Whenever I see bullshit like this, it tells me more about the accuser than the accused. Is this what Brownlee would do in government, is this his ethic, his way of working?
Well we know he is an entitled bully, a poor supervisor of a city rebuild, and a member of a dirty tricks party in government. We know he has colleagues who lie, misuse private information, and just plain fantasise about mystery homeless men.
So now he complains, on no evidence, just a suspicion, that the Coalition government would also hold back information from the public.
When was that report on the internal culture of the National party coming out, Mr Brownlee?
You get it wrong on polls. You get it wrong on unemployment figures. You get it wrong on the state of the economy.
Maybe you're just wrong again, making it up, showing us how you really think.
Seemed strange at first,however there may be some signalling from Bloomfield/Hipkins for an increase in border inflows,or it may just be a signal for increased vigilance.
Calls first from Key,then Clark for increase in border flows are troublesome,especially the later who wants a Victorian type (private partnership quarantine mechanism) which successfully munted melbourne.
Victoria has been in a very different position from NZ though. How would we get from where we are now to massive outbreak? (apart from opening borders).
It would have to be a multi-tiered chain of clusterfucks, (1)from an isolation failure (2)into close contacts (3)who then manage to infect multiple people maybe at some sort of (4)close-contact mass event that disperses (5)unknown attendees around the country,(6) all with no intervention by public health officials at any step of the process.
From what I gather from Melbourne:
1) security guards breach isolation by shagging their wards (incredibly lax procedures – we seem to be trying to keep standards human but high)
2) guards take covid home and infect their close contacts, which is not discovered in a timely manner (lack of testing of iso staff and awareness in contacts of staff. Don't know our status there)
3) these close contacts start spreading causing untraced infections (tracing is an issue in NZ, but not catastrophic, and a move to L2 should sort that with the two week lag principle)
4) is optional (but might be churches, pubs, or public transport – NZ wide open to that)
5) Melbourne tried belated community lockdowns, but it's out again. (NZ has a track record of going hard, early)
You can't just react with this thing, you're seeing its state two weeks ago. You need to pessimistically extrapolate where it's likely at now, with a wide margin for error.
e.g. if a tourist got detected going into Sth Korea a few days after leaving NZ, we can't wait for covid cases to present to hospitals in Q'town or Auckland if the tourist had it here somehow because when they do, they've spread it to two or three degrees of infection from those that get to hospital.
So we test now in those areas to lower that detection time. But if we find cases in Qtown, NZ could well go into L3 or L4 again, at least for a week.
I don't expect that, but the old adage is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
While our borders remain closed, I can imagine community transmission, from a failure point in the system, but it not getting very far.
Preparing NZers mentally as well as practically for a second wave, as well as mask wearing etc, seems pragmatic to me. We've got a breather, it's a good time to do it before any more outbreaks and before the recession hits hard.
Apparently it was a couple of guards initially, yeah.
But then they tried to (brutally) lockdown an apartment building (with lotsa of poc in it, purely coincidental) while leaving the one across the road open. And a few days later they had to expand the lockdown.
To me, the incremental increases in controls suggests that they keep trying to do the minimum. Maybe the new lockdown shows they finally get the point that half-arsed doesn't work.
But I haven't been watching them very closely (although I've been talking with relatives over in Melbourne), so I might have some details wrong. That seems to be the gist of what I've been reading and hearing, though.
Yeah with private partnerships having worked so well in Melbourne we should do it here? I think not.
But Helen is sounding very out of touch. She just doesn't seem to realise just how lax our migration policy had become and just how fed up and poor so many people had become with the neolib settings. There's a quiet revolution gathering pace out here that wants a big reset. As to the foreign students – apparently they support 45,000 jobs but we issue 70,000 student visa's a year so without it we would have a job gain of 25000 in year one and 70,000 every year after that. Not exact figures but what's not to like. That's the unemployed back to zero in a couple of years
Helen shouldn’t be talking over Jacinda and Chippie and the others.
