worse. The people dying on the public waiting lists are doing so because of the private system.
Were surgeons paid enough in the public health system there would be no need to operate else where. So the capacity problem is the payment for the surgeon's service.
About 20 years ago I heard that a person could have private surgery at say Wakefield hospital and require an ICU bed and be transferred from Wakefield hospital to Wellington ICU.
If so an ICU bed would need to be available at a public hospital for a private operation.
Possibly a private hospital now has their own ICU or high risk procedures are not carried out in a private hospital.
Certainly Middlemore has a steady flow of botched private sector operations to fix, some terrible cases, and if you have a heart attack on the private sector operating tables you get rushed to the public system.
The private sector does a narrow range of operations with a narrow range of equipment. Mainly stuff that has a private demand and is profitable.
Those who run down the public sector health system don't mind it when they have their major car accident or heart attack or stroke. The fact is that the private system doesn't have to meet the costs of major surgery, an accident and emergency system or really risky stuff like major back surgery.
The public system doesn't have to meet the cost of vanity surgery like face-lifts (though as noted they do sometimes have to fix the poor outcomes when they occur) and if the wealthy can bypass the public system by paying to go private that does help.
Where I object is the public system winding down stuff they used to do as a matter of course like varicose vein surgery or breast reduction surgery where these are needed in the expectation that you will now get that down privately. I also mind the surgeons insisting on and charging for things like "compulsory consults" in the public system for things like grommet operations after a GP referral when in the private system they will simply take the GP referral direct. Such consults are a good slice of pocket money.
I don't mind them working in both either – there is a public good in having private sector surgeons develop and maintain expertise beyond the narrow range of private sector operations. It is part of the countries resilience building should severe things happen.
Awful to say this, the transfer with a cardiac arrest would be so no liability.
I thought public hospitals have there own insurance and I know they can tap into ACC.
Do you know anything about hospitals having insurance?
I have dealt with the HDC, coroner and a DHB. I have been blocked with ACC as the person did not have an executor. A day of reflection today as the anniversary of the death and the case is in bits, not active and no decision and ongoing investigation required.
In my case coroner did not even look at the ACC treatment injury form which is inaccurate and person came back from injury repair dying. Neither did coroner look at what the vascular surgeon said and injury was worse than what ICU put on the ACC form. ICU have misled ACC. No post mortem. The way a coroner can close a file without next of kin permission is not right, a family representative had the say on file being closed as letter was not addressed to next of kin. Everything that could have gone wrong did. A dead person has very few rights.
So when it comes to medical misadventure there is misadventure from those whose job it is to ensure everything which led to the death was looked into.
I know how the medical system and ACC operate. I have had dealings with both over many years and I am not a giver upper when I know I am being bull shitted to and mucked about. I do get pissed off with medical issues wasting my time but someone needs to take action against the flaws in the rubbish system.
I am about to apply for legal aid for a dead man once I find the right lawyer.
This is the way that NZ fills its medical needs – has done for a long time. It contracts with surgeons etc for part of their time, then they also have the private patients. That way top-class people can earn a decent income, and we have up to the minute techniques available.
What you say even happens with a surgeon/specialists consultation.
After ACC heavily grills you, (the branch medical advisor)private surgeons and private specialists are then funded to give treatment. Some surgeons and specialists are on a good wicket with ACC and they have the say over whether or not the injury will be treated.
Frank Macskacy has summed-up the situation very well:
"National will lose in September. And most likely in 2023 if the pandemic has not been defeated. Their laissez faire approach to government and economics has been revealed to be utterly inappropriate for the challenges in the Age of the Virus.
National has been caught out – like the proverbial possum frozen in the glare of oncoming headlights – as the human race struggles to adapt to the new norm of responding to the spread of contagion.
There is an inexorable inevitability to how politics has begun to change radically with the advent of a global pandemic."
Under MMP parties don't win or lose elections. Last election National won but lost, Labour lost but won, Greens came fourth and won their first stint in Government, and NZ First came third but somehow won the management of coalition negotiations and a disproportionate amount of Cabinet negotiations.
It's hard enough predicting what will happen in two months.
Trying to predict what will have happened with Covid, the economy, employment, how Labour will be doing, and who will be the leader of National by 2023 is a meaningless mug's game.
Only for those people who still can't adjust their brains to the electoral logistics of the MMP system that a clear majority of citizens voted for in the mid 1990s.
It makes perfectly good sense if you substitute the word 'winning' for 'gained the most votes'. It's not the information that's awry so much as the attitude
If you post your measurements @ Pete, I'll get out the Elna (actually a Brother with all the stitches), and run you up a lovely linen beige leisure suit for the summer. I feel the need to exercise my feminine side a little more (in this space going forward).
I might even extend to a pale blue number for @Wayne as well for his next rent-a-voice gig on the weekend 'incisive, and in-depth' mover and shaker TV Currant Fears "shows".
It'd all be quite entrepreneurial doncha think? I might even become a regular thing.
And I will crochet a nice Bennie and a shoulder bag for Pete and Wayne. No trouble as I have the time and they are very fortunate that the only colours of wool I have are light and dark blue. Don't worry I have enough balls of wool (30) I unravelled 2 good second hand jumpers I got from the op shop.
If the beige leisure suit clashes with the blue Bennie and shoulder bag Pete can wear them on separate days.
Vietnam – 413 cases of Covid-19 so far, no deaths, in a population of 98 million (from Worldometer data), has now banned all wildlife imports , dead or alive – a major source of zoonotic diseases. Vietnam must be the quiet, world leader in Covid-19 response.
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia all have low infection and death rates, in an article yesterday Guardian ? New Scientist? the assumption is that as this is the area where Horseshoe Bats are native and endemic the locals may have an immunity built up over hundreds of years to corona type viruses. There is also no reason to suspect the numbers, there hasn't been an increase in funerals. Also it is now suspected that this is where it mutated and transferred to the Wuhan market.
It's getting them from point of entry to the 'facility'. That's manageable for Hamilton and Rotorua with a single bus trip. Going much further and all sorts of complications arise, which evidently became a factor in discarding Dunedin,and one of the many that ruled out Queenstown. There's also the problems of dealing with an infected person that requires hospitalisation.
longer term we will need facilities adapted for purpose. Hacking hotels is a good interim measure, but I'm betting that improved design will make the process better for people in Q. Here's hoping they focus on that as well as the security issues.
With the sense of entitlement some have I'd suggest the Chateau Tongariro. It has been used previously for health reasons – rehabilitating soldiers, asylum!
