Daily review 06/07/2020

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, July 6th, 2020 - 65 comments
Categories: Daily review - Tags:

Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

65 comments on “Daily review 06/07/2020 ”

  1. Chris T 1

    Labour's new slogan.

    "Let's keep moving"

    I wonder how many multiple thousands they paid for some one to come up with that.

    I’m thinking I am working in the wrong game for easy money.

    🙁

  2. Anne 2

    It looks like the mystery of the leaked Covid patients’ details was maliciously driven.

    Excerpt from the link below:

    Hipkins said the Government was handling this issue with "a great deal of importance".

    …. the Government will be making sure that if there is anything malicious going on, the Government will deal with that.

    "We will do everything we can to get to the bottom of it," Hipkins said.

    He said he does not think that information gets sent to multiple media outlets can be characterised as an accident.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12345908

    Regardless of the motivation how could anyone commit such a deplorable act.

    • Chris T 2.1

      Not sure how you get malicious from that, but I'm sure it will all come out in the wash.

      • mac1 2.1.1

        If it's not an accident, as Hipkins avers, what is it? It's deliberate. If it's deliberate, and Hipkins did not authorise it, then what is it?

        Malicious?

      • Anne 2.1.2

        Chris T you're better than that.

        Anyone who releases information containing the names, private addresses and the venues where people who tested positive for Covid 19 are being held has got to have done it with questionable intent. Not only is it a serious breach of their privacy, but it also puts those people in jeopardy of being harassed and even physically attacked by ignorant and/or deranged individuals.

        There's nothing political about this. In fact, the person who supplied the information to the media may well have done it out of some sort of personal revenge.

        • Chris T 2.1.2.1

          True.

          But it could just as likely be some whistle blower showing the media how lax the security around personal info is.

          I think the Herald said it was a spreadsheet.

          Would be nice to know if it was even password protected.

          As I say. It will all come out in the wash.

          • Drowsy M. Kram 2.1.2.1.1

            If 'the wash' shows the leaker acted maliciously, what's an appropriate penalty?

          • anker 2.1.2.1.2

            People who work in health fear a breach like this. You do everything you can for it not to happen. Rather than send it to the media you would write to your managers manager about it. Trust me. Privacy breaches terrify health professionals.

            Remember how Simon Bridges little helpers hacked the Treasury website for political gain?????? National have form on this sort of thing. It is very much in their interests to have things go wrong with management of Covid. Remember the homeless man. They will stoop to anything to undermine the Govt around Covid. I would bet money on it.

          • Patricia Bremner 2.1.2.1.3

            Which wash Chris? Blue rinse?

        • Peter 2.1.2.2

          You say with certainty that there's nothing political about this. You absolutely do not know unless you have very close connection to the incident or other details about it.

          Do you seriously think it an impossibility that a person would do it for political motives?

          Do you think that people being put in jeopardy of being harassed and even physically attacked by ignorant and/or deranged individuals would be factors to overpower all motivation to do evil?

          You disputed someone doing it for political reasons yet think they may have done it out of some sort of personal revenge? Revenge on whom? Someone on the list or colleague/s in the MOH? Or revenge on a political party for having the temerity to be government and be leading in polls?

          If they're evil enough to do it for revenge they're sure able to do it for politic.

          Then again it may have been some 'human error.' When it got to only three media outlets when there are many more?

          • Anne 2.1.2.2.1

            Have a look at ScottGN @ 5.1.1

            It's not a political witchhunt! Its and attempt to get to the bottom of a serious breach of privacy to which we are all entitled by law. In other words it is not a politically motivated inquiry. See if you can spot the difference. 🙂

            I note that National has announced it will not be commenting on the leak. That is the right thing to do in the circumstances.

  3. Dennis Frank 3

    Unusual to see an SOE planning for the long-term future: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/greenroom/how-to-electrify-the-economy-before-its-too-late

    Transpower, the state-owned enterprise that manages the national electric grid, released a report projecting how our economy and electric sector needs to change to help us meet our climate goals. It entails massive long-term investment in renewable electricity generation, the replacement of nearly half of New Zealand's light passenger fleet with electric vehicles, the conversion of big industrial emitters to electricity and the regulatory and infrastructural framework to allow for the distributed generation grid

    "In order to achieve our net carbon zero by 2050, which we've committed to, and indeed to meet our 2030 Paris commitment, we need to electrify our economy," Alison Andrew, CEO of Transpower, told Newsroom.

