"If you're able to walk the dog around the block, it might not be the dog's idea of a good time but that will work," says Civil Defence director Sarah Stuart-Black. "You don't have to get in the car and drive."
I'm thinking this probably could've waited a bit longer, and let the non-drive recommendations take time to get used to.
We share the property with our tenants who have spent both days out visiting. Unfortunately, they have also invited others to the property and responded agressively when they arrived back home with more visitors and I informed them that the Alert 4 meant they should be at home by themselves (I was in on the front porch on the phone enjoying the sun when they got home). After asking what that meant, they then told me that they had been to the supermarket (while dressed in togs, with towels around their waists like the carload of previous visitors.)
Any relaxation of driving rules will allow those who already aren't following them to self-justify.
(BTW, any advice on how to deal with tenants without impacting on their rights in this matter would be appreciated. Have told them we don't care about where they go, but they cannot invite visitors to the shared property during the lockdown period. The second visitor was someone who does tattoos, and they couldn't do it at his house because he has seven kids…)
The police, and some other organisations, as well as others with a strong authoritarian bias, appear to be making up their own rules, instead of doing their job, enforcing the rules Government has put in place.
Making for unnecessary mixed messages and confusion.
People getting told to go home here, when out walking with more than two, even though they are from the same, “bubble”, by the cops, for example.
"You should stay at home as much as possible, except for going for a walk or picking up essentials. You should not enter other people’s houses or arrange meetings in public places.
If you leave your home, keep a two metre distance from other people at all times. When you return home from being in public, thoroughly wash your hands. Stopping physical contact with people outside your household is the single most important thing we can do right now to stop further community transmission.
Be kind. People may want to act as enforcers of others, but report any concerns to the correct authorities through nhccselfisolation@health.govt.nz.
Using private vehicles for transport is allowed. You can only travel if you’re accessing essential services, if you’re an essential worker, or if you’re driving to a local area for a walk or to exercise. You should only travel in your car with people from your household.
Personal walks and other active travel like cycling or scootering, is fine, provided you keep a two metre distance from anybody outside of your household. Stick to simple outdoor exercise and avoid areas where you can get injured or lost. It’s important the emergency services remain available to support the response to COVID19".
I would take that to mean rowing, kayaking, swimming and fishing in your local area, in sheltered water, is fine also, but the amount of people indulging their “control freak” about activities that actually have no effect on virus spread, so long as you can keep your distance, is amazing.
I can understand why higher risk activities, such as power boating, and surfing, are discouraged.
My question was more about how to deal with tenants on our shared property, who are not following the alerts, and inviting others back to our shared property without overstepping the mark as landlords – or infringing on their rights as tenants. (As well as noting, that the advice to drive to parks for leisure will be taken as justification for their current approach to Level 4).
Yes. There were a fair number of reports to the dob in line in the first day of lock down.
The police are taking a community policing approach in the first instance – visiting the alleged offenders and explaining what is required for the lock down. They get tougher if people fail to heed their advice.
There are some clueless people about. First day of lock down, a tweeter said they'd reported a neighbour who had about 50 people arriving for a barbeque. An idiot from somewhere in NZ told them to chill because this virus had been around since 2017 and nothing bad had happened. He provided a screenshot about SARS as his source.
When we told him not the same virus, he said there were thousands more people die of the flu – and he said the fact that is not known is all a Big Pharma conspiracy.
It is a bit difficult because we are on a shared property. We are landlords by default because we have a no longer required granny flat.
Although we had issued a notice to end tenancy before the alerts, when the lifting to Level 3 and notice for Level 4 was announced, and it was apparent that their expected next dwelling had changed, we told them to consider it void and that they would be there for the duration of the lockdown. We will issue the notice again, when the lockdown lifts as my son wants to return to Auckland to look for work. However, that means minimum of four months with them in close proximity, more if we find ourselves moving in and out of Alert levels.
They can be a bit threatening, bluster mostly. Along the lines of "I'm a madman, people don't piss me off because they know what I'll do" and "In my family, women don't speak" which kind of confirms their first statement. In the next instance he referred to his girlfriends tendency for violence and how we better watch out. My concern is that we still have teens at home, and how to avoid them having to deal with any fallout.
I know what we can do legally. If the threats are considered we may also have the right to immediately evict.
However, I was wondering if anyone had suggestions strategic approaches to deal with this that we could try out. Although they are not the most model of tenants, I want to avoid involving authorities if possible.
I really feel for you Molly. That is a tough position to be in. I, like almost all of us who are giving up stuff in order to do the right thing would be very angry with your neighbours.
Everyone reading this, I think Molly needs some help here i.e. our collective brain power to give her ideas of what to do.
I would call the police (unless you think these people could be threatening towards you. I would tell the police I am concerned about repercussions and if they visit the neighbours (and they should) could they warn them if they retaliate in any way there will be very serious consequences.? The police may even be able to phone them as a first step.
According to RNZ, kayaking is not fine. Anything likely to require emergency assistance means other people needing to come in close contact with you. I think that is also what Bloomfield said. Staying local also means less likely to need roadside assistance.
The reporter in the video at the RNZ link said people should only be going to Mission Bay in Auckland, if they can walk there from home. I suspect it's more likely in more rural areas that people might be OK driving a short distance to their local beach.
I think it depends. So for instance in Ngataringa Bay, no kayaker could ever be more than 500 meters from the shore, and it is probable the water would be no more than 1.5 meters deep. At the very centre of the Bay it would be 2 meters. Bear in mind that is at high tide.
So I can't see how going for a kayak on Ngataringa Bay could be a risk of any significance. Basically if you fell out, you can probably stand up and walk for about 75% of the Bay. Maybe people should stay away from the centre where it is deepest. In my 20 years living here, I have never seen anyone in trouble. I have seen a few centreboard dinghys tip over. But the people righted them, or in one case towed it to shore. But kayakers have never got into difficulty.
Can you ever say there will never ever be problems, notwithstanding there have been none in the 20 years I have lived here. I guess not. But the risk has to be minute.
So I guess it depends on the circumstances. For instance could a farmer go out and shoot rabbits on his/her farm? I would say, yes. Again there is a minute risk that they could shoot themselves.
Life can't be totally risk free. No doubt there will be many accidents in the home and in the garden over the next four weeks. And we are not saying, don't garden.
A friend died kayaking a number of years back, he did not know he had epilepsy, and the glint of the sun off the water caused a seizure and he drowned. He was paddling in thigh high water in an estuary.
A old boy died kayaking in the calm waters around Ruby Bay and Mapua the other week, he had a heart attack on the water.
Both were competent kayakers. As for me, I've a kayak, and live a block from the beach but I'm going to wait, riding the waves is even more fun after a break from doing so.
No-one ever drowned in a vege garden, but plenty of people have had to go to hospital from gardening. Cuts, infections, legionnaires from compost and so on. Different activities, different hazards.
Coastguard probably not, but helicopter definitely has happened. The incident I was closest to involved anaphylaxis from insect stings that got riled up by the gardening activities..
Then the medical care needed for something like legionnaires is vastly more demanding on medical facilities in comparison to the quick in-and-out that would be needed for almost all kayaking incidents.
Perspective indeed. I'm not arguing for or against gardening or kayaking. I'm arguing against claiming activity A should be allowed while activity B shouldn't, when activity B also has a lot of hidden factors that might also contribute to increasing the burden on our healthcare system.
In fact. You are much more likely to need help from first responders, gardening or cycling, than kayaking.
Just had a thought I may trigger people wanting gardening or cycling banned, now. Shit.
I wouldn't go surf swimming or white water or ocean kayaking, though.
It's hard to be certain about each instance of what's in or out during lock down. To some extent it requires common sense, and focus on the main aim.
Many people staying home will choose to do DIY, but some care should be taken about taking unnecessary risks where a person could do themselves the kind of harm requiring emergency services.
I am quite impressed by how the new neighbours have changed to adjust to lock down. No more tradies doing their major home and property upgrade.
This morning the whole family is out – looks like making a garden. I'm not so impressed by the young man who just started using a pneumatic drill to drill some rock – not such a peaceful lock down for the hood.
Very good point about the comparison of risk. Bike riding is probably more risky than swimming in 1.5 meters of smooth water. All my sporting accidents have been bike riding related, some involving X-rays, physio, etc. either coming off the bike at speed, or in one case running into a parked car because I wasn't looking. These have been on longer rides, up to 160 k. But I have had incidents on local rides.
Swimming, my major risk would be a heart attack, and in that case 1.5 meters of water would not necessarily be shallow enough. I keep myself quite fit, but all of us run a heart attack risk. Is that enough of a deterrent?
