I have deleted and re edited this comment many times, most version are not that complementary to our PM, government and enablers.
Try dealing with school kids losing it over exams and from my social circles and family who teach this is wider spread than a few isolated examplesDon’t tell high school students and parents to wait until Wednesday for some direction on our path. The emotional toll is mounting and I hope that any out there also utilise the help out there. I will leave it there before I embarrass someone 🤬
I was pretty unimpressed with todays speech from the podium. Being in Auckland, all I know for sure is we are still locked down at level 3.1 for the next two weeks at least. What is happening about schools? What does Auckland need to do to get out of this lockdown? No dates, no targets. Only future announcements where we might learn more.
I'll pass on your kind thoughts to those hairdressers, beauticians, shop keepers and other business people trying to keep people employed on wage subsidies and their businesses afloat after nearly 10 weeks of lock downs and no income I'm sure when they are re-mortgaging their houses they will think of your kind words "diddums".
There is a lot to consider on allowing students back to school. Those in year 11, 12 and 13 due to exams and NCEA levels.
Those in new entry to year 8 who are not eligible for vaccination are going to be exposed to a virus and take it home.
I think it will not be compulsory to send a student back to school. Levels of anxiety are going to be seen in schools and this will need to be managed. Some students may end up learning more at home.
The learning resources need to be made available to students who are being disadvantaged.
No one wants students to be deprived of receiving the best education that can be given. Or to expect teachers to be responsible for the welfare of their students when not knowing how Covid is going to impact the school community.
and yet here we are 18 month into a pandemic that is world wide, has caused havoc world wide, and we have no plan up and running in regards to anything, not even how to educate our children.
Hindsight is a wonderful things ain't it Sabine. We all knew from early 1920 that this is exactly where we would be in October 1923. So clever of us, so why didn't the government and the experts know? (sarc)
We have had 18 month of hindsight. The delta outbreak in India happened earlier this year. China welded the doors shut on apartment doors in January last year.
The US has agressively been vaccinating since Biden moved to the white house. Ditto France, Germany, Italy etc. All have seen several waves of Covid wash over their countries, and we should be able to learn from it.
At the very least we should have some plans in place for the education of our young ones. But we always seem to be one step behind.
If we dont' start having some hindsight by now, we never will, and how can we have then foresight to anticipate? Or is that something the governments risk analysts don't do?
Think you have missed my point. We as a nation of people had no more hindsight in early 2020 than the experts did so rabbiting on about a lack of hindsight by experts is a bit of an own goal.
As for plans for the future. Did you not hear the bit about:
Anyone heard anything more about packs of dogs supposedly running wild up north ?Doc spokespeople ive heard on the subject a couple of times say they,re a threat cause they might carry Rabies !.Im just supprized there havnt been more reports of dog attacks on stock although they could be living on possums i guess .
If NZ emerges from this pandemic with a per capita Covid death rate one tenth that of Aussie's, and less than one 300th that of the UK/USA, then at least some voters will cut our government a bit of slack, personal feelings of entitlement notwithstanding – I know I will.
A time of troubling division [16 Oct 2021] It does mean that when we need to come together to figure things out, we try to do so with enough respect and empathy that we give ourselves a chance of making it work.
Your sense of security and other warm fuzzies is being taken from the hides of Aucklanders suffering really fucking onerous removals of our actual rights. With our government failing to provide any kind of clarity on any substantial actions to get us out of the situation, just trying to make do with soothing meaningless noises about some kind of plan maybe sometime vaguely in the future.
Every person has the right to manifest that person's religion or belief in worship, observance, practice, or teaching, either individually or in community with others, and either in public or in private. REMOVED
Freedom of peaceful assembly
Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. REMOVED
Freedom of association
Everyone has the right to freedom of association. REMOVED
Freedom of movement
(1)Everyone lawfully in New Zealand has the right to freedom of movement and residence in New Zealand. REMOVED
(2)Every New Zealand citizen has the right to enter New Zealand. REMOVED
I've done my responsibilities and got fully vaccinated at my first available opportunity. Have you?
At this point you shouldnt be angry at the unvaxxed as of weeks ago there should have been a vax passpot system and rapid testing up and running allowing a bunch of places like hairdressers for example to reopen. Thats a govt failure.
