I see that Kennedy's remark after the shambles that was The Bay of Pigs is equally true in New Zealand.
"Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan"
It would seem that Dr Caroline McElnay was stuck with announcing that there were 71 cases of Covid 19 today. Where was the PM? Where was Hipkins? Where was Bloomfield?
This tiresome thought in post 1 has surfaced on another board I frequent. Apart from being rubbish it is so obvious that they are not original spontaneous thoughts occurring across the nation.. Almost as if the Nats or whoevers have sent out talking points.
Who cares who fronts? As long as they are competent and Hipkins and Robertson mostly certainly are competent. Bloomfield and McElnay similarly.
I noticed that JC was very scathing that the PM did not front over this past weekend, as if she was having a zzzzz somewhere or just decided not to to walk down from Premier House. JC seemed to forget that the PM was in places like Murupara and the East Coast being part of a drive to up the vaccination rates in those areas.
I know the work I feel is most important and it is not fronting a a weekend Beehive session that could be competently fronted by others
It intrigues me that there seems to be a deliberate policy of not explaining why govt policy has failed to contain the Delta spread whereas it succeeded with the original contagion last year. I'm aware Delta is way more infectious, but we have a tendency in the public to try and blame boundary runners for the spread. I haven't noticed any effort by the authorities to either confirm or deny whether they're guilty.
Could be govt is clueless & prefers not to let on. Human nature. But the idea of transparent governance is that you inform the public when it's in the public interest. I reckon people like to connect cause & effect, so if they don't get official explanations they just make it up as they go along. Semi-plausible narratives will get traction. Dunno if it's wise of officialdom to turn a blind eye to those.
1.case numbers spread out a lot in the initial period, so it took a month to shut the clusters down.
2. to then eliminate would have required weeks more at Level 4 (tough but doable – the government now likes to say, there was no guarantee it would have worked as reason to give up on elimination this year).
2a – they were complacent under elimination and did not have rapid testing at essential workplaces (such as a 15 minute test before entry into a hospital).
3. the plan to open up – including a trial of business workers in home isolation (some risk) before opening up next year with vaccination rolled out.
The dichotomy between 2 and 3 was too much.
So they moved to Level 3 and committed to never going back to Level 4. Instead they had a plan to go down towards level 2 via Level 3 lite.
Now we have community spread that will go over 100 a day by the end of the month. It'll go higher in November and modellers will call for a Level 4 period to take numbers back down again – at some point this is likely (if only for a week or two).
We'll cope provided
1. we contain it in Auckland – then we can transfer health workers into Auckland as need be.
2. we get boosters to those vaxxed earlier in the year to prevent breakthrough infections in health workers and the medically vulnerable (oldies before Christmas).
we contain it in Auckland – then we can transfer health workers into Auckland as need be.
Even giving you the first part of that proviso; SPC (which seems optimistic), where do you propose that we get the health workers to transfer into Auckland? NZNO members in particular are unlikely to do so simply because the current Minister of Health asks them to! Which leaves Immigration or Conscription – both problematic to my mind.
6 more weeks containment in Auckland till we get to the second dose plus 2 weeks for full immunity is what is wanted/needed
Staff have already gone to one Auckland hospital to help out, and given our increased ICU capacity consists of local nurses recently trained up (and with no experience in this work) or more experienced staff who have managed few pandemic cases they might well volunteer for such secondment – either as completion of their training or preparation for their 2022 jobs locally.
My understanding is that this is basically due to investigations taking more time than the speed of the news cycle. We have in some cases been made aware of how inter regional transmission might have started such as the guy from Auckland district courts going to outside Auckland (and apparently catching it off his transport). I also doubt the media would do much with comprehensive case notes anyway because these would necessarily be days to weeks out of date and the focus is going to be on whats just happened today.
As usual Alwyn I am astounded by your encyclopedic knowledge of memes, sayings and especially the prior promises and eventual failures of our (more left leaning) elected representatives.
Can you let us in on your secret. Do you keep a database of things Jacinda said, or that Grant put his hand in the pocket for? Do you have a revision schedule for keeping up to date with the latest let down?
My only comment here about Ms Ardern was that she didn't appear to be at today's briefing. That is the only thing I said. How does that become something to cause you to decide that you should come out with " I am astounded by your encyclopedic knowledge of memes," etc?
that's not all you said. You also said via implication that Ardern, Hipkins and Bloomfield should have fronted announcing 71 cases instead of leaving it to McElnay.
Your right it wasn't your most insightful comment on here. Still I have no doubt you will lift your game again and could instantaneously roll out 3 election promises Labour have broken, two social justice memes involving Chloe Swarbric and one confidence and supply agreement clause which Winston never honoured. That just seems to be the calabre your in so I was inquiring about your training regemine.
Ardern tends to only to come out for def' in media on Mondays these days, unless it is certain questioners who ask difficult questions, then for the rest of the week, it depends on how bad the news is.
Purely a guess from me, but they might have a 1-5 scale.
3-5 bad send someone else out.
1-2 Ardern fronts.
Which though is probably completely bollocks, would be kind of sad given how well she fronted with Chch. Might be a dropping a fair bit in the old polls since the election thing.
Ardern's most recent approval rating is 60%. Up slightly. This was from polling after last week's events, when the pundit chatter simply assumed that she had lost support, with no evidence.
Bollocks. She's in the regions encouraging people to get "jabbed", I think Tauranga or somewhere central NI?
Side note, my 13 year old & I got our 2nd dose today, absolutely no side effects, I don't even have a sore arm this time. It's really remarkable how individualistic people's reactions to the vaccination are. My kid is fine too.
Fantasists seem to think that each day there's a meeting of the cabal (what time? 9 am? 12?) and they decide what the PM is going to do that day, based on the case numbers.
Alwyn last time it was Jacinda hogging the lime light now your complaining because Jacinda is going to areas of low vaccination to encourage more vaccinations that's what you call a leader doing the right thing.
Looking at Nationals support base what's left of it .All this whinging is getting you no where.
Chris T – you demonstrably have internet access. Why would you need to physically go to a uni library? Lots of usually paywalled data is freely available for the duration, try this for starters:
You might want to wait until after tomorrow before being too certain about having "absolutely no side effects". I was certainly a bit wiped out for a couple of days there!
Had my second a couple of weeks ago. Had nothing that time.
First one.
Wake up in morning. Walk to kitchen. Start to make cup of tea. Vomit.
From that morning for about 36 hours on couch with bucket. Couldn't even hold water down.
Mentioned it on another article. As I said then. I may just be a weirdo or it happened to co-incide with a bug or something. Never had anything that bad though. I haven't even had the flu before
Oh jeebus, wish I hadn't read that, was quite happy in my blissful ignorance! Fingers crossed I (& my kid) are one of the lucky ones. 
First time I got flu jab years ago I was sick for a couple weeks, & I’d never had flu before (I didn’t even know there was a difference to the cold & the flu).
Should have probably added it was at least for me the weirdo, literally 36 hrs odd and then fine. It wasn't one of those things where it drags on after.
I was just by then insanely hungry and thirsty pretty quickly and probably would have disemboweled any stopping me getting to the fridge with my glass of chilled water and sandwich my wife kindly prepped for me.
She didn't have jack happen by the way. Pommy bitch! . Just looked at me the whole time sliding between pity and "You bloody wimp". She made some funny jokes about it to cheer me up though
alwyn Mr Russell is a talking head along with Hoskings,the grave yard shift and sometimes spins old day music for those types that yearn for the old times.
Just so the 'sillies' can't make up any theories or rave on about the PM not attending 1.00pm briefings, MOH has announced that the weekend's updates will be via its mailouts/website.
Probably so everyone who can be, is working on the Vaxathon.
I wonder what the anti PM/Govt talking points will be in the coming week?
One Nat supporter on the board where the talking points about the PM & attendance were also raised around the same time as Alwyn's, was moved to write that she did not know which was worse, having to combat Covid misinformation, or political weirdness about who fronts the 1.00pm briefings made as if it was relevant to Covid/ Health/vaccinations.
One of the weird things of the age. Ardern is on the covid conferences a lot and people complain. Apparently she's turning the saga into a PR exercise.