    There are four major contributors to New Zealand's emissions profile. The two smaller chunks are waste, which produced 5.2 percent of the country's 2018 gross emissions, and industry, which made up 6.6 percent. The largest is agriculture, which accounted for 47.8 percent of the country's 2018 gross emissions. But reducing agricultural emissions is complex – you can't just build methane-free cows like you could a wind farm… agricultural emissions aren't expected to fall significantly by 2030. In fact, according to the Government's own projections, agriculture will make up a slightly larger share of the country's emissions profile even in 2035.

    That leaves most of the heavy lifting, at least for the next decade or so, to transport. The energy sector, which includes transport, makes up 40.4 percent of the country's emissions. That's a major contribution that paints a big target on the entire sector.

    Transpower's report predicted that energy demand will jump by two-thirds over the next three decades. More than half of that growth is from the electrification of vehicles, while just under a quarter each will come from industrial heat needs and population growth.

    Under that scenario, building new renewable energy generation isn't a choice – it's a must if New Zealand is to avoid running out of power.

    The scale of the investment needed is massive. Around 40 new massive generation and battery projects will be needed in just the next 15 years at a cost of $8-10 billion, Transpower found. "To put this in perspective, as much generation will need to be built in the next 15 years as was built in the past 40 years," the report stated.

    This could be done greenly, Transpower said. It is possible that 95 percent of New Zealand's electricity generation could be renewable by 2035 and the country could be fully renewable by 2050.

    After a major blackout in South Australia, the state commissioned Tesla to build a $96 million battery station, which would store excess power generated by renewables and feed it back into the system during blackouts and generator failures. While there's nothing of that scale in New Zealand at the moment, Mercury did launch a large grid-connected battery in 2018.

    Now, Transpower estimates that five of the 40 projects over the next 15 years will have to be massive batteries. Smaller household batteries, which are a standard addition to solar panels sold these days, could also be drawn on during peak times by the household themselves or even by the grid. This move towards a system where each household is both a purchaser and generator of power is called distributed generation.

    So this gives us a plan towards a resilient future with a sustainable energy economy. Well done to all involved with researching and producing it! 👍

    • greywarshark 3.1

      Thanks for passing on that important piece of the report DF. We obviously can't rely on water-driven electricity as just supplying our human and agricultural needs plus the amounts to fulfil contracts for water exports by mostly overseas companies mean we must look elsewhere for electricity.

      Or make less things conserve by increasing life spans of artifacts and build them stronger with repairability.

    • Muttonbird 4.1

      Excellent timing!

    • Just Is 4.2

      Mullers defence of Jiang Yang today rejecting requests for interviews immediately made me think he was sending a signal to Beijing, help, we need help and we need it now

      • Sacha 4.2.1

        'Any currency will do'.

      • Drowsy M. Kram 4.2.2

        When was the last time the opposition National party list MP Dr Yang (spokesperson for Statistics, and associate spokesperson for Education, and Ethnic Communities) gave an interview that was accessible to the general public? Hopefully some time in the last two years or so – if not then that's really quite extraordinary for a parliamentarian. What might his reason(s) be for not giving interviews?

        • Just Is 4.2.2.1

          Evidently, he has had some media interaction, but which questions Only related to "statistics", he would not to respond to questions on any other topic.

          Aren't these Chinese rules?

  4. ScottGN 5

    It’s a truism in politics that governments only launch inquiries when they already know the answers. Presumably Mr Hipkins knows where his Covid leak inquiry is going to end up.

    • Muttonbird 5.1

      Such a weird thing to leak. It says the important thing was the leak itself rather than the content of it. Purely political really.

      Yet the PM says, 'it's not political'.

      • ScottGN 5.1.1

        I took her comments to be referring to the government’s zeal at getting to bottom of it all. i.e. it wasn’t a government witch hunt.

      • Chris T 5.1.2

        I agree.

        It is odd. I can't see any political gain.

        Which is why I think it is probably human error.

        • Pat 5.1.2.1

          a human error that simultaneously occurred to 3 major media outlets….right

        • Muttonbird 5.1.2.2

          You mean human error leading to it ending up in a person's hands who then sent it to the media?

          Just feel there's a very low chance this information accidentally went out to non-government people, one of which also had such a bee in their bonnet about Jacinda Ardern leading the country that they blanket sent the whole 'non-password protected spreadsheet' to multiple media outlets at once.

          More likely a deliberate extraction but one which the motives for are still unclear.

          • Chris T 5.1.2.2.1

            No. I mean human error some one getting sent it, and the annoyed person sending it to media.

            • Sacha 5.1.2.2.1.1

              Whoever sent it to media sure had motivations. Struggling to see how it would be whistleblowing about anything.