Govt I feel is happy for the unvaxxed to take the blame for the lack of freedoms as it deflects from the lack of a coherent strategy.
Its rapidly turning into a fucking joke… the mood was firstly relief that we wernt back to level 4 then anger… Aucklands starting to simmer…
Andre and Maurice we have had more freedoms than most all through this. Delta has been and is a different beast. Those who listen for one thing don't hear the other messages. I will be lambasted for this but really…
We are struggling to keep the r infection rate to a safe level. It could easily spiral away as happened in Melbourne and in Singapore. So yes Lock down.
Those asking for "Plans" are really saying "I don't like this plan so what else have you got?" because they don't want to wait for 90% of the eligible to get vaccinated. (remember that is really 75%)as 11 years down and some cannot be vaccinated yet.
The plan is to keep a lid on this to allow time for the young to get their first have 3 weeks get their second and have 2 more weeks.
When Delta is detected in all those suburbs of Auckland and in Hamilton, well we hunker down till our defences are in place otherwise we accept a daily death toll and high numbers of sick.
Every country has failed unless they have used draconian measures or have natural immunity in those left or vaccinated at speed after 4 or 5 waves.
Accusing the Health team and the Government of enjoying this is so silly it flies in the face of sane behaviour.
Use the channels available for help if you feel that upset and angry. Some here are being patient and this means surgery delays so yes sometimes we write about hopeful warm fuzzy things. They are the teddy bears in our window to get through.
We are anxious separated from loved ones and come here to discuss ideas and touch base. Nasty rants don’t change anything and often make things worse. Now I feel better even if you don’t.
Patricia, the very obvious problem here is the glacial pace of new first vaccinations.
This very obvious problem needs a plan to address it. Now.
There is zero evidence that the government has any urgency in developing and implementing a plan to lift those glacially slow first vaccination rates. Instead they appear to be just finding it easier to keep indefinitely extending Auckland's lockdown, while murmuring sweet nothings about how important vaccinating is.
By the time polls show Auckland's turn against the government for being continually shat on with ever-extending lockdowns with zero effort to bring the end closer, it will be too late. The minds and warmth and kudos for the previous good management will be lost, and will be very difficult to get back.
I don't know for sure whether I've gone past the point of no return on that, but it certainly feels like it right now. Lefties around the country gleefully advocating inflicting yet more level 4 on Auckland, while posting apologia and justifications and encouragement for the vaccine refusers, have certainly contributed to what I'm feeling right now.
Lefties around the country gleefully advocating inflicting yet more level 4 on Auckland, while posting apologia and justifications and encouragement for the vaccine refusers…
Disagree with "gleefully", and particularly with "encouragement for the vaccine refusers" (as would Goudie and King), but since you feel "continuously shat on" by our government's pandemic response you should definitely shift your vote to a party (National or ACT) that more closely matches your current hopes and dreams vis-à-vis COVID.
During this pandemic the team has enjoyed extended periods of some of the least stringent restrictions on day-to-day activities – this has likely contributed to resentment towards alert level 4/3/2 restrictions of the last 2 months.
I try not to lose sight of the purpose of these temporary restrictions, which is to limit the freedom of COVID-19 to spread and cause illness and death.
The COVID response remains a challenging balancing act for our govt. Some armchair critics grizzle and gripe about temporary alert level restrictionscurtailing freedoms, while others object to some of the relatively strong vaccine mandates that are being put in place – each of us knows what the government should do, because we each know what's best for ourselves.
Regarding your “smug sanctimony” jibe, my preference was and still is for NZ's pandemic response to prioritise health outcomes. This response may not be morally superior to others, but it has indisputably saved (or at least delayed the loss of) Kiwi lives – regrettably it’s no longer sustainable.
Almost as useful as those of us that had to suffer through 6 hours of indoctrination on how to deliver COVID injections as we had spare time during Level 4 lockdown despite decades of experience.
I will examine what I write carefully. I do not ever wish to rub salt in wounds.
About Jacinda Ardern, she at some point will separate from the Advisors as she is aware of the pain. I think she instructed Hipkins and Bloomfield to come up with milestones regarding vaccination. I believe she has asked for more support for Auckland businesses from Robertson to be presented on this Friday. We will see. We get it. It's all like a slow train wreck.