And she comes on and she's all waffle and talking to us as if we're kids we’re told.
Then she's not there and people wet their nappies. What the hell is that all about?
It's the political equivalent of searching through the TV channels to find the sex and violence so they can complain about all the sex and violence on TV … with a little too much enthusiasm.
My thought is that is simply projection from the critic's own worldview. So when say; Collins, claims that Ardern is milking 1pm briefings for favorable publicity, what she really means is that if she was in Ardern's position, that's what she'd do herself.
Sometimes lies tell you more than truths – at least about the person speaking.
I actually think the govt did a good job with the initial shutdowns and it saved us some grief last year, though at the same time the roll out of the vaccine and the slowness nearly cancels it out in shitty work.
I have continued to have mixed feelings about the whole elimination thing.
Probably just me
Can't help feeling it was an extremely expensive and damaging way to delay the inevitable for the entire country. god knows how many small businesses are going to go bust, (don't get me started on why butchers, hair dressers, etc etc can't, eating in outside areas are blocked).
I also noticed in amongst medical and education being compulsarirally vaccinated. Where is the prostitutes? I kind of think they shoud kind of be mentioned.
On the other hand it did give us time to build up a, if not ideal, decent vaxed number
Sorry about the ranting ramble there. Was just thinking about stuff, feel free to ignore
See, without modern medicine I probably would have died years ago. Even today my doctor and I play a little game where I live the life I like and he prescribes the best cocktail of meds that will keep me alive a bit longer.
Why is this relevant? Because life is about delaying the inevitable.
If everything goes tits up and we have 7k, 14k, 80k covid deaths, that's still a couple of years more life than those folks would have had under the "live with it in March 2020" crowd.
Fuck businesses. We're talking about actual life, not livelihoods.
So you have given up on the whole trying to reduce poverty thing?
If businesses go under, the owner goes under, and alll the owners workers lose their jobs.
When the owner loses their job they may not be able to pay their mortgage and they lose their house. They may have more than one and are renting one or two. They lose aa well. The bank takes them and says forced sell. Families renting them are kicked out and have no where to live.
The said owners laid off workers have now got no wage so they can't pay their mortgage. The bank takes their house and they have no where to live.
Depending on their wage they may be renting out a flat. The bank takes this also and sells it and the renters are forced to move out with no where to live, because there is nothing cheap enough in the covid bordered area, so they hang out in a car.
Or the only place the workers can find is some shit hole in no where to rent on the dole. So they have to move their kids to that place and their kids have to go to a new school and no longer can see their friends.
But as you say 10s of thousands of people will probably go through this, but at least we kept out an inevitable get here disease for a few months
If businesses need people to die in order to stay in existence, we're doing it the wrong way around.
Maybe the tourism industry has to go the way of the asbestos industry. Maybe not. But killing people so some small businesses can continue operating without adapting is as callous as it is stupid.
but at least we kept out an inevitable get here disease thousands of loved family members alive for a few months
How exactly are you killing people if they are vaxed?
Just out of interest you do know 650 odd people die from car accidents and fku a year?
How many people are YOU willing to let die because their cancer fiscreening/treatment and heart surgeries are being delayed by weeks because of the chance their might be an onslaught of covid people?
Or are they not as important as people who chose not to be vaccinated, and have underlying health conditions?
Are you aware that governments and health planners and modellers actually took into consideration things like delayed health care, and came to understand that more people would die and become disabled if covid was left to run free?
It's not a chance of an onslaught of covid. That's a bizarre statement given what's happened in so many other countries in teh world in the past 18 months. Why would NZ be any different?
Just out of interest you do know 650 odd people die from car accidents and fku a year?
And you appear to be suggesting that we have a bunch of people die from covid in addition to those road and flu deaths. Besides, we do what we can to prevent those deaths, it's not like we go, oh can't spend money on making roads safer.
Yes, but we don't destroy small businesses like butchers, hairdressers, and thousands the hospitality industry when they could be open, as they are no different from going to the pub, dentist or doctor because a car might hit a power pole
car accidents aren't infectious diseases. Really not following your argument here. We do a lot to prevent road deaths, it's not really anything to do with small businesses other than pubs etc, and we do prevention work there too.
We also ban drinking and driving, mandate people wear seatbelts, and have a speed limit.
“How many people are YOU willing to let die because their cancer screening/treatment and heart surgeries are being delayed by weeks because of the chance their might be an onslaught of covid people?”
You have this the wrong way round – delays for the possibility of covid is nothing like the massive demand on hospitals due to actual covid when a 'live with it' strategy was used. For example, from the British Medical Journal:
Why have waiting times increased so much? Solid evidence is not yet available, but several contributors are likely. Operating theatres and outpatient clinics were closed as they became needed to treat patients with covid-19 during the first wave in 2020. Surgical staff, particularly junior surgical and nursing staff, were redeployed to provide cover for extra beds occupied by patients with covid-19 and for staff unable to work because they had covid-19 or were isolating …
Predictive modelling suggests that around 28 million operations were cancelled or postponed globally during the peak 12 weeks of the first wave; this number will surely increase as the pandemic progresses …
In the US, one study estimated that a backlog of at least one million orthopaedic surgical cases would remain two years after elective surgery stopped being deferred because of covid-19
With all due respect. You can't just pluck that from the UK from 8 months ago when piss all people were vaccinated (I think they are still sitting on less than 75% first vaccunation even now) and use it as a model for how it will play out here.
Even at a 95/95/95 assumption (95% vaxxed, 95% no infection in vaxxed, 95% no hospitalisation of infected vaxxed person), that leaves:
750k 0-12yo to spread or get the disease
250k 12+ who are unvaccinated
In addition to those million people, there are another 200k vaxxed people who do not have full protection.
So about a fifth of our population will still be vulnerable to delta. With a vulnerable group that large, what do you think the transmission numbers will be?
Well, assuming even none of them actually get symptoms, there are almost half a million people they can give it to (after trading it to each other at school).
Yeah, but it is just going to happen. As I said earlier. It is a delay to the inevitable. Holding a crucifix up to stop an avalanche hitting you.
I mean a kid under 12 gets it and they inevitably will and spread it, it ain't like you can stop them play fighting, cuddling, with each other, or make them keep masks on. It spreads exponentially.
It is what it is
I would pity parents who tried to though. While also I think I would find it funny watching them try to 🙂
Just need to make sure enough people are vaccinated as possible. And I won't bring up lack of ICU prep, but will probably do on another day
No, it'll never happen. Because that was 95/95/95.
At 90/95/95, that's ~750k kids to spread it, ~430k unvaxxed >=12yo, and ~190k vaxxed but it didn't take.
The longer we put it off, the higher the vax number is and the fewer unvaxxed adults are out there – even if you think child covid won't really happen (it does, but that's another argument).
Sure, ICU beds are an issue, and general health equity, and shit housing (especially emergency housing for poor people). These are the systemic issues over decades that have sown what we reap.
But like whinging hairdressers and restauranteurs, they aren't reasons to just let covid run free as soon as possible. The way to victory here is constant delaying. Cunctator-stylez.
Currently in NZ we have had 2 die and a fairly high inoculation rate and climbing now, so please don't quote shit unvaccinated countries from months ago
"Saying everything should open up"
That isn't what I said but feel free to quote me saying it.
I said places like butchers and hairdressers. Because you know. How dumb arse it I can't get cheap steaks wrapped in paper from a dude in a butcher only he touched with plastic gloves, while then walk to a super market and fart around with a trolley 20 people have used.
And again why are sex workers not closed and forced to vax as it is apparently a ligitamate businesses from labour.
It can't be hard. They contact them through their tax returns and GST claims to vonfirm it
Currently in NZ we have had 2 die and a fairly high inoculation rate and climbing now, so please don't quote shit unvaccinated countries from months ago
Well, it's not like you've presented any others. You don't like my numbers, you don't like Hendy's numbers, how many people do you think will die when we go to level 2 permanently? To keep hairdressers and independent butcheries open so you can have a nice steak?