I don't think that people should be put off from putting their ideas forward because it has been on the media previously. Perhaps just give them a link of the source and they might come up with something even better, or add to the previous ideas. Squashing pesky insects personally is the preferred organic way, but let's not be organically destructive about people with ideas.
No squashing intended. Relaying an angle I'd seen discussed (but could not remember enough to link) and ended up just echoing Graeme at 5.1 to some extent.
Clearly, it is a one person noisy bucket, dragged around by Winston Peters who happens to be, Deputy PM of our NZ Parliament. He has his failings. So do I.
He reminds me of a very old greywarshark stalking around in a stuffy old dirty museum.
He has a friend in there – called Trotter. Who seems to be slipping away, having numerous weird upsets over tiny Lefties who refuse to sign up for War.
Being a Lawyer, our Deputy Prime Minister for one reason or another, failed some time back to pay considerable monies, belonging to the Citizens of New Zealand.
For which he blamed quite a number of Politicians – and said so out loud.
Being a Lawyer, he is able to accuse any number of Politicians, because he is free to name whom he wants in the Chamber.
Joe Blow – has no such Freedom.
I am not suggesting that greywarsharks are Lawyers – but I am tempted. However, I quickly realise that our messy greywarshark knows everything and is always right. Inside and out. He's a nice old thing.
While I appreciate anyone attempting to do political analysis about Peters, I'm not entirely sure what you are trying to say here, and I'm not seeing the connection with greywarshark other than to somehow diss her. Please leave the personal stuff out of your comments.
Hey that's not true, I don't know everything just a lot about some of the things I write about. And I like to cast my net wider than just thinking about myself and my preferences, so take an interest in what's going on around me, trying to be informed. That is all!
unless it can't or the people organising it won't. Not an excuse to break Q. We do need to adopt new cultural practices around funerals and grieving, and adapt.
some people manage change better than others. Having new cultural practices as the norm should help (rather than having to adapt personally under stress, which not everyone is good at).
I'm sill in favour of prosecuting people who abscond as well.
I suspect police holding facilities and prisons are not well equipped to deal with the health aspects of covid testing and possible infection. Doubtless we will find out more about how they got out; sadly it may make it harder for future "bubbles" in isolation to be able to gather together.
I could have said 'holding cell' – point is that they have forfeited usual justice process by breaching isolation. Needs to be a strong signal to other returnees that the consequences are immediate and firm. No bail, no returning to a hotel.
The risk of killing many many people is still pretty low though. Compare to someone drink and reckless driving and hitting a bus load of people maybe. If the person gets caught before they hit the bus, what happens to them that day?
I agree about strong signals, and I'll be curious as to why they're being returned to Q. But if we have another outbreak, we want people to feel good about going into isolation, be willing to be honest about symptoms, so I think there is a fine line between making Q a good experience or a punitive one.
Maybe hefty instant fines would straddle that line.
PaddyOT, why are you conflating the NZ situation with the US one when they are obviously very, very different? We have containment and contact tracing processes in place, better than we did when we had community transmission. The chances of mass deaths from a Q absconder is very low because of all the work we've done to date. This is the opposite of the US situation.
Maybe have them sign paperwork that holds them liable for the cost of the quarantine, the cost of retrieving them and hte cost of returning them to the quarantine centre should they break quarantine.
* 5 as in this case and you are quickly talking about money.
What about kindness and set up skype for them. Families sticking together and being co-operative will help us through our future travails, they are supposed to be important until apparently the state says they aren't, to it. We have the technology, where there is a will there's a way; we aren't trying to get to the moon which apparently the world can afford.
Surely the children would have just followed the mother, or the mother would have expected them to. Mother therefore not leading by example.
Surely 'someone' should be talking to Maori elders to get around the impasse caused by unattainable, for the moment, cultural norms so
funerals can be delayed
bodies embalmed to allow for this
Lower the expectation that families are expected to fling themselves across the world to go to tangi etc etc. it must be costing overseas NZ families $1000s to be here.
Generally children are not to be interned in Jail. There are secure facilities for children but they are not prisons.
Under the Sentencing Act 2002, a child or young person under 17 cannot be sentenced to prison or home detention unless they commit a Category 4 offence (e.g. murder, manslaughter, crimes against the State) or an offence where the maximum penalty is 14 years imprisonment or more.
Such a small group that I doubt there are useful patterns. Best to focus on the behaviour and modify that, which is the current approach (eg: station people at each site with power to arrest).
I agree at this stage but given this situation is likely to continue for some time, then an analysis might ultimately become useful for those who are in charge of these facilities and keeping the occupants inside them.
You would need dozens of escapes to see a statistically significant pattern that could be relied on to drive policy responses. It seems they are responding promptly enough to each one that arises.
As it has elsewhere in the world, the coronavirus found a hole in Australia’s system: It spread in part because of the sharing of a cigarette lighter among security guards working at a hotel where returning international travelers are being quarantined. Along with this the other vulnerabilities were quarantine hotel workers returning home to families and spreading the virus. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-australia-53259356
Returned NZers as Escapees may not be the next cause of another outbreak.
Some nurses who have been doing clinics in quarantine hotels here, are then going back to their shifts at hospitals. AND that these nurses working in our quarantine hotels are not mandatorily required to wear full PPE.
I would like to have some analysis about those returning full stop.
Ages
Groupings ie families singles, couples
how long away
are they returning to a home/job
where they have been living until now and for how long
do they hold PR or citizenship anywhere else.
But then I am nosy & cynical. It would certainly help allay my fear that many will be coming to rest & recuperate, possibly with the help of the social welfare system here before leaving again to go 'home' when the rest of the world settles down. So I am sceptical that they coming here with the idea of helping us get through the next bit of NZ's response to Covid-19 and that is to take the opportunity to make NZ a better place.
Air Commodore Darryn Webb has revealed the group of five entered New Zealand from Brisbane on flight NZ146 on July 21. Webb said the family's request for an exemption from isolation to attend the family member's funeral was refused because they had not been administered a day-3 Covid-19 test.
A further request was made yesterday to view the body of the deceased relative, which the Ministry of Health was working to organise, Webb said. These discussions were occurring with iwi, Maori wardens, and police.
Webb said the family was told their application was "looking positive" last night and that a decision would be made by 8pm.
At 6:58pm yesterday people were seen climbing over the perimeter fence of the Distinction Hotel.
They had flown over from Brisbane after the children’s father suffered a stroke and died on July 20.
…
The mother scrambled to create a new plan and eventually organised with hotel staff, police and Defence Force security staff for the man’s body to be taken to an empty facility nearby where the family could view the body for one hour, she said.