But this is rather like being on the Titanic, having the knowledge of the coming iceberg. Knowing you can't completely miss it and frantically planning implementing communicating and fighting off the loud entitled who insist we can't sink and the ball in the ballroom has to go ahead as planned or there will be panic.
Our Titanic is Delta, and our iceberg is the number of alternative thinkers out there who are endangering themselves and threaten to wreck our systems.
Our Doctor just this morning said 3+ Doctors are being assessed by the Medical Council for promoting alternative views and discouraging vaccination. Some areas also have poor Leadership around vaccination from Church Leaders and the Anti-Vax supporters as well. This is a lifeboat with a hole in it.
It is really hard, keep the faith, this Government wishes to do their best for us. Thanks for your thoughtful reply, keep feeling you can express your anger.. that is a healthy reaction actually.
Just observing that the team has managed to achieve some pretty good Covid health outcomes to date – not without considerable sacrifice and suffering of course, and some will have struggled more than others.
Going by the 'f**k count', feelings are running pretty high. So if having a go at my supposed "sense of security and other warm fuzzies" [?] helps then have at it.
Yes, some always suffer more then others, and sadly they the same that have suffered before the pandemic. And yeah, next year there will be another trickle down increase in their benefit rates that will at the same time be removed from a side benefits, but it will make us all feel so fuzzy and warm and good about our self. Trickle trickle trickle. And if it is not enough and you can't pay rent and eat, here be housed in a unsued motel somewhere with no cooking or laundry facilities. Don't you feel so warm and fuzzy now?
But hey, i hear someone is getting married. Now that is good news.
From the luxury of the position we are in we are free to philosophise, pontificate and ponder.
It's as if we watched a big tsunami heading our way, wiping out lots of places on its way to get us. We got in a such a position though it didn't get us past bits around the edges.
We say, "Thank God for that, that was close, we're been spared. Thank you for those who led us to here?"
No. We say, "Why did you got that way, why didn't you do this instead? Why didn't you think about this, why didn't you consider that? You did this wrong, you stuffed that up. You are incompetent. We would have done it so much better." And on and on.
Early on it was "We should be doing what Australia's doing." A week later, "We should be copying Singapore." A week on, "Why aren't we copying Sweden?"
And we've been to Finland and Japan and back to Australia several times, or just some states of our neighbours. And to Taiwan and just about everywhere except the US.
We had more scientific experts per capita than anywhere in the world, all qualified overnight. Fancy that, we got the real advice from the real scientists not the local internet ones.
Tonight I see from Maori TV via the Herald: "Murupara kaumātua says he and other local Māori don't want the Pfizer vaccine and are waiting for other vaccines they think will be more effective."
I see "Covid 19 Delta outbreak: 1000 surgeries cancelled every week."
The tsunami didn't get us but waves like that are smashing us. Idiots like Brian Tamaki are smashing us. I don't mind them having a death wish. I don't mind the non-vaxxers worrying about the microchips carried in the vaccine or the fact that the vaccine as the lunatic American doctor claimed, will magnetise their bodies.
I don't like the idea though that they threaten my family, my friends and me. And for the information of that mad cow American, metal won't stick to my brow because of the magnetism in the vaccine.
I dont' know where anyone here lives, and i don't live in Auckland, but frankly these guys have had three month now on Home D. Maybe a bit of kindness is on order now? Just a wee bit. Specially from those that are not currently locked up at home without an end in sight.
I'm just so so proud of all you posting and commenting standardistas on the restraint and decorum displayed re the news that HDPA is expecting a son. I read this blog assiduously and I thought, oh no the sarcy comments are going to flow. Indeed I thought of a few myself. Well done guys, having a child is special.
Pandemic modeller for research centre Te Punaha Matatini Shaun Hendy told Stuff on Monday that “relaxation at the moment would be very dangerous”.
Public health professor and epidemiologist Michael Baker said . “We’ve got only a small benefit coming from rising vaccine coverage, also the move into summer – I don’t think that will be enough to balance the effects of much more exponential rise,” he said. “With a [case number] doubling time of two weeks, where will that put us in that pre-Christmas period? Will we be in danger of overwhelming the health system?”
I've actually spent a lot of time with some vaccine hesitants getting them actual accurate information, and talking them through how routine vaccination is just a normal part of life for the large majority of the population.
