The inclusion is at the community level, it might not even include domestic competition at the regional or inter-provincial level (as/when these are pathways for athletes to international competition).
In sporting parlance this is known as a "hospital pass" onto the clubs and codes under sport-nz. Basically it'll be fine as long as any trans athletes taking this up are not very skilled, but if they are then there will be some media attention and protest on these codes and clubs which implemented the policy. And you'd be a bit daft as a code to push ahead with advertising your new participation policy, as that might attract some testing of the new entry threshold.
Nic, I disagree that this will be fine as long as trans and non binary atheletes are not very skilled. A case in point is Kate Wetherley, a mountain biker who rode in the mens competition up until around 18 years.
At local level even mediocre trans women are creating issues for women in sport. I know of two women who have left their chosen community sport because of sustaining injuries due to biological males being allowed to compete with them. I believe this will be the tip of the ice berg.
To quote Kate "people said that we're coming in and ruining the sport, but there are way bigger isues that women in sport face" Thanks Kate for mansplaining to us that the cyclists who know they are being cheated out of a win, face far bigger issues. Kate was a mediocre cyclist when racing in the male category and now is robbing women of titles in the womens section. The arrogance and entitlement is astounding.
Its hard to see how many of the left, who supposedly champion women's rights, are so firmly behind this and the message to women is, "come on be kind, don't be petty"
No apologies necessary. Its actually above my expectations when anybody pays attention to anything I say anyway, and in this case provided a pretty good example of what I was describing.
At local level even mediocre trans women are creating issues for women in sport. I know of two women who have left their chosen community sport because of sustaining injuries due to biological males being allowed to compete with them. I believe this will be the tip of the ice berg.
I have heard of a case in the UK of women being injured at rugby team training. The sport here will be able to take account of this in formulating policy. If they do not do so, this will impact how successfully they build the game at community level.
The only obligation on sports clubs is to accept law as to "gender self ID", just as everyone else will have to. Clubs however are free to limit inclusion based on player safety – this would involve physical contact sport.
So the only real obligation here is, if some male team decides its playing in the woman's grade this season, then they absolutely have to be believed as genuine when they say their players are all 'non-binary'?
Really? That is called "gatekeeping" these days. The only thing they have to do (under Self ID) is to open their mouths and recite the magic words "I identify as –". Look at Alex Drummond in the UK. No diagnosis, no hormones, no surgery – he does not even have to shave off his beard. Identifies as a woman – and as a lesbian.
No. The UK (maybe soon England and Wales and NI as Scotland is currently legislating self ID) does not have self ID as its legal standard (we do), so such a person would not be able to play in women's sports in England ….
Even here, with self ID, sports could require some evidential proof (such as documentation of women's ID – drivers license/passport/changed birth certificate).
I mean it seems a bit onerous expecting sporting clubs to be monitoring their participants for a full year around competition. Couldn't they just, you know, like show the club their entire browser history, or something non invasive instead?
Athletes will not need to “prove or otherwise justify their gender, sex or gender identity”, said Sport NZ in its release on Tuesday. – From the Stuff article at 1.
Hmmm, doesn't sound like Sports NZ is actually saying that. If they were saying that I think it would hardly be notable, because you have then some clear guide lines for sports codes and clubs to follow, e.g If they have a certificate/documentation then they can enter. But the way they are saying it seems more like the well known "don't ask, don't tell" army policy with sporting codes and clubs expected to wear any flak which results from that going wrong.
The change from test (medical – diagnosis and assisted transition etc) , to no test occurred with self ID. This is all the wording really refers to. It is the direction to them/sports bodies after the parliamentary legislation enabled self ID.
Really? Because one could clearly and simply say that as "sporting codes and clubs will not reject the gender recognition documentation issued by parliament".
I'm getting more of an "If they sign up for womans sport that shouldn't be challenged by anyone" vibe from the Sport NZ statement.
Actually I think my club might have had to ask if a couple of boys had been signed up for girls grades by accident, which they were (refunds were issued). Got a bit lucky there, I guess.
That seems to confuse the issue further. Now the sporting codes are expected to create some kind of player safety statement to justify excluding trans women (and non-binary, whatever that actually means) from participating in the women's category. Apparently they should do this even if its just unfair, because Sport NZ doesn't present any other grounds for rejecting this participation (like maybe its considered unfair).
But somehow this still applies even though NZ parliament passed legislation allowing self ID and some of these potential participants can have documentation indicating they should be in that category.
1. It's an acknowledgment that international level sport rules are set according to fair competition
2. It's a direction to local sports administration as to community level sport – it speaks to how any participation is to be managed (self ID as is this is current government policy society wide).
3. It allows individual sports to determine its own rules with regard to player safety.
4. It does not make any sport funding conditional on allowing transgender players.
Transgender athletes will be able to participate in sport in the gender they identify with, and will not need to “prove or … justify” their identity according to new guiding principles released by Sport New Zealand.
The principles only apply to community level sport – not elite level sport – but it will be up to sports bodies to define where and how the trans athletes will participate.
Sports bodies will not lose funding if they do not adopt the principles within their inclusion and diversity policies, and some organisations may have policies that reflect safety over inclusion, Sport New Zealand chief executive Raelene Castle said.
Nicely put. Also, as a longtime sports administrator, the Human Rights Act does not automatically allow separate divisions within sports for women, nor for girls under 12 in any sport, so there will be sports e.g. motor racing where this debate doesn't really apply. That doesn't prevent having women's and girls' competitions/divisions in those sports/ages as measures to promote equality e.g. increase participation to equal levels, but it's not blanket by any means.
I'm not a parent, but it's hard to understand how parents would risk this child's life in this way. Even if they believe that blood from vaccinated people might cause harm to their child, this is still a far lesser harm than death.
I suppose the media will be out there in full force filming the inevitable protests of VFF and other attention seeking cults. Given they only represent around 1 to 2% of the population they should be ignored. Their views have been well and truly trashed.
Just having a wee korero with the 'health professional I see most often' about this issue.
Jehova's Witnesses aren't down with blood transfusions. I understand they are able to 'bank' their own blood and use that. There is 'the precedent' already established that some naysayers, on this issue are keen to avoid.
I figure this is a fairly complex and nuanced issue and I am wary of those with black and white views on it – from either side of the debate. Just another unintended consequence that is not on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission.
and if anti-vaxers want to have that special privilege they need to do the mahi of lobbying the government to have that system set up (which also means making a coherent case). But individuals demanding this is problematic because of the precedent it sets for individuals demanding this.
Do JW's have this concession because religious belief is protected in law?
Tad unfair of you to have expected them to organise and legitimise their position by now, in these turbulent times. They are parents of twins after all.
As to the JW's I'm not sure how their 'privelege' come about.
Tad unfair of you to have expected them to organise and legitimise their position by now, in these turbulent times. They are parents of twins after all.
I wasn't saying the parents should organise that. I'm saying that if antivaxers want this special provision they need to organise and lobby. Otherwise what is being suggested is that any time someone wants special treatment, they should get it.
They did organise and lobby, and they had their own blood donors available and ready.
I was watching a presentation yesterday about Statins and how pharma pushes them. Some were even advocating for putting Statins in the public water supply at one point.
Some day the public might actually thank these so-called "anti-vaxxers" for standing up to corporate tyranny.
Apparently, according to this presenter I refer to, this dates back to Reagan liberalising the pharma industry and letting them conduct their own clinical trials.
Having been a blood donor like my father, when we were both diagnosed as having familial high cholesterol, it was not the fact that we had both been placed on statins that was the reason why we were deemed unsuitable to continue as blood donors.
The reason we were unsuitable was the fact of the diagnosis of familial high cholesterol. The medication we took to control it did not figure.
In our diagnosis, and with my decision to have the vaccine there was no corporate tyranny exerted. I think you are drawing a long bow to suggest that I would ever have anything to thank anti vaxxers for.
I always get all sides and make my own decisions on medical procedures and did not need tor read an array of conspiracy theories to get the other side.
I realise that but having got it wrong about statins it was on the cards that he would say next that having statins is accepted in blood donations, so beware!
The myth making about what shows up, in our blood and for how long is something the anti vaxxers and gullible others are getting wrong, as the court case with the wee baby shows.
Statins are as a help against heart disease (CVD) .
Whether to take statins if prescribed and whether to have a vaccination is ultimately a personal decision to be made with the very best information on both sides.
I don't class scare tactics against the covid vaccine and statins as being the very best information.
I class as scare tactics unlinked statements saying that 'they' were thinking of putting statins in the water.
I have found several articles about statins and have linked to the latest
<em> I realise that but having got it wrong about statins it was on the cards that he would say next that having statins is accepted in blood donations, so beware! </em>
Ahem are you referring to me? What did I get "wrong" about Statins, exactly?
Ahem are you referring to me? What did I get “wrong” about Statins, exactly?
You’ve been asked to provide evidence for your assertion that someone wanted to put statins in the water supply. Please prvice this evidence now. You will be in premod until both Incog and myself are satisfied. You’ve been here long enough to know two things. One is the standard of debate we expect (provide evidence for claims of fact). Two, mods hate our time being wasted by people who should know better.
thank-you. Next time please provide the link and points upfront. Making a note in the back end. You have a lot of form for this and the mods are sick of chasing it up.
I’ve even interviewed people who’ve participated in debates in the US about putting statins in water supply.
Unnamed people [plural?] in unspecified debates [plural?] that is now put into a context to suit a narrative.