However, the plan was dependent on approval from the Ministry of Health, which kept pushing back the time it promised to give her an answer by, she said.
Clearly there were specific circumstances with this family, quite different from the previous individual instances, which only highlights how the instant simplistic "solutions" really aren't helpful. Countdown guy in Auckland was an idiot taking selfies, the one in Ellerslie had "issues" that required mental health workers, and this was a family desperate to go to a funeral, the reason they had returned to NZ.
Somebody at the press conference suggested ankle bracelets. Woods did well to answer it patiently, without rolling her eyes. Having something on (implanted in?) your body doesn't stop you moving. You don't get immobilised. That's a sci-fi movie.
I don't like the idea of ankle bracelets for people that haven't been convicted of a crime, but isn't the point of them that they notify the police if someone leaves the hotel? In real time.
Their application looking positive and decision at 8pm. Officials working hard to try and accomodate grieving family, then they blow it. If they are only here for the funeral, send them back right away. We did not need these types wasting police time and resourses. Name them, name and imprison their accomplices…………..
Many people will miss out on funerals. Many people did before Covid. Half my family overseas when a parent died and they chose not to come back, but we would have held the funeral for them. Plenty of help for people grieving e.g. counselling. Attending a funeral does't guarantee you don't have a complicated grief response.leave…..
What completely irresponsible people. I have no sympathy that they will miss out now
Yes Anker. These totally irresponsible idiots need a really hard lesson but so did those that aided and abetted the escape. The interview with the father of the dead person's only regret was that the family didn't succesfully escape. It is more than clear that these fwits should be hauled before the courts and punished. But the reality is that they won't be because they are maori. And that is racist. Justice should be colour blind but it isn't.
Bullshit. The people that aided and abetted these fwits have, to my knowledge, not been charged. My point to you and solkta is that despite clear evidence that people have acted to aid and abet that there is no charge because of "cultural sensitivity". CRAP.
You’re free to believe whatever you want to but you have zero evidence that those who aided the absconders have not been charged because they are Māori and “cultural sensitivity”. Your strong language won’t change that fact.
I doubt the Police have or could get enough evidence to convict anybody who helped these people. I doubt they even know who was involved. The four were arrested before they met up with their accomplice(s) and the one who made it to Auckland gave himself up.
If you know something more then please share it. Otherwise you are just talking out your arse.
Goodgrief ffs we don't even know who aided and abetted these people, i.e. if they were Maori……….when I posted my comment I didn't know the family were Maori and frankly IMHO it is irrelevant. Your speculation that they didn't charge the enablers because they were Maori is unacceptable.
The Judge gave this woman a very stern warning. I am disappointed the media published her side and the 17 years side of why they absconded. Its a pandemic. They would have known the might not get compassionate leave. The 17 year old got to see his father, but by absconding they prevented the other kids from doing this.
People can still grieve the loss of a parent without attending a funeral. This debacle created by the children's mother has made it so much worse for them
If the mother found it so important that her kids were close to their father, why did she haul them off to Queensland?
Or perhaps they were all there at one point but he was deported. In that case they can blame the Australian government.
Further evidence that Australia and Australian people simply do not get Coronavirus. The slack attitude of the AUS government and people is why nearly 50 people have died after they supposedly beat Covid.
Their surge in deaths is almost 50% of their initial deaths.
And to think we had the Plan-B people here backed in tone by the National Party claiming Australia got it right.
Make no mistake, if the National Party are the next government, Covid 19 will re-enter New Zealand
Her own actions have likely prevented closure for her children…………..What a bloody awful performance she has put her kids through.
Sometimes we don't always get what we think we need to get especially in a pandemic…….I know of many people in really bad situations because of this pandemic……………
Easy for us to say and judge from the sideline and the comfort of our keyboards. Until we walk in her shoes we have no idea what she was feeling let alone thinking; it must have been awful. Apparently, she tried to do the best for her children. I’d hazard a guess that better communication with and between the authorities might have prevented the whole thing from happening. The response: more security 🙁
Doing the best for your children in a pandemic under these circumstances, imho involves supporting them in their grief in Queensland as travelling during a pandemic with quarantine meant their trip was problematic from the get go.(no guarantee of getting compassionate leave). So she put her children through a horrendous trip with two weeks in quarantine. Just as they were waiting on a decision about getting to see the body, she decided to break the law and abscond by breaking open a window and climbing over a very high fence. Possibly one of them could have fallen and injured themselves or worst. Then put her children in the position when they were arrested by the police, while her 17 year old was on the run with police helicopter hovering. One child saw his fathers body, the others didn't. Then they appear in court and get a very stern message from the judge. I think these were very very poor choices for her children. She has also taught her children you don't need to worry about rules, if you really want to do something, just do it, break the law and risk arrest. Actually as I write this, I think this woman has shown appalling judgement.
I reserve no sympathy for any absconders. They are prioritizing themselves over everyone else in a pandemic, including the poor bloody police who have to arrest them, not knowing whether they have covid.
James Shaw throwing some shade on Winston Peters and NZF. Subtle zen vibe to Peters' brass knuckles.
"Ultimately the constellation of parties that make up the next Government is a result of the election," said Shaw, asked whether he'd be happy to work with NZ First again.
"That really is up to the voters of New Zealand… We have done an enormous amount in the last three years. Yes, there have been things we didn't get over the line – but in terms of the things that we did get over the line, we actually did get those things through as a result of our partnership with NZ First.
"It's not been comfortable at times – they have been a chaotic and disorganised partner in Government at times, but actually, you know, ultimately I think the people of New Zealand will judge what will make up the next Government. I'm pretty confident that we'll be in a position to form a Government with Labour."
Colbert on Trump last night. It's not the cognitive test Trump explains that's the only farcical take but a little bit further in the video is Trump's evaluation on the qualities of Dr. Deborah Birx.
Tiwai – there was a discussion yesterday about the power being freed up. Has the Government ensured that the extra supply being freed up will be used in the national interest by cancelling resource permits or some such if it is not?
I wouldn't put it past any power company to sign up to supply some dodgy enterprise so long as the return was sufficent to keep the executive salaries up.
At current share prices Meridian and Genesis (half of each) is about $7 billion. Makes you wonder if restoring state ownership, merging and the reducing power prices so benefits went further would not be a massively good investment. At some point privatisation should get push back otherwise every right wing government just sells more.
I wouldn't put it past any power company to sign up to supply some dodgy enterprise so long as the return was sufficent to keep the executive salaries up.