And going all Palpatine with "it is inevitable" ignores the fact that the longer we wait, the higher our vax level. Where do you think diminishing returns come in? When half a million 12+ are unvaxxed? 750k? 250k? You reject Hendy's numbers, fair enough. Whose numbers do you figure are reasonable? As you say, from a couple thousand cases in a largely vaxxed population we've had two dead and currently 617 active cases and 26 in hospital.
How many cases will occur to make you put up with a supermarket steak (and they should have sanitising wipes for the trolley, complain if they don't)?
And again why are sex workers not closed and forced to vax as it is apparently a ligitamate businesses from labour.
It can't be hard. They contact them through their tax returns and GST claims to vonfirm it
Are the brothels still open? How does one "close" an itinerant sex worker? If indeed those rumours are true, rather than just dodgy assumptions.
Actually, the businesses with regular accounts probably qualify for the wage relief. In lieu of providing other relief. And, like hairdressing, I suspect that the business value is in the skills and practitioner reputation rather than capital investment, so would be easier to start up again if things go tits-up.
I didn't mean child covid won't happen. I meant as they play together the vast vast vast majority will be fine while then giving it to adults who may not be.
Now parks are open. it is just going to happen.
Agree health lack of infrestucture is a decades old issue and there are two certain PM's who spent 18 years between them in charge who basically fucked it. Same with housing, but another discussion.
"But like whinging hairdressers and restauranteurs, "
They are dying and looking at having to tell their staff they are sacked. How hard is this to get?
The wage subsidy cover exactly that. Not rent. Power. GST. Insurance. ACC. Food spoilage and throwing away because the govt demands we have to wait till a certain time on a monday afternoon to say any actual shit and they have to be prepared at any time to try to open.
And even that has a limit of 600 bucks a week I think and is taxed, so the small business owner has to top that up so their staff can pay shit like their mortgage when they are normally on about 2 k a week And you have to justify it every 2 weeks
I know Labour don't get it as they think all businesses are the size of Microsoft as and all the business owners are evil, none have had to run one, but they need to to start sourcing advice from the business community rather than tight arsed, probably still living with mum stats dude from Wellington.
They are dying and looking at having to tell their staff they are sacked. How hard is this to get?
No they're not dying. They're looking at losing money and winding up their business.
I'm involved with a peekaboo (lol pcbu in the osh parlance) that is in the shit right now. We will probably be able to keep operating, but yeah, it's tough.
You know what's more tough? Actually dying.
Saying everything should open up and disease should walk the land so I can keep my business profitable would be almost sociopathic. But there's this affliction amongst many SMEs where their owner-operators care more about their bottom line than literally the lives of other people.
So yeah, we can still minimise the spread until as many people are vaccinated who can be. Some kids in parks might spread it around a bit more than everyone adhering to L4 standards, but full classrooms definitely will. Same with malls.
I never aid Auckland should go to level 2. It is fairly obvious it won't for a while.
I just said small businesses like butchers and hairdressers etc etc should be allowed to open.
I have tried to be diplomatic but frankly I am beginning to run out of patience, The govts qualification for who can open and can't with risk at level 3 in Auckland is fucking shit.
OK Let me put it this way as the other isn;t working. Why can't butchers be open with proper shop access?
Why can't butchers be open with proper shop access?
Some possibilities come to mind:
Lower numbers of people going to work lowers the spead.
Supermarkets are open anyway (although not sure their meat counters were attended under L3? My local just had the refridgerated shelves, no actual butcher measuring stuff out). Having supermarkets and butchers open is redundant – at least hairdressers provide a different service.
Limited venues means controlled access easier to monitor by wandering cops/inspectors.
Lower number of queues for contagious person to stand in while shopping that day means lower number of places of interest in a couple of days time.
I'm pretty sure that sex workers shouldn't actually be operating under L3, so not sure what power a vaccine mandate would hold over the ones currently operating.
But also I'm not sure all of them operate as registered businesses with appropriate ACC levy registration (which would probably be slightly more accurate than companies or gst documentation – for the ones that do their full paperwork).
I mean, stunning idea for people in the privileged classes I know, but not all financial transactions or operations are duly reported to the government.
You can't just pluck that from the UK from 8 months ago
Your whole thread went back to the beginning of the pandemic and your mixed feelings on the elimination strategy. The most likely scenario for delays in non-covid treatment, is covid itself, not some strategy of bed and appointment blocking 'just in case' (in fact NZ did clear space for the worst happening but we never had to implement that plan in any major way).
We can't use NZ as an example of what happens when we open up now – because it the covid pandemic didn't happen, we're not starting with a covid-induced backlog. We'll find out more in our vaccinated future shortly.
As weka suggests, they plan for this stuff. That's the question – do you trust the planning or not?
Depends who is doing the planning. I certainly don't trust that hendy dude's who was basically just given millions bt labour with no proper best of practice on who to use.
"Your whole thread went back to the beginning of the pandemic and your mixed feelings on the elimination strategy."
This is a fair point.
I did say it was a rambling rant, but I should have been more clear in the difference status of countries situations vax verse infection wise, sorry.
How? That's what would have happened if the business uber alles crowd had gotten their way a year and a half ago. Look at… damned near every other nation on the planet.
And the impact on other medical care is a valid, quantifiable question to ask (with reasonable data and reporting) – but it's a lot different to removing disease controls so we can preserve the cashflows of "just cutz" or "try hair".
But then you'd also be factoring in ICU occupancy during a pandemic and other outbreak-related impacts on the healthcare system, right? Right?
As for vaccination, it's a tool in the box. But it's not 100%, and some people will still die when this thing is endemic. That happens. And the predicted math of dead in that circumstances should be balanced against any dead you happen to be able to think of when you are reminded why we have these allegedly business-destroying lockdowns (although our GDP seems to suggest that a healthy population has fewer lockdowns and more economic activity than a plagueland).
But the business sector should not be a consideration in any "opening up" decision.
Now do the costs associated with hundreds of people likely not working, or working reduced hours, for months post infection.
How will this play out for the working population?
Using UK data to inform assumptions around vaccination effectiveness at stopping infections and lowering the likelihood of hospitalisation if infected, we have projected numbers of cases, hospitalisations, ICU and ‘long COVID’
for Australian workers consistent with the Doherty modelling.
In summary, our projections result in just over 100,000 COVID-19 infections in workers leading to around 10,000 hospitalisations, of which 700 are admitted to ICU. Up to (or perhaps even exceeding) 7,000 long COVID cases may develop who are fully off work, and twice as many again will still be on reduced work, 7 months later.
Vaccination changes the risk of infection and hospitalisation significantly. 42,000 COVID-19 cases are projected from the vaccinated workforce of 7.2 million workers. 64,000 COVID-19 cases are projected to come from unvaccinated workers (1.8 million workers).
Andrew little said on the radio tonight that 95% of infections will not have to go to hospital and can be looked after with visits to home for food etc.
Has he not read you 10% hospitalisation modelling?
Also. You can't model long covid. They are still not sure what it is.
long covid rates are estimated to be between 10% and something like 30%. That rate should be lower in fully vaccinated people, but, we don't know yet how that will play out, and we don't know if new variants will be worse.
Two grand nieces with covid were at home in outer Sydney, had home monitoring including oxygen monitoring via the finger. Both are fine but they were already vaccinated.
Hospitalisations aside, anywhere between an estimated 25% and 80% of infected patients will be saddled with one or more long-term symptom/s. Should those numbers come to pass, good luck accessing anything resembling timely medical care in a health system that's near on it's knees today.
I think one of the things on our side. (Well apart from Auckland maybe. Sorry guys!), is the fact we have a pretty impressive amount of space to people ratio outside the big cities.
We may end up with Omega Man like cities and loads of farmers turning them into dairy farms. Moaning that Aucklanders only left them one bridge to get them to the milking sheds.
Apparently rural areas in the US are getting hit hard now – not just because of maga vax hesitancy.
Sure, one can spend all one's time on the farm, but one eventually goes into towd – the supply store, the bar, the church, the parts store, the vet supply store. And they see everyone in the area who eventually comes into town. The node with many edges comes into play again.
And then the farmers die in greater number because they're further from help.