So here is a thought for KJT, when you do your item on what is acceptable and what is not, it would worth checking the stats on various activities and their risk profile.
As an example, people used to say about recreational flying that the biggest risk was driving to the airfield. It was completely wrong. A detailed analysis of accidents rates per hour of activity showed powered flight in small aircraft was 8 times more risky than driving a car. And Gliding was 32 times more risky. Motorcycling is about 8 times more risky than a car.
Sure, it may well be fine. Lots of regular water activities may be fine. But are they necessary?
It's often called a "war" against the virus. People aren't being asked to survive the trenches of WW1, or the Blitz of WW2. We're not being conscripted to serve, and nobody has to be Willie Apiata.
To be Heroes in this "war", we only need to make a tiny sacrifice in our leisure activity, because it is our best hope of saving lives.
If we can't even manage that, then we should probably cancel all ANZAC Day services forever, because we are an embarrassment to those we honour.
How come a friend drove to a largely deserted beach to walk her dog and was closely tailed by a police car? Which parked up her tailpipe until the other two police cars arrived to combine forces to coax two surfers out of the water?
Mind you, In some parts if the rohe the constabularly do this kind of stuff just for shits and giggles while largely ignoring more serious doings like meth related crime.
And then, when they're not intimidating grey haired women walking their dog, they wonder why ordinary law abiding folk struggle to respect them.
I assumed that knocking on folks' suburban doors and getting up in their faces trying to sell them " moisturiser" would also be a no no. The jars contained a thick clear substance unlike any moisturiser I have ever seen.
I sent Mr. Entrepreneur on his way, but when I could hear him banging away on the neighbouring doors loudly selling his wares I became a little concerned. The desperate, almost crazed look and his aggro reaction when I challenged him led me to call the Constables. I suspect I should have saved my breath.
Those committing crimes Before in order to finance their lifestyles are often as cunning as shithouse rats. This is going to present untold opportunities.
The police have been losing that battle already…and now they have dog walkers and surfers to deal with I'd hazard that other war is on hold.
Sounds like you're being very patient, Molly. A difficult situation.
They are – like many people – obviously violating the spirit of the lockdown, big time. And I'm getting fed up with people saying "Oh, we need clearer guidelines", like they are 5 year olds. They're looking for excuses, not explanations. STAY HOME.
When all this is over I hope we don't hear any more rubbish about "nanny state" and "individual responsibility". We've got the responsibility now, and some of us obviously can't handle it. There's a lot of Kiwis who don't need Mary Poppins, they need Robocop. STAY HOME.
On a different note.
Was wondering how P heads were going to get on during the lock down.
All the weed growers will have pulled their plants, as it’s harvest time, so they will be happy in lockdown trimming and drying their pot.
The boozers were able to stock up and some can still buy it, so they will be sorted.
I’m predicting a few P busts as the police follow peoples movements. Not saying your neighbours are on P, just thinking out loud.
Thanks Cinny. I was on the phone to a friend at the time, and had to end the conversation when it became apparent the interaction was going to take longer.
When I got off she had sent through a text to the NHCC email link.
I'm in this camp. Explain clearly and calmly once, give them an online reference to something official (because then they know it's not just you). If they do it again, hand it over to the police or text number. We get one chance at not having community transmission and what we do in the coming week matters hugely.
Thanks, weka. We had already had a talk with them about the issues, when we advised that they would be staying during the lockdown. Have also given them the official government site details.
I think as most suggest, we will involve authorities if another incident occurs.
"I'm thinking this probably could've waited a bit longer, and let the non-drive recommendations take time to get used to."
I think we should start as we mean to go on and get as many people as possible understanding that driving creates risks and should be limited.
What is someone going to do if their car breaks down or is in accident? Are they going to expect someone else to give them a ride home? I'm not even sure that there re mechanics avaialble now (although emergency towing and AA etc still are functioning). This is why the stay local message makes sense. If something happens it's easier to manage.
I've been thinking about this a fair bit, because I live in the country and it's normal to drive a distance to go for walk. Local is really going to depend on the person's situation and location. Needing to get out once a week somewhere in nature that's a 20 min drive, for mental health sake is different than going out every day to do stuff.
Playing For Change is a movement created to inspire and connect the world through music, born from the shared belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people.
A remake of the Band's The Weight, from Music from Big Pink. A timeless classic featuring Ringo, Robbie, and other musicians from around the world. A great way to start the weekend.
More information from health authorities for those that have "essential workers" in their household, which you all may find useful.
Already finding this very difficult with three still working.
"I'm an essential worker – what do I need to do to keep safe?
Workers need to take reasonable care of their own health and safety, and the health and safety of others, while working. This means following and cooperating with any reasonable health and safety instructions, policies and procedures that you're given, to stay safe and to make sure you don't risk the health and safety of others that you come in contact with through your work. Work with your employer to help develop any new ways of working that are needed to keep you and others safe.
In addition, there are a number of things people can do to keep safe when they get home.
The most important thing for essential workers to do when they get home is to wash their hands immediately and practice good hygiene.
This includes
Cough or sneeze into your elbow or by covering your mouth and nose with tissues.
Put used tissues in the bin or a bag immediately.
Wash your hands with soap and water often (for at least 20 seconds).
before eating or handling food
after using the toilet
after coughing, sneezing, blowing your nose or wiping children's noses
after caring for sick people.
Try to avoid close contact with people who are unwell.
Don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth if your hands are not clean.
Avoid personal contact, such as kissing, sharing cups or food
Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces and objects, such as doorknobs.
Stay home if you feel unwell and call Healthline.
If you are very concerned you may wish to:
Minimise close contact with people by avoiding situations where you have face-to-face contact closer than 1 metre for more than 15 minutes.
Use your own toothbrushes, eating and drinking utensils (including cups and glasses in the bathroom and bedroom), dishes, towels, washcloths or bed linen. Do not share food and drinks or prepare food for others. Wash your clothing and dishes separate to others in your home.
Clean surfaces like kitchen benches and sink tops after you use them and try to avoid touching them after you have cleaned them.
Make sure you use separate towels from other people in your house, both for drying yourself after bathing or showering and for drying your hands. Ask your family or the people you live with to remember to use their own towels.
If you use a shared toilet and bathroom, it’s important that you clean them every time you use them (for example, wiping surfaces you have come into contact with). You may wish to be the last to use the shower/bath in the morning or evening to make this easier on those you live with. You should use your own toilet paper, hand towels, toothpaste and other supplies during your self-isolation”.
The Headmaster of a college at which I taught very memorably (forty five years ago) summed up the school rules in two sentences."Anything against common sense is against the school rules. Anything against the law is against school rules".
Rabbi Hillel was asked to explain the Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel replied, "What is hateful to yourself, do not do to your fellow man. That is the whole Torah; the rest is just commentary. Go and study it".
Jacinda Ardern has done something similar with her injunction to "act as if you yourself have the virus".
I realise this is necessary and it is time consuming for an already tired frontline worker.
I would like to see free nutritious meals provided at work for health workers and police officers. Supermarket workers need to have their hours reduced but be paid there usual hours.
I am not sure of the percentage of people who are keeping the country running, they deserve respect, care and kindness.
Spot the differences between the UK government response and NZ.
NZ parliament activities have been more strongly restricted at a much earlier stage than in the UK. So MPs now only meet physically with some other MPs and staff "inside their bubble".
And still there are op eds in NZ media saying NZ should have gone into lock down a month or 2 earlier.
A lock down requires a lot of logistical reorganisation, plus messaging to the general population.
Things are still not totally clear or sorted in NZ, but consider all that's required: not just having the protective gear for front line workers, but working out which workers should get what and how many protective kits; deciding which businesses are essential when loads are trying to get classified as such, often for commercial reasons rather than the national good; preparing and organising the police and military for appropriate responses; changing benefits so all can survive; then all the responses to suspected and confirmed Covid-19 cases, including testing, contact tracing, health support…. and more.
Am seriously impressed at how fast the Covid-19 website was put together by our government. That's been super informative and helpful for us.
Also with the warning we got by the PM, about being ready to move quickly when we were at level two. It helped our household so much in getting our heads around the lock down.
My girls have been in lock down since last Sunday afternoon and every day it gets a bit easier. Sure we've had our moments, but they are adjusting really well.
Idiot Johnson, possibly at the beginning of March, saying he continues to shake people's hands and has been in hospitals where there are patients with Covid-19 and he's been shaking everyone's hands.
Understandably there is "information overload" at this time, so forgive me for this reminder –
From the official site:
COVID-19 can remain on plastic and stainless steel surfaces for up to about three days and less than that for other types of surfaces. This will depend on the surface.