Business pay less per kw/h than residential so you'd think that they'd be keen to get that extra from residential users.
At some point privatisation should get push back otherwise every right wing government just sells more.
There was push-back but the government sold it off any way. As I say, we don't have a democracy – we have an elected dictatorship.
True but there was also a referendum showing that most people didn't want him to do that. If we were a democracy he, and the rest of National, would have changed those plans.
I'm not thinking of just push back at the time but actually looking at undoing some of this after the right is voted out. ACC has been about the only thing where the left made it very clear that they would renationalise if it was sold and losses would not be compensated for. We have things like the Hamilton prison that is a 35? year privatisation contract and it just gets left. It becomes a one way street with more and more going into the private sector.
Imagine the outrage from the right if say the teachers in public schools all worked for the one company that they owned. And a left government signed a 35 year contract with the company complete with manning formula's and wage escalation and site agreements so that future governments were committed to it.
Yea, well it's about time All infrastructure entities were (re)nationalized, back to the peoples' benefit. Lets see how socialist, Labour can be in the next 3 terms of government, let's see shades of Big Norm come through.
We've had our deliberations about our reactions to sexual misconduct by pollies, whether we're too tough or not tough enough. But things could be waaaay worse.
Let those words sink in and then let us revisit the things Bill O’Reilly said about Dr. George Tiller before Dr. Tiller was actually assassinated in 2009.
According to Salon O’Reilly brought up Dr. Tiller 27 times on his national show over four years (from 2005 to 2009 before Dr. Tiller was murdered). That’s almost seven times a year or every two months.
Here are some of the ways O’Reilly targeted Dr. Tiller on his national platform:
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Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
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Had a recent chat with a guy , after 5 months of not sleeping drs have worked out what's wrong,.
He has too options for treatment go pay for private at about $14k and be treated in 3 weeks time or go public which will be 4 to 5 months wait .
The real kicker is it's the same surgeon that would be doing it in both cases.
This is how they are privatising health in nz .
+100
Seen it lots, very close.
Health is NZs ultimate 2-tier citizenship divider.
Yes and you have to pay when it's a required procedure. The system can reject you even going on the waiting list.
There's far too much of that ! Surgeons have expressed to private patients they should've been already via public. Some fixing dhb botched efforts even.
That's messed up.
In the regions, like Northland , this has been the case for many years….we are waiting on surgery from the same surgeon. be it public or private , and the private ones get the jump on those provided by New Zealand's free health system.
Seen it frequently – medical specialists engaging in cartel behaviour by charging very high prices that can be leveraged through private insurance – the consumer buys insurance or faces painful delay.
The profession also restricts access into the profession and then again into specialist colleges. Many people perfectly intellectually capable of being doctors, and who would love to be doctors, can't get admission to medical schools.
Short-term fix would be to pay the Cubans to train a thousand or so (including specialists) for us – then import them to work in the public sector.
Yeah but, I had to get a hip op with a 7 month wait because there is only so much money allocated to hip operations, so I paid for it myself because it would cost me more to employ someone for 8 months or so to run my farm, I dont have health insurance because I'm 70 and 3 years premiums is about the same money, 21K. BTW, because I got it done just as I needed a stick to walk, I was able to be back on the tractor after 2 weeks and full on after 4 weeks, the extra 6-7 months on public would have meant not being able to walk on the farm like 10 years before for the other leg.
If everybody, particularly us old buggers, got what they wanted right now the health bill would be stratospheric with ironicly a lot of waste, its complex why' but having huge numbers of highly trained and expensive specialist medical staff hanging around doing SFA in times of little demand is one reason and no, an orthopedic surgeon can not do bypasses or brain surgery. Sure the wait is twice as long as it needs to be but there aren't that many surgeons about.
Anyway the thing that surprised me was that the actual surgeons charge was only about 20-25% of the bill, now if you get a free one you don't see the breakdown of the costs, things like overnight stays in a private hospital are expensive ( but about the same as public maybe even cheaper ) although surprisingly only about the cost of a nights quarantine at the moment. I cut my bill down by doing a runner on the second day, you can be quite quick on crutches, must have been the drugs.
Private practice does serve a purpose by taking a load of the public system.
The only thing that I would change is a tax break for people who pay for themselves, maybe not nessecarily those with insurance, in my case I saved the government 20k or so, happy to do so even though I couldn't really afford it ( I drive a 4th-hand 20 year old car ) but it was going to cost me that anyway and ironicly if I had employed a manager if one could have been found I would have gotten tax relief on those expenses.
Specialists have huge expenses, their insurance costs are well over 100kp/a, there is a compulsory retraining period every year which they pay for themselves and generally a nurse or office person as well and they don't start earning until late 30s. It is a mugs game. Although I did appreciate the Maserati parked outside though I think the Toyota Corolla was my mans one.
Sure – it's more complex than my mischievous Cuban suggestion implies. But the reason we have such marked inequality is because some people can get into privileged positions where they can indulge in cartel behaviour, price gouging and ticket clipping, externalisation of their costs onto the public, or feast on income streams derived solely from the ownership of assets. And other people can't – and whether you can or can't bears little or no relation to effort, skill, or contribution to society.
Agreed AB but the cost of a surgeon is a world price and there is a world shortage. A Cuban would be a good surgeon no doubt but for your safety his English would have to be first class and his knowledge of Aus/NZ practice sharpened up and of course he would still have to pay for his own insurance because if he made a fuck up ACC would be on his case so I'll bet your Cuban would pretty soon be nailing down the world price for his efforts.
The only two things that the private sector does is:
Health, like telecommunications and power, needs to be a monopoly to get the best efficiencies.
AB @ 1.5 wrote
"Seen it frequently – medical specialists engaging in cartel behaviour by charging very high prices that can be leveraged through private insurance – the consumer buys insurance or faces painful delay."
That's the American system that the likes of Goldsmith and other Tories would like to see in this country
Why do you think the health system has been rundown with shit descovered in the walls of hospitals when this administration took over?
with private insurance two years ago i waited ….. six week for an appointment, three weeks for a scan, three weeks for an appointment, three weeks for the steroid injection.
i have frozen shoulder syndrom. Getting of the drugs was nice.
But when you only have one specialist per town you wait. With or without insurance.
So it is not about having a surgeon available, it is about the capacity within the public health system.
To avoid privatisation there needs to be a criteria a person reaches that they can access funding to have the treatment done privately but the government pays.
Those who have private health insurance would not like this. People are dying on the waiting list or when they are acute the surgery may be best done when not acute. Surgeon may recommend surgery in a month, 4-5 months go by and finally surgery but other factors can come into play underlying health issues not related to the actual surgery.