Take it or leave it. It’s someone’s presentation.
Nope, that’s not an option, as you used it to make and support your own conspiracy claims in this forum. You don’t get to wash your hands off this that easily and you’ll stay in Pre-Mod for a little longer.
Can you actually link to what you were talking about please. It certainly read to me that you were critical of statins and was trying to link 'tyranny' in the pharma involvement in statins/vaccines. If you were not trying to make a point that big bad pharma was involved in vaccines and statins then what was the link/point?
I was watching a presentation yesterday about Statins and how pharma pushes them. Some were even advocating for putting Statins in the public water supply at one point.
Some day the public might actually thank these so-called "anti-vaxxers" for standing up to corporate tyranny.
Apparently, according to this presenter I refer to, this dates back to Reagan liberalising the pharma industry and letting them conduct their own clinical trials.
That is not the choice they are making. The parents appear to understand the risk to their child perfectly well – and seem to have made all reasonable efforts to organise an alternative donor source.
I doubt they are thinking in terms of risk at all.
Having had two children who both required major surgery as infants I can viscerally relate to how they are thinking at the moment.
If you have ever had to hand over your 18 month old baby daughter to a surgeon to have her eye removed (retina blastoma) you might have some inkling as to the anxiety and grief they are going through.
Now toss in a gratuitously sadistic High Court proceeding for good measure, not to mention being shat on by armchair authoritarians all over social media – and the answer I come up with is trauma.
Today we also heard of a Maori woman who in the course of a 2 minute phone call was advised that she had Stage 3 cancer, would require fast aggressive surgery, and massively invasive chemo.
It makes news frankly because the poor management can be couched in unimpeachable Maori values, and so the system sits up and takes notice. Good on her as well for getting the story.
The fact that the child's surgery came to a court case indicates a massive relationship failure on the part of the health professionals. It is their job to take the intensely vulnerable couple through the procedure and care, not the other way round.
Thanks Ad. Typing that very personal comment above stirred up old memories – and I've been here long enough to know when I have said my piece and to leave it at this.
Now toss in a gratuitously sadistic High Court proceeding featuring a King's Counsel who manages to conflate parents' valid concerns with racism…
He suggested if such a request was granted, it opened the door to other requests that were theoretically possible to achieve – such as requesting blood from a specific ethnicity but ethically and clinically bankrupt.
”There’s also a slippery slope element to it,” he said. ”We have been there before as a society.”
Things have got seriously weird. It seems to have escaped the notice of the armchair authoritarians that NZ Blood Service does impose mandatory stand down periods after certain vaccines…up to 28 days…yet none for the new and novel Covid products whose long term effects are unknown.
NZ Blood Service imposes stand down periods following certain "live virus" vaccines. Those are known to pose a risk as for a period of time those viruses can end up in the blood stream, which could later cause complications for a recipient of blood.
Were as the implementation of "extra cautious" your proposing would have resulted in highly limited blood collection for a period of months (probably years if Sue Gray gets to say whos blood to collect) and for no particular reason.
I'm sure unnecessary blood shortages are not something NZ Blood Service considers a reasonable outcome.
An intelligent medical/public health system could have anticipated this outcome and advised the government that the Pfizer product should be recommended only to those in the known 'at risk' categories for negative outcomes of Covid 19.
(Especially since the 'prevention of transmission' promise was…optimistic.)
Like the very elderly and those with co- morbidities. Most likely those who are not able to donate blood anyways.
Look, I have absolutely no doubt that if some nutter like yourself was put in charge of policy for NZ Blood Service (or other aspect of the NZ health system) you could quite capably run it into the ground within a year or so, causing massive harm and public health disaster. Fortunately for us there is no way that's happening.
That leaves this particular policy disaster as merely a product of your imagination, which I hope you will agree is a good thing.
The parents appear to understand the risk to their child perfectly well
No they don't. They have vastly over-estimated the risk of their child receiving donated blood from a Covid vaccine recipient. This risk is near-zero and yet they are ranking it as the highest risk of all. Their risk-assessment has been poisoned by the deliberate politicisation of the pandemic. If they get their wish, it opens the door to unsustainable and unscientific cherry-picking of blood donors by recipients.
Wouldn't have happened if they'd just quietly acceded to the parent's wishes and got on with saving the baby, after all, that is the prime issue, isn't it?
Who blew it up out of the water by stubbornly refusing a very simple and doable procedure that the parents were happy with
Wouldn't have happened if they'd just quietly acceded to the parent's wishes…
They can't do that because it would have opened up a can of worms and undermined the efficacy of the blood transfusion process which is second to none.
"A lawyer for the blood service, Adam Ross KC, on Wednesday described the request for that order as exceptional and without precedent. Ross said it would jeopardise the integrity of the donor service and open the door to ethically and clinically bankrupt requests regarding donor blood.
“It is a concern that an order like this can damage and will damage an excellent blood service,” he said."
It's the absence of evidence to the contrary, bolstered by the consensus of expert medical opinion which is usually our most reliable guide in the face of uncertainty. Medical opinion is not infallible – I am not gullible about these things, having first-hand experience of wrong and (perhaps) deliberately deceptive medical advice. However, we discovered its deceptiveness by consulting other medical opinion, so the general rule of thumb remains a good one. Absolutists who demand impossible certainty usually end up in a deep hole.
There's also a whole lot of other evidence based items / products that go into the patient's body during surgery other than blood products.
The actual risk from many of those is many times greater than than the actual demonstrated risk of mrna vaccines, let alone blood from someone vaccinated 12 months ago. Not to mention the probabilities of probably hundreds of potential adverse outcomes from the procedure the we mite is about to undergo to hopefully save and extent it's life.
How the hell do we turn this mass hysteria around.
If anyone gave more fucks for the wee mites life than protecting the 'safe and effective' vaccine narrative – the medics involved would have quietly accepted the parents donor offer and gotten the job done by now.
I am the one dealing with a serious, life threatening autoimmune condition – triggered by the vaccines. I don't demand anyone share my perspective, but equally I am not going to be lectured to by authoritarian ideologues who are motivated primarily to protect a political narrative.
@Redlogix I'm very sorry to hear of your condition and I wish you well for the future.
I agree with you here. The government could have de-escalated this early on by agreeing to the parents demands early on, flew under the radar and got it all hushed up.
Instead the authorities have opened up the wounds from 12 months ago and got the people all riled up.
The mother (interviewed by Alex Jones, no less) stated that she is a midwife that was marched off her job because of the mandates, and that she is currently unable to leave the hospital ward with her baby.
Why would the authoritie have agreed to something like this had huge risks for the supply of blood for the future.
I actually don't think that it is up to parents to impose their will on a person who is too young to make their own decisions. The parents should be making a separate decision, based on different facts for their child not blindly following their own views. These may be fine for an adult to rationalise but another person…….no. Children are not 'owned' by their parents.
” It is one thing to have these beliefs as an adult with only one adult, you, to look after but once you have another person who is totally reliant on you and no voice of their own it is quite another thing. The ethical questions need framing differently.
The fact that she is a health professional makes it even more concerning. Is she also a follower of Andrew Wakefield and will the baby be vaccinated against measles/mumps/rubella?”
If someone of Maori descent turns up and demands no blood from Pakeha donors, will you support them too Andy? Should this be quietly resolved and their wishes accommodated? What if a gay person demands no blood from straight donors, or an anti-5G activist demands no blood from people living near cellphone towers, a Labour voter demands no blood from Nat voters? Should we let a thousand forms of such nuttiness bloom – will you pay more tax to fund the army of loathed 'bureaucrats' making it all work?
Now sure – that's a slippery slope argument and nobody has actually done those things yet. But big, critical systems can't open themselves up to precedents that might compromise their operability.
I should also add that the archive also has a page that discourages this.
I have no idea why the page was deleted from NZ Blood. perhaps cost cutting.
Presumably there is cost and time associated with screening blood, but I have blood tests every 6 months or so as a regular health check, so it can't be that hard or require a huge infrastructure to support it.
Please stop with your uninformed comments as they only seed discord and confusion.
Running lab diagnostics on small blood samples is quite different from the involved (read: expensive) manufacturing processes of blood and blood products from pooled blood donors, which includes extensive testing and storage.
Directed donation was not recommended in international expert consensus guidelines and most national blood providers, including the UK, Australia and Canada, did not support them, she said.
That sentence means remarkably little to me, I'm afraid.
Normally I'd respond to your key point but I remember … not all that long ago … two very reasonable women on this site politely took issue with a line of argument you were pursuing … and, it seems, you were left in shock, felt violated & invalidated … in fact you went as far as suggesting you'd been personally 'Colonised' by these two very respectful (indeed remarkably restrained) women & there was some implication that you felt you'd metaphorically been kidnapped, thrown onto a sailing ship & then subsequently sold into white slavery among 17th century Moroccan Sultans on the Barbary Coast.
I wouldn't want to put you through that sort of Emotional Genocide all over again by taking issue with something you’ve said.
It’s clearly a tragic life of eternal Martyrdom for affluent Woke [… deleted]
[lprent: If you’d like me to make some comments about your parents, who I don’t know, then please carry on the the way of that last paragraph. I suspect you didn’t know Shanreagh’s parents any more than I know yours. But I suspect that your parents would have something to say about raising an arsehole who’d sneer at someone you don’t know, about something you have no idea about. Apparently because you have a some (probably pommy) weird class presumptions about boarding schools in NZ. ]
The coverage of the protest by Te Taipo went most days and the ability to see action, 'just be able to watch' as I put it, as it happened with minimal 'interpretation' was valuable. But I guess that such is your long standing (personal?) animus for the guy that anything valid and valuable like this is not valid and valuable in your eyes.
