When it comes to breach of copyright, Trump seems to have established a track record as serial offender.
"Tom Petty family united last weekend to release a statement objecting to the use of I Won't Back Down at the President's contentious campaign rally in Tulsa. Brendon Urie soon followed with a strongly worded statement condemning Trump's use of the Panic! at the Disco song High Hopes at the same rally. Both Neil Young and REM's Michael Stipe have previously publicly objected to Trump campaign song use.
What an arrogant little view of life from someone who has joined 'The Currrent Correctness and Infinite Fount of All Wisdom Cult'. I haven't registered this anywhere so offer it to anyone who has been looking for a group to start or a name for one they have joined. Be quick, grab it before someone else gets off with it.
My piece of wisdom is that we all contain the potential for all the faults we apprehend in others now and from the past; our job is to keep thinking, forgive ourselves with big efforts to do better, and when we come across perpetrators don't waste time hating them. Instead insist ask them to atone by attempting to change what they have done, and get the water of life running in a different direction so that everyone can access it.
Well sounds like bull-kaka to me. Not helped by the emphasis on strange words that the would not normally be emphasised in the narration. So what if you have to give the benefit of the doubt or, heavens, be kind to someone older who may imperfect recall, wrong recall or who you think might actually be wrong. It does not mean that their whole life has been lived imperfectly or wrongly.
In the 70s there was an almost slavish following by some of the idea that you had to let people know their faults, that it was better for them to know their faults and for you to let them know…..a crock that I called the 'Goodness and Honesty policy' (sarc) as it was nothing of the sort. This sounds a bit like that.
The government’s review of managed isolation facilities paints a picture of an under-resourced, uncoordinated and ad hoc system.
The review points to a “misalignment between different agencies’ perceived responsibilities, their policies, and operational realities”. Which basically means it was all a bit of a mess.
So those folk now must face the fact that the govt's review confirms the existence of the shambles. Well, they could persist in denial by claiming that a mess is not as bad as a shambles, perhaps. But better to get real instead!
Do we have community spread, Dennis, and if so, was this caused or compounded by the ‘shambles’ that you you’re so focussed on? It is simple big-picture-small-picture stuff but many folks, you included, seem to fret & sweat over the small stuff. Please notice that I haven’t mentioned one official or political party, as they are irrelevant to this question.
Well, I do agree that the folks who would rather call a spade an excavation implement have made relevant points.
My concern is that the PM seems to have lost the plot re political management. Public confidence in the govt is essential for re-election. She can't afford to maintain the ebb-tide effect in the polls. Chris Trotter gets it, I noticed this morning that he posted this on Friday: http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2020/06/sack-him-jacinda-sack-him-now.html
If David Clark hasn’t been sacked by the time you read this, then Jacinda isn’t doing her job. His point-blank refusal to accept responsibility for the multiple institutional failures of his Health portfolio more than justifies Clark’s dismissal.
Ministers of the Crown only have one job: to be responsible. As members of both the legislature and the executive they are a living bridge between citizen and state. A ministerial refusal to accept responsibility for failures occurring on his watch is also a refusal to uphold the essence of our Westminster-style representative democracy. If Jacinda doesn’t get this, then she should be given a swift tutorial by someone who does.
Keeping David Clark operating in his role as the Nats' secret weapon is loony. It just reinforces Muller as a viable alternative in the public mind. Why do that??
I put a comment here supporting someone who made the point re lack of community spread last week. That's not the issue.
And re those using Woodhouse as a red herring, he's just beating up. But when you use spin on the basis of a valid point you get traction, right? To me he's just like one of those wee yap yap yap dogs. Even someone with average intelligence gets it right half the time. David Clark has been ramping up his yap.
That odious little man Woodhouse is clinging to the hope there is community spread. He also clings to that canard about the homeless man, and doubles down by saying he has lots and lots of other anecdotes about errors in the system. Do tell, Michael, why hold back? in for one, in for all? after all, you have proved you have no interest in the public health response being successful.
____________________________________________
I think it's fair to say the system became 'unfit for purpose' owing to the rapid growth in numbers. It's clear the problems with isolating and quarantining people grow exponentially as numbers grow, and this has exposed the insane demands from opposition politicians to open up more quickly.
It’s also clear these issue were either not anticipated, or overwhelmed the ability to adapt to greater numbers. But I note that in the last two weeks in particular there is not an inch to be given to the overworked people involved in the covid response at all levels. They are expected to be perfect. Anything else is not good enough. So easy to be a sideline expert, all wind and no responsibility.
Fair enough, and something else worth considering is the conflation of testing and quarantine in the public mind. In retrospect, seems like reassurance from the specialists that two weeks quarantine removes the risk became questionable at some point.
So then we got a rush to try & test all those released without testing. I'm not clear on why and I expect many others aren't either…
What is the primary goal of the border quarantine measures? Arguably, the secondary one is to make the public feel safer AKA “spin”. Has the primary objective been met, so far? If not, what was the impact? If you only focus on the spin then the ‘issue’ is about spin on spin AKA yap yap doggies yelping at every passing car.
Sacking Clark now would be another mess in the making.
The reason for the quarantine shambles was not obvious, but SPC over the weekend has put up a clear case the PM can take to the country. The reasoning was really only obvious in hindsight, but it goes like this:
While the whole country was at Level 3, effectively everyone and everywhere was in quarantine, so while the border procedures were useful they were not essential. Cases could slip through, but they would be contained very quickly.
But when the country dropped to Level 1 it became essential to first increase the border process security. The mistake was in yielding to political pressure to go down from Level 3 to Level 1 so quickly, which meant that the border process, which is a two week process, did not have time to ramp up in an orderly fashion.
Take that to the country, explain that in the understandable desire to get back to Level 1, the subtle implications for border quarantine were not properly understood and managed. It was an honest mistake I believe, and an honest mea culpa will be accepted.
The the Ministry can get on with more important reforms that are in the pipeline. Sacrificing goats for mere public spectacle is medieval.
Yes – and funnily enough, it's exactly what I was shouting at the telly and at everyone at home when it became apparent that we were moving to Level 1 so quickly – "make sure the border is secure first!" Leakage from the border into a community operating at level 1 being so much more potentially dangerous.
I disagree on the basis of traditional morality: the doctrine of ministerial responsibility ought to be enforced. I believe the case you make, while seeming reasonable, would fail as a political strategy.
I think it will fly. Most voters are reasonable people and when the mistake is explained to them they will understand.
After all how many people here anticipated this peculiar problem at the time? I certainly didn't. And none of the clever media types calling for Clark’s resignation did either.
I think the government has been busy dealing with the real world issues being thrown at them as this pandemic and it's consequences escalate.
Too busy to deal with spot fires being deliberately lit by the media and national party, although Adern took early steps to to address these with her interview earlier this morning. She also sounded tired, like a parent who has been up 5 times during night with a restless infant….
Dennis Frank You remind me sometimes of a needle stuck in the groove of an old vinyl record. You may call me old-fashioned, but then so are you. Events are moving so fast requiring regular adjustments of opinions, policies, practices and implementation, to try to ensure practical and high-minded results. To carry on an argument that we should stop and get an exact record of outcomes during fast-changing events under our Covid-19 regs is futile time-wasting not helpful to the government or the left. Are you thinking at all? Do you want a Right-Wing government?