Hairdressers have been going gangbusters around lockdown restrictions, it's not something most people can generally do themselves, & you seem to not have noticed that butcher shops are probably at 10% of the numbers they once were at but not due to covid or any restrictions. They started to become a thing of the past due to supermarkets. Other businesses have modified how they do things in a meaningful way since the 2020 lockdown – local garage ie operates 4 days a week now not 5 with no reduction in anyone's wages or the volume of service they provide. They've condensed it to less down time over the week. There are valuable things to learn from operating more effectively, when done well it also benefits retail along the line as well
Nearly; AFdeV, but something is off with the second line of your limerick. I think it needs another syllable in the second triplet (or at least a comma) eg With grave and most deadly persistance. Also There's & there is, would work better swapped between the fourth and fifth lines (or maybe On instead of Upon). Plus it's not obscene at all! Though I guess that could be implied in the threatened existence.
Ghost Robotics and SWORD International have teamed up to create a rifle-toting "robot dog." Called the Special Purpose Unmanned Rifle, or SPUR, the system adds a 6.5mm Creedmoor rifle from SWORD to one of Ghost Robotics' quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicles, or Q-UGVs.
Two grand nieces with covid were at home in outer Sydney, had home monitoring including oxygen monitoring via the finger. Both are fine but they were already vaccinated.
Seymour describes sushi as too woke for school meals. There are no fish sushi meals recommended by the School Lunches programme. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Government will swap out hot meals for packaged sandwiches to save $107 million on school lunches for poor kids. MSD has pulled ...
I don't mind stealin' bread from the mouths of decadenceBut I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled, yeahBut it's on the table, the fire's cookin'And they're farmin' babies, while slaves are workin'The blood is on the table and the mouths are chokin'But I'm goin' hungry, yeahSome ...
The Ardern Government’s chickens came home to roost yesterday with the news that the country is short of natural gas. In 2018, Labour banned offshore petroleum exploration, and industry executives say that the attendant loss of confidence by the industry impacted overall investment in onshore gas fields. Energy Resources Minister ...
Hi,If you’ve been digging through the newly launched Webworm store (orders are being dispatched worldwide as I type!) you’ll have noticed the best model we had was Calvin.This is Calvin.Calvin.Calvin is 7, and is the son of my producer over on Flightless Bird, Rob — aka “Wobby Wob”. Rob also ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Photo by Jari Hytönen on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leah Williams Veazey, ARC DECRA Research Fellow, University of Sydney DavideAngelini/Shutterstock In the 2007 film The Bucket List Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman play two main characters who respond to their terminal cancer diagnoses by rejecting experimental treatment. Instead, they go ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mohan Singh, Professor of Agri-Food Biotechnology, School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences at the University of Melbourne., The University of Melbourne Tanja Esser/Shutterstock Australia’s vital agriculture sector will be hit hard by steadily rising global temperatures. Our climate is already ...
The Acumen Edelman Trust barometer reported that New Zealand’s political trust score now sits below the global average, a topic explored in a recent discussion paper by Maxim Institute. ...
Greenpeace Aotearoa executive director Russel Norman says, "The Fast-Track Bill is the most damaging piece of environmental legislation any Government has introduced in living memory. People are angry, and it’s time to march." ...
The school lunches programme has been retained – and will be extended to some preschoolers. So how is it going to cost $107 million less? To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. The minister with many hats David Seymour wears a number of hats, but this week ...
“Show us the bird,” I found myself muttering at times while reading Hard by the Cloud House by Peter Walker, a deeply thoughtful, often hilarious, at times rambling – but somehow delightfully so – search for the story of a big bird. But not just any bird: the bird. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Marley, Environment + Energy Editor, UK edition DPVUE .images/Shutterstock Your home was probably designed for a climate that no longer exists. As long as humanity continues to burn fossil fuel, padding the heat-trapping blanket of gases in Earth’s atmosphere, the ...
A senior lawyer has filed a complaint about tikanga becoming a required law school module. Law lecturer Carwyn Jones explains what he’s getting wrong. “…the first law of Aotearoa, a law that served the needs of tangata whenua for a thousand years before the arrival of tauiwi.”– Ani Mikaere ...
In 2019, an Auckland woman woke up from surgery to find that she had undergone a treatment she didn’t consent to. She tells Alex Casey about her experience. From her very first period at the age of 14, Laura experienced “debilitating” levels of pain that forced her to withdraw from ...
Comment: Concerns about the state of the economy are creeping up to the top of firms’ list of challenges. That’s evident in both surveys and the tone of our recent client discussions. Skimming the past few weeks of eco-news, it’s not hard to see why. – Retail card spending fell ...
Opinion: Could former co-leader James Shaw still make a difference to working with National? The post How the Greens could be contenders appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: What if we got rid of our existing drug laws and replaced them with a new law that legalised and carefully regulated all psychoactive substances, from cannabis to MDMA, methamphetamine and LSD to magic mushrooms? And which also included legal drugs such as alcohol and nicotine. “Wow,” you might ...
In the gloom following director-general Al Morrison’s job cuts in 2013, the Department of Conservation restructured its operations arm. Eleven conservancy districts were whittled into six new “conservation delivery” regions, under which the Rēkohu/Wharekauri/Chatham Islands area, comprising 40 scattered islands more than 800km east of Christchurch, was tethered to the ...
One of th e country’s top litigation lawyers says New Zealand is seeing a lift in court action between companies. Chapman Tripp partner Justin Graham, who oversees a team of around 80 litigation specialists, says the courts are now so log-jammed that it’s taking over two years to get cases ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 9 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government is talking up the crucial role of gas as a transition fuel “through to 2050 and beyond”. In a gas strategy to be released on Thursday, the government envisages the fuel’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Next week the government will again next try to get its legislation through to deal with non-citizens who won’t cooperate with efforts to deport them. The bill, which the opposition and crossbench refused to rush ...
A long-term project that will set out an alternative vision for Aotearoa that looks beyond the narrow confines of the policy straight jacket adopted by successive governments. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bree Hurst, Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Law, QUT, Queensland University of Technology TK Kurikawa/Shutterstock A much-awaited report into Coles and Woolworths has found what many customers have long believed – Australia’s big supermarkets engage in price gouging. What started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Ghezelbash, Associate Professor and Deputy Director, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney The Albanese government wanted to avoid an inquiry into its migration amendment bill. The report, handed down yesterday by a senate committee that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joo-Cheong Tham, Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne Lobbying is at the heart of government. Who has access to and influence over key government officials shapes the decisions governments make – and how they make them. The ability to influence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Myfany Turpin, Associate Professor, Ethnomusicology, Linguistics and Ethnobiology, University of Sydney The act representing Australia at this year’s Eurovision contest has sadly not qualified for the grand final. Yet for Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross, the duo that makes up Electric Fields, ...
In announcing changes to the school lunches programme, David Seymour said kids would no longer be served ‘woke’ foods. To clear up any confusion, The Spinoff has compiled a guide to the wokeness levels of some common food items. Apple = NOT WOKE Avocado = WOKE Avocado, smashed = EVEN ...
The Minister Responsible for GCSB and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security have been notified of this review, and have been provided a finalised Terms of Reference. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Minglu Chen, Senior Lecturer, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Robert Way/Shutterstock As the past few years have illustrated so clearly, the Australia-China relationship is complicated. As such, it is crucial for Australians to develop a more nuanced understanding of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mariana Campbell, Research Lecturer, Conservation, Charles Darwin University Marilyn Connell Australian freshwater turtles are facing an alarming trend. Almost half of these species are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. The Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus) is one of Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debbie Passey, Digital Health Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Josephine Barbaro, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, Psychologist, La Trobe University Unsplash We’ve come a long way in terms of understanding that everyone thinks, interacts and experiences the world differently. In the past, autistic people, people with attention deficit hyperactive disorder ...
PNG Post-Courier Papua New Guinea’s deputy opposition leader James Nomane has accused the government of “reckless economic management” that has forced devaluation to manage loan repayments in foreign currency and placate the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prime Minister James Marape “must stop lying to the people of Papua New Guinea”, ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Jane Arthur, author of Brown Bird, and former bookseller at Good Books.The book I wish I’d writtenI have been working on not comparing myself to others. On accepting that what I can ...