My comment was very mild and not deserving of a response such as yours.
You are and have been for many years one of the most thoughtful and principled commentators we have had here.
I've noticed you do less of the long form responses and of course no posts, but still continue anyway.
You carry a lot of grief, but still have a lot of dignity anyway.
I sincerely hope you get to wind back from full time work as soon as you can so you can focus on taking care of yourself and t hose immediately around you.
Our family are in the similar position of providing massively for an older relative and doing it for years.
You are a good person and you have my full support.
I am not sure what the paragraph below is all about. I have only ever said I went to boarding school. You know nothing about my personal financial circumstances, I always get confused with your rendering of woke, My dad never lived in the UK to vote Tory and the tax reference is head scratching.
These flights of fantasy of yours that seem for some reason to have me in their sights are uncalled for.
It’s clearly a tragic life of eternal Martyrdom for affluent Woke ex-boarding school girls who’s fathers voted Tory because they had to put tax concessions first.
I am sill awaiting your response on this posting, preferably you have thought better of these ad hominem attacks on me. Could you please confirm. You said, when this was raised earlier, that you had looked at your posts and some were troll-like.
I do not know what I have done to cause this personal invective, apart from existing. Could you please let me know. I post views.
It is as if you have some personal animus against me and/or my family. As my father died in 1993 and my mother in 2010 is is longstanding. I cannot conceive of either of them doing anything to cause this. I have always been respectful of you and your views.
Thanks. None of us are getting younger and I am not alone here at TS in dealing with the challenges that tend to come along with it.
Although this is a condition I will likely have to manage the rest of my life, thanks to working with an excellent Functional Medicine specialist here in Australia (all via telehealth) things have stabilised for the time being.
I have a good science education, worked in heavy industry technical roles all my life, and have defended the scientific method here many, many times from those who would undermine or misrepresent it. Yet at the same time I would counsel others to be aware that such a powerful tool is also prey to being misused – and that it is a mistake to imagine that everything science tells us must always be correct or complete.
That is very sad Red and bad luck. I also had a reaction severe enough to need a hospital admission for my second different vaccine. To protect many, some of us have lasting damage. Mine breathlessness after myocardia, but your auto immune reaction would be far more serious and dangerous. Kind regards for good control, and I must add the Aussie health system does great work. Perhaps we need Medicare, though the tech bungle has been awful.
Hard to know, SF what it refers to though. When I first read it it seemed an overreaction to the discussion and rereading I still don't understand it.
The ideologues in this case are the Gunns and Greys and the family of Baby W of this world. Most of the rest of us are agog/angry/sick at the lengths that a family would put the youngest and most sick person in their family through to make a point.
One of the Drs involved said that Baby W could have had the op by now. We find now that he has already had a blood transfusion with the so-called concerning blood.
I really hope that the baby will not be affected by the delay or the jaunts to the court.
Personally I find the actions of the parents not brave or thoughtful but unspeakably cruel and deluded. The child is not their property to be used to further their own views or those of Gunn/Grey.
Grey/Gunn who are the ones to be concerned about, not fellow posters, whatever their views, on TS.
“Nobody knows the risk of a little delay in the heart surgery as against the risk of providing blood which the parties now all agree may contain some residual traces of mRNA from the vaccine… or the spike protein or the other factors that we know… can cause myocarditis and death,” she [Sue Grey] said.
This is the counter-narrative that makes one’s blood boil [pun intended], that somehow blood and blood products provided through NZBS are unsafe. This is plain fearmongering and a NZ Court ruled it was unfounded and baseless, as it was not supported by medical/scientific evidence.
I'm not sure why it would make your blood boil.. There are still many questions surrounding how blood is affected by the vaccine, the science is not hard to track down. There's every reason for caution, and every reason to investigate what is happening in blood.
As they say the "truth" doesn't mind being questioned. However there's little of that occurring within the NZBS or Starship.
"Big Pharma has not had a history of disasters, litigation and fines "
Yes, they have. Also, they have a history of marvellous success and the saving of lives uncounted, as I'm sure you, Red Logix, as a promoter of the technological, will attest.
Your truculence around the situation of the heart-baby and her flakey-as-fek parents is..incongruous with your previously elegantly-explained position, imo.
I read on Stuff yesterday that "cell phones emitting radiation" is a conspiracy theory.
I'm wondering how two way radio communication works, but I don't like to ask too many questions .
[Given your history of spreading mis- and dis-information on this forum I have to ask you to provide a link to Stuff and explain the context of your selective quoting and the relevance to this discussion thread. You are in Pre-Moderation until I have seen a satisfactory response from you – Incognito]
I think you can help yourself re radiation by wearing a tinfoil hat as they did at the protest where the rebar in the concrete blocks was emitting radiation.
As far as two way radio communication is concerned if you get out of the way of direct rays emitted by people speaking on phones to other people you will be OK.
Going along Lambton Quay at lunchtime while others are walking along having catch-ups on their phones may be problematic with all the ducking and diving but I am sure it can be avoided by staggering your lunch hour to 4.00pm or similar. Or staggering the lunch hour PLUS wearing a tinfoil hat might solve the problem?
So if you don't wear the tinfoil hat in the shower how can you keep the fluoride molecules from sliding down your hair and into your skull that way? What happens if they get stuck in your skull and don't make it to your teeth?
Syncopated rhythm down Lambton Quay, no matter how it comes about would be quite concerning to the lunchtime walkers carefully moving so as not to be in anyone's space.
The sovereign citizen phenomenon has different factions, but its followers generally believe they can pick and choose which laws apply to them. This only seemed to get her in trouble in early 2021, when Rayner, who believed the unfounded conspiracy theories that cellphones emitted radiation and 5G towers were “death towers”, refused to display a QR code at her cafe for Covid-19 contact tracing
EDIT – the relevance to the thread is that the media’s definition of “conspiracy theories” seems pretty ill-defined.
Like, actual facts are now “conspiracy theories”
[Thank you for the link and the context, which makes things a lot clearer and much less ambiguous than your lazy comment.
This thread is not about the media’s definition of “conspiracy theories”, pharma, statins, or cell phone emissions. Your comments amount to diversion trolling – Like, actual facts are now “conspiracy theories” – which is disrupting the discussion of the topic started by weka @ 2. If you want to start a new topic, then do so and see how far you get and how long you’ll last. This is your warning, and you stay in Pre-Mod for now to make sure that you’ve understood this – Incognito]
This is a case of intense and singular public interest as it is a challenge to the ethos that the NZ Blood Transfusion Service works under. It is this that keeps all of us safe should we need blood transfusions as donations are able to be sourced according to demand, in relatively short time frames etc.
I totally support it being out in the open (subject to the not naming of the child/parents).
As it turns out, it is representatives of the judiciary that are keeping things front and centre.
"In a statement last night, Justice Gault said he had been informed by the lawyer acting for Te Whatu Ora that the baby's parents had prevented doctors from taking blood tests, performing a chest X-ray and an anaesthetic assessment."
what's the problem? As I said, this case has a fairly level of public interest. By which I don't mean gossip, I mean the case matters in the public interest. What would be the reason for not talking about it?
The baby has already had one transfusion with so-called 'bad' blood.
My concern is with the future and these parents. With their child now possibly getting another transfusion and that even though there is thorough screening will these parents treat their child differently ie because of their belief that the blood is unclean and that therefore that he is unclean of something?
I would hate for this to happen but we have stories of parents who treat children badly as they believe they have bad spirits or are evil.
I was always advised that babies should not be going out and about until after they had had the first vaccines on the immunisation schcdule.
This baby has been trotted around to the court etc. I would not think the courthouse with the many different types of people and differing health status would have been a good place for a sick baby to be.
Mmmm. I see lots of very young babies at crowded venues with lots of potentially infectious people around them. And, last week saw a baby/toddler with a nasal gastric tube (so presumably with a significant medical issue) at a local food court.
I think that different people have different perceptions of risk. Much like the co-sleeping debate….
Despite the Minister being in favour of supporting the refinery by underwriting a deal to keep it going for 5-10 years, "But it is understood Woods’ idea for those negotiations was not ultimately endorsed by fellow ministers."
Was the 4th Labour Government the one with Douglas and Prebble in it? So I expect we'll see a Herald column from Prebble rubbishing the closure of Marsden Point and blaming the Government for it.
And no doubt their Act mates will be on about how the Government should have done this and done that.
That’s my point, these folk are far from sight.
In this example they are not following Govt. Policy, they are advising the minister. Advising her to lessen our resilience and independence.
Advice is one thing and good PS always give a range of options, but decision making by a Minister is another process.
It is a complete 'no-no' for single option advice to go up to a Minister.
It is different if the Minister is acting under explicit legislation, here to give advice outside of what is contemplated by the legislation is a 'no-no'
Why does productivity matter for inflation? When a workforce is more productive it produces more goods and services, and at a lower cost per unit. This means there is a greater supply of these things, which puts downward pressure on prices and is therefore associated with lower inflation.
The 2020 Abrahamic Accords – restoring relations between the governments of the nations Morocco, UAE and Bahrain and Israel and a reality check at the World Cup with the people of ME.