Also problems occur with referrals, and people die needlessly.
Nope. The public health system would have the capacity – if the doctors weren't moonlighting for the private sector to make a higher profit for themselves. The effect of this is that the people on the public waiting lists are there longer.
Simpler, and better, to just get rid of the private system. Its existence is only making the whole system worse. The people dying on the public waiting lists are doing so because of the private system.
Were surgeons paid enough in the public health system there would be no need to operate else where. So the capacity problem is the payment for the surgeon's service.
If the public health system paid more then the private system would just pay more again resulting in the same problem.
The only fix is to get rid of the private system.
Never enough for some and you have the solution.
And proof that the problem of long waits on the public health is caused by the private sector and their maldistribution of our resources.
About 20 years ago I heard that a person could have private surgery at say Wakefield hospital and require an ICU bed and be transferred from Wakefield hospital to Wellington ICU.
If so an ICU bed would need to be available at a public hospital for a private operation.
Possibly a private hospital now has their own ICU or high risk procedures are not carried out in a private hospital.
Certainly Middlemore has a steady flow of botched private sector operations to fix, some terrible cases, and if you have a heart attack on the private sector operating tables you get rushed to the public system.
The private sector does a narrow range of operations with a narrow range of equipment. Mainly stuff that has a private demand and is profitable.
Those who run down the public sector health system don't mind it when they have their major car accident or heart attack or stroke. The fact is that the private system doesn't have to meet the costs of major surgery, an accident and emergency system or really risky stuff like major back surgery.
The public system doesn't have to meet the cost of vanity surgery like face-lifts (though as noted they do sometimes have to fix the poor outcomes when they occur) and if the wealthy can bypass the public system by paying to go private that does help.
Where I object is the public system winding down stuff they used to do as a matter of course like varicose vein surgery or breast reduction surgery where these are needed in the expectation that you will now get that down privately. I also mind the surgeons insisting on and charging for things like "compulsory consults" in the public system for things like grommet operations after a GP referral when in the private system they will simply take the GP referral direct. Such consults are a good slice of pocket money.
I don't mind them working in both either – there is a public good in having private sector surgeons develop and maintain expertise beyond the narrow range of private sector operations. It is part of the countries resilience building should severe things happen.
Nothing changed in 20 years.
Awful to say this, the transfer with a cardiac arrest would be so no liability.
I thought public hospitals have there own insurance and I know they can tap into ACC.
Do you know anything about hospitals having insurance?
I have dealt with the HDC, coroner and a DHB. I have been blocked with ACC as the person did not have an executor. A day of reflection today as the anniversary of the death and the case is in bits, not active and no decision and ongoing investigation required.
The transfer with a cardiac arrest would be so no liability.
They just don't have the gear. Medical equipment is incredibly expensive.
Do you know anything about hospitals having insurance?
If you mean for medical mis-adventure that is covered by ACC.
In my case coroner did not even look at the ACC treatment injury form which is inaccurate and person came back from injury repair dying. Neither did coroner look at what the vascular surgeon said and injury was worse than what ICU put on the ACC form. ICU have misled ACC. No post mortem. The way a coroner can close a file without next of kin permission is not right, a family representative had the say on file being closed as letter was not addressed to next of kin. Everything that could have gone wrong did. A dead person has very few rights.
So when it comes to medical misadventure there is misadventure from those whose job it is to ensure everything which led to the death was looked into.
I know how the medical system and ACC operate. I have had dealings with both over many years and I am not a giver upper when I know I am being bull shitted to and mucked about. I do get pissed off with medical issues wasting my time but someone needs to take action against the flaws in the rubbish system.
I am about to apply for legal aid for a dead man once I find the right lawyer.
This is the way that NZ fills its medical needs – has done for a long time. It contracts with surgeons etc for part of their time, then they also have the private patients. That way top-class people can earn a decent income, and we have up to the minute techniques available.
What you say even happens with a surgeon/specialists consultation.
After ACC heavily grills you, (the branch medical advisor)private surgeons and private specialists are then funded to give treatment. Some surgeons and specialists are on a good wicket with ACC and they have the say over whether or not the injury will be treated.
Frank Macskacy has summed-up the situation very well:
"National will lose in September. And most likely in 2023 if the pandemic has not been defeated. Their laissez faire approach to government and economics has been revealed to be utterly inappropriate for the challenges in the Age of the Virus.
National has been caught out – like the proverbial possum frozen in the glare of oncoming headlights – as the human race struggles to adapt to the new norm of responding to the spread of contagion.
There is an inexorable inevitability to how politics has begun to change radically with the advent of a global pandemic."
https://fmacskasy.wordpress.com/2020/07/25/life-in-level-1-the-doom-of-national/
Under MMP parties don't win or lose elections. Last election National won but lost, Labour lost but won, Greens came fourth and won their first stint in Government, and NZ First came third but somehow won the management of coalition negotiations and a disproportionate amount of Cabinet negotiations.
It's hard enough predicting what will happen in two months.
Trying to predict what will have happened with Covid, the economy, employment, how Labour will be doing, and who will be the leader of National by 2023 is a meaningless mug's game.
Pretty good summation actually.
Only for those people who still can't adjust their brains to the electoral logistics of the MMP system that a clear majority of citizens voted for in the mid 1990s.
Feel free to point out which bit is wrong.
It makes perfectly good sense if you substitute the word 'winning' for 'gained the most votes'. It's not the information that's awry so much as the attitude
If you post your measurements @ Pete, I'll get out the Elna (actually a Brother with all the stitches), and run you up a lovely linen beige leisure suit for the summer. I feel the need to exercise my feminine side a little more (in this space going forward).
I might even extend to a pale blue number for @Wayne as well for his next rent-a-voice gig on the weekend 'incisive, and in-depth' mover and shaker TV Currant Fears "shows".
It'd all be quite entrepreneurial doncha think? I might even become a regular thing.
And I will crochet a nice Bennie and a shoulder bag for Pete and Wayne. No trouble as I have the time and they are very fortunate that the only colours of wool I have are light and dark blue. Don't worry I have enough balls of wool (30) I unravelled 2 good second hand jumpers I got from the op shop.
If the beige leisure suit clashes with the blue Bennie and shoulder bag Pete can wear them on separate days.
Last election National lost. Labour, NZFirst and the Greens won.
You don't like that truth and so you lie to yourself and others in the hope that we'll go back to a less democratic system.
The virus of dirty politics within the National caucus will not be eliminated or eradicated until the spreader is gone.