That Ken guy is scary nuts, always got something bizarre to say. I know there's the view to not just say "these guys are nuts" & try & open dialogue, but how? They're clearly not responsive to reality, how can people believe this shite? & yet, plenty do. I got a work mate who does, he's English, yet will still rant that 'Cindy' is ruining this country & isn't really in charge, apparently she just listens to the experts. It's all over the place (& I work in an industry that's Govt owned, that the Nats/ACT would happily gut & sell).
“It doesn’t add up. Why announce this now when there are few cases? What do these guys know that they are not telling us?
Work it out, Gezza.
Canadians shouldn't expect a COVID-19 vaccine to be a "silver bullet" that will bring a swift end to the coronavirus pandemic and a return to normal, according to the country's chief public health officer.
Dr. Theresa Tam used her briefing on Tuesday in Ottawa to temper expectations about the speed and effectiveness of a vaccine. She reiterated the importance of physical distancing, proper hand hygiene and mask-wearing, and attempted to dissuade any notion that a vaccine will make life go back to the way it was in a couple of months.
"We can't at this stage just put all of our focus [on a vaccine] in the hopes that this is the silver bullet solution," said Tam.
"We're going to have to manage this pandemic certainly over the next year, but certainly [we are] planning for the longer term of the next two to three years during which the vaccine may play a role but we don't know yet."
“It doesn’t add up. Why announce this now when there are few cases? What do these guys know that they are not telling us?
The same as what everyone else who bothers to read the news from the world knows – that scientists have said for weeks that a second wave appears to be coming.
But, apparently, the National Party doesn't actually keep up with developments.
Hosking ramping up too. These bigmouths just show how much our repsonse has not been down to luck, but bloody hard work & great leadership. It is kinda insane, USA, Britain, Victoria, would look at us opening as total WTF!!?? & fek off to Key & Clarke, they must have their phones running red hot with landlords etc crying about their diminishing passive income.
That is my belief based on considerable time working for and in the greens. It is also what a significant proportion of voters think. It is the reason many dont vote green and actually also hurts the labour vote. Until the greens own and deal with this they do irreparable harm to the green movement and the planet.
To me it is pretty obvious. It’s a virus and so likely to creep in somehow.
jacinda Ardern has signalled this all along. Countries that have come close to irradiation like China, Vietnam find it sneaks back in. Both acted early on re emergence remember Wuhan testing everybody.
i think Bloomfield is sounding a warning because people were getting complacent, refusing tests. Everywhere I go, I sign in. I notice very few people do.
I tried to get the tracer app but it won't work on my phone. I & a lot like me I suspect wouldn't have thought to go get tested if I get a cold, these warnings help. I've talked to a few people about this & told them it could be out there & we just wouldn't know til it was spread, because hardly anyone is getting tested. We can all see what's happening around the world, well except Brownlee & his supporters.
what happens to a system run on confidence (trick) when you try too hard and so obviously over sell that even senior bank economists will publicly ridicule you?
Insanity is a shed load of older, high-risk people with pre-existing conditions spreading the damn bug far and wide.
Organizers of a South Dakota motorcycle rally are expecting as many as a quarter of a million people to show up in the small town where the event is hosted in the coming days.
The Associated Press reported that city officials in Sturgis have been notified to expect as many as 250,000 rallygoers in town between Friday and Aug. 16 for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, an annual gathering at Buffalo Chip, a campground located in the area.
Sturgis only has 7,000 year-round residents, some of whom criticized plans for the rally to go on as planned during the coronavirus pandemic at a town meeting in June, according to the AP.
David Doel: "Why do we need this many cops? If this was a white family in a wealthy neighborhood, would they make all the kids lie face down on the concrete?”
These thugs need to be not only defunded; they need to be disestablished.
Paywalls are justified, even though they are annoying. It costs money to produce good writing, to run a website, to license photographs. A lot of money, if you want quality. Asking people for a fee to access content is therefore very reasonable. You don’t expect to get a print subscription to the newspaper gratis, why would a website be different? I try not to grumble about having to pay for online content, because I run a magazine and I know how difficult it is to pay writers what they deserve.