              • Chris T

                Just honestly can't see where any political gain can be got from doing it.

                • Muttonbird

                  The National Party have used it to criticise the government so there is political gain right there. Follow the money and all that.

                • McFlock

                  So on the one hand you think it might plausibly be "some whistle blower showing the media how lax the security around personal info is", and on the other hand you can't see any political angle to that in an election year?

                  • Chris T

                    Yes

                    Considering that is what I posted.

                    • anker

                      People who work in health fear a breach like this. You do everything you can for it not to happen. Rather than send it to the media you would write to your managers manager about it. Trust me. Privacy breaches terrify health professionals.

                      Remember how Simon Bridges little helpers hacked the Treasury website for political gain?????? National have form on this sort of thing. It is very much in their interests to have things go wrong with management of Covid. Remember the homeless man. They will stoop to anything to undermine the Govt around Covid. I would bet money on it.

                    • McFlock

                      I was just checking. You don't usually seem to be so naive.

                      The political angle in going to the media rather than just advising the ministry of the error is that breathless journalists might latch onto it in the absence of larger news stories, and the opposition can then solemnly declare it a sign of complete government incompetence, when really it might just mean that a junior analyst wasn't trained properly and they and their supervisor need to faced some disciplinary processes. And that might help the nats get a few more votes, and that is the political angle.

                • Incognito

                  Just honestly can't see what gain can be got from your trolling here.

                • Peter

                  The Labour car is going down the road. There are going to be homeless men running across the road in front of it, (or was that a mirage?) and people sticking knives in the tyres.

                  The aim is to create the 'couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery meme' and keep it going. The aim is to make out that every thing is mayhem and unsettled. Every Tom, Richard and Harriet who doesn't like Labour or them being in Government will be out doing or saying what they can.

                  "My breakfast didn't arrive at the due time in my isolation room = the Ministers of Health and Border Control and the PM should resign." There are enough disenchanted to do that, enough fuckwit media people and enough stupid in the public to be swayed by such inanity. Keep creating impressions, keep creating impressions.

                  Do you think that the Michael Woodhouses, Chris Bishops, Melissa Lees and Matthew Hooton's would be involved in that sort of stuff?

                  Would anyone deliberately leak those private details for political purposes? Of course they would. I mean would anyone release Winston Peters' private info not long before an election? I mean information no politician should have been near? Or course they would. That's why Peters sticking it to National was sweet and why they are so sour.

                  (Having said that they'll lick his butt if need be in September if they have to.)

            • mauī 5.1.2.2.1.2

              No. I mean human error some one getting sent it, and the annoyed person sending it to media.

              So two separate, disastrous human errors in a row then.

        • anker 5.1.2.3

          People who work in health fear a breach like this. You do everything you can for it not to happen. Rather than send it to the media you would write to your managers manager about it. Trust me. Privacy breaches terrify health professionals.

          Remember how Simon Bridges little helpers hacked the Treasury website for political gain?????? National have form on this sort of thing. It is very much in their interests to have things go wrong with management of Covid. Remember the homeless man. They will stoop to anything to undermine the Govt around Covid. I would bet money on it.

    • Anne 5.2

      Have a listen to this ScottGN. I don't think he knows anymore than we do who did it:

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018753754

      • ScottGN 5.2.1

        I’m not sure you can quite infer that from the piece Anne. But I guess the government had to do something, the privacy breach is pretty serious.

    • observer 5.3

      We should at least assume that he knows the e-mail addresses of the recipients (and in the press conference today he thanked those recipients i.e. media, for not breaking privacy).

      You don't select those by accident. It wasn't "Reply all, oops!".

    • Just Is 5.4

      In the latest news, the Govt has employed a high profile Lawyer to pursue and investigate the leaking of information.

      Once the leak is plugged, the opposition will have to find a new stick to beat the Govt with, that may not be as simple as it sounds

    • Fireblade 5.5

      Maybe Michael Woodhouse and his source can assist with the investigation.

  5. observer 6

    And another reminder that National say they want these people running quarantine.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/122048279/sexual-violence-racism-and-exploitation-the-sad-state-of-student-housing-in-new-zealand

    It would be funny … if it wasn't a serious policy proposal. But sadly, it is.

    • McFlock 7.1

      They really are great movies. Apparently for Once Upon A Time in the West, the soundtrack was recorded as a first step, and played to the actors during some of the long shots so their acting was completely in sync with the soundtrack.

      Auteur directors are all well and good by themselves, but a decent partnership between the different parts of film-making beats them all.

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