The final decision on the Wellington District Plan makes it official: High-density housing is legal across most of Wellington. Housing minister Chris Bishop has announced his decision on the Wellington District Plan, approving a series of amendments to radically upzone most of Wellington, allowing tens of thousands of new townhouses ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to ...
RNZ News As Israel presses ahead with strikes in Rafah and seizing the Rafah crossing from Egypt, aid agencies are sounding the alarm of a “catastrophic humanitarian situation”. Rafah was “significant” because it was the only part in Gaza that had not been terribly damaged by the conflict, United Nations ...
With funding set to be scrapped for the Hamilton-Auckland commuter train, Te Huia enthusiast Georgie Dansey argues for it to be thrown a lifeline. It’s 5.45am and the chain of my crappy old bike falls off slugging up the one hill in Hamilton. I contemplate yeeting the bike into the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Cooke, Honorary Fellow, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland We feel ecological grief when we lose places, species or ecosystems we value and love. These losses are a growing threat to mental health and wellbeing globally. We all see ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shauna Brail, Associate Professor, Institute for Management & Innovation, University of Toronto A shift to hybrid and remote work continues to affect worker presence in Toronto’s downtown.(Shutterstock) Downtown Toronto, the core of Canada’s largest city, continues to reel from the lingering ...
Responding to an Auditor-General's report slamming failures in the administration of the 2023 General Election, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said: ...
Productivity apps now make up a big chunk of the software market. But do they work? And why do they all have AI integrations?Despite being firmly on the record as a physical planner fan, I sometimes dream of something better than my pretty diary and its scrawled, ugly, interior ...
The Taxpayers’ Union says the Beehive need to lead by example, following reports of more than $50,000 spent upgrading video conferencing equipment and furniture in the Prime Minister’s office. Taxpayers’ Union Campaign Manager, Connor Molloy, ...
An objective list of the 50 most powerful people in New Zealand, as judged by the Spinoff Editorial Board. It’s power list season, baby, and we want in on the action. Sure, there’s the rich list and the powerful “c-suite” list and the young people with power (hmmm) but here, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the names of deceased people, and describes ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. First Nations people in Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University Netflix Baby Reindeer’s phenomenal success has much to do with its writer and lead, Richard Gadd, who plays Donny in a tender semi-autobiographical account of sexual abuse, harassment and stalking. Gadd’s story has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle KarolinaGrabowska/Pexels If you didn’t have food allergies as a child, is it possible to develop them as an adult? The short answer is yes. But the reasons why are much ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Moon, Professor of History, Auckland University of Technology Ans Westra, self-portrait, c. 1963. National Library ref AWM-0705-F They try but invariably fail – those writers who believe they are capable of encapsulating in prose or verse the essence of ...
Stewart Sowman-Lund looks at the growing concern around the world in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. What’s all this? When Covid-19 arrived on our shores in early 2020, some argued we were too slow, or crucially, ill-prepared for a pandemic. So ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Franco Montalto, Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Director, Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Laboratory, Drexel University Water runs into a storm drain in a Los Angeles alley on Aug. 19, 2023, during Tropical Storm Hilary.Citizen of the Planet/Universal Images ...
The inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones has turned up a new witness who says he saw two teenagers and a small child in a high vis vest in the area where the boy’s body was found the day he died. Lachie’s body was discovered face up ...
I see that Kennedy's remark after the shambles that was The Bay of Pigs is equally true in New Zealand.
"Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan"
It would seem that Dr Caroline McElnay was stuck with announcing that there were 71 cases of Covid 19 today. Where was the PM? Where was Hipkins? Where was Bloomfield?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300430651/covid19-outbreak-situation-report-what-happened-today-october-14
This got old over a year ago. It's bad if they're there, it's bad if they're not, toss a coin for the tiresome.
Different people on different days. As always. And decided in advance. But you know all this already.
This tiresome thought in post 1 has surfaced on another board I frequent. Apart from being rubbish it is so obvious that they are not original spontaneous thoughts occurring across the nation.. Almost as if the Nats or whoevers have sent out talking points.
Who cares who fronts? As long as they are competent and Hipkins and Robertson mostly certainly are competent. Bloomfield and McElnay similarly.
I noticed that JC was very scathing that the PM did not front over this past weekend, as if she was having a zzzzz somewhere or just decided not to to walk down from Premier House. JC seemed to forget that the PM was in places like Murupara and the East Coast being part of a drive to up the vaccination rates in those areas.
I know the work I feel is most important and it is not fronting a a weekend Beehive session that could be competently fronted by others
It intrigues me that there seems to be a deliberate policy of not explaining why govt policy has failed to contain the Delta spread whereas it succeeded with the original contagion last year. I'm aware Delta is way more infectious, but we have a tendency in the public to try and blame boundary runners for the spread. I haven't noticed any effort by the authorities to either confirm or deny whether they're guilty.
Could be govt is clueless & prefers not to let on. Human nature. But the idea of transparent governance is that you inform the public when it's in the public interest. I reckon people like to connect cause & effect, so if they don't get official explanations they just make it up as they go along. Semi-plausible narratives will get traction. Dunno if it's wise of officialdom to turn a blind eye to those.
It's pretty obvious
1.case numbers spread out a lot in the initial period, so it took a month to shut the clusters down.
2. to then eliminate would have required weeks more at Level 4 (tough but doable – the government now likes to say, there was no guarantee it would have worked as reason to give up on elimination this year).
2a – they were complacent under elimination and did not have rapid testing at essential workplaces (such as a 15 minute test before entry into a hospital).
3. the plan to open up – including a trial of business workers in home isolation (some risk) before opening up next year with vaccination rolled out.
The dichotomy between 2 and 3 was too much.
So they moved to Level 3 and committed to never going back to Level 4. Instead they had a plan to go down towards level 2 via Level 3 lite.
Now we have community spread that will go over 100 a day by the end of the month. It'll go higher in November and modellers will call for a Level 4 period to take numbers back down again – at some point this is likely (if only for a week or two).
We'll cope provided
1. we contain it in Auckland – then we can transfer health workers into Auckland as need be.
2. we get boosters to those vaxxed earlier in the year to prevent breakthrough infections in health workers and the medically vulnerable (oldies before Christmas).
Even giving you the first part of that proviso; SPC (which seems optimistic), where do you propose that we get the health workers to transfer into Auckland? NZNO members in particular are unlikely to do so simply because the current Minister of Health asks them to! Which leaves Immigration or Conscription – both problematic to my mind.
6 more weeks containment in Auckland till we get to the second dose plus 2 weeks for full immunity is what is wanted/needed
Staff have already gone to one Auckland hospital to help out, and given our increased ICU capacity consists of local nurses recently trained up (and with no experience in this work) or more experienced staff who have managed few pandemic cases they might well volunteer for such secondment – either as completion of their training or preparation for their 2022 jobs locally.
what's the fully vaxxed rate for Auckland currently? Had a look before and couldn't find it.
Auckland is c65% double vaxxed, and over 85% single dose.
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-vaccine-data#group
Just scroll the page to the DHB per 1000 stat.
thanks! The words in that chart didn't turn up on a keyword search.
are you thinking in 6 weeks Auckland will be at 90% double?
Yes.
Other areas will get there by the end of the year, but not all.
Oz and world data.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/covid-19-global-vaccine-tracker-and-data-centre-20210128-p56xht.html
My understanding is that this is basically due to investigations taking more time than the speed of the news cycle. We have in some cases been made aware of how inter regional transmission might have started such as the guy from Auckland district courts going to outside Auckland (and apparently catching it off his transport). I also doubt the media would do much with comprehensive case notes anyway because these would necessarily be days to weeks out of date and the focus is going to be on whats just happened today.
As usual Alwyn I am astounded by your encyclopedic knowledge of memes, sayings and especially the prior promises and eventual failures of our (more left leaning) elected representatives.
Can you let us in on your secret. Do you keep a database of things Jacinda said, or that Grant put his hand in the pocket for? Do you have a revision schedule for keeping up to date with the latest let down?