I would scorn you personally if you do. It would show that you are a democracy-destroyer, and not worthy of space on any realistic left-wing blog that has integrity and objectivity. We are in crisis in the world, let's think about it all not get stuck on the potty obstinately wailing. Life happens while we are planning (and commenting repetitively) other things!
Issuing feeble excuses in an attempt to justify evasion of moral responsibility isn't a good idea. All that happens is that you reinforce the view of centrists that the political left is just as bad as the political right.
Ministerial responsibility was put into the system of representative democracy for a very good reason. You and Ian ought to reflect on that reason. It doesn't help Aotearoa when the left side of politics is just as keen to break the rules as the right.
I think you will find that Dr Ashley Bloomfield answers directly to Government and not the MoH because he has more power than the MoH in an emergency. That was my understanding way back in the mists of time when he was elevated, so yes responsibility bypasses Ministers all the way to Parliament.
I will repeat part of Jacinda Ardern's comments this morning to the 'one size fits all' idiot who goes by the name of Mike Hosking:
Hosking: "Did you look at the pictures last week of Ashley Bloomfield when your Minister of Heath threw him under the bus so publicly?"
Ardern: "I did. I did see that interview but I also know the full transcript of what happened in the interview and the elements that weren't included. That included Dr Clark talking about what an exceptional public servant Ashley was."
Hosking: "What did you see in Ashley's face?"
Ardern: "Well, the same that I've seen across people who are working in health generally. A group of people who have worked exceptionally hard across a number of months and we do have to give some respite to. They have been working incredibly hard. We have been criticised for not directly blaming any individual person because this is a failure of our system and we have taken collective responsibility for that."
Hosking: "Did he deserve what we got?"
Ardern: "What Dr Clark said was no different to what Dr Bloomfield said only 48 hours before. No one here is placing blame at any individual's foot for something that was a systems failure and that we are all working really well collectively together to resolve."
Hosking: "You don't think it was galling that the most inept minister going was the one handing out the criticism?"
Ardern: "Again, you'll see that I have kind of disputed the framing that you have put around this whole thing, Mike. None of us are placing blame on individuals here because that wouldn't be right. We have had a system failure and we have worked hard to fix it. The report yesterday shows the efforts being made. Both Dr Bloomfield and Dr Clark have worked together exceptionally well. I have sat in meetings with these individuals frequently. I know the collaborative, collegial working relationship they have. Those individuals are part of a bigger team who have managed to get New Zealand into an uneviable position. We are doing better than most of the world right now, and it is because in no small part to their work they are doing alongside New Zealanders."
I watched the press conference live and Jacinda is right. Clark was fulsome in his praise of Bloomfield but how extraordinary that the media apparently missed it – not.
What utter bollocks Denis. I read the transcript of Ardern's interview with Hoskings this morning about why she hasn't sacked Clark……..as Ardern said earlier Clark is part of the solution.
A shambles is the United States, the UK, Brazil. Not NZ. The system here is/was under extreme stress.
A shambles is "a state of total disorder"….. Its just bollocks that you describe isolation facilities as total disorder.
BTW Denis you are starting to sound like those pathetic Nats saying “We’d do it better”
The govt review has confirmed that my view is correct. The fact that it is widely shared in the public mind is hurting Labour. Persisting in denial of the facts will not help their re-election prospects.
As for Nats doing better, not a chance. Obviously David Clark got set up by the officials who failed to do their job properly, and any Nat minister would have been set up similarly. Unless those officials did it deliberately to undermine the govt, due to being Nat supporters. Incompetence is the more likely explanation.
Denis, I don't think it is accurate to characterise isolation facilities as a shambles (dictionary definition of a shambles is state of total disorder).
Its very clear that any disorder in isolation facilities was not pervasive. Of course it has hurt Labour's polling. That is undeniable and the opposition has played politics with the system failures to score votes. You are buying into the oppositions memes.
The system of quarantining returnees has achieved what it set out to achieve i.e keeping Covid out of the community. To do that by definition the system was functional despite the issues.
Okay, put like that it is all reasoning I can accept as valid. Lots of folks nowadays lose words loosely in disregard of the dictionary meaning (racism for instance).
I'm not buying into Nat memes – I independently reached the same view in accord with widespread public perception of the consequences of the operational dysfunction. Did so before Woodhouse began bleating.
Assuming the public dance to the Nats' tune is a leftist syndrome. Sometimes it seems that way, but really it's a mistake to assume people can't form their own opinions from what happens…
At the risk of introducing too much nuance; my primary issue is immoral protection of public service wrong-doers. 😇
There's a convention around this: Nat/Lab agreement that enforcement can only proceed via employment contract. I don't agree with this left/right weasel dance unison sham. It's immoral, because it is used to cover up wrong-doing.
To do so, David Clark had to disregard the parliamentary doctrine of ministerial responsibility. His leader has condoned that. So far.
So as regards culpability, DC is merely the secondary offender. Yet parliamentary democracy is supposed to make him take the rap. On that basis, my take on the stances adopted by Linda Clark & Richard Harman is as follows: LC is correct on the basis of how parliament is supposed to operate, RH is correct on the basis of natural justice.
Exactly, every country in the world is having huge fuckups on a scale far, far larger than this on an hourly basis. One in 5 months is a pretty good record which is why we are the safest place in the world being managed by the best and hardest working group on the planet. And I thank them every day. i have also along with many others have had a complete gutsful of whiner and finger pointers.
Better to fix it Frank. Which they have, smartly with no excuses. As to "get real instead" Instead of what? Lying like Woodhouse? scaremongering about "Community transmission?"
Prime Minister Ardern said we would get cases coming in at the border. No one then thought the numbers returning would become a flood. Very quickly the system was almost overwhelmed by returnees from areas where the pandemic is raging.
"Shambles" means no parts of the border controls were working. That is patently untrue, as we would have community transmission.
I hope some one doesn't sneak the virus through somehow, as was done with the rabbit Khaleesi virus, because politically they believe they would be better off.
We need to stop navel gazing and start working at how to maximise health and future opportunities. Scare mongering is another road to austerity and a loss of confidence.
Fisher and Paykel Health saw a 37% growth and 5000 employees is a case in point.
Rather than getting the so-called 'real oil' from an article complete with 'spin,' the actual press release and the report itself and project plan present a clear and sober picture. ( I thought we had all had it confirmed/learned during the lockdown 1.00pm pressers and seeing the articles that resulted that journos often don't get the slant correct or even the facts.)
The June poll continues a trend among the Helius cannabis surveys, which have found increasing support cannabis legalisation since August last year, when only 39 per cent of Kiwis were in favour. However, a November 2018 Helius cannabis survey registered the highest support for legalising cannabis for personal use at 60 per cent.
The intra-party breakdowns are fascinating too, with only Nat dinosaurs holding the line against progress:
Notably, New Zealand First voters have now shifted to support reform – 53 per cent are in favour. Seventy per cent of ACT voters now plan to tick yes at the referendum – up significantly from 45 per cent in February. And 72 per cent of Labour voters support the bill.
Yeah I'll be voting to legalise even though I know that it's bad for the body. However, we have spent millions through the cops and justice system for about zero result. Give a fraction of that money to the health system and I reckon they will have nagged most people into submission within the decade. They did a basically good job on the fags- much more cost effective than the cops.