So when we go out for our "harmless" walks or drives, we need to avoid sitting on benches, opening gates, pressing buttons, and a hundred other things we do without even thinking.
If your walk takes you far from any hand-washing, and you're not carrying something to wash/sanitise with, then it's too far.
Distancing from people we see is not hard. Distancing from the virus is another matter.
Tara Reade is not the first woman to be betrayed by the MeToo racket. Two years ago, as they paraded one after the other in their jewels and silk dresses, they studiously avoided even mentioning Ahed Tamimi….
At the moment I'm trying to avoid some fringes of the commentariat, but curiosity compells me in this case. What on earth do those links have to do with the Metoo movement?
Thanks Morrissey that second link was a classic, I don't know why, but I keep forgetting how easily lead by the MSM to follow the party line so many of the regular contributors on TS are.
I guess I just keep hoping that these obviously smart people will start using the critical thinking part of their brains at some point, But there is no sign of that happening any time soon… half the people on here at one point or another have shown some sort of support for Biden, have defended his obvious mental decline as "gaffs" etc…stupidly going along with the Biden nomination like bit characters from The Emperor's new clothes, it really feels like we are have entered pure fantasy land with Biden.
Winston is an interesting character. He started out pretty much as a lifestyle blogger, but as Xi Xinping's regime has become increasingly authoritarian and hawkish he's started to become more political.
There is a great deal hanging on the CCP's true intent as events unfold.
Over the next few months global economic activity will likely plummet more than the 15 percent it suffered during the first three years of the Great Depression.
For the record, New Zealand’s GDP plunged 17 percent from 1929 to its nadir in 1931……
Fourthly, as many businesses as possible across the economy should work out how they can drastically reduce human contact through online ways of working and serving customers. Huge creativity is vital.
This might be the end of face to face shopping. Guaranteed germ/virus free home delivery might be the new norm?
Home deliveries may be less risky re-germs than shopping in store, but right now there is no way they can be germ free. From supermarkets, there's no way of knowing who handled the products in the process of getting them into shopping bags (they use paper bags at cost of $1.00); then there's the potential germ contact from the deliverer.
The skin is a formidable barrier against infections. The key is to wash your hands properly after handling the deliveries and always wash your hands before eating and/or touching your face. If the virus doesn’t get to your respiratory system, it won’t get in and take hold. Paper bags are not a smooth surface and I’d imagine virus particles don’t transfer all that efficiently back to humans. Just don’t eat the paper bag when you’ve emptied it 😉
The GP receptionist I talked to on the phone recommended disinfecting all groceries that arrive in the house and letting dry before storing. My first home delivery arrived in the last hour (I thought they were coming on Sunday?).
Anyway, I tried wiping down all the frozen veg packages plus stuff that needs to go in fridge pretty quickly, and other stuff for the freezer with disinfectant on paper towel – that's all pretty tricky really. Left the rest to sit in the bags for a few hours, and washed hands 2-3 times in the process.
I’m not sure that trying to wipe everything is necessarily a good thing as it could spread things around. Too much of a ‘good’ thing can backfire. My suggestion is to try avoiding contact between what you put into your mouth and the outside packaging. Don’t put packed groceries on the kitchen bench for easy unpacking. Keep the food preparation area separate from others. Don’t use one cloth for everything – IIRC there are many stories from way before COVID-19 on how to keep your kitchen cloth germ free. Don’t become paranoid.
Yep. Sound like good advice for those doing their own shopping. Supermarket home deliveries are in paper bags. I understand they don't have an easy surface for virus drops to land and stay on, but I'll just leave them where they are for a couple of days.
Maybe the day will come when courier/delivery vans are fitted out as fumigation units. Order online and have delivered "clean"items. Rod says think of innovative ways to adapt.
Oram does outline the near future problem but mispurposes the current Government largesse…
"Governments have started to put money into people's hands to stimulate the economy, writes Rod Oram. Now we need to start restoring business activity and consumer spending"
The current packages purposes isnt economic stimulus but rather life support and capacity banking…but he does have a much better handle on the impacts than some others as demonstrated in this other Newsroom piece
There is another obvious concern with his recovery strategy….
"A good way to begin expanding economic activity would be to allow courier services to resume handling non-essential items. E-commerce could then play a bigger role. TradeMe’s website gives a very clear explanation how restricted the current trading system is.
But for e-commerce to function, businesses and government would also need to design protocols for warehouses and fulfilment centres to operate. Currently, we are far more restrictive than some other countries. In the US, for example, Amazon is still functioning, albeit for essential items; and in many US states restaurants have switched to doing takeaways only delivered by services such as Uber Eats."
Im not sure encouraging e commerce is a sound idea when the bulk of those goods will be imported and we have just seen our largest foreign currency earner wiped out for the foreseeable…..
Hes the same type of fukwit that if in 4 months we've stamped this bug out will write an article saying how the government overreacted and caused economic chaos because of it .
Now that Bridges' comms people have told him to take the 'we're all in this together' line I guess someone has to do it. The irony is that you could bet your house on Bridges acting way way later: "We need to balance people's health needs with the health of the economy…" and "without a healthy economy we'd have no health system".
Well, a quick google turns up links to kiwibog and that other defunct sewer. Haven't got the stomach to click on them, sorry.
But absolutely nothing to suggest his opinion on epidemiological matters has any value whatsoever. That suggests he's another one of these academics scamming off his title to lend false credibility to his reckons totally outside his competence.
Oh great, someone else from Massey publishing illiberal commentary. On top of being the anti-freedom-of-speech university it now gets to be the ignorance-based-reckons university. I hope I get to retire soon.
Oh nice posted while writing and then claims its a duplicate and denies me the right to edit it.
His past columns were
1. Waitangi Day column criticism of the PM as just words with no action on home building
2. a column supporting the value of a communications degree where he suggests that despite being a lightweight the PM has succeeded because of her communications degree based capacity to network.
3. March column supporting Oz deporting Kiwis and opposing the PM standing up for the rights of Kiwis there
No column advocating a tougher response to Coronavirus threat or attacking any other government for having to resort to lockdowns
Prediction – he seeks to stand for the Maori Party and be part of a National led government.
What's worse is the Stuff Comments policy, where there's an outpouring of deranged misinformation, and then comments are closed so nothing can be rebutted.
Stuff journos have been doing a terrific job on Covid19, especially in the past week when they must have been working overtime.
"Maxine" is possibly the worst single ever released in New Zealand or anywhere else. Dull, plodding, almost unlistenable. Only the Narcs' dreadful "Heart and Soul" comes anywhere near it.
Apart from preventing covid-19 what else might the lockdown stamp out? Will we see no cases of seasonal flu or the common cold for the rest of the year if everyone is cleaning like mad and isolating for a month or more breaking the chain? What about headlice in school kids if they’re not mixing for so long? Interesting times ahead.
John Pilger: Vanessa Baraitser achieves infamy for her wicked cruelty
This outrage is happening in Britain in 2020, but the contempt for justice and the inhumanity of these "authorities" could be from the Soviet Union in 1938….
That looks like an attractive idea at first glance, but what you see happening out on site is only the tip of a much larger iceberg of engineering and supplier activity all feeding into it.
The guy doing the Covid-19 daily 1pm update (Bloomfield is having a day off) said "don't be an idiot" – basic hygiene, 2 meter distance and stay local. Don't travel to your holiday home.
Apparently some groups of people in parks have been throwing frisbies to each other, and playing touch rugby.
And RNZ reports the police are in a bit of a stand-off with a load of boaties anchoring in Great Barrier Island harbours for the lock down. They are using the supermarket on the island, and putting a lot of strain on the island resources.
The boaties at the Barrier was nearly us. We were using that as a way of avoiding people, before the lockdown. Then several days of Westerly gales stopped us getting back.
Didn't want to have any risk of causing a coast guard callout, by sailing into strong winds, so had to wait until Wednesday to come back.
We did consider staying there, but thought would be better at home. If we had a larger boat equipped and stored for a long period, we may have stayed out.
Good old national Denise Lee has the postman out the delivering potentially virus laden spam to tell me after 9 yrs of destruction she is there for me.
Most of the annoyance comes from her clever marketing, addressed to the residents, a peak in side says covid 19 so i think its important and get it out to read.
Did you listen to the livestream of the latest Trump presser Cinny @ 8.1 linked to this morning?
Rambling garbage that went on and and on and on… and he said nothing except everything was great, beautiful and that his advisers were the best in the world and that America was the greatest country in the world and every thing was going to be hunky dory (no, he didn't say hunky dory but something similar) and standing alongside him was a grinning neanderthal – have no idea who he was – who looked like he had just emerged from hill-billy country and had been shoved into a suit.
At one point he said: they're building a lot of things in New York that they have never builded before.