Recent polling shows that ordinary citizens in many Arab countries, including those that participated in the Abraham Accords, disapprove of formalizing ties with Israel.
“There is clearly not much love in the Arab world for Israel,” wrote the CEO of Gulf State Analytics, a Washington-based risk consultancy that focuses on the region. “The decades of humiliation, resentment, and anger which many Arabs feel toward Israel cannot simply vanish with the signing of such normalization agreements.”
The present
For years, most Arab governments conditioned normalization with Israel on the advent of a separate Palestinian state. But the process to create that state has effectively collapsed, while Israel’s new far-right government contains numerous politicians who oppose any scenarios in which Palestinian statehood could ever be viable.
The Israeli perspective
That’s a view recognized by some in Israel. “After the Abraham Accords were signed with several Arab countries in 2020, rightist pundits claimed that the Palestinians’ fate no longer interests other Arabs,” wrote Uzi Baram in left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “They didn’t bother to read the article in the agreement stating that their fulfillment requires establishing a Palestinian state.”
The Arab
“Ordinary Arabs are against this occupation and see it as inhuman and unacceptable,” said Mahjoob Zweiri, a professor of history and contemporary politics at Qatar University.
Zweiri said the political tenor of the tournament in Qatar has offered a clear message not just to the United States and Israel, but to Arab governments that also seem intent on obscuring the political priorities of Palestinians. The presence of Palestinian flags at stadiums was “not organized by states, but something genuine from within the people themselves,” he said.
It was sort of inevitable since the recent restoration of Netanyahu to power in the most right wing government in their nations history, ending the brief period of coalition governance including an Arab party for the first time. In some ways, it's a bit like the let diplomatic down after the failure of the 2000 peace talks (followed by Israeli disengagement and Palestinian intifada).
DPR separatist Igor Strelkov (Girkin), sentenced to life in prison by the ICC for the downing of MH17 and the deaths of all 298 passengers and crew, went to Moscow.
.
Strelkov Igor Ivanovich I am in Moscow. Attempt No. 3 to take a direct part in the hostilities against the armed forces of respected Kyiv partners (they are now referred to in the reports of the Ministry of Defense as some kind of "militants") did not end in success, although it was very close to that. Briefly, without details:
And now also briefly on the impressions of the trip, which was fruitless, but not without benefit (since my eyes and ears remained with me, and my head is also still working).
Naturally, I intend to keep the vast majority of my impressions and conclusions to myself. In order, so to speak, "not to discredit". Positive impressions – I will share in the upcoming (hopefully) video conferences. But there are not too many of them – in relation to the negative ones.
And now I will only note that the basis of all our "increasing victories" on the fronts and directions of the NMD is the deepest crisis of strategic planning. Simply put, the troops are fighting "by inertia", not having the slightest idea of the ultimate strategic goals of the current military campaign and only guessing about the vague plans of the command for such grandiose senseless gestures as the construction of a completely insane in uselessness (but wildly expensive in terms of execution cost) Surovikin Lines.
In most parts of the RF Armed Forces, soldiers and officers do not understand: for what, for what and for what purposes they are fighting in general. For them, a mystery – what is the condition for victory or just a condition for ending the war? And the authorities of the Russian Federation are not able to explain this to them, since setting a clear goal for the NWO means "limiting room for maneuver" – that is, losing the opportunity to declare the goals of the NWO as achieved at any moment that the Kremlin leaders consider convenient. (For the thousand and first time, I remind you that the passionately desired “reconciliation with partners,” for which many steps are being taken to this day that demoralize society and the army, is unattainable in principle, but the Kremlin and Staraya Square do not want to believe in it).
Such sentiments specifically in the troops lead to apathy. Apathy, on the other hand, leads to a drop in morale and the fulfillment of the tasks set "for show" and "slip of the sleeves", without a real interest in their successful result. So – in the army of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (and parts of the Armed Forces of the LDNR, although there the fighters have much more motivation) apathy prevails.
The absence of a clear military-political strategy does not allow the military to develop tactics that will contribute to its implementation. In the meantime – "on a whim" – the RF Armed Forces are preparing for a protracted positional war, building long-term structures along the entire front in the style of "a la the Mannerheim Line" (does not pull on the "Maginot Line"). The fact that following the strategy of a protracted war is suicide for the Russian Federation (and its authorities and elites, too, by the way) – I wrote back in 2014, but I said (more than once or twice) – from the very beginning of the current campaign.
Therefore, watching how the enemy slowly (and without encountering any opposition) implements his own strategic tasks with the complete passivity of the military and political authorities of the Russian Federation, I do not expect anything good at the front in the coming weeks.
And, yes, – the so-called. "Ukraine" will NOT freeze in winter, will NOT rebel and will NOT fight worse. Vice versa. Its soldiers, who have already believed in their strength as a result of the autumn victories of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and are fully supported by NATO, will only fight harder and harder against the "Muscovites", avenging the hardships that their relatives and friends in the rear are forced to bear. And they will be met only by apathetic performance of duty, behind which many fighters and commanders have long been looming the unresolved question: "What are we doing here, if Moscow is most concerned with the implementation of" grain deals ", the unhindered pumping of ammonia through Odessa and the" price ceiling " on gas and oil supplied to numerous Western partners?
The United States is gearing up for a long war in the Ukraine. If the Russians think they can outlast the west in a war of logistics, well they are in for a rude shock.
Russia couldn't spot the giant 40 year old drone that struck one of its three most heavily defended air bases while Ukraine intercepts >80% of Russia's most up to date cruise missiles.
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
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https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/300757598/transgender-athletes-can-participate-in-community-sport-says-sport-nz
So the idiocy has arrived on our shores
it's been here for a while. As some of us keep banging on about 😉
Yes, yet Grant Robinson described people who opposed it as petty and small minded.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/petty-and-small-minded-sport-minister-grant-robertson-responds-to-critics-of-sport-nz-transgender-guidelines/EHLQL6YAAFHDHI2WKMIREEOMMY/
Correction, he described them as "pretty and small minded", according to the Herald. I think he might have been making a blonde joke actually.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018757712/the-science-of-transgender-women-in-sport
And this by sports scienctist Ross Tucker.
"The scientific biologicaldifference between men and women are so large they would render women irrelevant at elite level"
"There are 10,000 men who are faster than the fastest woman in the world over 100 metres. That group of men includes 14 – 15 year olds"
So just roll over sportswomen and accomodate these male bodied atheletes.
The inclusion is at the community level, it might not even include domestic competition at the regional or inter-provincial level (as/when these are pathways for athletes to international competition).
In sporting parlance this is known as a "hospital pass" onto the clubs and codes under sport-nz. Basically it'll be fine as long as any trans athletes taking this up are not very skilled, but if they are then there will be some media attention and protest on these codes and clubs which implemented the policy. And you'd be a bit daft as a code to push ahead with advertising your new participation policy, as that might attract some testing of the new entry threshold.
Nic, I disagree that this will be fine as long as trans and non binary atheletes are not very skilled. A case in point is Kate Wetherley, a mountain biker who rode in the mens competition up until around 18 years.
At local level even mediocre trans women are creating issues for women in sport. I know of two women who have left their chosen community sport because of sustaining injuries due to biological males being allowed to compete with them. I believe this will be the tip of the ice berg.
To quote Kate "people said that we're coming in and ruining the sport, but there are way bigger isues that women in sport face" Thanks Kate for mansplaining to us that the cyclists who know they are being cheated out of a win, face far bigger issues. Kate was a mediocre cyclist when racing in the male category and now is robbing women of titles in the womens section. The arrogance and entitlement is astounding.
Its hard to see how many of the left, who supposedly champion women's rights, are so firmly behind this and the message to women is, "come on be kind, don't be petty"
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/racing/article-10944351/Kate-Weatherly-Transgender-mountain-biker-issues-message-haters.html
By not very skilled, I mean not really capable of winning in women's events.
I might have misinterpreted what you were saying Nic. My apologies.
No apologies necessary. Its actually above my expectations when anybody pays attention to anything I say anyway, and in this case provided a pretty good example of what I was describing.
I have heard of a case in the UK of women being injured at rugby team training. The sport here will be able to take account of this in formulating policy. If they do not do so, this will impact how successfully they build the game at community level.
The only obligation on sports clubs is to accept law as to "gender self ID", just as everyone else will have to. Clubs however are free to limit inclusion based on player safety – this would involve physical contact sport.
So the only real obligation here is, if some male team decides its playing in the woman's grade this season, then they absolutely have to be believed as genuine when they say their players are all 'non-binary'?
I would presume the constraints then would be
Really? That is called "gatekeeping" these days. The only thing they have to do (under Self ID) is to open their mouths and recite the magic words "I identify as –". Look at Alex Drummond in the UK. No diagnosis, no hormones, no surgery – he does not even have to shave off his beard. Identifies as a woman – and as a lesbian.
This Alex Drummond looks like a budding Rhythmic Gymnast to me.
No. The UK (maybe soon England and Wales and NI as Scotland is currently legislating self ID) does not have self ID as its legal standard (we do), so such a person would not be able to play in women's sports in England ….
Even here, with self ID, sports could require some evidential proof (such as documentation of women's ID – drivers license/passport/changed birth certificate).
I mean it seems a bit onerous expecting sporting clubs to be monitoring their participants for a full year around competition. Couldn't they just, you know, like show the club their entire browser history, or something non invasive instead?