My only comment here about Ms Ardern was that she didn't appear to be at today's briefing. That is the only thing I said. How does that become something to cause you to decide that you should come out with " I am astounded by your encyclopedic knowledge of memes," etc?
that's not all you said. You also said via implication that Ardern, Hipkins and Bloomfield should have fronted announcing 71 cases instead of leaving it to McElnay.
Your right it wasn't your most insightful comment on here. Still I have no doubt you will lift your game again and could instantaneously roll out 3 election promises Labour have broken, two social justice memes involving Chloe Swarbric and one confidence and supply agreement clause which Winston never honoured. That just seems to be the calabre your in so I was inquiring about your training regemine.
For an older "gentleman" you sure make a lot of childish noises.
Ardern tends to only to come out for def' in media on Mondays these days, unless it is certain questioners who ask difficult questions, then for the rest of the week, it depends on how bad the news is.
Purely a guess from me, but they might have a 1-5 scale.
3-5 bad send someone else out.
1-2 Ardern fronts.
Which though is probably completely bollocks, would be kind of sad given how well she fronted with Chch. Might be a dropping a fair bit in the old polls since the election thing.
Ardern's most recent approval rating is 60%. Up slightly. This was from polling after last week's events, when the pundit chatter simply assumed that she had lost support, with no evidence.
https://twitter.com/oneforthedr/status/1448457378370703367/photo/1
Bollocks. She's in the regions encouraging people to get "jabbed", I think Tauranga or somewhere central NI?
Side note, my 13 year old & I got our 2nd dose today, absolutely no side effects, I don't even have a sore arm this time. It's really remarkable how individualistic people's reactions to the vaccination are. My kid is fine too.
Fantasists seem to think that each day there's a meeting of the cabal (what time? 9 am? 12?) and they decide what the PM is going to do that day, based on the case numbers.
A moment's thought shows how absurd that is.
Alwyn last time it was Jacinda hogging the lime light now your complaining because Jacinda is going to areas of low vaccination to encourage more vaccinations that's what you call a leader doing the right thing.
Looking at Nationals support base what's left of it .All this whinging is getting you no where.
Can you please show me where I claimed that "it was Jacinda hogging the lime light"?
Know what you mean.
It is an interesting thing eh?
Must just be a differing immune system balance or something, Or a genes thing.
Almost makes me want to rock up to the uni library and do some reading.
Chris T – you demonstrably have internet access. Why would you need to physically go to a uni library? Lots of usually paywalled data is freely available for the duration, try this for starters:
https://www.thelancet.com/coronavirus/collection?startPage=¤tPage=&ContentItemCategory=Articles
IFL
You might want to wait until after tomorrow before being too certain about having "absolutely no side effects". I was certainly a bit wiped out for a couple of days there!
Had my second a couple of weeks ago. Had nothing that time.
First one.
Wake up in morning. Walk to kitchen. Start to make cup of tea. Vomit.
From that morning for about 36 hours on couch with bucket. Couldn't even hold water down.
Mentioned it on another article. As I said then. I may just be a weirdo or it happened to co-incide with a bug or something. Never had anything that bad though. I haven't even had the flu before
Oh jeebus, wish I hadn't read that, was quite happy in my blissful ignorance! Fingers crossed I (& my kid) are one of the lucky ones. 
First time I got flu jab years ago I was sick for a couple weeks, & I’d never had flu before (I didn’t even know there was a difference to the cold & the flu).
I wouldn't worry about it. As I say, I may just be a weirdo or I happened to have a bug at the same time.
I work in a big department. 90% I spoke to basically said sore arm for a bit, either slightly sorer the first or second.
Couple of others felt a little nausea.
Only one other had the nausea hitting throwing up level thing, and theirs was just half a day or so.
Don't let it put anyone off. Everyone needs to do it, And the slim chance of a little discomfort is frankly a small price to pay for the greater good.
If it helps the second jab I made sure was Friday afternoon so if it happened again I had the weekend.
Should have probably added it was at least for me the weirdo, literally 36 hrs odd and then fine. It wasn't one of those things where it drags on after.
I was just by then insanely hungry and thirsty pretty quickly and probably would have disemboweled any stopping me getting to the fridge with my glass of chilled water and sandwich my wife kindly prepped for me.
She didn't have jack happen by the way. Pommy bitch! . Just looked at me the whole time sliding between pity and "You bloody wimp". She made some funny jokes about it to cheer me up though
@alwyn are you Bruce Russell in a closed orbit.
Since I haven't the faintest idea who this friend of yours(?) named Bruce Russell is I couldn't possibly comment.
alwyn Mr Russell is a talking head along with Hoskings,the grave yard shift and sometimes spins old day music for those types that yearn for the old times.
Just so the 'sillies' can't make up any theories or rave on about the PM not attending 1.00pm briefings, MOH has announced that the weekend's updates will be via its mailouts/website.
Probably so everyone who can be, is working on the Vaxathon.
I wonder what the anti PM/Govt talking points will be in the coming week?
One Nat supporter on the board where the talking points about the PM & attendance were also raised around the same time as Alwyn's, was moved to write that she did not know which was worse, having to combat Covid misinformation, or political weirdness about who fronts the 1.00pm briefings made as if it was relevant to Covid/ Health/vaccinations.
One of the weird things of the age. Ardern is on the covid conferences a lot and people complain. Apparently she's turning the saga into a PR exercise.
And she comes on and she's all waffle and talking to us as if we're kids we’re told.
Then she's not there and people wet their nappies. What the hell is that all about?
It's the political equivalent of searching through the TV channels to find the sex and violence so they can complain about all the sex and violence on TV … with a little too much enthusiasm.
My thought is that is simply projection from the critic's own worldview. So when say; Collins, claims that Ardern is milking 1pm briefings for favorable publicity, what she really means is that if she was in Ardern's position, that's what she'd do herself.
Sometimes lies tell you more than truths – at least about the person speaking.
I actually think the govt did a good job with the initial shutdowns and it saved us some grief last year, though at the same time the roll out of the vaccine and the slowness nearly cancels it out in shitty work.
I have continued to have mixed feelings about the whole elimination thing.
Probably just me
Can't help feeling it was an extremely expensive and damaging way to delay the inevitable for the entire country. god knows how many small businesses are going to go bust, (don't get me started on why butchers, hair dressers, etc etc can't, eating in outside areas are blocked).
I also noticed in amongst medical and education being compulsarirally vaccinated. Where is the prostitutes? I kind of think they shoud kind of be mentioned.
On the other hand it did give us time to build up a, if not ideal, decent vaxed number
Sorry about the ranting ramble there. Was just thinking about stuff, feel free to ignore
See, without modern medicine I probably would have died years ago. Even today my doctor and I play a little game where I live the life I like and he prescribes the best cocktail of meds that will keep me alive a bit longer.
Why is this relevant? Because life is about delaying the inevitable.
If everything goes tits up and we have 7k, 14k, 80k covid deaths, that's still a couple of years more life than those folks would have had under the "live with it in March 2020" crowd.
Fuck businesses. We're talking about actual life, not livelihoods.
So you have given up on the whole trying to reduce poverty thing?
If businesses go under, the owner goes under, and alll the owners workers lose their jobs.
When the owner loses their job they may not be able to pay their mortgage and they lose their house. They may have more than one and are renting one or two. They lose aa well. The bank takes them and says forced sell. Families renting them are kicked out and have no where to live.
The said owners laid off workers have now got no wage so they can't pay their mortgage. The bank takes their house and they have no where to live.
Depending on their wage they may be renting out a flat. The bank takes this also and sells it and the renters are forced to move out with no where to live, because there is nothing cheap enough in the covid bordered area, so they hang out in a car.
Or the only place the workers can find is some shit hole in no where to rent on the dole. So they have to move their kids to that place and their kids have to go to a new school and no longer can see their friends.
But as you say 10s of thousands of people will probably go through this, but at least we kept out an inevitable get here disease for a few months
If businesses need people to die in order to stay in existence, we're doing it the wrong way around.
Maybe the tourism industry has to go the way of the asbestos industry. Maybe not. But killing people so some small businesses can continue operating without adapting is as callous as it is stupid.