Heck I'd even run an ad asking if people wanted to be arrested or nagged.
neither, some will simply bake cookies, or make a tincture, tea, gummi bears (with or without permission form the Greens) and will never smoke a single leave.
But yes, i will vote for it as i am sick and tired of seing lives fucked over for a joint, or 'possesion with intend to sell' even tho its literally just an ounce for private use.
And thus i will also be voting for new businesses, new agricultural projects, jobs and increased tax revenue.
I was actually thinking of things like short term memory loss ? not the actual smoke which I assume is as bad as fag smoke. But is this an issue with non smoke forms of delivery?
Hmmm, Kate Hawkesby, the paragon of personal freedom and responsibility, seems to advocate for forced COVID-19 tests for people coming into the country. Nek minit, she will call for forced vaccination too.
Every time he's interviewed he embarrasses himself, he simply has no idea what's real and what's not, perfect for a finace minister of the National Party, basically full of shite
John Cambell interviewd him this morning, he kept reiterating the story came from a reliable source but would not name the source or state that the story was TRUE.
They suffer from Dunning Kruger syndrome which, in a nutshell, means that stupid people who don't know they are stupid like to believe that everyone else is stupid.
And just prior to Goldsmith’s shambles of an interview Woodhouse was still pushing the Nat’s line that there was likely to be community transmission of Covid in Aotearoa although (like the fabled Homeless Man) there is absolutely no evidence to support the claim.
True, no evidence. However risk management is the underlying rationale. One would not expect Woodhouse to be able to explain that sophisticated concept, eh?
Greens warning of climate change in the nineties used that as the basis of their advocacy. I'm not saying they did it well – it seems in retrospect to have been tacit rather than made explicit. However since it is the basis of the insurance industry, and used even more widely throughout capitalism, it does deserve articulation.
Don’t just go Paula–piss off! You will be remembered as a revolting Rebstock trained, ladder pulling, beneficiary bashing, woman undermining, confidence breaking mockery of what MPs should aspire to.
While I'm normally in favour of error or mistake as the default assumption for political screw-ups, I'd caution that there is a LONG history of malicious misinterpretation of other parties' more progressive policies from National finance spokespeople, so let's not be TOO charitable to Goldsmith and rule out entirely the idea that he knows damn well how marginal taxes work and what the language that describes them looks like, but he's mischievously trying to muddy the waters.
Maybe Luxon will join the people driving a fleet of Motorhomes for the new ONE Party that I talked to in the Far North today. They believe they are the only true Christian Party, along with some seriously dubious claims about other partys. Oh PS, miss you already Pulya. lololol.
It's winter. The wood is wet and produces too much smoke. Illegal. Keep the wood drying out before using so it's fit for purpose. Shut the door on the Woodhouse, for a number of months and then maybe the winter of our discontent will be over.
Croaking Cassandra has an interesting piece on the Chinese Communist Party spy-trainer politician in the National Government. He has been able to get in on the National List. It would be hard for this man to be objective. Apparently he refuses any English-speaking media contact to explain how he does this herculean task. I wonder if he unburdens himself to the NZ Chinese language newspaper – I think it is published in Auckland, home-away-from-home for many Chinese housing investors.
We live in interesting times – too late to say 'May you'. (Wikipedia – Despite being so common in English as to be known as the "Chinese curse", the saying is apocryphal – doubtful origin.)
…he’d lied about his past in his application for New Zealand residency and citizenship. In fact, challenged on the point he was quite open about it: he’d actively misrepresented his past because his CCP bosses had insisted on it when he first left the PRC.
Faux news backed the mayor of Amity when he said the town had to get those tourists back in the water…
The data is in: Fox News may have kept millions from taking the coronavirus threat seriously
It’s another one of those Trump Era realities best described as unsurprising but nevertheless shocking.
Three serious research efforts have put numerical weight — yes, data-driven evidence — behind what many suspected all along: Americans who relied on Fox News, or similar right-wing sources, were duped as the coronavirus began its deadly spread.
Dangerously duped.
The studies “paint a picture of a media ecosystem that amplifies misinformation, entertains conspiracy theories and discourages audiences from taking concrete steps to protect themselves and others,” wrote my colleague Christopher Ingraham in an analysis last week.
A choir of more than 100 people performed without masks at a robustly attended event in Texas at the First Baptist Church on Sunday that featured a speech by Vice President Mike Pence.
Nearly 2,200 people attended the "Celebrate Freedom Rally," in the Lone Star State, according to rally organizers, which has seen a severe surge in coronavirus cases since easing restrictions. The venue capacity for the indoor event was close to 3,000 attendees, organizers say.
Throughout the service, the members of the choir sang at full volume, behind an orchestra. Between songs, the choir members put their masks back on when they sat down, according to pool reports from the event. The members of the choir had space between them, but it was not clear if it was the recommended six feet.
The data is in: Fox News may have kept millions from taking the coronavirus threat seriously.
Rewrite, "The data is in: Woodhouse may have kept thousands from believing that the coronavirus threat in NZ is under better control than anywhere else in the World.
Jack Vowles has done it again. He must be the sane one in a country of the insane Media.
On the one hand, if mistakes and errors are made, there is a responsibility to expose them, and those who are responsible. On the other, in a crisis there is always a danger of making things worse by exaggeration or generating misunderstanding, particularly if this destroys confidence in those who are in charge, making it harder for them to do their jobs. This is a particularly acute dilemma with an election looming in less than three months.
Most people probably understand the distinction between hard news, often based on careful investigative reporting, and so-called tabloid coverage that is shrill, emotional, and unbalanced.
I'd really love the news media to stop hounding the government over the pressure on the border and go and get stuck into the airline CEO's and scorch them. They hide behind press releases. They seem to be not erring on the side of caution instead just chasing the every last dollar. And it appears that American airlines are just going to start flying here (unilateral decision ?) as have other airlines. This puts pressure on us to provide extra quarantine regardless. According to the stories we don't even know who is coming until the plane is in the air athough I thought immigration had warning before boarding. We need to start charging for it and I' d start with the permanent residents who haven't been here for the last two years before Jan 2020. They have not contributed and are just using us as a bolthole or welfare backup.
So after the whole SNAFU around my managed isolation and being set free without any testing (which I have mentioned) I got my results back from MoH and, unsurprisingly, I am COVID free. Still no community transmission which is a great result even after the problems regarding managed isolation.
And please the next time if/when you are in quarantine again (lets hope this will never be the case) with requirements of 2 m distance to others and isolation ,, don't use a public elevator to go get a cigarette in a public smoke cubicle.
Be upfront and askhow you can safely leave the building, go to a balcony, smoking room, roof top etc in order to have your cigarette.And if you can't ask for Champix or Nicotine patches if getting through the day without a fix is too hard.
You using an elevator to go the smokers cubicle to get your fix was not the governments fault that is all on you and if you had been a carrier you could have infected people.
The elevator wasn’t an issue as you were only allowed in there with others from your room – by myself in my case. I did ask them about smoking outside but weirdly you couldn't smoke AND social distant. So what I did after the 4th day I’d only go for cigarettes after 10pm when you could smoke outside
Maybe all on me and others but everyone was just doing as we were told.
Today's presser. I got the feeling the media teeth were not so sharp. As usual he is very clear, and when he addresses the question of over 360 people they are trying to contact, and have not responded to calls, texts, and emails he absolutely nails it.
Precis: He is disappointed and expects them to play their part.