Self ID law allows a person to obtain women's identity documentation such as drivers license/passport/changed birth certificate.
Athletes will not need to “prove or otherwise justify their gender, sex or gender identity”, said Sport NZ in its release on Tuesday. – From the Stuff article at 1.
Hmmm, doesn't sound like Sports NZ is actually saying that. If they were saying that I think it would hardly be notable, because you have then some clear guide lines for sports codes and clubs to follow, e.g If they have a certificate/documentation then they can enter. But the way they are saying it seems more like the well known "don't ask, don't tell" army policy with sporting codes and clubs expected to wear any flak which results from that going wrong.
The change from test (medical – diagnosis and assisted transition etc) , to no test occurred with self ID. This is all the wording really refers to. It is the direction to them/sports bodies after the parliamentary legislation enabled self ID.
Really? Because one could clearly and simply say that as "sporting codes and clubs will not reject the gender recognition documentation issued by parliament".
I'm getting more of an "If they sign up for womans sport that shouldn't be challenged by anyone" vibe from the Sport NZ statement.
Actually I think my club might have had to ask if a couple of boys had been signed up for girls grades by accident, which they were (refunds were issued). Got a bit lucky there, I guess.
Not when the sporting bodies are free to decide on their own safety criteria.
That seems to confuse the issue further. Now the sporting codes are expected to create some kind of player safety statement to justify excluding trans women (and non-binary, whatever that actually means) from participating in the women's category. Apparently they should do this even if its just unfair, because Sport NZ doesn't present any other grounds for rejecting this participation (like maybe its considered unfair).
But somehow this still applies even though NZ parliament passed legislation allowing self ID and some of these potential participants can have documentation indicating they should be in that category.
1. It's an acknowledgment that international level sport rules are set according to fair competition
2. It's a direction to local sports administration as to community level sport – it speaks to how any participation is to be managed (self ID as is this is current government policy society wide).
3. It allows individual sports to determine its own rules with regard to player safety.
4. It does not make any sport funding conditional on allowing transgender players.
Nicely put. Also, as a longtime sports administrator, the Human Rights Act does not automatically allow separate divisions within sports for women, nor for girls under 12 in any sport, so there will be sports e.g. motor racing where this debate doesn't really apply. That doesn't prevent having women's and girls' competitions/divisions in those sports/ages as measures to promote equality e.g. increase participation to equal levels, but it's not blanket by any means.
I'm not a parent, but it's hard to understand how parents would risk this child's life in this way. Even if they believe that blood from vaccinated people might cause harm to their child, this is still a far lesser harm than death.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/480297/high-court-takes-guardianship-of-sick-baby-at-the-centre-of-dispute-over-donor-blood
Touché.
I suppose the media will be out there in full force filming the inevitable protests of VFF and other attention seeking cults. Given they only represent around 1 to 2% of the population they should be ignored. Their views have been well and truly trashed.
Just having a wee korero with the 'health professional I see most often' about this issue.
Jehova's Witnesses aren't down with blood transfusions. I understand they are able to 'bank' their own blood and use that. There is 'the precedent' already established that some naysayers, on this issue are keen to avoid.
I figure this is a fairly complex and nuanced issue and I am wary of those with black and white views on it – from either side of the debate. Just another unintended consequence that is not on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission.
and if anti-vaxers want to have that special privilege they need to do the mahi of lobbying the government to have that system set up (which also means making a coherent case). But individuals demanding this is problematic because of the precedent it sets for individuals demanding this.
Do JW's have this concession because religious belief is protected in law?
TBF, the pfizer drug has been thrust upon us.
Tad unfair of you to have expected them to organise and legitimise their position by now, in these turbulent times. They are parents of twins after all.
As to the JW's I'm not sure how their 'privelege' come about.
"They are parents of twins after all."
????
I am sure I heard/read the baby has a twin.
I wasn't saying the parents should organise that. I'm saying that if antivaxers want this special provision they need to organise and lobby. Otherwise what is being suggested is that any time someone wants special treatment, they should get it.
They did organise and lobby, and they had their own blood donors available and ready.
I was watching a presentation yesterday about Statins and how pharma pushes them. Some were even advocating for putting Statins in the public water supply at one point.
Some day the public might actually thank these so-called "anti-vaxxers" for standing up to corporate tyranny.
Apparently, according to this presenter I refer to, this dates back to Reagan liberalising the pharma industry and letting them conduct their own clinical trials.
reread what I said. It's not what you are talking about.
Funnily enough, I didn't see the anti-vaxxers organising around the statin all those years when overmedicalisation was happening.
Having been a blood donor like my father, when we were both diagnosed as having familial high cholesterol, it was not the fact that we had both been placed on statins that was the reason why we were deemed unsuitable to continue as blood donors.
The reason we were unsuitable was the fact of the diagnosis of familial high cholesterol. The medication we took to control it did not figure.
In our diagnosis, and with my decision to have the vaccine there was no corporate tyranny exerted. I think you are drawing a long bow to suggest that I would ever have anything to thank anti vaxxers for.
I always get all sides and make my own decisions on medical procedures and did not need tor read an array of conspiracy theories to get the other side.
Andy wasn't talking about blood donation, he was referring to the overprescribing of statins generally.
I realise that but having got it wrong about statins it was on the cards that he would say next that having statins is accepted in blood donations, so beware!
The myth making about what shows up, in our blood and for how long is something the anti vaxxers and gullible others are getting wrong, as the court case with the wee baby shows.
Statins are as a help against heart disease (CVD) .
Whether to take statins if prescribed and whether to have a vaccination is ultimately a personal decision to be made with the very best information on both sides.
I don't class scare tactics against the covid vaccine and statins as being the very best information.
I class as scare tactics unlinked statements saying that 'they' were thinking of putting statins in the water.
I have found several articles about statins and have linked to the latest
https://bigthink.com/health/statins-drinking-water-wonder-drugs/
<em> I realise that but having got it wrong about statins it was on the cards that he would say next that having statins is accepted in blood donations, so beware! </em>
Ahem are you referring to me? What did I get "wrong" about Statins, exactly?
I was relaying a claim made by someone else.
You’ve been asked to provide evidence for your assertion that someone wanted to put statins in the water supply. Please prvice this evidence now. You will be in premod until both Incog and myself are satisfied. You’ve been here long enough to know two things. One is the standard of debate we expect (provide evidence for claims of fact). Two, mods hate our time being wasted by people who should know better.
@weka, the claim that "someone wanted to put Statins in the water" was made by Dr. Maryanne Demasi in this presentation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzTjPuikhQE
She did some work for Australian ABC but her program was canned because of "misinformation"
I don't have any source for that claim, other than it came from Dr Demasi.
Particular points:
2:34 Debates about putting Statins in the water, and as condiments in burgers.
8:27, Statin Wars, Industry Bias
Take it or leave it. It's someone's presentation.
thank-you. Next time please provide the link and points upfront. Making a note in the back end. You have a lot of form for this and the mods are sick of chasing it up.
@ 3:00:
Unnamed people [plural?] in unspecified debates [plural?] that is now put into a context to suit a narrative.
Nope, that’s not an option, as you used it to make and support your own conspiracy claims in this forum. You don’t get to wash your hands off this that easily and you’ll stay in Pre-Mod for a little longer.
Thank you Weka, that is correct.
I was also making the point that it was Reagan (allegedly) that introduced legislation to allow pharma to conduct their own clinical trials.
The conflict of interest should be clear.
My point specifically is nor pro/against statins or any other meds, but the regulatory capture that is exercised by pharma
Can you actually link to what you were talking about please. It certainly read to me that you were critical of statins and was trying to link 'tyranny' in the pharma involvement in statins/vaccines. If you were not trying to make a point that big bad pharma was involved in vaccines and statins then what was the link/point?
Re the alleged conflict of interest with Reagan.
Why should this be clear? Did Reagan have shares in the pharmaceutical companies involved?
Not sure that you have it correctly about JVs. There have been cases where the Courts have intervened.
Some JVs will accept fractionated parts of blood. That may have been blood that was made available.
https://www.medicalprotection.org/southafrica/casebook/casebook-may-2014/the-challenges-of-treating-jehovah's-witnesses
https://www.nzblood.co.nz/assets/Transfusion-Medicine/Blood-Issues/Blood-Issues-No-4-Jul-2002.pdf
https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6513
https://www.hbtechs.co.nz/files/CPD04_-_Jehovah_s_Witnesses.pdf
https://www.avant.org.au/news/20151103-court-intervenes-in-non-urgent-situation-for-child-of-jehovahs-witness-parents/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-27/jehovahs-witness-loses-bid-to-refuse-blood/4985476
JWs also have their religious views bypassed by courts from time to time, for the benefit of their children.
Rational balancing of risk is the #1 thing antivaxxers aren't that good at, it seems to me.
i.e.
‘Weird, evidence-free theory of possible danger(?) from blood products from vaccinated people, theory refuted by credible experts”
vs
“immediate danger of death without surgery, confirmed by all involved”
Which to choose…??????
That is not the choice they are making. The parents appear to understand the risk to their child perfectly well – and seem to have made all reasonable efforts to organise an alternative donor source.
I doubt they are thinking in terms of risk at all.
1) The baby already received one transfusion from NZ blood during previous surgery.
2) It really didn't need to be present in the court for the hearing (against medical advice).
Having had two children who both required major surgery as infants I can viscerally relate to how they are thinking at the moment.