I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks and it’s interesting that Brownlee is the alarmist, but the only way that the dirty bloody Nats are going to get a sniff is if we get a outbreak and a lockdown and my scenario is a deliberate release of Covid.
Would they do it? Of course the arseholes would. I bet there were’t a lot of lefty SI farmers illegally brewing up Rabbit Calici Virus a few years ago.
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Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 25 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
https://mobile.twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1290867644263014400
Ha! Perfect, Trump vs Trump.
🤣🤣🤣
This is not satire. This is a real statement put out by the deputy leader of the National party, during a global pandemic:
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2008/S00048/brownlee-calls-on-government-to-come-clean.htm
Shameful. Whenever you think they can't go lower, they do.
" Whenever you think they can't go lower, they do"
This is Gerry Brownlee were talking about……there is no low
Whenever I see bullshit like this, it tells me more about the accuser than the accused. Is this what Brownlee would do in government, is this his ethic, his way of working?
Well we know he is an entitled bully, a poor supervisor of a city rebuild, and a member of a dirty tricks party in government. We know he has colleagues who lie, misuse private information, and just plain fantasise about mystery homeless men.
So now he complains, on no evidence, just a suspicion, that the Coalition government would also hold back information from the public.
When was that report on the internal culture of the National party coming out, Mr Brownlee?
You get it wrong on polls. You get it wrong on unemployment figures. You get it wrong on the state of the economy.
Maybe you're just wrong again, making it up, showing us how you really think.
Seemed strange at first,however there may be some signalling from Bloomfield/Hipkins for an increase in border inflows,or it may just be a signal for increased vigilance.
Calls first from Key,then Clark for increase in border flows are troublesome,especially the later who wants a Victorian type (private partnership quarantine mechanism) which successfully munted melbourne.
I suspect it is in response to the frightening increase that Covid 19 has had in Victoria and how fast it happened
Victoria has been in a very different position from NZ though. How would we get from where we are now to massive outbreak? (apart from opening borders).
It would have to be a multi-tiered chain of clusterfucks, (1)from an isolation failure (2)into close contacts (3)who then manage to infect multiple people maybe at some sort of (4)close-contact mass event that disperses (5)unknown attendees around the country,(6) all with no intervention by public health officials at any step of the process.
From what I gather from Melbourne:
1) security guards breach isolation by shagging their wards (incredibly lax procedures – we seem to be trying to keep standards human but high)
2) guards take covid home and infect their close contacts, which is not discovered in a timely manner (lack of testing of iso staff and awareness in contacts of staff. Don't know our status there)
3) these close contacts start spreading causing untraced infections (tracing is an issue in NZ, but not catastrophic, and a move to L2 should sort that with the two week lag principle)
4) is optional (but might be churches, pubs, or public transport – NZ wide open to that)
5) Melbourne tried belated community lockdowns, but it's out again. (NZ has a track record of going hard, early)
You can't just react with this thing, you're seeing its state two weeks ago. You need to pessimistically extrapolate where it's likely at now, with a wide margin for error.
e.g. if a tourist got detected going into Sth Korea a few days after leaving NZ, we can't wait for covid cases to present to hospitals in Q'town or Auckland if the tourist had it here somehow because when they do, they've spread it to two or three degrees of infection from those that get to hospital.
So we test now in those areas to lower that detection time. But if we find cases in Qtown, NZ could well go into L3 or L4 again, at least for a week.
I don't expect that, but the old adage is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
jfc, is that what's been happening in Melbourne?
While our borders remain closed, I can imagine community transmission, from a failure point in the system, but it not getting very far.
Preparing NZers mentally as well as practically for a second wave, as well as mask wearing etc, seems pragmatic to me. We've got a breather, it's a good time to do it before any more outbreaks and before the recession hits hard.
Apparently it was a couple of guards initially, yeah.
But then they tried to (brutally) lockdown an apartment building (with lotsa of poc in it, purely coincidental) while leaving the one across the road open. And a few days later they had to expand the lockdown.