What on earth are these people thinking by not responding – they are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
It is well worth listening to this, it provides sanity from the scaremongering by the media and opposition politicians.
Yes there are still 367 people who the Ministry of Health is having trouble getting in touch with. Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield made a fresh appeal for these people to get in touch with authorities.
Maybe some are to be found at National Party electorate meetings, by not getting tested they are keeping Mullers belief that there might be community spread alive.
Muller is trying to expolit the might be to open up borders – he believes in zombie economics. Money before lives, and he has the gall to claim to oppose euthansia from a moral position.
what a shambles! my kids mum got her test results back, negative, so she can go back to work. Such a shambles, to live in a country without community transmission, to be able to go to the Drs and get tested if you need to get one, bloody shambles,, no one has died from Covid in weeks, ICU beds empty, toilet paper for everyone, the Health Minister should resign!!! (sarc)
It is such a shambles that the Main Shambolic Media have to manufacture a shambles so they can ‘report’ on it and please the shareholders of the Main Shambles Manufacturers.
The day the pandemic total passes ten million might not be the best time to say you want NZ's borders to open up, but Todd Muller has done it anyway (Wellington business meeting).
To be fair, it is one kind of solution: there definitely won't be any quarantine bungles if there's no quarantine.
Is there method in Muller's madness? He suspects community transmission where there is none, and wants to open up our borders. If NZ's Covid elimination strategy had been less successful (say NZ now had the U.K.'s mortality rate of 642 deaths per million population, rather than the current 4.4 per million, then we'd have ~3,200 Covid-19 deaths), then would that have made it easier to open our borders?
Muller's been talking to the-man-in-the-street who wants everything easy and magic beans as well, and on quickly mulling it over, in about a second, has repeated it all as gospel. Being community driven and populist, he of course, bows down to the public. The country pays him to make judgments on vox pop; nice job if you can get it, and you can get it if you try. But maybe not just now Gnats, you imported, important pests.
It is clear that we are simultaneously doing too little (border bungles) and too much (border restrictions). For his next conjuring trick, Muller will disappear up his own fundament while simultaneously re-appearing at the other end.
The French Greens have made sweeping gains across the country as France shifts left in local body elections. Also (to my great delight) Anne Hidalgo the Socialist Mayor of Paris has had a big victory. Her bold plans to reinvent and regreen the capital will have repercussions for urban planning everywhere.
I swear, if you were a script writer for political satire, and you put these words in the mouth of a character who was only there for cheap laughs, you'd be told to go back and try again …
"Muller said there were several permutations of how some kind of border opening could work, particularly if passengers were able to prove they were Covid-19 free from overseas.
He said he didn't know exactly how this would work but he wanted some sort of clarity from the Government about their plan to open up."
Huh Observer? But, but, but Woodhouse said that the process is very simple. Anyone could do it and just get a competent (National) Government to run it all. Is Muller not speaking to Woodhouse?
Just got round to watching Campbell challenging Woodhouse on his homeless man myth. Pretty amazing. Note the "dry mouth" of Woodhouse and his failure to regain any credibility. (Sorry if this has already been covered.)
What's the background to this murder? Is this a young chap who should have been in enclosed, managed care because he was too erratically behaved when stressed. Has he shown signs of violence before?
Is this a result from people being out in the community, because it sounds nice. There was a great outcry in the UK in late 1980s about conditions in mental hospitals. So the only option was to close them all, not to really staff them well, and maintain the community standards to a high level, including those in institutions.
This process began with a wholescale transformation process known as deinstitutionalisation – that is, shifting care and support of people with mental health problems from psychiatric institutions into community based settings. At the start of the process, these institutions housed approximately 100,000 people; by the end, all had closed….
Politically, there was consensus among parties about hospital reconstruction, and further legislation set a vision for the provision of mental health services as part of this. Alongside this, Enoch Powell, then Minister for Health, announced the intention to halve the number of hospital beds for people with mental health problems.
Although there was little overt financial impetus for deinstitutionalisation, it was generally acknowledged that institutions were financially unsustainable and, in many cases, represented prime estate.
There were moral and medial reasons for looking at how many people could be treated in the community and perhaps better than in institutions. But note the above:
the right wing politician Powell was limiting mental health beds in hospital, and they were being regarded as financially unsustainable which is majorly a bean counter decision, and the last item they represented ‘prime; real estate.
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The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanita Yadav, Senior Research Fellow, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University Brett Boardman/Belvoir The complex and grappling issue of violence against women takes centre stage in the soul-stirring solo dance drama Nayika: A Dancing Girl. During a dinner conversation ...
Disruption to patient care from a nationwide junior doctors strike is bordering on unsafe, a senior doctor claims, despite what health officials say. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Ground Picture/Shutterstock The anti-cancer drug abemaciclib (also known as Vernezio) has this month been added to the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) to treat certain ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic McAfee, Postdoctoral researcher, marine ecology, University of Adelaide Robbie Porter, OzFish Unlimited Around Australia, hundreds of people are coming together to help a once-prized, but decimated and largely forgotten marine ecosystem. They’re busy restoring Australia’s native oyster and mussel reefs. ...
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Adding gender to the Human Rights Act would simply make the implicit explicit. So why is it so controversial? Paul Thistoll explain. At present, Aotearoa’s 1993 Human Rights Act (HRA) includes sex, marital status, religious belief, ethical belief (meaning a lack of religious belief), colour, race, ethnicity or national origin, ...
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Stones vs Trump: https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/300044352/rolling-stones-issue-cease-and-desist-notice-against-donald-trump
When it comes to breach of copyright, Trump seems to have established a track record as serial offender.
On kindness, by Charles Bukowski:
That is a narrow bitter view of kindness and far more about id.
What an arrogant little view of life from someone who has joined 'The Currrent Correctness and Infinite Fount of All Wisdom Cult'. I haven't registered this anywhere so offer it to anyone who has been looking for a group to start or a name for one they have joined. Be quick, grab it before someone else gets off with it.
My piece of wisdom is that we all contain the potential for all the faults we apprehend in others now and from the past; our job is to keep thinking, forgive ourselves with big efforts to do better, and when we come across perpetrators don't waste time hating them. Instead insist ask them to atone by attempting to change what they have done, and get the water of life running in a different direction so that everyone can access it.
I wonder if 'The Currrent Correctness and Infinite Font of All Wisdom Cult' is available
"Splitters!"
Well sounds like bull-kaka to me. Not helped by the emphasis on strange words that the would not normally be emphasised in the narration. So what if you have to give the benefit of the doubt or, heavens, be kind to someone older who may imperfect recall, wrong recall or who you think might actually be wrong. It does not mean that their whole life has been lived imperfectly or wrongly.
In the 70s there was an almost slavish following by some of the idea that you had to let people know their faults, that it was better for them to know their faults and for you to let them know…..a crock that I called the 'Goodness and Honesty policy' (sarc) as it was nothing of the sort. This sounds a bit like that.
This name is also up for grabs.
[Fixed error in user name again]
I see some folks last night disagreed with me about the existence of the quarantine shambles, and then this morning I encountered this: https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/28-06-2020/review-of-managed-isolation-reveals-system-under-extreme-stress/
So those folk now must face the fact that the govt's review confirms the existence of the shambles. Well, they could persist in denial by claiming that a mess is not as bad as a shambles, perhaps. But better to get real instead!