If you have ever had to hand over your 18 month old baby daughter to a surgeon to have her eye removed (retina blastoma) you might have some inkling as to the anxiety and grief they are going through.
Now toss in a gratuitously sadistic High Court proceeding for good measure, not to mention being shat on by armchair authoritarians all over social media – and the answer I come up with is trauma.
Most real response I've seen all day.
Today we also heard of a Maori woman who in the course of a 2 minute phone call was advised that she had Stage 3 cancer, would require fast aggressive surgery, and massively invasive chemo.
It makes news frankly because the poor management can be couched in unimpeachable Maori values, and so the system sits up and takes notice. Good on her as well for getting the story.
The fact that the child's surgery came to a court case indicates a massive relationship failure on the part of the health professionals. It is their job to take the intensely vulnerable couple through the procedure and care, not the other way round.
Thanks Ad. Typing that very personal comment above stirred up old memories – and I've been here long enough to know when I have said my piece and to leave it at this.
Now toss in a gratuitously sadistic High Court proceeding featuring a King's Counsel who manages to conflate parents' valid concerns with racism…
He suggested if such a request was granted, it opened the door to other requests that were theoretically possible to achieve – such as requesting blood from a specific ethnicity but ethically and clinically bankrupt.
”There’s also a slippery slope element to it,” he said. ”We have been there before as a society.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/donor-blood-battle-crowds-gather-outside-auckland-high-court-ahead-of-hearing/DSTVOUSPWBAF3FLGJAAR7Q6CBI/
…we have more than trauma.
Things have got seriously weird. It seems to have escaped the notice of the armchair authoritarians that NZ Blood Service does impose mandatory stand down periods after certain vaccines…up to 28 days…yet none for the new and novel Covid products whose long term effects are unknown.
https://www.nzblood.co.nz/become-a-donor/am-i-eligible/detailed-eligibility-criteria/?filter=V#Vaccination
You'd think that they would would be extra cautious wouldn't you?
NZ Blood Service imposes stand down periods following certain "live virus" vaccines. Those are known to pose a risk as for a period of time those viruses can end up in the blood stream, which could later cause complications for a recipient of blood.
Were as the implementation of "extra cautious" your proposing would have resulted in highly limited blood collection for a period of months (probably years if Sue Gray gets to say whos blood to collect) and for no particular reason.
I'm sure unnecessary blood shortages are not something NZ Blood Service considers a reasonable outcome.
The Covid vaccine is not a live vaccine.
Yes, that's correct. NZ Blood Service doesn't impose a stand-down period for vaccines in general, just the problematic ones for blood donation.
Blood shortages!!!
An intelligent medical/public health system could have anticipated this outcome and advised the government that the Pfizer product should be recommended only to those in the known 'at risk' categories for negative outcomes of Covid 19.
(Especially since the 'prevention of transmission' promise was…optimistic.)
Like the very elderly and those with co- morbidities. Most likely those who are not able to donate blood anyways.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19latestinsights/deaths
Leaving the rest of us to catch it and develop long lasting immunity.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35380632/
Tragically, it is too late now. Its not as if they can suck the stuff out.
Way to go Science!
Look, I have absolutely no doubt that if some nutter like yourself was put in charge of policy for NZ Blood Service (or other aspect of the NZ health system) you could quite capably run it into the ground within a year or so, causing massive harm and public health disaster. Fortunately for us there is no way that's happening.
That leaves this particular policy disaster as merely a product of your imagination, which I hope you will agree is a good thing.
No they don't. They have vastly over-estimated the risk of their child receiving donated blood from a Covid vaccine recipient. This risk is near-zero and yet they are ranking it as the highest risk of all. Their risk-assessment has been poisoned by the deliberate politicisation of the pandemic. If they get their wish, it opens the door to unsustainable and unscientific cherry-picking of blood donors by recipients.
Wouldn't have happened if they'd just quietly acceded to the parent's wishes and got on with saving the baby, after all, that is the prime issue, isn't it?
Who blew it up out of the water by stubbornly refusing a very simple and doable procedure that the parents were happy with
Wouldn't have happened if they'd just quietly acceded to the parent's wishes…
They can't do that because it would have opened up a can of worms and undermined the efficacy of the blood transfusion process which is second to none.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/donor-blood-battle-lawyer-for-the-parents-of-baby-w-announces-no-appeal-in-guardianship-case/NH5DHZRRUFB65I7RWLMSXPTEAA/
"Without precedent", despite NZ Blood having forms for such requests available (now deleted) on their website:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220129135018/https://www.nzblood.co.nz/assets/Transfusion-Medicine/PDFs/111F066A.pdf
I don't know if this form was ever used,
This risk is near-zero
I am sure you have evidence to support this? May we see it?
It's the absence of evidence to the contrary, bolstered by the consensus of expert medical opinion which is usually our most reliable guide in the face of uncertainty. Medical opinion is not infallible – I am not gullible about these things, having first-hand experience of wrong and (perhaps) deliberately deceptive medical advice. However, we discovered its deceptiveness by consulting other medical opinion, so the general rule of thumb remains a good one. Absolutists who demand impossible certainty usually end up in a deep hole.
Yes – while we are both coming from different angles here, I think we can both agree on this.
As I get older I find myself listening to people who I know I do not agree with – but finding they have something worth listening to all the same.
There's also a whole lot of other evidence based items / products that go into the patient's body during surgery other than blood products.
The actual risk from many of those is many times greater than than the actual demonstrated risk of mrna vaccines, let alone blood from someone vaccinated 12 months ago. Not to mention the probabilities of probably hundreds of potential adverse outcomes from the procedure the we mite is about to undergo to hopefully save and extent it's life.
How the hell do we turn this mass hysteria around.
If anyone gave more fucks for the wee mites life than protecting the 'safe and effective' vaccine narrative – the medics involved would have quietly accepted the parents donor offer and gotten the job done by now.
You’ve got your narratives all wrong.
I am the one dealing with a serious, life threatening autoimmune condition – triggered by the vaccines. I don't demand anyone share my perspective, but equally I am not going to be lectured to by authoritarian ideologues who are motivated primarily to protect a political narrative.
@Redlogix I'm very sorry to hear of your condition and I wish you well for the future.
I agree with you here. The government could have de-escalated this early on by agreeing to the parents demands early on, flew under the radar and got it all hushed up.
Instead the authorities have opened up the wounds from 12 months ago and got the people all riled up.
The mother (interviewed by Alex Jones, no less) stated that she is a midwife that was marched off her job because of the mandates, and that she is currently unable to leave the hospital ward with her baby.
I can't see this ending well
Why would the authoritie have agreed to something like this had huge risks for the supply of blood for the future.
I actually don't think that it is up to parents to impose their will on a person who is too young to make their own decisions. The parents should be making a separate decision, based on different facts for their child not blindly following their own views. These may be fine for an adult to rationalise but another person…….no. Children are not 'owned' by their parents.
We have discussed this before
.https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02-12-2022/#comment-1924279
” It is one thing to have these beliefs as an adult with only one adult, you, to look after but once you have another person who is totally reliant on you and no voice of their own it is quite another thing. The ethical questions need framing differently.
The fact that she is a health professional makes it even more concerning. Is she also a follower of Andrew Wakefield and will the baby be vaccinated against measles/mumps/rubella?”
If someone of Maori descent turns up and demands no blood from Pakeha donors, will you support them too Andy? Should this be quietly resolved and their wishes accommodated? What if a gay person demands no blood from straight donors, or an anti-5G activist demands no blood from people living near cellphone towers, a Labour voter demands no blood from Nat voters? Should we let a thousand forms of such nuttiness bloom – will you pay more tax to fund the army of loathed 'bureaucrats' making it all work?
Now sure – that's a slippery slope argument and nobody has actually done those things yet. But big, critical systems can't open themselves up to precedents that might compromise their operability.
In response to your concerns, NZ Blood did have a procedure whereby you could fill in a form and apply for Directed Blood Donation
(i.e a specific person/persons for the donation)
I provided a link from Web Archive in this comment
.https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-07-12-2022/#comment-1925050
I should also add that the archive also has a page that discourages this.
I have no idea why the page was deleted from NZ Blood. perhaps cost cutting.
Presumably there is cost and time associated with screening blood, but I have blood tests every 6 months or so as a regular health check, so it can't be that hard or require a huge infrastructure to support it.
Please stop with your uninformed comments as they only seed discord and confusion.
Running lab diagnostics on small blood samples is quite different from the involved (read: expensive) manufacturing processes of blood and blood products from pooled blood donors, which includes extensive testing and storage.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/480359/donor-blood-why-directly-donated-blood-was-deemed-unsafe-for-baby-needing-heart-surgery
Yup, rational AF.
https://twitter.com/Te_Taipo/status/1600581191362498560
The couple with the guy speaking must be some of the most unhealthy pale looking people I have seen for a while. Are they ill?
They certainly look like they've been in a very dark rabbit hole for quite some time.
Those are the parents. Good grief they both look like they need a course of YIM, my mother's oft used go to for 'peaky' children.
"The couple with the guy"
You mean Baby W's parents talking with Alex Jones?
Yes, very poorly looking. Yes Andy I now find these are the baby's parents.
.
@Shanreagh
(In reply to your reply to me below)
That sentence means remarkably little to me, I'm afraid.