"Builded" for God's sake! What he was talking about… who knows.
Frankly I've got to the point where I think America deserves everything that is coming to them because they have demonstrated utter cowardice in kow-towing to an unhinged crackpot who is looking more and more like a cross between Stalin and Hitler.
The reliability of China’s coronavirus numbers is under question once again in view of the staggering amount of urns being distributed out in Wuhan.
According to official Chinese government data, 50,006 people were infected with the Covid-19 virus in Wuhan with 2,535 dying from the disease.
However, Chinese investigative outlet Caixin reports that when mortuaries opened back up this week in the Hubei capital, people had to wait in line for as long as five hours to receive the remains of their loved ones lost during the epidemic.
[…]
Urns are reportedly being distributed at a rate of 500 a day at the mortuary until the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, which falls on April 4 this year.
Wuhan has seven other mortuaries. If they are all sticking to the same schedule, this adds up to more than 40,000 urns being distributed in the city over the next 10 days.
Thanks for this. About 3 weeks ago I conveyed similar information that my sources were telling me the real toll in Wuhan was at least 10 times what was being officially claimed … but I was lambasted for scaremongering.
Again a great deal hinges on the CCP's real intent here.
RFA (Radio Free Asia) – admittedly not an unbiased source – points out that just one cremetory (?) working round the clock could cremate all 2500 bodies in a week. Wuhan has seven such, all working round the clock for over 2 months.
Best estimate is over 40,000 deaths, probably closer to 48,000.
at least 80% of income where reasonably possible (for employees working reduced hours while self-isolating)
the full subsidy received for each named employee, where their pay is below the subsidy rate.
Subsidy rates
Payment rates under the modified wage subsidy scheme are unchanged from the original COVID-19 leave and wage subsidy schemes. They are:
$585.80 (gross) per week for full-time employees, where full-time is 20 hours or more per week
$350 (gross) per week for part-time employees, where part-time is less than 20 hours per week.
So it looks like if you are a part timer (less than 20 hours per week) & you earn say $150 gross, your employer has to pass on the full subsidy to you as employee – a huge win for some part timers – who should be paid $350 per week during the shutdown period if their employer has received a subsidy for them.
The govt will at some stage have available on the internet all businesses that received the wages subsidy, so if you are a part timer, check you receive your full entitlement !!
It may be unfair, but when you get govt paying out subsidies based on simple calculations to get the money out fast to employees, you are bound to have some winners & some losers in the scheme.
Just thought it best to let people know their entitlements, but this is a moving space & things could change quickly.
Update to my previous post – it seems the rules re full $350 payments to part timers only applies to employer subsidy applications received from 4pm on 27 March 2020.
Sorry like everything it is more complex than thought – part timers may or may not be entitled to the full $350 per week depending when their employer lodged the claim with WINZ.
I'm sure this is not the end of the matter as Incognito has shown there is already push back from National on this one.
She [the PM] said one of the questions she keeps getting asked was around the wage subsidy.
"As you know, the wage subsidy is roughly $585 per week for full-time and $350 for part-time and goes straight to employers."
She asked employers to do their best to pay their workers at least 80 per cent of what they would usually be paid.
"For those part-time workers who might be earning less than that amount, really what we are asking employers is to pay [their workers] what their normal hours would be." [my italics]
“But to be absolutely clear if a person’s income is normally less than the subsidy they can be paid their normal salary.
“This is particularly an issue for part time employees some of whom normally earn less than the $350 per week. We urge employers to use normal hours in the period before COVID-19 to assess the amount to be paid,” Grant Robertson said.
No, I don’t think that’s the case and I think it is actually quite clear:
Wage rates for employees
If you are receiving the COVID-19 Wage Subsidy, you must try your hardest to pay the employee named in your application at least 80% of their usual wages. If that isn’t possible, you need to pay at least the subsidy rate (ie, full-time or part-time).
If your employee's usual wages are less than the subsidy, you must pay them their usual wages. Any difference should be used for the wages of other affected staff – the wage subsidy is designed to keep your employees connected to you. [my italics]
Simon's done his own Facebook speech to the nation.
He has an 0800 number right wing voters can call to give information with which to attack the government at the next election. I'm thinking meat-eating National voters who can't access their butcher of choice, etc.
He has 55 MPs ready to hear stories about how the government didn't get it perfect in the greatest civil and economic disturbance in modern times.
Simon's Facebook speech and 0800 number seem more like a PR exercise in relevancy rather than anything useful to the people most affected.
Incognito you are correct, business.govt.nz has just updated the current position on its website at 6.20 pm tonight which ties in with Jacinda’s statements. Their post from yesterday which I was referring to has now been changed.
Staying away from people by 2 metres in the open air seems to be the biz. The supermarket is much more dangerous — what did I touch last? Staying home is about enforceability. The govt went with clarity over the increasing Mishnah interpretations of the Torah of their new laws.
Going to the shops is still a crap shoot, for me with no disinfectant anyway.
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
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? ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
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 Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 3 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan resistance leader has condemned the United Nations role in allowing Indonesia to “integrate” the Melanesian Pacific region in what is claimed to be an “egregious act of inhumanity” on 1 May 1963. In an open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A key part of the Albanese government’s political strategy is to fill the news cycle with its presence and messaging. Ministers are deployed to the maximum, even when they’ve little to say. This week ...
Recent extreme weather events showed the importance of a well-functioning insurance system, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister Andrew Bayly. ...
By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Brakenridge, Postdoctoral research fellow at Swinburne University, Centre for Urban Transitions, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute The Conversation, Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall ...
The Wellington-based Reserve Force soldier is now almost three years into his New Zealand Army career with 5th/7th Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. ...
"The Government needs to release the review immediately as this reckless approach to change risks disjointed decision making and creates more distress and uncertainty for staff," Fitzsimons said. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Jeremiah Manele has been elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, polling 31 votes to 18 over rival candidate and former opposition leader Mathew Wale with one abstention. The final result of the election by secret ballot was announced by the Governor-General, Sir David Vunagi, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Priestley Habru, PhD candidate, public diplomacy, University of Adelaide Former foreign minister Jeremiah Manele has been elected the next prime minister of Solomon Islands, defeating the opposition leader, Matthew Wale, in a vote in parliament. The result is a mixed bag for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shaun Eaves, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Jamey Stutz, CC BY-SA How often do mountains collapse, volcanoes erupt or ice sheets melt? For Earth scientists, these are important questions as we try ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Flood, Professor of Sociology, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Most young adult men in Australia reject traditional ideas of masculinity that endorse aggression, stoicism and homophobia. Nonetheless, the ongoing influence of those ideas continues to harm men and the people ...
Bit of mixed messaging coming out here from the Civil Defence director Sarah Stuart-Black.
I'm thinking this probably could've waited a bit longer, and let the non-drive recommendations take time to get used to.
We share the property with our tenants who have spent both days out visiting. Unfortunately, they have also invited others to the property and responded agressively when they arrived back home with more visitors and I informed them that the Alert 4 meant they should be at home by themselves (I was in on the front porch on the phone enjoying the sun when they got home). After asking what that meant, they then told me that they had been to the supermarket (while dressed in togs, with towels around their waists like the carload of previous visitors.)
Any relaxation of driving rules will allow those who already aren't following them to self-justify.
(BTW, any advice on how to deal with tenants without impacting on their rights in this matter would be appreciated. Have told them we don't care about where they go, but they cannot invite visitors to the shared property during the lockdown period. The second visitor was someone who does tattoos, and they couldn't do it at his house because he has seven kids…)
What you can and can't do is pretty clear.
The police, and some other organisations, as well as others with a strong authoritarian bias, appear to be making up their own rules, instead of doing their job, enforcing the rules Government has put in place.
Making for unnecessary mixed messages and confusion.
People getting told to go home here, when out walking with more than two, even though they are from the same, “bubble”, by the cops, for example.
https://covid19.govt.nz/
"You should stay at home as much as possible, except for going for a walk or picking up essentials. You should not enter other people’s houses or arrange meetings in public places.
If you leave your home, keep a two metre distance from other people at all times. When you return home from being in public, thoroughly wash your hands. Stopping physical contact with people outside your household is the single most important thing we can do right now to stop further community transmission.
Be kind. People may want to act as enforcers of others, but report any concerns to the correct authorities through nhccselfisolation@health.govt.nz.
See more information on staying at home
Can I use my car?
Using private vehicles for transport is allowed. You can only travel if you’re accessing essential services, if you’re an essential worker, or if you’re driving to a local area for a walk or to exercise. You should only travel in your car with people from your household.