Fixed it for you.
How exactly are you killing people if they are vaxed?
Just out of interest you do know 650 odd people die from car accidents and fku a year?
How many people are YOU willing to let die because their cancer fiscreening/treatment and heart surgeries are being delayed by weeks because of the chance their might be an onslaught of covid people?
Or are they not as important as people who chose not to be vaccinated, and have underlying health conditions?
Are you aware that governments and health planners and modellers actually took into consideration things like delayed health care, and came to understand that more people would die and become disabled if covid was left to run free?
It's not a chance of an onslaught of covid. That's a bizarre statement given what's happened in so many other countries in teh world in the past 18 months. Why would NZ be any different?
And you appear to be suggesting that we have a bunch of people die from covid in addition to those road and flu deaths. Besides, we do what we can to prevent those deaths, it's not like we go, oh can't spend money on making roads safer.
Yes, but we don't destroy small businesses like butchers, hairdressers, and thousands the hospitality industry when they could be open, as they are no different from going to the pub, dentist or doctor because a car might hit a power pole
car accidents aren't infectious diseases. Really not following your argument here. We do a lot to prevent road deaths, it's not really anything to do with small businesses other than pubs etc, and we do prevention work there too.
We also ban drinking and driving, mandate people wear seatbelts, and have a speed limit.
"We also ban drinking and driving, mandate people wear seatbelts, and have a speed limit."
Not sure how banning drink drivers relates to stopping small business open, when others with even more danger can.
Again. Why are prostitutes/sex workers not named with education and medical as have to be vaxed?
Edit: Actually why are they not told they can’t operate. They are a legitimate business now.
"How exactly are you killing people if they are vaxed?"
Death rate is lower in vaxxed people, not non-existent.
Yeah I know. Looked after I posted that sorry.
It is actually not reassuringly low really, vut a shedload better than not being vaxxed.
Kind of like playing russian roullette.
100 shooter pistol.
You get 5 bullets in it if just sit around. Or 1 if you ram this needle in your arm.
Sorry. Sick analogy
Edit: Bad math.
1000 bullet gun
50 bullets sit around
5 get wounded and have to go to hospital
1/2ish bullet if you jab this needle in arm twice
Probably bad math. Bit late and just about to go to bed
You have this the wrong way round – delays for the possibility of covid is nothing like the massive demand on hospitals due to actual covid when a 'live with it' strategy was used. For example, from the British Medical Journal:
https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n339
With all due respect. You can't just pluck that from the UK from 8 months ago when piss all people were vaccinated (I think they are still sitting on less than 75% first vaccunation even now) and use it as a model for how it will play out here.
are you suggesting that the modelling for NZ, once we are at 90% vax rate is wrong or can't be trusted?
Putting aside I wouldn't trust that Hendy dudes (or whatever his name is) not at all.
I was just pointing out the linmiravox posted with the quote was from Feb when piss all people in the UK were vaccinated.
I wouldn't trust that Hendy dudes, not at all.
Of course not – a professional actually competent to model outbreaks? He debunks all your reckons without breaking a sweat.
Even at a 95/95/95 assumption (95% vaxxed, 95% no infection in vaxxed, 95% no hospitalisation of infected vaxxed person), that leaves:
750k 0-12yo to spread or get the disease
250k 12+ who are unvaccinated
In addition to those million people, there are another 200k vaxxed people who do not have full protection.
So about a fifth of our population will still be vulnerable to delta. With a vulnerable group that large, what do you think the transmission numbers will be?
The vast vast vast vast vaster daylight vast ratio of (Not sure about babies) under 12s wouldn't even know they had it, let alone take long to lose it
Well, assuming even none of them actually get symptoms, there are almost half a million people they can give it to (after trading it to each other at school).
Sorry. Reply button gone
Yeah, but it is just going to happen. As I said earlier. It is a delay to the inevitable. Holding a crucifix up to stop an avalanche hitting you.
I mean a kid under 12 gets it and they inevitably will and spread it, it ain't like you can stop them play fighting, cuddling, with each other, or make them keep masks on. It spreads exponentially.
It is what it is
I would pity parents who tried to though. While also I think I would find it funny watching them try to 🙂
Just need to make sure enough people are vaccinated as possible. And I won't bring up lack of ICU prep, but will probably do on another day
No, it'll never happen. Because that was 95/95/95.
At 90/95/95, that's ~750k kids to spread it, ~430k unvaxxed >=12yo, and ~190k vaxxed but it didn't take.
The longer we put it off, the higher the vax number is and the fewer unvaxxed adults are out there – even if you think child covid won't really happen (it does, but that's another argument).
Sure, ICU beds are an issue, and general health equity, and shit housing (especially emergency housing for poor people). These are the systemic issues over decades that have sown what we reap.
But like whinging hairdressers and restauranteurs, they aren't reasons to just let covid run free as soon as possible. The way to victory here is constant delaying. Cunctator-stylez.
"You know what's more tough? Actually dying."
Currently in NZ we have had 2 die and a fairly high inoculation rate and climbing now, so please don't quote shit unvaccinated countries from months ago
"Saying everything should open up"
That isn't what I said but feel free to quote me saying it.
I said places like butchers and hairdressers. Because you know. How dumb arse it I can't get cheap steaks wrapped in paper from a dude in a butcher only he touched with plastic gloves, while then walk to a super market and fart around with a trolley 20 people have used.
And again why are sex workers not closed and forced to vax as it is apparently a ligitamate businesses from labour.
It can't be hard. They contact them through their tax returns and GST claims to vonfirm it
Well, it's not like you've presented any others. You don't like my numbers, you don't like Hendy's numbers, how many people do you think will die when we go to level 2 permanently? To keep hairdressers and independent butcheries open so you can have a nice steak?
And going all Palpatine with "it is inevitable" ignores the fact that the longer we wait, the higher our vax level. Where do you think diminishing returns come in? When half a million 12+ are unvaxxed? 750k? 250k? You reject Hendy's numbers, fair enough. Whose numbers do you figure are reasonable? As you say, from a couple thousand cases in a largely vaxxed population we've had two dead and currently 617 active cases and 26 in hospital.
How many cases will occur to make you put up with a supermarket steak (and they should have sanitising wipes for the trolley, complain if they don't)?
Are the brothels still open? How does one "close" an itinerant sex worker? If indeed those rumours are true, rather than just dodgy assumptions.
Actually, the businesses with regular accounts probably qualify for the wage relief. In lieu of providing other relief. And, like hairdressing, I suspect that the business value is in the skills and practitioner reputation rather than capital investment, so would be easier to start up again if things go tits-up.
I didn't mean child covid won't happen. I meant as they play together the vast vast vast majority will be fine while then giving it to adults who may not be.
Now parks are open. it is just going to happen.
Agree health lack of infrestucture is a decades old issue and there are two certain PM's who spent 18 years between them in charge who basically fucked it. Same with housing, but another discussion.
"But like whinging hairdressers and restauranteurs, "
They are dying and looking at having to tell their staff they are sacked. How hard is this to get?
The wage subsidy cover exactly that. Not rent. Power. GST. Insurance. ACC. Food spoilage and throwing away because the govt demands we have to wait till a certain time on a monday afternoon to say any actual shit and they have to be prepared at any time to try to open.
And even that has a limit of 600 bucks a week I think and is taxed, so the small business owner has to top that up so their staff can pay shit like their mortgage when they are normally on about 2 k a week And you have to justify it every 2 weeks
I know Labour don't get it as they think all businesses are the size of Microsoft as and all the business owners are evil, none have had to run one, but they need to to start sourcing advice from the business community rather than tight arsed, probably still living with mum stats dude from Wellington.
No they're not dying. They're looking at losing money and winding up their business.
I'm involved with a peekaboo (lol pcbu in the osh parlance) that is in the shit right now. We will probably be able to keep operating, but yeah, it's tough.
You know what's more tough? Actually dying.
Saying everything should open up and disease should walk the land so I can keep my business profitable would be almost sociopathic. But there's this affliction amongst many SMEs where their owner-operators care more about their bottom line than literally the lives of other people.