National have no show in eliminating Covid-19 were community transmission to return, they cannot even control Co-20 in their caucus.
Vietnam – 413 cases of Covid-19 so far, no deaths, in a population of 98 million (from Worldometer data), has now banned all wildlife imports , dead or alive – a major source of zoonotic diseases. Vietnam must be the quiet, world leader in Covid-19 response.
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia all have low infection and death rates, in an article yesterday Guardian ? New Scientist? the assumption is that as this is the area where Horseshoe Bats are native and endemic the locals may have an immunity built up over hundreds of years to corona type viruses. There is also no reason to suspect the numbers, there hasn't been an increase in funerals. Also it is now suspected that this is where it mutated and transferred to the Wuhan market.
Adrian. That is what Lyn Prentice was explaining yesterday.
https://thestandard.org.nz/covid-19-a-human-adapted-virus/
Jonathan Pie skewers Boris Johnson's government about face masks.
We need to change our culture on this as well.
If there is a breach of the border and we return to Covid 2 , masks must be mandatory.
On the same subject.
"Karen, Please Just Wear A Mask"
Sarah Cooper
'How to mask'
Ffs! You and Bomber too. What is this…the AGM of misogynists anonymous?
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/men-less-likely-to-wear-masks-because-not-cool-study-2020-5?r=US&IR=T
https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/editorials/article243747072.html
https://www.vogue.com/article/why-dont-men-wear-face-masks-when-their-female-partners-do
https://www.vogue.com/article/why-dont-men-wear-face-masks-when-their-female-partners-do
https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2020-06-22/masks-and-masculinity-better-fit
Is it possible to put kiwi's in quarantine at vacant RSE worker accommodation in the boonies? One road in one road out.
Some selfish people are messing it up for everyone, maybe city accommodation isn't the best place to house those in quarantine.
It's getting them from point of entry to the 'facility'. That's manageable for Hamilton and Rotorua with a single bus trip. Going much further and all sorts of complications arise, which evidently became a factor in discarding Dunedin,and one of the many that ruled out Queenstown. There's also the problems of dealing with an infected person that requires hospitalisation.
longer term we will need facilities adapted for purpose. Hacking hotels is a good interim measure, but I'm betting that improved design will make the process better for people in Q. Here's hoping they focus on that as well as the security issues.
Hotels are also a way to prop up the tourism industry a little longer.
With the sense of entitlement some have I'd suggest the Chateau Tongariro. It has been used previously for health reasons – rehabilitating soldiers, asylum!
The big problem with remote places is lack of access to health facilities and staff, apparently. Was discussed weeks ago in media.
I don't think that people should be put off from putting their ideas forward because it has been on the media previously. Perhaps just give them a link of the source and they might come up with something even better, or add to the previous ideas. Squashing pesky insects personally is the preferred organic way, but let's not be organically destructive about people with ideas.
No squashing intended. Relaying an angle I'd seen discussed (but could not remember enough to link) and ended up just echoing Graeme at 5.1 to some extent.
I don't think there vacant ones anywhere and there has to be a separate bathroom per room per person or family.
Access to mental health and addiction support services are a consideration too, sadly.
Don't think they would enjoy living in old woolsheds with holes in the walls and one toilet/wash handbasin for 12 people.
Besides. Why punish the thousands of people who have, and will comply with the isolation rules, because of a few idiots.
leave them alone ….they'll come home
I have never really known what "NZFirst" is.
Clearly, it is a one person noisy bucket, dragged around by Winston Peters who happens to be, Deputy PM of our NZ Parliament. He has his failings. So do I.
He reminds me of a very old greywarshark stalking around in a stuffy old dirty museum.
He has a friend in there – called Trotter. Who seems to be slipping away, having numerous weird upsets over tiny Lefties who refuse to sign up for War.
Being a Lawyer, our Deputy Prime Minister for one reason or another, failed some time back to pay considerable monies, belonging to the Citizens of New Zealand.
For which he blamed quite a number of Politicians – and said so out loud.
Being a Lawyer, he is able to accuse any number of Politicians, because he is free to name whom he wants in the Chamber.
Joe Blow – has no such Freedom.
I am not suggesting that greywarsharks are Lawyers – but I am tempted. However, I quickly realise that our messy greywarshark knows everything and is always right. Inside and out. He's a nice old thing.
While I appreciate anyone attempting to do political analysis about Peters, I'm not entirely sure what you are trying to say here, and I'm not seeing the connection with greywarshark other than to somehow diss her. Please leave the personal stuff out of your comments.
Hey that's not true, I don't know everything just a lot about some of the things I write about. And I like to cast my net wider than just thinking about myself and my preferences, so take an interest in what's going on around me, trying to be informed. That is all!
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/122247176/police-charge-four-people-who-allegedly-escaped-covid19-isolation-in-hamilton
Why not straight to jail?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12350876
If you are coming home to a funeral the funeral can wait……
unless it can't or the people organising it won't. Not an excuse to break Q. We do need to adopt new cultural practices around funerals and grieving, and adapt.
Yes. Many families already had to during lockdown.
some people manage change better than others. Having new cultural practices as the norm should help (rather than having to adapt personally under stress, which not everyone is good at).
I'm sill in favour of prosecuting people who abscond as well.
Agree. And hence my issue with not putting them in jail after capture. Why open the possibility of a repeat performance.
I suspect police holding facilities and prisons are not well equipped to deal with the health aspects of covid testing and possible infection. Doubtless we will find out more about how they got out; sadly it may make it harder for future "bubbles" in isolation to be able to gather together.
You'd hope they would be, what with the continual comings and goings they're very much noted for.
wouldn't that be decided at the court hearing today?
other offences that put people at risk don't automatically end in jail upon arrest eg drink driving.
I could have said 'holding cell' – point is that they have forfeited usual justice process by breaching isolation. Needs to be a strong signal to other returnees that the consequences are immediate and firm. No bail, no returning to a hotel.
Also, most other offences do not put many many lives at risk. It's why there are specific charges for these.
The risk of killing many many people is still pretty low though. Compare to someone drink and reckless driving and hitting a bus load of people maybe. If the person gets caught before they hit the bus, what happens to them that day?
I agree about strong signals, and I'll be curious as to why they're being returned to Q. But if we have another outbreak, we want people to feel good about going into isolation, be willing to be honest about symptoms, so I think there is a fine line between making Q a good experience or a punitive one.
Maybe hefty instant fines would straddle that line.
"The risk of killing many many people is still pretty low though."