Personal walks and other active travel like cycling or scootering, is fine, provided you keep a two metre distance from anybody outside of your household. Stick to simple outdoor exercise and avoid areas where you can get injured or lost. It’s important the emergency services remain available to support the response to COVID19".
I would take that to mean rowing, kayaking, swimming and fishing in your local area, in sheltered water, is fine also, but the amount of people indulging their “control freak” about activities that actually have no effect on virus spread, so long as you can keep your distance, is amazing.
I can understand why higher risk activities, such as power boating, and surfing, are discouraged.
Thanks, KJT.
We have a fairly good grasp of the restrictions.
My question was more about how to deal with tenants on our shared property, who are not following the alerts, and inviting others back to our shared property without overstepping the mark as landlords – or infringing on their rights as tenants. (As well as noting, that the advice to drive to parks for leisure will be taken as justification for their current approach to Level 4).
I think just pot them, link above, and say you are concerned to the authorities.
Let them deal with it.
Yes. There were a fair number of reports to the dob in line in the first day of lock down.
The police are taking a community policing approach in the first instance – visiting the alleged offenders and explaining what is required for the lock down. They get tougher if people fail to heed their advice.
There are some clueless people about. First day of lock down, a tweeter said they'd reported a neighbour who had about 50 people arriving for a barbeque. An idiot from somewhere in NZ told them to chill because this virus had been around since 2017 and nothing bad had happened. He provided a screenshot about SARS as his source.
When we told him not the same virus, he said there were thousands more people die of the flu – and he said the fact that is not known is all a Big Pharma conspiracy.
It is a bit difficult because we are on a shared property. We are landlords by default because we have a no longer required granny flat.
Although we had issued a notice to end tenancy before the alerts, when the lifting to Level 3 and notice for Level 4 was announced, and it was apparent that their expected next dwelling had changed, we told them to consider it void and that they would be there for the duration of the lockdown. We will issue the notice again, when the lockdown lifts as my son wants to return to Auckland to look for work. However, that means minimum of four months with them in close proximity, more if we find ourselves moving in and out of Alert levels.
They can be a bit threatening, bluster mostly. Along the lines of "I'm a madman, people don't piss me off because they know what I'll do" and "In my family, women don't speak" which kind of confirms their first statement. In the next instance he referred to his girlfriends tendency for violence and how we better watch out. My concern is that we still have teens at home, and how to avoid them having to deal with any fallout.
I know what we can do legally. If the threats are considered we may also have the right to immediately evict.
However, I was wondering if anyone had suggestions strategic approaches to deal with this that we could try out. Although they are not the most model of tenants, I want to avoid involving authorities if possible.
Thanks, everyone. Have to participate in some lockdown renovations while the sun is shining, but appreciate the suggestions.
Here's hoping they will settle down, and we only have to go on to the next step if another incident occurs.
I really feel for you Molly. That is a tough position to be in. I, like almost all of us who are giving up stuff in order to do the right thing would be very angry with your neighbours.
Everyone reading this, I think Molly needs some help here i.e. our collective brain power to give her ideas of what to do.
I would call the police (unless you think these people could be threatening towards you. I would tell the police I am concerned about repercussions and if they visit the neighbours (and they should) could they warn them if they retaliate in any way there will be very serious consequences.? The police may even be able to phone them as a first step.
Thanks Anker. I think yours (and similar) will be the advice we'll follow if another incident occurs.
Though I will be reluctant to involve the police in this matter, I'm sure that they are going to be under considerable pressure as it is.
According to RNZ, kayaking is not fine. Anything likely to require emergency assistance means other people needing to come in close contact with you. I think that is also what Bloomfield said. Staying local also means less likely to need roadside assistance.
The reporter in the video at the RNZ link said people should only be going to Mission Bay in Auckland, if they can walk there from home. I suspect it's more likely in more rural areas that people might be OK driving a short distance to their local beach.
Kayaking,
Is it ok or not?
I think it depends. So for instance in Ngataringa Bay, no kayaker could ever be more than 500 meters from the shore, and it is probable the water would be no more than 1.5 meters deep. At the very centre of the Bay it would be 2 meters. Bear in mind that is at high tide.
So I can't see how going for a kayak on Ngataringa Bay could be a risk of any significance. Basically if you fell out, you can probably stand up and walk for about 75% of the Bay. Maybe people should stay away from the centre where it is deepest. In my 20 years living here, I have never seen anyone in trouble. I have seen a few centreboard dinghys tip over. But the people righted them, or in one case towed it to shore. But kayakers have never got into difficulty.
Can you ever say there will never ever be problems, notwithstanding there have been none in the 20 years I have lived here. I guess not. But the risk has to be minute.
So I guess it depends on the circumstances. For instance could a farmer go out and shoot rabbits on his/her farm? I would say, yes. Again there is a minute risk that they could shoot themselves.
Life can't be totally risk free. No doubt there will be many accidents in the home and in the garden over the next four weeks. And we are not saying, don't garden.
A friend died kayaking a number of years back, he did not know he had epilepsy, and the glint of the sun off the water caused a seizure and he drowned. He was paddling in thigh high water in an estuary.
A old boy died kayaking in the calm waters around Ruby Bay and Mapua the other week, he had a heart attack on the water.
Both were competent kayakers. As for me, I've a kayak, and live a block from the beach but I'm going to wait, riding the waves is even more fun after a break from doing so.
PS No one ever drowned in the vege garden
No-one ever drowned in a vege garden, but plenty of people have had to go to hospital from gardening. Cuts, infections, legionnaires from compost and so on. Different activities, different hazards.
No one ever called out emergency services including the helicopter and coast guard for a gardening incident.
Sure, different activities, different hazards, but perspective is everything.
Coastguard probably not, but helicopter definitely has happened. The incident I was closest to involved anaphylaxis from insect stings that got riled up by the gardening activities..
Then the medical care needed for something like legionnaires is vastly more demanding on medical facilities in comparison to the quick in-and-out that would be needed for almost all kayaking incidents.
Perspective indeed. I'm not arguing for or against gardening or kayaking. I'm arguing against claiming activity A should be allowed while activity B shouldn't, when activity B also has a lot of hidden factors that might also contribute to increasing the burden on our healthcare system.
That would of been scary as with stinging insects Andre and for KJT and the broken ankle. Hopefully they were once in a lifetime events for you both
It will be interesting looking back at ACC incidents post lock down.
Maybe part of being mindful doing 'approved' activities during the lockdown is having a plan B in-case something happens.
Well. I nearly had to call an ambulance, gardening.
Fell over and broke my ankle carting tree clippings.
In fact. You are much more likely to need help from first responders, gardening or cycling, than kayaking.
Just had a thought I may trigger people wanting gardening or cycling banned, now. Shit.
I wouldn't go surf swimming or white water or ocean kayaking, though.
Dang, really? Crikey.
Mental note, if there are high accident rates for housework, never ever tell the children, least they use it for leverage to escape their chores 🙂
KJT, good idea re the article, a cabin fever post would be super helpful.
It's hard to be certain about each instance of what's in or out during lock down. To some extent it requires common sense, and focus on the main aim.
Many people staying home will choose to do DIY, but some care should be taken about taking unnecessary risks where a person could do themselves the kind of harm requiring emergency services.
I am quite impressed by how the new neighbours have changed to adjust to lock down. No more tradies doing their major home and property upgrade.
This morning the whole family is out – looks like making a garden. I'm not so impressed by the young man who just started using a pneumatic drill to drill some rock – not such a peaceful lock down for the hood.
Countless people have died in bed – end the lethal practice, now!
Very good point about the comparison of risk. Bike riding is probably more risky than swimming in 1.5 meters of smooth water. All my sporting accidents have been bike riding related, some involving X-rays, physio, etc. either coming off the bike at speed, or in one case running into a parked car because I wasn't looking. These have been on longer rides, up to 160 k. But I have had incidents on local rides.
Swimming, my major risk would be a heart attack, and in that case 1.5 meters of water would not necessarily be shallow enough. I keep myself quite fit, but all of us run a heart attack risk. Is that enough of a deterrent?
So here is a thought for KJT, when you do your item on what is acceptable and what is not, it would worth checking the stats on various activities and their risk profile.
As an example, people used to say about recreational flying that the biggest risk was driving to the airfield. It was completely wrong. A detailed analysis of accidents rates per hour of activity showed powered flight in small aircraft was 8 times more risky than driving a car. And Gliding was 32 times more risky. Motorcycling is about 8 times more risky than a car.
Sure, it may well be fine. Lots of regular water activities may be fine. But are they necessary?
It's often called a "war" against the virus. People aren't being asked to survive the trenches of WW1, or the Blitz of WW2. We're not being conscripted to serve, and nobody has to be Willie Apiata.