To me, the incremental increases in controls suggests that they keep trying to do the minimum. Maybe the new lockdown shows they finally get the point that half-arsed doesn't work.
But I haven't been watching them very closely (although I've been talking with relatives over in Melbourne), so I might have some details wrong. That seems to be the gist of what I've been reading and hearing, though.
Read that the same guards also took some of their new 'amours' shopping in a mall and central Melbourne ….
Yeah with private partnerships having worked so well in Melbourne we should do it here? I think not.
But Helen is sounding very out of touch. She just doesn't seem to realise just how lax our migration policy had become and just how fed up and poor so many people had become with the neolib settings. There's a quiet revolution gathering pace out here that wants a big reset. As to the foreign students – apparently they support 45,000 jobs but we issue 70,000 student visa's a year so without it we would have a job gain of 25000 in year one and 70,000 every year after that. Not exact figures but what's not to like. That's the unemployed back to zero in a couple of years
Helen shouldn’t be talking over Jacinda and Chippie and the others.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/122357203/private-sector-partnerships-needed-to-ease-capacity-choke-point-helen-clark-says
Has Serco got her on a retainer?
Pandering to qanon channeling natz supporters.
https://twitter.com/KHorlor/status/1290868912507113472
That Ken guy is scary nuts, always got something bizarre to say. I know there's the view to not just say "these guys are nuts" & try & open dialogue, but how? They're clearly not responsive to reality, how can people believe this shite? & yet, plenty do. I got a work mate who does, he's English, yet will still rant that 'Cindy' is ruining this country & isn't really in charge, apparently she just listens to the experts. It's all over the place (& I work in an industry that's Govt owned, that the Nats/ACT would happily gut & sell).
Whereas Blobbyjobby in his homeland listens to classic Dom. So much better.
Work it out, Gezza.
Canadians shouldn't expect a COVID-19 vaccine to be a "silver bullet" that will bring a swift end to the coronavirus pandemic and a return to normal, according to the country's chief public health officer.
Dr. Theresa Tam used her briefing on Tuesday in Ottawa to temper expectations about the speed and effectiveness of a vaccine. She reiterated the importance of physical distancing, proper hand hygiene and mask-wearing, and attempted to dissuade any notion that a vaccine will make life go back to the way it was in a couple of months.
"We can't at this stage just put all of our focus [on a vaccine] in the hopes that this is the silver bullet solution," said Tam.
"We're going to have to manage this pandemic certainly over the next year, but certainly [we are] planning for the longer term of the next two to three years during which the vaccine may play a role but we don't know yet."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/covid-19-vaccine-tam-1.5673729
The same as what everyone else who bothers to read the news from the world knows – that scientists have said for weeks that a second wave appears to be coming.
But, apparently, the National Party doesn't actually keep up with developments.
absolutely shameful of Brownlee. I think Garner said something similar today……….
Hosking ramping up too. These bigmouths just show how much our repsonse has not been down to luck, but bloody hard work & great leadership. It is kinda insane, USA, Britain, Victoria, would look at us opening as total WTF!!?? & fek off to Key & Clarke, they must have their phones running red hot with landlords etc crying about their diminishing passive income.
I never thought I would say this but i really hope Chris Hipkins is right and Dr Ashley Bloomfield is not in this case!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018758140/health-minister-won-t-say-covid-19-community-transmission-inevitable
Changing direction, some what, the other day you posted 'vote green get racism’. I asked 'how so?' and don't recall seeing your answer.
So, how so?
That is my belief based on considerable time working for and in the greens. It is also what a significant proportion of voters think. It is the reason many dont vote green and actually also hurts the labour vote. Until the greens own and deal with this they do irreparable harm to the green movement and the planet.
I'm intrigued. I've never met, or heard, anyone say the greens are racist.
Who are they racist against? Can you give some examples I can google.