Trump Falsely Claims ‘99 Percent’ of Virus Cases Are ‘Totally Harmless’ 5th July NY times.
148 000 deaths later….
PaddyOT, why are you conflating the NZ situation with the US one when they are obviously very, very different? We have containment and contact tracing processes in place, better than we did when we had community transmission. The chances of mass deaths from a Q absconder is very low because of all the work we've done to date. This is the opposite of the US situation.
Maybe have them sign paperwork that holds them liable for the cost of the quarantine, the cost of retrieving them and hte cost of returning them to the quarantine centre should they break quarantine.
* 5 as in this case and you are quickly talking about money.
What about kindness and set up skype for them. Families sticking together and being co-operative will help us through our future travails, they are supposed to be important until apparently the state says they aren't, to it. We have the technology, where there is a will there's a way; we aren't trying to get to the moon which apparently the world can afford.
this makes sense of the motivation at least.
Four childeren, the eldest 17 and the mother
I assumed that, but where does it say mother?
Surely the children would have just followed the mother, or the mother would have expected them to. Mother therefore not leading by example.
Surely 'someone' should be talking to Maori elders to get around the impasse caused by unattainable, for the moment, cultural norms so
funerals can be delayed
bodies embalmed to allow for this
Lower the expectation that families are expected to fling themselves across the world to go to tangi etc etc. it must be costing overseas NZ families $1000s to be here.
Four of them were kids. Good luck with sticking them in Parry.
Local cells. Don't get carried away.
Generally children are not to be interned in Jail. There are secure facilities for children but they are not prisons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_justice_in_New_Zealand
This has been the case in NZ since the 1925 Child Welfare Act.
I would be interested in an analysis of the type of people who break quarantine. Such questions as:
1) Are they outgoing, articulate people or are they loners?
2) Does one particular age group dominate?
3) Do they have family and friends who are keeping in touch with them?
4) Are they average citizens who, in normal circumstances, will have a full-time job?
5) What is the majority reason given why they choose to break out?
6) Or are they just ignorant idiots who can’t comprehend the reasons why they have to quarantine.
I think most would go for no.6, but that might be unfair on some of them.
Such a small group that I doubt there are useful patterns. Best to focus on the behaviour and modify that, which is the current approach (eg: station people at each site with power to arrest).
I agree at this stage but given this situation is likely to continue for some time, then an analysis might ultimately become useful for those who are in charge of these facilities and keeping the occupants inside them.
You would need dozens of escapes to see a statistically significant pattern that could be relied on to drive policy responses. It seems they are responding promptly enough to each one that arises.
Paperwork as the solution?
As it has elsewhere in the world, the coronavirus found a hole in Australia’s system: It spread in part because of the sharing of a cigarette lighter among security guards working at a hotel where returning international travelers are being quarantined. Along with this the other vulnerabilities were quarantine hotel workers returning home to families and spreading the virus. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-australia-53259356
Returned NZers as Escapees may not be the next cause of another outbreak.
Some nurses who have been doing clinics in quarantine hotels here, are then going back to their shifts at hospitals. AND that these nurses working in our quarantine hotels are not mandatorily required to wear full PPE.
I would like to have some analysis about those returning full stop.
Ages
Groupings ie families singles, couples
how long away
are they returning to a home/job
where they have been living until now and for how long
do they hold PR or citizenship anywhere else.
But then I am nosy & cynical. It would certainly help allay my fear that many will be coming to rest & recuperate, possibly with the help of the social welfare system here before leaving again to go 'home' when the rest of the world settles down. So I am sceptical that they coming here with the idea of helping us get through the next bit of NZ's response to Covid-19 and that is to take the opportunity to make NZ a better place.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12350897
the plot thickens.
And thickens.. https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300065838/mum-who-escaped-coronavirus-isolation-i-wanted-to-give-my-children-closure
https://twitter.com/keith_ng/status/1286918872755404806
Clearly there were specific circumstances with this family, quite different from the previous individual instances, which only highlights how the instant simplistic "solutions" really aren't helpful. Countdown guy in Auckland was an idiot taking selfies, the one in Ellerslie had "issues" that required mental health workers, and this was a family desperate to go to a funeral, the reason they had returned to NZ.
Somebody at the press conference suggested ankle bracelets. Woods did well to answer it patiently, without rolling her eyes. Having something on (implanted in?) your body doesn't stop you moving. You don't get immobilised. That's a sci-fi movie.
I don't like the idea of ankle bracelets for people that haven't been convicted of a crime, but isn't the point of them that they notify the police if someone leaves the hotel? In real time.
Their application looking positive and decision at 8pm. Officials working hard to try and accomodate grieving family, then they blow it. If they are only here for the funeral, send them back right away. We did not need these types wasting police time and resourses. Name them, name and imprison their accomplices…………..
Many people will miss out on funerals. Many people did before Covid. Half my family overseas when a parent died and they chose not to come back, but we would have held the funeral for them. Plenty of help for people grieving e.g. counselling. Attending a funeral does't guarantee you don't have a complicated grief response.leave…..
What completely irresponsible people. I have no sympathy that they will miss out now
Yes Anker. These totally irresponsible idiots need a really hard lesson but so did those that aided and abetted the escape. The interview with the father of the dead person's only regret was that the family didn't succesfully escape. It is more than clear that these fwits should be hauled before the courts and punished. But the reality is that they won't be because they are maori. And that is racist. Justice should be colour blind but it isn't.
Ummm, i think you will find there is a surplus of Maori being "hauled before the courts and punished".
Bullshit. The people that aided and abetted these fwits have, to my knowledge, not been charged. My point to you and solkta is that despite clear evidence that people have acted to aid and abet that there is no charge because of "cultural sensitivity". CRAP.
I’ve got some facts for you: https://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/research_and_statistics/quarterly_prison_statistics/prison_stats_march_2020
You’re free to believe whatever you want to but you have zero evidence that those who aided the absconders have not been charged because they are Māori and “cultural sensitivity”. Your strong language won’t change that fact.
I doubt the Police have or could get enough evidence to convict anybody who helped these people. I doubt they even know who was involved. The four were arrested before they met up with their accomplice(s) and the one who made it to Auckland gave himself up.
If you know something more then please share it. Otherwise you are just talking out your arse.
Goodgrief ffs we don't even know who aided and abetted these people, i.e. if they were Maori……….when I posted my comment I didn't know the family were Maori and frankly IMHO it is irrelevant. Your speculation that they didn't charge the enablers because they were Maori is unacceptable.