I'm pretty sure I was mostly responsible for one success, and it feels close for a second.
But I'm utterly fucking disgusted with those that are encouraging the conditions that will contribute to that death and disability by posting apologia and encouragement for vaccine hesitancy.
Honestly that should never be asked from someone who obviously has been in lockdown now for almost 3 month. Not needed.
We all do what we can. I don't think anyone is trying to get covid or spread it. We all try to live with it as much as we can. But we can not ask for some to be under constant home D without accepting that people will lose it. That would be downright cruel and / or foolish. We can also not demand that people stay in lockdown and watch their lifes and their lifelyhood disappear down the drain, no matter if that is a hair dresser or a restaurant or just a retail business.
the government had 18 month now of information on how this plague works, we have seen it in China, Italy, France, Germany, USA, South America, UK, India etc. And here we are, getting a daily update on numbers and nothing else.
No plan on how to educate our kids other then what was set up last year, which is inadequite and does not work for all – re connectivity and hardware. Need a doctor or surgery, well that is a no. Can't enter the country, can't leave the country. ETC etc etc.
At some stage they need to serve up something better then this lukewarm warmed up re-iteration of 'be kind – to us specially, and use up your savings if you are running out of money, cause hey ……Grant likes to underspent his budgets.
And fwiw, the whole of the North Island is struggling. Maybe the South Island is so remote taht if the north island implodes it can go chugging along – growing their own kale and milking the last few cows that are allowed, but here in the North Island Auckland is needed and Aucklanders are part of our whanau. If that is still something that we consider of worth. .
So what are we going to do after the 90% vaccination rate? Keep the country closed until we are back to 0 cases? what if that does not happen? Seriously, this discussion needs to be had.
Honestly that should never be asked from someone who obviously has been in lockdown now for almost 3 month. Not needed.
It was a rhetorical question that Andre doesn't need to answer any more than Baker and Hendy need to answer for raising vax rates.
I agree the bigger conversation needs to be had. I've been trying to have it the whole time. Only I don't think there's a BAU to return to. Andre's stress and frustration is totally understandable. I've been there before covid, as have plenty of others. Only the limiting factors were being disabled and having a government and society that basically didn't give a shit. So my perspective on it is different. Having sometimes severe limitations on one's life isn't new to many of us.
I also think that covid is the starter and climate/eco crises are going to hit us way harder than this. Best we get on with adaptation and mitigation of both covid and climate change. If kids can't go to school, then society can adapt to homeschool. If people are bored walking in their neighbourhood, then make the neighbourhood a great place to be. If L4 is unbearable, then let's do the mahi of changing that so that it becomes tolerable.
No-one is talking about this because most people thing it's soon going to be over and hey presto all the businesses will be open again and NZers will vote in neoliberal governments and go back to ignoring poor and disabled people and the eco crises.
I am very doubtful that it will be over soon. I think it's possible NZ hasn't had the hardest pandemic year yet, but that that will be 2022 as we have to learn to live with covid in the community and people dying and then how to manage long covid.
Yes, lockdown is fucking hard. Haven't seen too many conversations on TS about the people that are going to have their lives destroyed by long covid and having to be WINZ clients. This isn't to diss people losing it under lockdown, it's to say either way was always going to be really hard. As you know it just hits people differently.
All that shit that the hippies were talking about, we should be stepping up now. Local food, local economy, build strong communities, help each other, plant a shit load of trees, shift values and priorities. It doesn't have to be this bad.
and you know, you can imagine what it's like for someone in my situation to hear a centre leftie saying they're going to vote National. National who destroyed so many of our lives and who would have made covid into an utter disaster instead of the half disaster that it is now.
I posited last year at the beginning of L4 that this plague will take several years, that we will have rolling lockdowns, with all the assorted misery that living under a siege brings with it.
I personally am not too affected by staying at home, i am not a very outgoing person (don't cope well in large settings), and i can understand how those that live with disability have more of a nuanced way of looking at lockdowns due to their own diminished reality of moving about, but we can not overlook the fact that we are the minority and that humans are social beings and like to gather. We can not overlook the fact that not everyone will cope well, and we are seeing this now.