But they are right. I didn't see the word 'shambles' in that report … I don't think anyone denied there were no problems with the system.
Do we have community spread, Dennis, and if so, was this caused or compounded by the ‘shambles’ that you you’re so focussed on? It is simple big-picture-small-picture stuff but many folks, you included, seem to fret & sweat over the small stuff. Please notice that I haven’t mentioned one official or political party, as they are irrelevant to this question.
Well, I do agree that the folks who would rather call a spade an excavation implement have made relevant points.
My concern is that the PM seems to have lost the plot re political management. Public confidence in the govt is essential for re-election. She can't afford to maintain the ebb-tide effect in the polls. Chris Trotter gets it, I noticed this morning that he posted this on Friday: http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2020/06/sack-him-jacinda-sack-him-now.html
Keeping David Clark operating in his role as the Nats' secret weapon is loony. It just reinforces Muller as a viable alternative in the public mind. Why do that??
Sorry, Dennis, I seem to have somehow missed your answer. Was it a Yes or a No to community spread?
I put a comment here supporting someone who made the point re lack of community spread last week. That's not the issue.
And re those using Woodhouse as a red herring, he's just beating up. But when you use spin on the basis of a valid point you get traction, right? To me he's just like one of those wee yap yap yap dogs. Even someone with average intelligence gets it right half the time. David Clark has been ramping up his yap.
That odious little man Woodhouse is clinging to the hope there is community spread. He also clings to that canard about the homeless man, and doubles down by saying he has lots and lots of other anecdotes about errors in the system. Do tell, Michael, why hold back? in for one, in for all? after all, you have proved you have no interest in the public health response being successful.
____________________________________________
I think it's fair to say the system became 'unfit for purpose' owing to the rapid growth in numbers. It's clear the problems with isolating and quarantining people grow exponentially as numbers grow, and this has exposed the insane demands from opposition politicians to open up more quickly.
It’s also clear these issue were either not anticipated, or overwhelmed the ability to adapt to greater numbers. But I note that in the last two weeks in particular there is not an inch to be given to the overworked people involved in the covid response at all levels. They are expected to be perfect. Anything else is not good enough. So easy to be a sideline expert, all wind and no responsibility.
Fair enough, and something else worth considering is the conflation of testing and quarantine in the public mind. In retrospect, seems like reassurance from the specialists that two weeks quarantine removes the risk became questionable at some point.
So then we got a rush to try & test all those released without testing. I'm not clear on why and I expect many others aren't either…
What is the primary goal of the border quarantine measures? Arguably, the secondary one is to make the public feel safer AKA “spin”. Has the primary objective been met, so far? If not, what was the impact? If you only focus on the spin then the ‘issue’ is about spin on spin AKA yap yap doggies yelping at every passing car.
the real shambles here,is dennis dancing around the fact that he wouldnt know a shambles if he fell over one.
Sacking Clark now would be another mess in the making.
The reason for the quarantine shambles was not obvious, but SPC over the weekend has put up a clear case the PM can take to the country. The reasoning was really only obvious in hindsight, but it goes like this:
While the whole country was at Level 3, effectively everyone and everywhere was in quarantine, so while the border procedures were useful they were not essential. Cases could slip through, but they would be contained very quickly.
But when the country dropped to Level 1 it became essential to first increase the border process security. The mistake was in yielding to political pressure to go down from Level 3 to Level 1 so quickly, which meant that the border process, which is a two week process, did not have time to ramp up in an orderly fashion.
Take that to the country, explain that in the understandable desire to get back to Level 1, the subtle implications for border quarantine were not properly understood and managed. It was an honest mistake I believe, and an honest mea culpa will be accepted.
The the Ministry can get on with more important reforms that are in the pipeline. Sacrificing goats for mere public spectacle is medieval.
Nicely put RL.
Yes – and funnily enough, it's exactly what I was shouting at the telly and at everyone at home when it became apparent that we were moving to Level 1 so quickly – "make sure the border is secure first!" Leakage from the border into a community operating at level 1 being so much more potentially dangerous.
I disagree on the basis of traditional morality: the doctrine of ministerial responsibility ought to be enforced. I believe the case you make, while seeming reasonable, would fail as a political strategy.
I think it will fly. Most voters are reasonable people and when the mistake is explained to them they will understand.
After all how many people here anticipated this peculiar problem at the time? I certainly didn't. And none of the clever media types calling for Clark’s resignation did either.
I think the government has been busy dealing with the real world issues being thrown at them as this pandemic and it's consequences escalate.
Too busy to deal with spot fires being deliberately lit by the media and national party, although Adern took early steps to to address these with her interview earlier this morning. She also sounded tired, like a parent who has been up 5 times during night with a restless infant….
Dennis Frank You remind me sometimes of a needle stuck in the groove of an old vinyl record. You may call me old-fashioned, but then so are you. Events are moving so fast requiring regular adjustments of opinions, policies, practices and implementation, to try to ensure practical and high-minded results. To carry on an argument that we should stop and get an exact record of outcomes during fast-changing events under our Covid-19 regs is futile time-wasting not helpful to the government or the left. Are you thinking at all? Do you want a Right-Wing government?
I would scorn you personally if you do. It would show that you are a democracy-destroyer, and not worthy of space on any realistic left-wing blog that has integrity and objectivity. We are in crisis in the world, let's think about it all not get stuck on the potty obstinately wailing. Life happens while we are planning (and commenting repetitively) other things!
Hear hear grey.
Issuing feeble excuses in an attempt to justify evasion of moral responsibility isn't a good idea. All that happens is that you reinforce the view of centrists that the political left is just as bad as the political right.
Ministerial responsibility was put into the system of representative democracy for a very good reason. You and Ian ought to reflect on that reason. It doesn't help Aotearoa when the left side of politics is just as keen to break the rules as the right.
I think you will find that Dr Ashley Bloomfield answers directly to Government and not the MoH because he has more power than the MoH in an emergency. That was my understanding way back in the mists of time when he was elevated, so yes responsibility bypasses Ministers all the way to Parliament.
Well said. Thanks RL.
I will repeat part of Jacinda Ardern's comments this morning to the 'one size fits all' idiot who goes by the name of Mike Hosking:
I watched the press conference live and Jacinda is right. Clark was fulsome in his praise of Bloomfield but how extraordinary that the media apparently missed it – not.
What utter bollocks Denis. I read the transcript of Ardern's interview with Hoskings this morning about why she hasn't sacked Clark……..as Ardern said earlier Clark is part of the solution.
A shambles is the United States, the UK, Brazil. Not NZ. The system here is/was under extreme stress.
A shambles is "a state of total disorder"….. Its just bollocks that you describe isolation facilities as total disorder.
BTW Denis you are starting to sound like those pathetic Nats saying “We’d do it better”
The govt review has confirmed that my view is correct. The fact that it is widely shared in the public mind is hurting Labour. Persisting in denial of the facts will not help their re-election prospects.
As for Nats doing better, not a chance. Obviously David Clark got set up by the officials who failed to do their job properly, and any Nat minister would have been set up similarly. Unless those officials did it deliberately to undermine the govt, due to being Nat supporters. Incompetence is the more likely explanation.
Denis, I don't think it is accurate to characterise isolation facilities as a shambles (dictionary definition of a shambles is state of total disorder).