Normally I'd respond to your key point but I remember … not all that long ago … two very reasonable women on this site politely took issue with a line of argument you were pursuing … and, it seems, you were left in shock, felt violated & invalidated … in fact you went as far as suggesting you'd been personally 'Colonised' by these two very respectful (indeed remarkably restrained) women & there was some implication that you felt you'd metaphorically been kidnapped, thrown onto a sailing ship & then subsequently sold into white slavery among 17th century Moroccan Sultans on the Barbary Coast.
I wouldn't want to put you through that sort of Emotional Genocide all over again by taking issue with something you’ve said.
It’s clearly a tragic life of eternal Martyrdom for affluent Woke [… deleted]
[lprent: If you’d like me to make some comments about your parents, who I don’t know, then please carry on the the way of that last paragraph. I suspect you didn’t know Shanreagh’s parents any more than I know yours. But I suspect that your parents would have something to say about raising an arsehole who’d sneer at someone you don’t know, about something you have no idea about. Apparently because you have a some (probably pommy) weird class presumptions about boarding schools in NZ. ]
They might look unwell for a number of reasons
(a) they are parents of young twins
(b) one of the twins has a serous heart condition
(c) they claim to be locked in the hospital (unlikely but they won't leave their baby)
(d) there are undergoing a court case
(e) there is intense media scrutiny
It might also be the lighting in the hospital room.
So whatever you think of this couple, they have reasonable grounds to look unhealthy.
It could be the infamous hospital food 😉
.
Spare me the moral lecturing from a wannabe terrorist like Kemara. Dubious AF.
He's not supporting these crazies. His coverage of the protest at parliament was very informative, just being able watch.
The coverage of the protest by Te Taipo went most days and the ability to see action, 'just be able to watch' as I put it, as it happened with minimal 'interpretation' was valuable. But I guess that such is your long standing (personal?) animus for the guy that anything valid and valuable like this is not valid and valuable in your eyes.
My comment was very mild and not deserving of a response such as yours.
Yes and respect.
You are and have been for many years one of the most thoughtful and principled commentators we have had here.
I've noticed you do less of the long form responses and of course no posts, but still continue anyway.
You carry a lot of grief, but still have a lot of dignity anyway.
I sincerely hope you get to wind back from full time work as soon as you can so you can focus on taking care of yourself and t hose immediately around you.
Our family are in the similar position of providing massively for an older relative and doing it for years.
You are a good person and you have my full support.
@Swordfish
Can you please stop the ad hominems.
I am not sure what the paragraph below is all about. I have only ever said I went to boarding school. You know nothing about my personal financial circumstances, I always get confused with your rendering of woke, My dad never lived in the UK to vote Tory and the tax reference is head scratching.
These flights of fantasy of yours that seem for some reason to have me in their sights are uncalled for.
@Swordfish
I am sill awaiting your response on this posting, preferably you have thought better of these ad hominem attacks on me. Could you please confirm. You said, when this was raised earlier, that you had looked at your posts and some were troll-like.
I do not know what I have done to cause this personal invective, apart from existing. Could you please let me know. I post views.
It is as if you have some personal animus against me and/or my family. As my father died in 1993 and my mother in 2010 is is longstanding. I cannot conceive of either of them doing anything to cause this. I have always been respectful of you and your views.
Sorry to hear that RL.
That is bloody awlful. I hope you are doing o.k.
Really value your contribution on the Standard, particularly your expertise when it comes to discussing Three Waters
Thanks. None of us are getting younger and I am not alone here at TS in dealing with the challenges that tend to come along with it.
Although this is a condition I will likely have to manage the rest of my life, thanks to working with an excellent Functional Medicine specialist here in Australia (all via telehealth) things have stabilised for the time being.
I have a good science education, worked in heavy industry technical roles all my life, and have defended the scientific method here many, many times from those who would undermine or misrepresent it. Yet at the same time I would counsel others to be aware that such a powerful tool is also prey to being misused – and that it is a mistake to imagine that everything science tells us must always be correct or complete.
Especially not in medicine.
All the best to you Red, one of the least ideologically captured writers here, always with a fair and open mind
I wish the best of outcomes for you
That is very sad Red and bad luck. I also had a reaction severe enough to need a hospital admission for my second different vaccine. To protect many, some of us have lasting damage. Mine breathlessness after myocardia, but your auto immune reaction would be far more serious and dangerous. Kind regards for good control, and I must add the Aussie health system does great work. Perhaps we need Medicare, though the tech bungle has been awful.
.
Spot on.
Hard to know, SF what it refers to though. When I first read it it seemed an overreaction to the discussion and rereading I still don't understand it.
The ideologues in this case are the Gunns and Greys and the family of Baby W of this world. Most of the rest of us are agog/angry/sick at the lengths that a family would put the youngest and most sick person in their family through to make a point.
One of the Drs involved said that Baby W could have had the op by now. We find now that he has already had a blood transfusion with the so-called concerning blood.
I really hope that the baby will not be affected by the delay or the jaunts to the court.
Personally I find the actions of the parents not brave or thoughtful but unspeakably cruel and deluded. The child is not their property to be used to further their own views or those of Gunn/Grey.
Grey/Gunn who are the ones to be concerned about, not fellow posters, whatever their views, on TS.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/12/06/decision-in-baby-blood-guardianship-case-reserved/
This is the counter-narrative that makes one’s blood boil [pun intended], that somehow blood and blood products provided through NZBS are unsafe. This is plain fearmongering and a NZ Court ruled it was unfounded and baseless, as it was not supported by medical/scientific evidence.
I'm not sure why it would make your blood boil.. There are still many questions surrounding how blood is affected by the vaccine, the science is not hard to track down. There's every reason for caution, and every reason to investigate what is happening in blood.
As they say the "truth" doesn't mind being questioned. However there's little of that occurring within the NZBS or Starship.
There are questions surrounding everything. Should we call a halt on every level while we sort this stuff out?
No.
I guess the answer depends on whether anyone is willing to take responsibility some years down the track if it turns out there is a problem.
It isn't as if Big Pharma has not had a history of disasters, litigation and fines – often decades after the product was first released.
"Big Pharma has not had a history of disasters, litigation and fines "
Yes, they have. Also, they have a history of marvellous success and the saving of lives uncounted, as I'm sure you, Red Logix, as a promoter of the technological, will attest.
Your truculence around the situation of the heart-baby and her flakey-as-fek parents is..incongruous with your previously elegantly-explained position, imo.
The other question I have is how come we are talking about this?
By that, which party put this is the open?
Is it any of yours or my business?
gsays that is a reasonable question.
I particularly wondered how the media got hold of information that the parents took an anti vaxer, who spouted consiracy theories at the medics.
I read on Stuff yesterday that "cell phones emitting radiation" is a conspiracy theory.
I'm wondering how two way radio communication works, but I don't like to ask too many questions .
[Given your history of spreading mis- and dis-information on this forum I have to ask you to provide a link to Stuff and explain the context of your selective quoting and the relevance to this discussion thread. You are in Pre-Moderation until I have seen a satisfactory response from you – Incognito]
I think you can help yourself re radiation by wearing a tinfoil hat as they did at the protest where the rebar in the concrete blocks was emitting radiation.
As far as two way radio communication is concerned if you get out of the way of direct rays emitted by people speaking on phones to other people you will be OK.
Going along Lambton Quay at lunchtime while others are walking along having catch-ups on their phones may be problematic with all the ducking and diving but I am sure it can be avoided by staggering your lunch hour to 4.00pm or similar. Or staggering the lunch hour PLUS wearing a tinfoil hat might solve the problem?
Here's a great "conspiracy theory" for you
https://web.archive.org/web/20220129135018/https://www.nzblood.co.nz/assets/Transfusion-Medicine/PDFs/111F066A.pdf
It's the NZ Blood request form for Directed Donation (what the parents are requesting)
Now deleted from the NZ Blood website, archived on Wayback.
My tin foil is just fine, I always wear it except in the shower
One would have to wonder why it's been removed
So if you don't wear the tinfoil hat in the shower how can you keep the fluoride molecules from sliding down your hair and into your skull that way? What happens if they get stuck in your skull and don't make it to your teeth?
Asking for a friend!
If you visit several bars along the way, staggering will be no problem. In fact you may achieve syncopation (uneven movement from bar to bar)
[Yes. Musical joke. Yes. Not serious. Yes. Not recommending drinking to excess.]
Thank you Belladonna!
Syncopated rhythm down Lambton Quay, no matter how it comes about would be quite concerning to the lunchtime walkers carefully moving so as not to be in anyone's space.
Mod note
I've provided separate replies with links for yourself and Weka, I hope that helps
Here is the quote I was referring to
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/130672251/fivestar-coffee-one-day-behind-bars-the-next-whys-this-cafe-owner-in-jail
EDIT – the relevance to the thread is that the media’s definition of “conspiracy theories” seems pretty ill-defined.
Like, actual facts are now “conspiracy theories”
[Thank you for the link and the context, which makes things a lot clearer and much less ambiguous than your lazy comment.
This thread is not about the media’s definition of “conspiracy theories”, pharma, statins, or cell phone emissions. Your comments amount to diversion trolling – Like, actual facts are now “conspiracy theories” – which is disrupting the discussion of the topic started by weka @ 2. If you want to start a new topic, then do so and see how far you get and how long you’ll last. This is your warning, and you stay in Pre-Mod for now to make sure that you’ve understood this – Incognito]
Mod note
This is a case of intense and singular public interest as it is a challenge to the ethos that the NZ Blood Transfusion Service works under. It is this that keeps all of us safe should we need blood transfusions as donations are able to be sourced according to demand, in relatively short time frames etc.