To be Heroes in this "war", we only need to make a tiny sacrifice in our leisure activity, because it is our best hope of saving lives.
If we can't even manage that, then we should probably cancel all ANZAC Day services forever, because we are an embarrassment to those we honour.
I planning on an article about that.
I'll just say at the moment. Cabin fever is a real thing, for many people.
So, you can drive to exercise?
How come a friend drove to a largely deserted beach to walk her dog and was closely tailed by a police car? Which parked up her tailpipe until the other two police cars arrived to combine forces to coax two surfers out of the water?
Mind you, In some parts if the rohe the constabularly do this kind of stuff just for shits and giggles while largely ignoring more serious doings like meth related crime.
And then, when they're not intimidating grey haired women walking their dog, they wonder why ordinary law abiding folk struggle to respect them.
I assumed that knocking on folks' suburban doors and getting up in their faces trying to sell them " moisturiser" would also be a no no. The jars contained a thick clear substance unlike any moisturiser I have ever seen.
I sent Mr. Entrepreneur on his way, but when I could hear him banging away on the neighbouring doors loudly selling his wares I became a little concerned. The desperate, almost crazed look and his aggro reaction when I challenged him led me to call the Constables. I suspect I should have saved my breath.
Those committing crimes Before in order to finance their lifestyles are often as cunning as shithouse rats. This is going to present untold opportunities.
The police have been losing that battle already…and now they have dog walkers and surfers to deal with I'd hazard that other war is on hold.
Interesting times.
Sounds like you're being very patient, Molly. A difficult situation.
They are – like many people – obviously violating the spirit of the lockdown, big time. And I'm getting fed up with people saying "Oh, we need clearer guidelines", like they are 5 year olds. They're looking for excuses, not explanations. STAY HOME.
When all this is over I hope we don't hear any more rubbish about "nanny state" and "individual responsibility". We've got the responsibility now, and some of us obviously can't handle it. There's a lot of Kiwis who don't need Mary Poppins, they need Robocop. STAY HOME.
Most people we have observed over the past ten days, are being sensible.
Even from a week ago, before the lock down, avoiding group activities and staying two metres apart.
Some of my family went walking yesterday. Everyone they met crossed over, or stayed well away.
Wow, some people are super selfish.
Send a text to 105 and report them.
On a different note.
Was wondering how P heads were going to get on during the lock down.
All the weed growers will have pulled their plants, as it’s harvest time, so they will be happy in lockdown trimming and drying their pot.
The boozers were able to stock up and some can still buy it, so they will be sorted.
I’m predicting a few P busts as the police follow peoples movements. Not saying your neighbours are on P, just thinking out loud.
Everyone excuse my previous plea to help Molly. By the time I had written my bit a whole lot of other commenters had responded to her.
Interested to see post text 105 Cinny. Is this a new way of dobbing people in?
It was announced recently, to help prevent vigilantes taking matters into their own hands during the lock down
105 was launched earlier in the year for none urgent crime, like if you bike was stolen etc.
I'll find the link 🙂
Edit… found an email address as well one can use for reporting people not isolating .
“Supt Trappitt said people with concerns about those not self-isolating should email NHCCselfisolation@health.govt.nz
“All other matters should be reported to police either by online reporting, or by calling 105,” said Superintendent Trappitt.”
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/03/coronavirus-stop-ringing-111-with-your-covid-19-concerns-to-dob-people-in-police.html
Hope that helps.
Thanks Cinny. I was on the phone to a friend at the time, and had to end the conversation when it became apparent the interaction was going to take longer.
When I got off she had sent through a text to the NHCC email link.
Awesome, please let us all know how you get on. Thanks 🙂
Next time they do it ring the police because they're obviously not listening to you
I'm in this camp. Explain clearly and calmly once, give them an online reference to something official (because then they know it's not just you). If they do it again, hand it over to the police or text number. We get one chance at not having community transmission and what we do in the coming week matters hugely.
Thanks, weka. We had already had a talk with them about the issues, when we advised that they would be staying during the lockdown. Have also given them the official government site details.
I think as most suggest, we will involve authorities if another incident occurs.
"I'm thinking this probably could've waited a bit longer, and let the non-drive recommendations take time to get used to."
I think we should start as we mean to go on and get as many people as possible understanding that driving creates risks and should be limited.
What is someone going to do if their car breaks down or is in accident? Are they going to expect someone else to give them a ride home? I'm not even sure that there re mechanics avaialble now (although emergency towing and AA etc still are functioning). This is why the stay local message makes sense. If something happens it's easier to manage.
I've been thinking about this a fair bit, because I live in the country and it's normal to drive a distance to go for walk. Local is really going to depend on the person's situation and location. Needing to get out once a week somewhere in nature that's a 20 min drive, for mental health sake is different than going out every day to do stuff.
A remake of the Band's The Weight, from Music from Big Pink. A timeless classic featuring Ringo, Robbie, and other musicians from around the world. A great way to start the weekend.
So good aj; thanks for that.
More information from health authorities for those that have "essential workers" in their household, which you all may find useful.
Already finding this very difficult with three still working.
"I'm an essential worker – what do I need to do to keep safe?
Workers need to take reasonable care of their own health and safety, and the health and safety of others, while working. This means following and cooperating with any reasonable health and safety instructions, policies and procedures that you're given, to stay safe and to make sure you don't risk the health and safety of others that you come in contact with through your work. Work with your employer to help develop any new ways of working that are needed to keep you and others safe.
In addition, there are a number of things people can do to keep safe when they get home.
The most important thing for essential workers to do when they get home is to wash their hands immediately and practice good hygiene.
This includes
before eating or handling food
after using the toilet
after coughing, sneezing, blowing your nose or wiping children's noses
after caring for sick people.
If you are very concerned you may wish to:
[Adjusted font size]
The Headmaster of a college at which I taught very memorably (forty five years ago) summed up the school rules in two sentences."Anything against common sense is against the school rules. Anything against the law is against school rules".
Rabbi Hillel was asked to explain the Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel replied, "What is hateful to yourself, do not do to your fellow man. That is the whole Torah; the rest is just commentary. Go and study it".
Jacinda Ardern has done something similar with her injunction to "act as if you yourself have the virus".
Good stuff. Jesus sums up the 10 commandments as love God and love your fellow man.
Oh, I wish my bac sibs left it at that. But they continued on into bat crazy. It was always about themselves. Not reality.
I realise this is necessary and it is time consuming for an already tired frontline worker.
I would like to see free nutritious meals provided at work for health workers and police officers. Supermarket workers need to have their hours reduced but be paid there usual hours.
I am not sure of the percentage of people who are keeping the country running, they deserve respect, care and kindness.
This comment was suppose to be 3.1
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/british-pm-boris-johnson-tests-positive-coronavirus-200327111847798.html
Spot the differences between the UK government response and NZ.
NZ parliament activities have been more strongly restricted at a much earlier stage than in the UK. So MPs now only meet physically with some other MPs and staff "inside their bubble".
And still there are op eds in NZ media saying NZ should have gone into lock down a month or 2 earlier.
A lock down requires a lot of logistical reorganisation, plus messaging to the general population.
Things are still not totally clear or sorted in NZ, but consider all that's required: not just having the protective gear for front line workers, but working out which workers should get what and how many protective kits; deciding which businesses are essential when loads are trying to get classified as such, often for commercial reasons rather than the national good; preparing and organising the police and military for appropriate responses; changing benefits so all can survive; then all the responses to suspected and confirmed Covid-19 cases, including testing, contact tracing, health support…. and more.
Am seriously impressed at how fast the Covid-19 website was put together by our government. That's been super informative and helpful for us.
Also with the warning we got by the PM, about being ready to move quickly when we were at level two. It helped our household so much in getting our heads around the lock down.
My girls have been in lock down since last Sunday afternoon and every day it gets a bit easier. Sure we've had our moments, but they are adjusting really well.
How convenient for blobby, he'll have to take it easy(er).
Idiot Johnson, possibly at the beginning of March, saying he continues to shake people's hands and has been in hospitals where there are patients with Covid-19 and he's been shaking everyone's hands.
The Nation is on, live stream here. They are currently interviewing Jacinda.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows.html
Understandably there is "information overload" at this time, so forgive me for this reminder –
From the official site:
COVID-19 can remain on plastic and stainless steel surfaces for up to about three days and less than that for other types of surfaces. This will depend on the surface.
So when we go out for our "harmless" walks or drives, we need to avoid sitting on benches, opening gates, pressing buttons, and a hundred other things we do without even thinking.
If your walk takes you far from any hand-washing, and you're not carrying something to wash/sanitise with, then it's too far.