Its very clear that any disorder in isolation facilities was not pervasive. Of course it has hurt Labour's polling. That is undeniable and the opposition has played politics with the system failures to score votes. You are buying into the oppositions memes.
The system of quarantining returnees has achieved what it set out to achieve i.e keeping Covid out of the community. To do that by definition the system was functional despite the issues.
Okay, put like that it is all reasoning I can accept as valid. Lots of folks nowadays lose words loosely in disregard of the dictionary meaning (racism for instance).
I'm not buying into Nat memes – I independently reached the same view in accord with widespread public perception of the consequences of the operational dysfunction. Did so before Woodhouse began bleating.
Assuming the public dance to the Nats' tune is a leftist syndrome. Sometimes it seems that way, but really it's a mistake to assume people can't form their own opinions from what happens…
When this story first broke I was just as angry at the apparent fuck up as anyone. I really wanted some heads to roll.
Now a few weeks later when the rather non-obvious reason why it happened is clear to me, I've changed my mind.
At the risk of introducing too much nuance; my primary issue is immoral protection of public service wrong-doers. 😇
There's a convention around this: Nat/Lab agreement that enforcement can only proceed via employment contract. I don't agree with this left/right weasel dance unison sham. It's immoral, because it is used to cover up wrong-doing.
To do so, David Clark had to disregard the parliamentary doctrine of ministerial responsibility. His leader has condoned that. So far.
So as regards culpability, DC is merely the secondary offender. Yet parliamentary democracy is supposed to make him take the rap. On that basis, my take on the stances adopted by Linda Clark & Richard Harman is as follows: LC is correct on the basis of how parliament is supposed to operate, RH is correct on the basis of natural justice.
Exactly, every country in the world is having huge fuckups on a scale far, far larger than this on an hourly basis. One in 5 months is a pretty good record which is why we are the safest place in the world being managed by the best and hardest working group on the planet. And I thank them every day. i have also along with many others have had a complete gutsful of whiner and finger pointers.
If by 'shambles' you mean 'not up to the Woodlouse/Munter seal of approval', well you're still wrong.
Better to fix it Frank. Which they have, smartly with no excuses. As to "get real instead" Instead of what? Lying like Woodhouse? scaremongering about "Community transmission?"
Prime Minister Ardern said we would get cases coming in at the border. No one then thought the numbers returning would become a flood. Very quickly the system was almost overwhelmed by returnees from areas where the pandemic is raging.
"Shambles" means no parts of the border controls were working. That is patently untrue, as we would have community transmission.
I hope some one doesn't sneak the virus through somehow, as was done with the rabbit Khaleesi virus, because politically they believe they would be better off.
We need to stop navel gazing and start working at how to maximise health and future opportunities. Scare mongering is another road to austerity and a loss of confidence.
Fisher and Paykel Health saw a 37% growth and 5000 employees is a case in point.
I agree on the need to "start working at how to maximise health and future opportunities". FPH as you point out is a great example.
https://www.fphcare.com/nz/our-company/investor/news/fy21/fph-fy20-annual-results/
And schools educating young people for the higher wage jobs such companies offer. More companies like FPH and more school leavers fit to work in them.
Rather than getting the so-called 'real oil' from an article complete with 'spin,' the actual press release and the report itself and project plan present a clear and sober picture. ( I thought we had all had it confirmed/learned during the lockdown 1.00pm pressers and seeing the articles that resulted that journos often don't get the slant correct or even the facts.)
Here is a link to the press release from Hon Megan Woods
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-strengthens-managed-isolation-system
On this there are links to the report and to the action plan.
Good news from the "Horizon Research survey of nearly 1600 Kiwis. It found 56 per cent of respondents plan to vote for legalising cannabis for personal use on September 19." https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12343541
There's been a 60/40 yoyo effect:
The intra-party breakdowns are fascinating too, with only Nat dinosaurs holding the line against progress:
Yeah I'll be voting to legalise even though I know that it's bad for the body. However, we have spent millions through the cops and justice system for about zero result. Give a fraction of that money to the health system and I reckon they will have nagged most people into submission within the decade. They did a basically good job on the fags- much more cost effective than the cops.
Heck I'd even run an ad asking if people wanted to be arrested or nagged.
neither, some will simply bake cookies, or make a tincture, tea, gummi bears (with or without permission form the Greens) and will never smoke a single leave.
But yes, i will vote for it as i am sick and tired of seing lives fucked over for a joint, or 'possesion with intend to sell' even tho its literally just an ounce for private use.
And thus i will also be voting for new businesses, new agricultural projects, jobs and increased tax revenue.
Take that naggers.
same here, voting for it, not a drug taker & barely drink alcohol (the odd beer), but I hate the hypocrisy.
I was actually thinking of things like short term memory loss ? not the actual smoke which I assume is as bad as fag smoke. But is this an issue with non smoke forms of delivery?
Well that all depends, if sometimes the main…., a lot of time you will find that when the.., sorry, what was the question again?
Chuckle great reply
Hmmm, Kate Hawkesby, the paragon of personal freedom and responsibility, seems to advocate for forced COVID-19 tests for people coming into the country. Nek minit, she will call for forced vaccination too.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12343734
And sterilisation can't be far away!
Gee Goldsmith is getting himself into all sorts of trouble on Morning Report.
Every time he's interviewed he embarrasses himself, he simply has no idea what's real and what's not, perfect for a finace minister of the National Party, basically full of shite
Yes Suzie nailing Goldsmith to the post. He sounded ridiculous.
Woodlouse has admitted he has no proof of homeless person jumping into the cue at isolation hotel.
He has admitted it was anecdotal and is still looking.
A lie by any other name …
John Cambell interviewd him this morning, he kept reiterating the story came from a reliable source but would not name the source or state that the story was TRUE.
Why do Nat MPs think Kiwis are stupid
“Why do Nat MPs think Kiwis are stupid”
They suffer from Dunning Kruger syndrome which, in a nutshell, means that stupid people who don't know they are stupid like to believe that everyone else is stupid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
It's a belief that has served them well.
And just prior to Goldsmith’s shambles of an interview Woodhouse was still pushing the Nat’s line that there was likely to be community transmission of Covid in Aotearoa although (like the fabled Homeless Man) there is absolutely no evidence to support the claim.
True, no evidence. However risk management is the underlying rationale. One would not expect Woodhouse to be able to explain that sophisticated concept, eh?
Greens warning of climate change in the nineties used that as the basis of their advocacy. I'm not saying they did it well – it seems in retrospect to have been tacit rather than made explicit. However since it is the basis of the insurance industry, and used even more widely throughout capitalism, it does deserve articulation.
Yeah, but the Greens have a basis in reality where as the assumption of potential community spread doesn't, just an exaggerated lie.
Woodhouse the boy who cried Wolf but the Wolf blew his house down for telling Porkies
RNZ reporting Paula Bennett is standing down at the election.
Press conference live now. I feel sick listening to her. Gloating how she did wonders reforming the welfare system.
Good riddance
Past the lifeboats, over the rail (fur flying!) and into the drink; Paula's abandoned ship!
Check out Tom Sainsbury doing Bennett on her resignation .He was quick off the mark!
Or Paula tipped him off
The piece ends with Tom and Paula outrageously dancing in real life
I have to confess this is the one time I'll admit to Bennett being a good sport and she deserves credit for it
Na walked the plank more like . Good riddance to the scurvy dog.