The Judge gave this woman a very stern warning. I am disappointed the media published her side and the 17 years side of why they absconded. Its a pandemic. They would have known the might not get compassionate leave. The 17 year old got to see his father, but by absconding they prevented the other kids from doing this.
People can still grieve the loss of a parent without attending a funeral. This debacle created by the children's mother has made it so much worse for them
It just smacks of entitlement
'
They have appeared before a judge and are on bail.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/122247703/alleged-isolation-escapee-told-new-zealanders-sick-and-tired-of-quarantine-breaches
You were saying?
If the mother found it so important that her kids were close to their father, why did she haul them off to Queensland?
Or perhaps they were all there at one point but he was deported. In that case they can blame the Australian government.
Further evidence that Australia and Australian people simply do not get Coronavirus. The slack attitude of the AUS government and people is why nearly 50 people have died after they supposedly beat Covid.
Their surge in deaths is almost 50% of their initial deaths.
And to think we had the Plan-B people here backed in tone by the National Party claiming Australia got it right.
Make no mistake, if the National Party are the next government, Covid 19 will re-enter New Zealand
I read several times that she wanted closure for her children.
Her own actions have likely prevented closure for her children…………..What a bloody awful performance she has put her kids through.
Sometimes we don't always get what we think we need to get especially in a pandemic…….I know of many people in really bad situations because of this pandemic……………
Easy for us to say and judge from the sideline and the comfort of our keyboards. Until we walk in her shoes we have no idea what she was feeling let alone thinking; it must have been awful. Apparently, she tried to do the best for her children. I’d hazard a guess that better communication with and between the authorities might have prevented the whole thing from happening. The response: more security 🙁
O.k. Incognito I hear your point of view.
Doing the best for your children in a pandemic under these circumstances, imho involves supporting them in their grief in Queensland as travelling during a pandemic with quarantine meant their trip was problematic from the get go.(no guarantee of getting compassionate leave). So she put her children through a horrendous trip with two weeks in quarantine. Just as they were waiting on a decision about getting to see the body, she decided to break the law and abscond by breaking open a window and climbing over a very high fence. Possibly one of them could have fallen and injured themselves or worst. Then put her children in the position when they were arrested by the police, while her 17 year old was on the run with police helicopter hovering. One child saw his fathers body, the others didn't. Then they appear in court and get a very stern message from the judge. I think these were very very poor choices for her children. She has also taught her children you don't need to worry about rules, if you really want to do something, just do it, break the law and risk arrest. Actually as I write this, I think this woman has shown appalling judgement.
I reserve no sympathy for any absconders. They are prioritizing themselves over everyone else in a pandemic, including the poor bloody police who have to arrest them, not knowing whether they have covid.
James Shaw throwing some shade on Winston Peters and NZF. Subtle zen vibe to Peters' brass knuckles.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/07/nz-election-2020-greens-throwing-everything-at-auckland-central-to-ensure-place-back-in-parliament.amp.html
Colbert on Trump last night. It's not the cognitive test Trump explains that's the only farcical take but a little bit further in the video is Trump's evaluation on the qualities of Dr. Deborah Birx.
https://youtu.be/ejKvwawO0uA
Seems there's now a viral fan base for her 'style' as the US's current focus.
Scarf fan defends naughty boys.
https://amp.rnz.co.nz/article/d79cae55-56a7-4277-b46e-6593d67ed591
https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-coronavirus-birx-trump-disinfectant-injection-20200426-pgl3lmbpjfd6he5qrffipyx6aq-story.html?outputType=amp
Tiwai – there was a discussion yesterday about the power being freed up. Has the Government ensured that the extra supply being freed up will be used in the national interest by cancelling resource permits or some such if it is not?
I wouldn't put it past any power company to sign up to supply some dodgy enterprise so long as the return was sufficent to keep the executive salaries up.
At current share prices Meridian and Genesis (half of each) is about $7 billion. Makes you wonder if restoring state ownership, merging and the reducing power prices so benefits went further would not be a massively good investment. At some point privatisation should get push back otherwise every right wing government just sells more.
Business pay less per kw/h than residential so you'd think that they'd be keen to get that extra from residential users.
There was push-back but the government sold it off any way. As I say, we don't have a democracy – we have an elected dictatorship.
While I agree with most of what you say about the power
parasitescompanies..I seem to recall Key winning an election saying he would flog off the the family silver.
True but there was also a referendum showing that most people didn't want him to do that. If we were a democracy he, and the rest of National, would have changed those plans.
I'm not thinking of just push back at the time but actually looking at undoing some of this after the right is voted out. ACC has been about the only thing where the left made it very clear that they would renationalise if it was sold and losses would not be compensated for. We have things like the Hamilton prison that is a 35? year privatisation contract and it just gets left. It becomes a one way street with more and more going into the private sector.
Imagine the outrage from the right if say the teachers in public schools all worked for the one company that they owned. And a left government signed a 35 year contract with the company complete with manning formula's and wage escalation and site agreements so that future governments were committed to it.
Yea, well it's about time All infrastructure entities were (re)nationalized, back to the peoples' benefit. Lets see how socialist, Labour can be in the next 3 terms of government, let's see shades of Big Norm come through.
We've had our deliberations about our reactions to sexual misconduct by pollies, whether we're too tough or not tough enough. But things could be waaaay worse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo1lDJrZKx8
https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1286814475899662336
Which one of two is the polly?
George Tiller allover again. They're going to get Fauci killed.
https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/1286864655550500868
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1286864655550500868.html
Let those words sink in and then let us revisit the things Bill O’Reilly said about Dr. George Tiller before Dr. Tiller was actually assassinated in 2009.
According to Salon O’Reilly brought up Dr. Tiller 27 times on his national show over four years (from 2005 to 2009 before Dr. Tiller was murdered). That’s almost seven times a year or every two months.
Here are some of the ways O’Reilly targeted Dr. Tiller on his national platform:
https://drjengunter.com/2017/04/18/bill-oreilly-who-targeted-dr-george-tiller-now-cries-about-character-assassination/
'Murica
https://twitter.com/TalbertSwan/status/1286834171076386819
Southland District Mayor calls out Winston Peter to do some work and back up what he says.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/421908/tiwai-point-southland-mayor-keen-to-hear-winston-peters-solution
I imagine Gary Tong is pretty upset with Winston for blocking a relief package.
Wow… this is some pure crazy…
https://www.nzpublicparty.org.nz/
Indeed.
https://twitter.com/JoshVanVeen/status/1282581391469764609
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/122230329/one-crucial-question-will-decide-who-rules-us-after-the-election
Not someone I expected to say the Labour and Greens are the best option.