I totally support it being out in the open (subject to the not naming of the child/parents).
That shouldn't be too hard to look up, but almost certainly it's the parents that went to the media.
There are reasonably high public interest reasons for us to be discussing the issue in public.
As it turns out, it is representatives of the judiciary that are keeping things front and centre.
"In a statement last night, Justice Gault said he had been informed by the lawyer acting for Te Whatu Ora that the baby's parents had prevented doctors from taking blood tests, performing a chest X-ray and an anaesthetic assessment."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/480419/blood-donor-case-baby-s-surgery-takes-place-at-starship
Yes, nasty judiciary, organising confrontations at the hospital and leaking videos of that to anti-vaxxer websites. \sarc
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/12/lawyer-sue-grey-says-sick-baby-doing-well-after-surgery-as-video-shows-confrontation-between-police-and-family.html [NB this is not RNZ doing the ‘dirty work’ aka reporting]
what's the problem? As I said, this case has a fairly level of public interest. By which I don't mean gossip, I mean the case matters in the public interest. What would be the reason for not talking about it?
The baby has already had one transfusion with so-called 'bad' blood.
My concern is with the future and these parents. With their child now possibly getting another transfusion and that even though there is thorough screening will these parents treat their child differently ie because of their belief that the blood is unclean and that therefore that he is unclean of something?
I would hate for this to happen but we have stories of parents who treat children badly as they believe they have bad spirits or are evil.
The child has already had their surgery delayed.
They should definitely keep the child away from baby lambs and other household pets until its fully recovered.
I was always advised that babies should not be going out and about until after they had had the first vaccines on the immunisation schcdule.
This baby has been trotted around to the court etc. I would not think the courthouse with the many different types of people and differing health status would have been a good place for a sick baby to be.
Mmmm. I see lots of very young babies at crowded venues with lots of potentially infectious people around them. And, last week saw a baby/toddler with a nasal gastric tube (so presumably with a significant medical issue) at a local food court.
I think that different people have different perceptions of risk. Much like the co-sleeping debate….
Reply to 1.
Why can't it just be another category? "Other" or"prefer not to say", like on a census form? Everyone's happy.
(ps, I know how the reply button works, thanks; but on a mobile, the comment area won't let me input text for some reason.)
Have you switched from desktop to mobile?
the problem there is that you can't see the Reply list, so you have to keep swapping back and forth.
I know been doing it since for ages
What is the point of having separate competitions in most sports based on gender/sex definitions?
Because in most codes the entrants in that category wouldn't even make up a team per region, let alone a competition.
Minister Megan Woods, chickens and roosting.
Despite the Minister being in favour of supporting the refinery by underwriting a deal to keep it going for 5-10 years, "But it is understood Woods’ idea for those negotiations was not ultimately endorsed by fellow ministers."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/126866243/government-decided-not-to-follow-through-on-idea-of-talks-to-save-refinery
In an RNZ interview, she accepted the advice of 'advisors' so job done. Refinery closed.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018833819/energy-minister-megan-woods-on-nz-s-fuel-security
A refinery, by the way, that we used to own, till the 4th Labour Government sold it off.
Who are these advisors? Is there a consequence for their shit advice?
Given the dismantling of the refinery over the past 6 months …
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/480260/airlines-told-to-conserve-fuel-after-contamination-in-shipment
Was the 4th Labour Government the one with Douglas and Prebble in it? So I expect we'll see a Herald column from Prebble rubbishing the closure of Marsden Point and blaming the Government for it.
And no doubt their Act mates will be on about how the Government should have done this and done that.
I care less about those pollies we could name.
I wanna see some mandarins get squeezed.
Really those 'mandarins' who carry out Govt Policy? Those ones?
Those 'mandarins who work with legislation that does not give discretion? Those ones?
Why would we want to change our Westminister style of govt so you could take a pot shot at someone doing their job?
You have the wrong targets in your sights.
That’s my point, these folk are far from sight.
In this example they are not following Govt. Policy, they are advising the minister. Advising her to lessen our resilience and independence.
Advice is one thing and good PS always give a range of options, but decision making by a Minister is another process.
It is a complete 'no-no' for single option advice to go up to a Minister.
It is different if the Minister is acting under explicit legislation, here to give advice outside of what is contemplated by the legislation is a 'no-no'
'
Julie Anne Genter lays out the inequities of our current economic system and highlights some policy alternatives:
https://vimeo.com/778716671
what's the explanation for increasing production lowering inflation?
Supply better meets demand:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/06/inflation-there-s-a-vital-way-to-reduce-it-that-everyone-overlooks-raise-productivity
The 2020 Abrahamic Accords – restoring relations between the governments of the nations Morocco, UAE and Bahrain and Israel and a reality check at the World Cup with the people of ME.
The present
The Israeli perspective
The Arab
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/06/world-cup-arab-world-rallies-palestinian-cause/
It was sort of inevitable since the recent restoration of Netanyahu to power in the most right wing government in their nations history, ending the brief period of coalition governance including an Arab party for the first time. In some ways, it's a bit like the let diplomatic down after the failure of the 2000 peace talks (followed by Israeli disengagement and Palestinian intifada).
Taiwan based TMS is tripling its planned investment in Arizona to $60B (chip production).
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63883047
Now that I am 3 home bruise deep, this is jolly entertaining.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kopKWvpEfs
DPR separatist Igor Strelkov (Girkin), sentenced to life in prison by the ICC for the downing of MH17 and the deaths of all 298 passengers and crew, went to Moscow.
.
Strelkov Igor Ivanovich I am in Moscow. Attempt No. 3 to take a direct part in the hostilities against the armed forces of respected Kyiv partners (they are now referred to in the reports of the Ministry of Defense as some kind of "militants") did not end in success, although it was very close to that. Briefly, without details:
[…]
https://t.me/strelkovii/3492
google translate
[…]
https://t.me/strelkovii/3493
google translate
Strelkov Igor Ivanovich
And now also briefly on the impressions of the trip, which was fruitless, but not without benefit (since my eyes and ears remained with me, and my head is also still working).
Naturally, I intend to keep the vast majority of my impressions and conclusions to myself. In order, so to speak, "not to discredit". Positive impressions – I will share in the upcoming (hopefully) video conferences. But there are not too many of them – in relation to the negative ones.
And now I will only note that the basis of all our "increasing victories" on the fronts and directions of the NMD is the deepest crisis of strategic planning. Simply put, the troops are fighting "by inertia", not having the slightest idea of the ultimate strategic goals of the current military campaign and only guessing about the vague plans of the command for such grandiose senseless gestures as the construction of a completely insane in uselessness (but wildly expensive in terms of execution cost) Surovikin Lines.
In most parts of the RF Armed Forces, soldiers and officers do not understand: for what, for what and for what purposes they are fighting in general. For them, a mystery – what is the condition for victory or just a condition for ending the war? And the authorities of the Russian Federation are not able to explain this to them, since setting a clear goal for the NWO means "limiting room for maneuver" – that is, losing the opportunity to declare the goals of the NWO as achieved at any moment that the Kremlin leaders consider convenient. (For the thousand and first time, I remind you that the passionately desired “reconciliation with partners,” for which many steps are being taken to this day that demoralize society and the army, is unattainable in principle, but the Kremlin and Staraya Square do not want to believe in it).
Such sentiments specifically in the troops lead to apathy. Apathy, on the other hand, leads to a drop in morale and the fulfillment of the tasks set "for show" and "slip of the sleeves", without a real interest in their successful result. So – in the army of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (and parts of the Armed Forces of the LDNR, although there the fighters have much more motivation) apathy prevails.
The absence of a clear military-political strategy does not allow the military to develop tactics that will contribute to its implementation. In the meantime – "on a whim" – the RF Armed Forces are preparing for a protracted positional war, building long-term structures along the entire front in the style of "a la the Mannerheim Line" (does not pull on the "Maginot Line"). The fact that following the strategy of a protracted war is suicide for the Russian Federation (and its authorities and elites, too, by the way) – I wrote back in 2014, but I said (more than once or twice) – from the very beginning of the current campaign.
Therefore, watching how the enemy slowly (and without encountering any opposition) implements his own strategic tasks with the complete passivity of the military and political authorities of the Russian Federation, I do not expect anything good at the front in the coming weeks.
And, yes, – the so-called. "Ukraine" will NOT freeze in winter, will NOT rebel and will NOT fight worse. Vice versa. Its soldiers, who have already believed in their strength as a result of the autumn victories of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and are fully supported by NATO, will only fight harder and harder against the "Muscovites", avenging the hardships that their relatives and friends in the rear are forced to bear. And they will be met only by apathetic performance of duty, behind which many fighters and commanders have long been looming the unresolved question: "What are we doing here, if Moscow is most concerned with the implementation of" grain deals ", the unhindered pumping of ammonia through Odessa and the" price ceiling " on gas and oil supplied to numerous Western partners?
https://t.me/strelkovii/3495
google translate
Under reported story here
The United States is gearing up for a long war in the Ukraine. If the Russians think they can outlast the west in a war of logistics, well they are in for a rude shock.
Russia couldn't spot the giant 40 year old drone that struck one of its three most heavily defended air bases while Ukraine intercepts >80% of Russia's most up to date cruise missiles.
Second best military!
https://twitter.com/BBCSteveR/status/1600014676007342080
Today is the 8th of December 2022….WTF!