More evidence of party spread of ‘resignovirus‘ – yet another Nat MP Toddles off.
https://thestandard.org.nz/will-the-last-remaining-national-mp-please-turn-off-the-lights/
They have lights?? Won't those sear their palid skin and blind their pinky eyes?
(Said in jest).
Lets hope its got an R.O of about 50.4.
Don’t just go Paula–piss off! You will be remembered as a revolting Rebstock trained, ladder pulling, beneficiary bashing, woman undermining, confidence breaking mockery of what MPs should aspire to.
Wow! Praise indeed!
Pullya Benefit quiting politics .National looking like a ragtag bunch of misfits.
Goldsmith lacks knowledge of economics or basic maths.
Woodhouse cries wolf
Muddler has a caucus of incompetents .
Collins tries to sterilize her dodgy past and dumps on everyone.
Luxton will be Nationals new leader in January.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
While I'm normally in favour of error or mistake as the default assumption for political screw-ups, I'd caution that there is a LONG history of malicious misinterpretation of other parties' more progressive policies from National finance spokespeople, so let's not be TOO charitable to Goldsmith and rule out entirely the idea that he knows damn well how marginal taxes work and what the language that describes them looks like, but he's mischievously trying to muddy the waters.
Luxon might be looking at National's sorry bunch of no-hopers and grifters and having second thoughts.
Maybe Luxon will join the people driving a fleet of Motorhomes for the new ONE Party that I talked to in the Far North today. They believe they are the only true Christian Party, along with some seriously dubious claims about other partys. Oh PS, miss you already Pulya. lololol.
Nostradamus (Tr-down) we salute you.
lol !
https://twitter.com/antihobbes/status/1277393808766824451?s=20
I guess this has been put up before but good to get reminder;
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/06/29/alternative-aotearoa-election-2020-seminar-update/
Alternative Aotearoa – a one-day seminar to provide solutions for the environmental, social and economic transformation of Aotearoa.
Saturday 25 July, 8.30am Pipitea Marae, Wellington…
Registration is free but people need to register for catering purposes. A koha will apply for lunch. Register via email to bronwensummers@gmail.com…
The Social Solutions section has been extended by half an hour due to the wide range of groups keen to contribute.
The seminar will be live-streamed on The Daily Blog…
Keynote speakers:
Laura O’Connell Rapira – Director of Action Station
Efeso Collins – Pasifika community activist and Auckland City Councillor
Co-chairs:
Julia Whaipooti – Justice Advocate
Martyn Bradbury – Editor of The Daily Blog
Recorders/Collators/Final presenters
Tamatha Paul – Wellington City Councillor
Jane Kelsey – Law Professor University of Auckland
"Who needs facts? Who needs evidence? Who needs logic. That's for leftie academic woosses.
I believe. I have an opinion and I am entitled to it, even if I'm wrong, and I'm not.
I'm saying there must be community cases out there. I was right a month ago. It's just that you haven't found them. You're at fault.
Just like you never found the homeless man….. You wasted all that money looking for him, and never found him.
Look, if the President of the US is allowed to be sarcastic, then I'm allowed to be anecdotal and not reveal my sources.
No, I'm not going to ask questions in Parliament tomorrow because all those leftie academic woosses will make fun of me.
Oh, look. Paula’s leaving. You should be talking to her because Judith was nasty to her when she laughed at Nikki’s opinion that Paul was Maori.
What? Of course, he’s Maori. You just haven’t found the evidence!”
The Woodhouse Reports.
Well observed – Woodhouse sounding more presidential by the day.
It's winter. The wood is wet and produces too much smoke. Illegal. Keep the wood drying out before using so it's fit for purpose. Shut the door on the Woodhouse, for a number of months and then maybe the winter of our discontent will be over.
A tick for each of your points mac 1.
Bennett gripped it, blipped it, flipped it, lipped it and has finally zipped it. Good bloody riddance.
A Winston Peters' tribute in Parliament would be a treat.
Snappy – nailed it.
Nailed it! More than John Key could….
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11414883
What is it with Nats and billboards?
P B will probably get a job on Newshub. Suit her down to the ground.
Croaking Cassandra has an interesting piece on the Chinese Communist Party spy-trainer politician in the National Government. He has been able to get in on the National List. It would be hard for this man to be objective. Apparently he refuses any English-speaking media contact to explain how he does this herculean task. I wonder if he unburdens himself to the NZ Chinese language newspaper – I think it is published in Auckland, home-away-from-home for many Chinese housing investors.
We live in interesting times – too late to say 'May you'. (Wikipedia – Despite being so common in English as to be known as the "Chinese curse", the saying is apocryphal – doubtful origin.)
…he’d lied about his past in his application for New Zealand residency and citizenship. In fact, challenged on the point he was quite open about it: he’d actively misrepresented his past because his CCP bosses had insisted on it when he first left the PRC.
https://croakingcassandra.com/author/mhreddell/
That baby on Marama's knee looks like Tova just asked a question.
Faux news backed the mayor of Amity when he said the town had to get those tourists back in the water…
The data is in: Fox News may have kept millions from taking the coronavirus threat seriously
It’s another one of those Trump Era realities best described as unsurprising but nevertheless shocking.
Three serious research efforts have put numerical weight — yes, data-driven evidence — behind what many suspected all along: Americans who relied on Fox News, or similar right-wing sources, were duped as the coronavirus began its deadly spread.
Dangerously duped.
The studies “paint a picture of a media ecosystem that amplifies misinformation, entertains conspiracy theories and discourages audiences from taking concrete steps to protect themselves and others,” wrote my colleague Christopher Ingraham in an analysis last week.
Here’s the reality, now backed by numbers:
http://archive.li/FZTf2 (wapo)
Fast tracking the rapture.
A choir of more than 100 people performed without masks at a robustly attended event in Texas at the First Baptist Church on Sunday that featured a speech by Vice President Mike Pence.
Nearly 2,200 people attended the "Celebrate Freedom Rally," in the Lone Star State, according to rally organizers, which has seen a severe surge in coronavirus cases since easing restrictions. The venue capacity for the indoor event was close to 3,000 attendees, organizers say.
Throughout the service, the members of the choir sang at full volume, behind an orchestra. Between songs, the choir members put their masks back on when they sat down, according to pool reports from the event. The members of the choir had space between them, but it was not clear if it was the recommended six feet.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/28/politics/mike-pence-dallas-choir-no-masks-church-event/index.html
The data is in: Fox News may have kept millions from taking the coronavirus threat seriously.
Rewrite, "The data is in: Woodhouse may have kept thousands from believing that the coronavirus threat in NZ is under better control than anywhere else in the World.
Jack Vowles has done it again. He must be the sane one in a country of the insane Media.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/1255825/in-the-absence-of-calm
(I put Jack up because he says what I think but he can say it so much better than I.)
I'd really love the news media to stop hounding the government over the pressure on the border and go and get stuck into the airline CEO's and scorch them. They hide behind press releases. They seem to be not erring on the side of caution instead just chasing the every last dollar. And it appears that American airlines are just going to start flying here (unilateral decision ?) as have other airlines. This puts pressure on us to provide extra quarantine regardless. According to the stories we don't even know who is coming until the plane is in the air athough I thought immigration had warning before boarding. We need to start charging for it and I' d start with the permanent residents who haven't been here for the last two years before Jan 2020. They have not contributed and are just using us as a bolthole or welfare backup.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/121973624/coronavirus-questions-raised-over-international-aircrew-rules
I tidied up your link; the question mark and anything behind it can usually be deleted.