Distancing from people we see is not hard. Distancing from the virus is another matter.
Krystal Ball talks about Tara Reade's Joe Biden sexual assault allegation and #MeToo's role.
Dodgy joe, have you seen his trump attack ad re the virus? It's off the hook, put's simon to shame. Will find the link later.
Agent orange is about to do his daily update, stream here, updated with sound.
Sorry for being so chatty on TS this morning, but when one is the only adult in the house it really helps with ones sanity.
I can't believe what I'm listening to… 😯
Tara Reade is not the first woman to be betrayed by the MeToo racket. Two years ago, as they paraded one after the other in their jewels and silk dresses, they studiously avoided even mentioning Ahed Tamimi….
https://thestandard.org.nz/middle-east-teenagers/#comment-1442597
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-03-02-2018/#comment-1442903
At the moment I'm trying to avoid some fringes of the commentariat, but curiosity compells me in this case. What on earth do those links have to do with the Metoo movement?
Thanks Morrissey that second link was a classic, I don't know why, but I keep forgetting how easily lead by the MSM to follow the party line so many of the regular contributors on TS are.
I guess I just keep hoping that these obviously smart people will start using the critical thinking part of their brains at some point, But there is no sign of that happening any time soon… half the people on here at one point or another have shown some sort of support for Biden, have defended his obvious mental decline as "gaffs" etc…stupidly going along with the Biden nomination like bit characters from The Emperor's new clothes, it really feels like we are have entered pure fantasy land with Biden.
Watching this I felt that I had been very sheltered and naive.
This discusses how foreigners are treated in China, and there is a little bit on how China responds to their own mistakes.
Winston is an interesting character. He started out pretty much as a lifestyle blogger, but as Xi Xinping's regime has become increasingly authoritarian and hawkish he's started to become more political.
There is a great deal hanging on the CCP's true intent as events unfold.
Rod Oram has some good ideas about now and after.
This might be the end of face to face shopping. Guaranteed germ/virus free home delivery might be the new norm?
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/03/27/1102149/we-face-two-herculean-efforts-to-save-economy?utm_source=Friends+of+the+Newsroom&utm_campaign=d19f92abcb-Week+in+Review+280320&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_71de5c4b35-d19f92abcb-95522477
Home deliveries may be less risky re-germs than shopping in store, but right now there is no way they can be germ free. From supermarkets, there's no way of knowing who handled the products in the process of getting them into shopping bags (they use paper bags at cost of $1.00); then there's the potential germ contact from the deliverer.
The skin is a formidable barrier against infections. The key is to wash your hands properly after handling the deliveries and always wash your hands before eating and/or touching your face. If the virus doesn’t get to your respiratory system, it won’t get in and take hold. Paper bags are not a smooth surface and I’d imagine virus particles don’t transfer all that efficiently back to humans. Just don’t eat the paper bag when you’ve emptied it 😉
The GP receptionist I talked to on the phone recommended disinfecting all groceries that arrive in the house and letting dry before storing. My first home delivery arrived in the last hour (I thought they were coming on Sunday?).
Anyway, I tried wiping down all the frozen veg packages plus stuff that needs to go in fridge pretty quickly, and other stuff for the freezer with disinfectant on paper towel – that's all pretty tricky really. Left the rest to sit in the bags for a few hours, and washed hands 2-3 times in the process.
I’m not sure that trying to wipe everything is necessarily a good thing as it could spread things around. Too much of a ‘good’ thing can backfire. My suggestion is to try avoiding contact between what you put into your mouth and the outside packaging. Don’t put packed groceries on the kitchen bench for easy unpacking. Keep the food preparation area separate from others. Don’t use one cloth for everything – IIRC there are many stories from way before COVID-19 on how to keep your kitchen cloth germ free. Don’t become paranoid.
That sounds better. I won't try the wipe down of groceries again. Just doesn't work.
Suggest unpacking grocery bags at the door, and throwing them in the washing machine.
Yep. Sound like good advice for those doing their own shopping. Supermarket home deliveries are in paper bags. I understand they don't have an easy surface for virus drops to land and stay on, but I'll just leave them where they are for a couple of days.
Maybe the day will come when courier/delivery vans are fitted out as fumigation units. Order online and have delivered "clean"items. Rod says think of innovative ways to adapt.
Oram does outline the near future problem but mispurposes the current Government largesse…
"Governments have started to put money into people's hands to stimulate the economy, writes Rod Oram. Now we need to start restoring business activity and consumer spending"
The current packages purposes isnt economic stimulus but rather life support and capacity banking…but he does have a much better handle on the impacts than some others as demonstrated in this other Newsroom piece
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/03/27/1103673/how-covid-19-has-shocked-the-global-economy
Am I missing something? Where and how can people spend their money when we are in lockdown and at Alert Level 4?
no you are not missing anything….that is precisely why it isnt a stimulus package….that is yet to come (one would assume)
There is another obvious concern with his recovery strategy….
"A good way to begin expanding economic activity would be to allow courier services to resume handling non-essential items. E-commerce could then play a bigger role. TradeMe’s website gives a very clear explanation how restricted the current trading system is.
But for e-commerce to function, businesses and government would also need to design protocols for warehouses and fulfilment centres to operate. Currently, we are far more restrictive than some other countries. In the US, for example, Amazon is still functioning, albeit for essential items; and in many US states restaurants have switched to doing takeaways only delivered by services such as Uber Eats."
Im not sure encouraging e commerce is a sound idea when the bulk of those goods will be imported and we have just seen our largest foreign currency earner wiped out for the foreseeable…..
https://tia.org.nz/about-the-industry/quick-facts-and-figures/
Whatever programme that is designed to mop up the unutilised capacity will have to have at least one eye on that fact.
The only defense against CV at present is non pharmaceutical intervention ie lockdown and limited self quarantine.
History seems to show that early intervention to contain has better economic outcomes with recovery.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3561560
Keeping the drawbridge up internationally is also a must.
Whoever this Steve Elers is he's a fuckwit.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/120581185/antivirus-measures-are-too-late-to-stop-needless-sickness-and-economic-pain#comments
Yes I thought so too. I don't know why stuff published it. Balance?
As an aside I am working on a plan for investment in the markets.Not got the timing quite right yet
I call it hindsight.
I guess Stuff was duped by Elers' pathetic ploy to avoid accusations of political bias by calling Hone Harawira a leader.
Hes the same type of fukwit that if in 4 months we've stamped this bug out will write an article saying how the government overreacted and caused economic chaos because of it .
Now that Bridges' comms people have told him to take the 'we're all in this together' line I guess someone has to do it. The irony is that you could bet your house on Bridges acting way way later: "We need to balance people's health needs with the health of the economy…" and "without a healthy economy we'd have no health system".
Well, a quick google turns up links to kiwibog and that other defunct sewer. Haven't got the stomach to click on them, sorry.
But absolutely nothing to suggest his opinion on epidemiological matters has any value whatsoever. That suggests he's another one of these academics scamming off his title to lend false credibility to his reckons totally outside his competence.
https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/expertise/profile.cfm?stref=656350
Oh great, someone else from Massey publishing illiberal commentary. On top of being the anti-freedom-of-speech university it now gets to be the ignorance-based-reckons university. I hope I get to retire soon.
Oh nice posted while writing and then claims its a duplicate and denies me the right to edit it.
His past columns were
1. Waitangi Day column criticism of the PM as just words with no action on home building
2. a column supporting the value of a communications degree where he suggests that despite being a lightweight the PM has succeeded because of her communications degree based capacity to network.
3. March column supporting Oz deporting Kiwis and opposing the PM standing up for the rights of Kiwis there
No column advocating a tougher response to Coronavirus threat or attacking any other government for having to resort to lockdowns
Prediction – he seeks to stand for the Maori Party and be part of a National led government.
So NOW Stoive knew right from the start. How fortuitous.
Either he knew it all, and did not use his regular platform in a major media outlet to tell the rest of us. Not once. Or … he's lying.
He should be charged with criminal negligence. Except of course … he's lying.
Elers' column itself is bad enough.
What's worse is the Stuff Comments policy, where there's an outpouring of deranged misinformation, and then comments are closed so nothing can be rebutted.
Stuff journos have been doing a terrific job on Covid19, especially in the past week when they must have been working overtime.
Elers undermines them all.
I am still waiting for the mash up of My Sharona and Maxine remade as My Corona Vaccine … tick … tick
"Maxine" is possibly the worst single ever released in New Zealand or anywhere else. Dull, plodding, almost unlistenable. Only the Narcs' dreadful "Heart and Soul" comes anywhere near it.
She didn't write it for YOU.
Thanks Gabby. Bearing that in mind is a consolation.