Bit like death, really – the longer we can delay the inevitable, that's the trick 🙂
To me it is pretty obvious. It’s a virus and so likely to creep in somehow.
jacinda Ardern has signalled this all along. Countries that have come close to irradiation like China, Vietnam find it sneaks back in. Both acted early on re emergence remember Wuhan testing everybody.
i think Bloomfield is sounding a warning because people were getting complacent, refusing tests. Everywhere I go, I sign in. I notice very few people do.
I tried to get the tracer app but it won't work on my phone. I & a lot like me I suspect wouldn't have thought to go get tested if I get a cold, these warnings help. I've talked to a few people about this & told them it could be out there & we just wouldn't know til it was spread, because hardly anyone is getting tested. We can all see what's happening around the world, well except Brownlee & his supporters.
I finally managed to download the tracer app today. I had to ditch some other apps first (a bit of house cleaning) to make room.
what happens to a system run on confidence (trick) when you try too hard and so obviously over sell that even senior bank economists will publicly ridicule you?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018758122/unemployment-rate-unbelievable-jarrod-kerr
Insanity is a shed load of older, high-risk people with pre-existing conditions spreading the damn bug far and wide.
Organizers of a South Dakota motorcycle rally are expecting as many as a quarter of a million people to show up in the small town where the event is hosted in the coming days.
The Associated Press reported that city officials in Sturgis have been notified to expect as many as 250,000 rallygoers in town between Friday and Aug. 16 for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, an annual gathering at Buffalo Chip, a campground located in the area.
Sturgis only has 7,000 year-round residents, some of whom criticized plans for the rally to go on as planned during the coronavirus pandemic at a town meeting in June, according to the AP.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/510470-south-dakota-expecting-250000-people-for-sturgis-motorcycle-rally
Defund them, disestablish them.
David Doel: "Why do we need this many cops? If this was a white family in a wealthy neighborhood, would they make all the kids lie face down on the concrete?”
These thugs need to be not only defunded; they need to be disestablished.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=172&v=TOLwsQSLM0Q&feature=emb_logo
Yankistani coppers do tend to carry a fair bit of surplus beef on them don't they.
If it's free, you're the product.
Paywalls are justified, even though they are annoying. It costs money to produce good writing, to run a website, to license photographs. A lot of money, if you want quality. Asking people for a fee to access content is therefore very reasonable. You don’t expect to get a print subscription to the newspaper gratis, why would a website be different? I try not to grumble about having to pay for online content, because I run a magazine and I know how difficult it is to pay writers what they deserve.
But let us also notice something: the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Washington Post, the New Republic, New York, Harper’s, the New York Review of Books, the Financial Times, and the London Times all have paywalls. Breitbart, Fox News, the Daily Wire, the Federalist, the Washington Examiner, InfoWars: free! You want “Portland Protesters Burn Bibles, American Flags In The Streets,” “The Moral Case Against Mask Mandates And Other COVID Restrictions,” or an article suggesting the National Institutes of Health has admitted 5G phones cause coronavirus—they’re yours. You want the detailed Times reports on neo-Nazis infiltrating German institutions, the reasons contact tracing is failing in U.S. states, or the Trump administration’s undercutting of the USPS’s effectiveness—well, if you’ve clicked around the website a bit you’ll run straight into the paywall. This doesn’t mean the paywall shouldn’t be there. But it does mean that it costs time and money to access a lot of true and important information, while a lot of bullshit is completely free.
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/08/the-truth-is-paywalled-but-the-lies-are-free/
The problem with paywalls is that it can prevent people getting the information that they need to make informed decisions. That's what poverty does.
heh
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDe9H7wnInW/
Beirut the story behind the story.
m/v Rhosus – Arrest and Personal Freedom of the Crew
https://shiparrested.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/The-Arrest-News-11th-issue.pdf
I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks and it’s interesting that Brownlee is the alarmist, but the only way that the dirty bloody Nats are going to get a sniff is if we get a outbreak and a lockdown and my scenario is a deliberate release of Covid.
Would they do it? Of course the arseholes would. I bet there were’t a lot of lefty SI farmers illegally brewing up Rabbit Calici Virus a few years ago.