Another good read by Vowles.
So after the whole SNAFU around my managed isolation and being set free without any testing (which I have mentioned) I got my results back from MoH and, unsurprisingly, I am COVID free. Still no community transmission which is a great result even after the problems regarding managed isolation.
Long may it continue
So John I take it that you are very pleased to be free of infection after being cared for by the people who run the system?
The nurses at the hotel were wonderful. Very kind and dedicated
And please the next time if/when you are in quarantine again (lets hope this will never be the case) with requirements of 2 m distance to others and isolation ,, don't use a public elevator to go get a cigarette in a public smoke cubicle.
Be upfront and askhow you can safely leave the building, go to a balcony, smoking room, roof top etc in order to have your cigarette.And if you can't ask for Champix or Nicotine patches if getting through the day without a fix is too hard.
You using an elevator to go the smokers cubicle to get your fix was not the governments fault that is all on you and if you had been a carrier you could have infected people.
Welcome home.
The elevator wasn’t an issue as you were only allowed in there with others from your room – by myself in my case. I did ask them about smoking outside but weirdly you couldn't smoke AND social distant. So what I did after the 4th day I’d only go for cigarettes after 10pm when you could smoke outside
Maybe all on me and others but everyone was just doing as we were told.
Today's presser. I got the feeling the media teeth were not so sharp. As usual he is very clear, and when he addresses the question of over 360 people they are trying to contact, and have not responded to calls, texts, and emails he absolutely nails it.
Precis: He is disappointed and expects them to play their part.
What on earth are these people thinking by not responding – they are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
It is well worth listening to this, it provides sanity from the scaremongering by the media and opposition politicians.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300044724/live-ashley-bloomfield-announces-latest-coronavirus-figures
Yes there are still 367 people who the Ministry of Health is having trouble getting in touch with. Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield made a fresh appeal for these people to get in touch with authorities.
NAME them the team of 5 mil will deliver them.
Maybe some are to be found at National Party electorate meetings, by not getting tested they are keeping Mullers belief that there might be community spread alive.
Muller is trying to expolit the might be to open up borders – he believes in zombie economics. Money before lives, and he has the gall to claim to oppose euthansia from a moral position.
75 new cases in Victoria today.
https://www.twitter.com/covidliveau/status/1277410745630638080
what a shambles! my kids mum got her test results back, negative, so she can go back to work. Such a shambles, to live in a country without community transmission, to be able to go to the Drs and get tested if you need to get one, bloody shambles,, no one has died from Covid in weeks, ICU beds empty, toilet paper for everyone, the Health Minister should resign!!! (sarc)
It is such a shambles that the Main Shambolic Media have to manufacture a shambles so they can ‘report’ on it and please the shareholders of the Main Shambles Manufacturers.
The day the pandemic total passes ten million might not be the best time to say you want NZ's borders to open up, but Todd Muller has done it anyway (Wellington business meeting).
To be fair, it is one kind of solution: there definitely won't be any quarantine bungles if there's no quarantine.
Is there method in Muller's madness? He suspects community transmission where there is none, and wants to open up our borders. If NZ's Covid elimination strategy had been less successful (say NZ now had the U.K.'s mortality rate of 642 deaths per million population, rather than the current 4.4 per million, then we'd have ~3,200 Covid-19 deaths), then would that have made it easier to open our borders?
Coronavirus: How lockdown is being lifted across Europe
https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-52575313
So many reasons for National party supporters to hope that our Government's border controls fail (but please keep the agricultural pests out.)
Natsys have a bit of a track record of 'accidentally' letting nasties in, so if they were doing more than hope, it wouldn't be a massive surprise.
Muller's been talking to the-man-in-the-street who wants everything easy and magic beans as well, and on quickly mulling it over, in about a second, has repeated it all as gospel. Being community driven and populist, he of course, bows down to the public. The country pays him to make judgments on vox pop; nice job if you can get it, and you can get it if you try. But maybe not just now Gnats, you imported, important pests.
It is clear that we are simultaneously doing too little (border bungles) and too much (border restrictions). For his next conjuring trick, Muller will disappear up his own fundament while simultaneously re-appearing at the other end.
Another imported pest. Tomato spider mite.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/420088/tomato-red-spider-mite-pest-discovered-in-new-zealand-for-first-time
The French Greens have made sweeping gains across the country as France shifts left in local body elections. Also (to my great delight) Anne Hidalgo the Socialist Mayor of Paris has had a big victory. Her bold plans to reinvent and regreen the capital will have repercussions for urban planning everywhere.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/28/voters-stay-away-from-second-round-french-local-elections
I swear, if you were a script writer for political satire, and you put these words in the mouth of a character who was only there for cheap laughs, you'd be told to go back and try again …
"Muller said there were several permutations of how some kind of border opening could work, particularly if passengers were able to prove they were Covid-19 free from overseas.
He said he didn't know exactly how this would work but he wanted some sort of clarity from the Government about their plan to open up."
Huh Observer? But, but, but Woodhouse said that the process is very simple. Anyone could do it and just get a competent (National) Government to run it all. Is Muller not speaking to Woodhouse?
Just got round to watching Campbell challenging Woodhouse on his homeless man myth. Pretty amazing. Note the "dry mouth" of Woodhouse and his failure to regain any credibility. (Sorry if this has already been covered.)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300044663/national-mp-michael-woodhouse-wont-say-homeless-man-tale-was-true
Stürmer, the King of Nothing, is about to be hoist by his own petard.
At least his fellow shills for apartheid Sacha Baron Cohen and Maureen Lipman have the redeeming quality of being funny occasionally.
https://skwawkbox.org/2020/06/27/skwawkbox-editor-lodges-formal-antisemitism-complaint-against-keir-starmer-for-conflation-of-jewish-people-with-actions-of-israeli-government-in-breach-of-ihra-code/
Tied up in knots.
Edit
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/420094/otautau-teen-jailed-at-least-11-years-for-murder-of-9yo
What's the background to this murder? Is this a young chap who should have been in enclosed, managed care because he was too erratically behaved when stressed. Has he shown signs of violence before?
Is this a result from people being out in the community, because it sounds nice. There was a great outcry in the UK in late 1980s about conditions in mental hospitals. So the only option was to close them all, not to really staff them well, and maintain the community standards to a high level, including those in institutions.
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/making-change-possible/mental-health-services
This process began with a wholescale transformation process known as deinstitutionalisation – that is, shifting care and support of people with mental health problems from psychiatric institutions into community based settings. At the start of the process, these institutions housed approximately 100,000 people; by the end, all had closed….
Politically, there was consensus among parties about hospital reconstruction, and further legislation set a vision for the provision of mental health services as part of this. Alongside this, Enoch Powell, then Minister for Health, announced the intention to halve the number of hospital beds for people with mental health problems.
Although there was little overt financial impetus for deinstitutionalisation, it was generally acknowledged that institutions were financially unsustainable and, in many cases, represented prime estate.
There were moral and medial reasons for looking at how many people could be treated in the community and perhaps better than in institutions. But note the above:
the right wing politician Powell was limiting mental health beds in hospital, and they were being regarded as financially unsustainable which is majorly a bean counter decision, and the last item they represented ‘prime; real estate.