So yeah, we can still minimise the spread until as many people are vaccinated who can be. Some kids in parks might spread it around a bit more than everyone adhering to L4 standards, but full classrooms definitely will. Same with malls.
I never aid Auckland should go to level 2. It is fairly obvious it won't for a while.
I just said small businesses like butchers and hairdressers etc etc should be allowed to open.
I have tried to be diplomatic but frankly I am beginning to run out of patience, The govts qualification for who can open and can't with risk at level 3 in Auckland is fucking shit.
OK Let me put it this way as the other isn;t working. Why can't butchers be open with proper shop access?
Some possibilities come to mind:
And you never answered why sex workers don't have to be vaccinated and why they are open when butchers aren't
Edit: And please don’t say anonymity given they would have done the GST and tax things.
I'm pretty sure that sex workers shouldn't actually be operating under L3, so not sure what power a vaccine mandate would hold over the ones currently operating.
But also I'm not sure all of them operate as registered businesses with appropriate ACC levy registration (which would probably be slightly more accurate than companies or gst documentation – for the ones that do their full paperwork).
I mean, stunning idea for people in the privileged classes I know, but not all financial transactions or operations are duly reported to the government.
I was being a bit tongue and check there to be fair.
I just saw the two head up north and was wondering if/how they could claim it.
They are probably in the in the shit business group.
But then it has always slightly annoyed by they are now being treated as a proper job they never have to pay tax.
(legitamate brothel establishments excluded)
And I know I have a weird sense of humour. (Dusclaimer)
But I was wondering if they were covered now by ACC work wise if they got injured by using props in their workplace
Edit: Kind of cut hand while clients girls school skirt belt swished too much. He was ok, type thing.
ACC: “Sweet as. We will pay this for the hand therapist”
oh, they wouldn't be the only trades offering cheaper jobs for cash payments.
Almost certainly not. But then ACC would have probably written off their RSI as a pre-existing injury anyway lol
Your whole thread went back to the beginning of the pandemic and your mixed feelings on the elimination strategy. The most likely scenario for delays in non-covid treatment, is covid itself, not some strategy of bed and appointment blocking 'just in case' (in fact NZ did clear space for the worst happening but we never had to implement that plan in any major way).
We can't use NZ as an example of what happens when we open up now – because it the covid pandemic didn't happen, we're not starting with a covid-induced backlog. We'll find out more in our vaccinated future shortly.
As weka suggests, they plan for this stuff. That's the question – do you trust the planning or not?
Depends who is doing the planning. I certainly don't trust that hendy dude's who was basically just given millions bt labour with no proper best of practice on who to use.
"Your whole thread went back to the beginning of the pandemic and your mixed feelings on the elimination strategy."
This is a fair point.
I did say it was a rambling rant, but I should have been more clear in the difference status of countries situations vax verse infection wise, sorry.
I am also going to hold you to that thousands estimate of deaths
How? That's what would have happened if the business uber alles crowd had gotten their way a year and a half ago. Look at… damned near every other nation on the planet.
And the impact on other medical care is a valid, quantifiable question to ask (with reasonable data and reporting) – but it's a lot different to removing disease controls so we can preserve the cashflows of "just cutz" or "try hair".
But then you'd also be factoring in ICU occupancy during a pandemic and other outbreak-related impacts on the healthcare system, right? Right?
As for vaccination, it's a tool in the box. But it's not 100%, and some people will still die when this thing is endemic. That happens. And the predicted math of dead in that circumstances should be balanced against any dead you happen to be able to think of when you are reminded why we have these allegedly business-destroying lockdowns (although our GDP seems to suggest that a healthy population has fewer lockdowns and more economic activity than a plagueland).
But the business sector should not be a consideration in any "opening up" decision.
Now do the costs associated with hundreds of people likely not working, or working reduced hours, for months post infection.
How will this play out for the working population?
Using UK data to inform assumptions around vaccination effectiveness at stopping infections and lowering the likelihood of hospitalisation if infected, we have projected numbers of cases, hospitalisations, ICU and ‘long COVID’
for Australian workers consistent with the Doherty modelling.
In summary, our projections result in just over 100,000 COVID-19 infections in workers leading to around 10,000 hospitalisations, of which 700 are admitted to ICU. Up to (or perhaps even exceeding) 7,000 long COVID cases may develop who are fully off work, and twice as many again will still be on reduced work, 7 months later.
Vaccination changes the risk of infection and hospitalisation significantly. 42,000 COVID-19 cases are projected from the vaccinated workforce of 7.2 million workers. 64,000 COVID-19 cases are projected to come from unvaccinated workers (1.8 million workers).
https://www.finity.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/WC_COVID-19_dfinitive_Oct_2021.pdf
Andrew little said on the radio tonight that 95% of infections will not have to go to hospital and can be looked after with visits to home for food etc.
Has he not read you 10% hospitalisation modelling?
Also. You can't model long covid. They are still not sure what it is.
long covid rates are estimated to be between 10% and something like 30%. That rate should be lower in fully vaccinated people, but, we don't know yet how that will play out, and we don't know if new variants will be worse.
Two grand nieces with covid were at home in outer Sydney, had home monitoring including oxygen monitoring via the finger. Both are fine but they were already vaccinated.
Hospitalisations aside, anywhere between an estimated 25% and 80% of infected patients will be saddled with one or more long-term symptom/s. Should those numbers come to pass, good luck accessing anything resembling timely medical care in a health system that's near on it's knees today.
5%. 10%. It's still a significant number when we aren't doing lockdowns for each and every community case.
Yeah, fair point.
I think one of the things on our side. (Well apart from Auckland maybe. Sorry guys!), is the fact we have a pretty impressive amount of space to people ratio outside the big cities.
We may end up with Omega Man like cities and loads of farmers turning them into dairy farms. Moaning that Aucklanders only left them one bridge to get them to the milking sheds.
(Sorry. That was a bad joke)
Apparently rural areas in the US are getting hit hard now – not just because of maga vax hesitancy.
Sure, one can spend all one's time on the farm, but one eventually goes into towd – the supply store, the bar, the church, the parts store, the vet supply store. And they see everyone in the area who eventually comes into town. The node with many edges comes into play again.
And then the farmers die in greater number because they're further from help.
It ain't the endtimes, but fuck it's depressing.
Hairdressers have been going gangbusters around lockdown restrictions, it's not something most people can generally do themselves, & you seem to not have noticed that butcher shops are probably at 10% of the numbers they once were at but not due to covid or any restrictions. They started to become a thing of the past due to supermarkets. Other businesses have modified how they do things in a meaningful way since the 2020 lockdown – local garage ie operates 4 days a week now not 5 with no reduction in anyone's wages or the volume of service they provide. They've condensed it to less down time over the week. There are valuable things to learn from operating more effectively, when done well it also benefits retail along the line as well
Virus
Threatening our very existence
With grave and deadly persistence;
Get the vaccine today
There’s no other way –
Upon this there is widespread insistence.
Nearly; AFdeV, but something is off with the second line of your limerick. I think it needs another syllable in the second triplet (or at least a comma) eg With grave and most deadly persistance. Also There's & there is, would work better swapped between the fourth and fifth lines (or maybe On instead of Upon). Plus it's not obscene at all! Though I guess that could be implied in the threatened existence.
Who's a clever killing machine?
https://twitter.com/AbraxasSpa/status/1447850751787773956
Ghost Robotics and SWORD International have teamed up to create a rifle-toting "robot dog." Called the Special Purpose Unmanned Rifle, or SPUR, the system adds a 6.5mm Creedmoor rifle from SWORD to one of Ghost Robotics' quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicles, or Q-UGVs.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42717/robot-dogs-can-now-have-6-5mm-assault-rifles-mounted-on-their-backs
Can it shoot Pfizer darts?
Two grand nieces with covid were at home in outer Sydney, had home monitoring including oxygen monitoring via the finger. Both are fine but they were already vaccinated.
What’s the public supposed to do with this? IT expert says the vax app has medium security flaws, MoH IT dude says trust us it’s safe.
https://twitter.com/radionz/status/1448404427841228803?s=21