Unfortunately there are worse songs than Maxine and Heart and Soul (although that is pretty bad).
I suggest Southside of Bombay's What's the time Mr Wolf?
At least Maxine has some rhyming in it.
here's fantastic Melanie..
https://youtu.be/IZ52lk9wjZI
Apart from preventing covid-19 what else might the lockdown stamp out? Will we see no cases of seasonal flu or the common cold for the rest of the year if everyone is cleaning like mad and isolating for a month or more breaking the chain? What about headlice in school kids if they’re not mixing for so long? Interesting times ahead.
Less car crashes. Drunken chaos on Friday and Saturday. The ers are possibly having some well earned quiet before the possible storm
John Pilger: Vanessa Baraitser achieves infamy for her wicked cruelty
This outrage is happening in Britain in 2020, but the contempt for justice and the inhumanity of these "authorities" could be from the Soviet Union in 1938….
https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/thread/1585233407.html
She has some interesting connexions all right.
The next 4 weeks is the perfect time to be doing all those disruptive roadworks and rail upgrades across the country.
That looks like an attractive idea at first glance, but what you see happening out on site is only the tip of a much larger iceberg of engineering and supplier activity all feeding into it.
The guy doing the Covid-19 daily 1pm update (Bloomfield is having a day off) said "don't be an idiot" – basic hygiene, 2 meter distance and stay local. Don't travel to your holiday home.
Apparently some groups of people in parks have been throwing frisbies to each other, and playing touch rugby.
And RNZ reports the police are in a bit of a stand-off with a load of boaties anchoring in Great Barrier Island harbours for the lock down. They are using the supermarket on the island, and putting a lot of strain on the island resources.
The boaties at the Barrier was nearly us. We were using that as a way of avoiding people, before the lockdown. Then several days of Westerly gales stopped us getting back.
Didn't want to have any risk of causing a coast guard callout, by sailing into strong winds, so had to wait until Wednesday to come back.
We did consider staying there, but thought would be better at home. If we had a larger boat equipped and stored for a long period, we may have stayed out.
Good old national Denise Lee has the postman out the delivering potentially virus laden spam to tell me after 9 yrs of destruction she is there for me.
Most of the annoyance comes from her clever marketing, addressed to the residents, a peak in side says covid 19 so i think its important and get it out to read.
Everything is OK but they're planning to euthanise the untermensch.
https://twitter.com/propublica/status/1243464395625283584
Not a big step. They already have Governors saying over 60's are expendable, "for the sake of the economy".
Those were the dudes screaming that Obamacare was about setting up "death panels", right?
Right.
Fucker's getting his Stalin on.
https://twitter.com/PopeGoodpope/status/1243672566801276929
Did you listen to the livestream of the latest Trump presser Cinny @ 8.1 linked to this morning?
Rambling garbage that went on and and on and on… and he said nothing except everything was great, beautiful and that his advisers were the best in the world and that America was the greatest country in the world and every thing was going to be hunky dory (no, he didn't say hunky dory but something similar) and standing alongside him was a grinning neanderthal – have no idea who he was – who looked like he had just emerged from hill-billy country and had been shoved into a suit.
At one point he said: they're building a lot of things in New York that they have never builded before.
"Builded" for God's sake! What he was talking about… who knows.
Frankly I've got to the point where I think America deserves everything that is coming to them because they have demonstrated utter cowardice in kow-towing to an unhinged crackpot who is looking more and more like a cross between Stalin and Hitler.
Oh, no! The world is running out of PPE.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/27/global-condom-shortage-coronavirus-shuts-down-production
Surprise surprise..
The reliability of China’s coronavirus numbers is under question once again in view of the staggering amount of urns being distributed out in Wuhan.
According to official Chinese government data, 50,006 people were infected with the Covid-19 virus in Wuhan with 2,535 dying from the disease.
However, Chinese investigative outlet Caixin reports that when mortuaries opened back up this week in the Hubei capital, people had to wait in line for as long as five hours to receive the remains of their loved ones lost during the epidemic.
[…]
Urns are reportedly being distributed at a rate of 500 a day at the mortuary until the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, which falls on April 4 this year.
Wuhan has seven other mortuaries. If they are all sticking to the same schedule, this adds up to more than 40,000 urns being distributed in the city over the next 10 days.
http://shanghaiist.com/2020/03/27/urns-in-wuhan-far-exceed-death-toll-raising-more-questions-about-chinas-tally/
Thanks for this. About 3 weeks ago I conveyed similar information that my sources were telling me the real toll in Wuhan was at least 10 times what was being officially claimed … but I was lambasted for scaremongering.
Again a great deal hinges on the CCP's real intent here.
RFA (Radio Free Asia) – admittedly not an unbiased source – points out that just one cremetory (?) working round the clock could cremate all 2500 bodies in a week. Wuhan has seven such, all working round the clock for over 2 months.
Best estimate is over 40,000 deaths, probably closer to 48,000.
CCP transparency anyone?
I see an update from the government re Covid 19 subsidies for employees (of importance to part timers)
https://www.business.govt.nz/news/covid-19-latest-news-and-updates?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SE_CV_28Mar2020&utm_content=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.business.govt.nz%2Fnews%2Fcovid-19-latest-news-and-updates
Subsidy rates
Payment rates under the modified wage subsidy scheme are unchanged from the original COVID-19 leave and wage subsidy schemes. They are:
So it looks like if you are a part timer (less than 20 hours per week) & you earn say $150 gross, your employer has to pass on the full subsidy to you as employee – a huge win for some part timers – who should be paid $350 per week during the shutdown period if their employer has received a subsidy for them.
The govt will at some stage have available on the internet all businesses that received the wages subsidy, so if you are a part timer, check you receive your full entitlement !!
Paul Goldsmith disapproves because of the perceived unfairness, but is it unfair?
https://www.national.org.nz/wage_subsidy_changes_deeply_unfair
It may be unfair, but when you get govt paying out subsidies based on simple calculations to get the money out fast to employees, you are bound to have some winners & some losers in the scheme.
Just thought it best to let people know their entitlements, but this is a moving space & things could change quickly.
Update to my previous post – it seems the rules re full $350 payments to part timers only applies to employer subsidy applications received from 4pm on 27 March 2020.
Sorry like everything it is more complex than thought – part timers may or may not be entitled to the full $350 per week depending when their employer lodged the claim with WINZ.
I'm sure this is not the end of the matter as Incognito has shown there is already push back from National on this one.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12320607
The Finance Minister reiterated that in his press statement today.
Do you have a link?
So, what is Paul Goldsmith doing then?
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/clarification-modification-wage-subsidy-scheme
“But to be absolutely clear if a person’s income is normally less than the subsidy they can be paid their normal salary.
“This is particularly an issue for part time employees some of whom normally earn less than the $350 per week. We urge employers to use normal hours in the period before COVID-19 to assess the amount to be paid,” Grant Robertson said.
Ta
It seems what Jacinda is saying about payment to part time employees is in conflict with the press releases from business.govt.nz
No, I don’t think that’s the case and I think it is actually quite clear:
Simon's done his own Facebook speech to the nation.
He has an 0800 number right wing voters can call to give information with which to attack the government at the next election. I'm thinking meat-eating National voters who can't access their butcher of choice, etc.
He has 55 MPs ready to hear stories about how the government didn't get it perfect in the greatest civil and economic disturbance in modern times.
Simon's Facebook speech and 0800 number seem more like a PR exercise in relevancy rather than anything useful to the people most affected.
Incognito you are correct, business.govt.nz has just updated the current position on its website at 6.20 pm tonight which ties in with Jacinda’s statements. Their post from yesterday which I was referring to has now been changed.
Ta
We now await a retraction and correction by Paul Goldsmith 😉
Staying away from people by 2 metres in the open air seems to be the biz. The supermarket is much more dangerous — what did I touch last? Staying home is about enforceability. The govt went with clarity over the increasing Mishnah interpretations of the Torah of their new laws.
Going to the shops is still a crap shoot, for me with no disinfectant anyway.
Times, they are a-changing
https://youtu.be/5FgrPmSJr3Q
a sobering letter from the future…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/27/a-letter-to-the-uk-from-italy-this-is-what-we-know-about-your-future
Kia Ora Newshub.
Those young tourists look like they don't give a stuff.
I had a surprise when I went to the supermarket.
That's is cool those people living in a camper van with a baby getting a whare in the South Island it would be cold there now.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
I know what he was saying about the prices.
Awhi A health care worker is cool.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
That's is great working Kiwis being payed the weekly alounce in Australia.
Ka pai to the people helping our elderly their are quite a few of them living alone some would need help.
Its good to see the worlds carbon footprint shrink.
Ka kite Ano