And yet, here we are, and it seems that some of us are quite happy to lock up AKL indefinitely if it keeps them in their supposed 'safe' bubble. Never mind that safe does not exist anymore.
I think that the govt did pretty much everything correct with regards to containing the virus initially, i think that the wage subsidy was simply just a triage mechanism to prevent a million people at once hitting the unemployment queues, and was wasted in many cases, it would have been better to allow businesses to go bust without dragging the owners into bankruptcies, i think that our children should be first priority and that if we can’t educate them we are cutting off our noses.
But here we are 18 month in, and we seem to not have added anything new to what we do.
And it gets tedious, even for those that don't live in AKL. Covid is an utter disaster, even if we managed to feel very smug in our wee island far far away from everywhere for a while.
The brother of a friend of mine killed himself last week. He hang himself in the garage, long haul Covid. He got it last year with his mum. She did fine, he did not. And in the end he killed himself because his body was slowly but surely rotting away – and there was nothing anyone could do.
We need to have this discussion now, because the vaccination are not the great opening to life. Vaccine, permanent mask wearing, keeping social distancing, no contact business to very low contact business, rapid saliva testing, is what will be.
In Germany kids go to school. They wear masks, and have three tests a week. Rapid saliva tests. Essentially they live by the three G's.
Getested – get tested
Geimpft – get jabbed
Genessen – recover from disease
Can we at least demand some quick delivery of rapid saliva tests from the government before someone doo doos us demanding human beings for not being grateful enough for US keeping US safe while we are locking us up in our houses with no end in sight?
I feel that if we don't get really honest real fast, you will see that getting people to have booster shots will be even harder then getting them to get the double jabs now.
Sabine yes, we have to lay out the hard truths. His sad death should be noted in the effects of covid.
I think the Government needs to mandate vaccines to assist businesses to achieve this, also mandate mask wearing and social distancing.
Shopping is difficult, as is education, as we need air filtering in every public place before next year. As we learn of helpful methods they should be mandated.
When I was a child chewing tobacco was a thing. Spittoons were in each train carriage. That was to stop people spitting on the floor because of tuberculosis. A sign promised a ten pound fine for expectorating .
Yes I agree Weka. I think you are so rational in the face of pain and a long wait for surgery, as are friends and our son. I feel for Andre, some situations are more triggering than others. I became a bit depressed at one stage he is angry, i think it is actually a form of grief.
I agree. I think one of the most urgent things we need to be doing is teaching resiliency skills (and probably grieving). To do that we'd have to acknowledge the long term nature of the crisis and that some things have been lost.
Rational, maybe, born of long experience of restrictions and learning how to cope. Mindfulness has helped a lot.
There's an edge between compassion for people having a really hard time, and this being a political blog.
Here here.Please, folk out there stay the coarse,I'm down south but am truely grateful for all the people up north trying their best.As Peter Gabriel sings "hold the line".
Surely it is not just about the vaccination rate. I had not thought it was a 'one shot wonder' from the Govt. Ha ha sorry not funny perhaps
How has this been boiled down to this one thing. I know the current focus has been on vaccination. This is not the only part of the plan to open up NZ that is being worked on.
The item that many of us have been watching in the Akl situation is the number of cases that cannot be linked. This is despite not now assigning the results to sub clusters.
When I last looked over the weekend there was a tail of around 114? to be linked.
With my degree in MB epidemiology to my way of thinking this signals that perhaps there are carriers. pockets, people with Delta that are still passing it on. Again with my degree in psychology I would suggest that these are unlikely to be vaccinated.
So I don't think it is a single task and once this is done Akl opens.
What with employers in essential industries not mandating the vaccine for their public facing employees ie border crossing truckies are still allowed despite no vaccination and we now have a rest home in Remuera with a single vaccinated person with Covid. If this is a worker then both employer/ee have left it very late to get started on the vaccination process. How can an employer be happy with a worker with only one part of a two part vaccination working?
A missing part of the equation should also be an expectation that employers will do their bit. I am not getting this feeling that this is happening widely though with MSM who knows?
I have friends in Auckland and they have said that the single thing that has kept them going is the 40 min walk they do every single day. If they need it they do another walk. They start each day with a to do list. One works from home. They have taken advantage of the picnic idea to catch up with another bubble. Not really their thing they say but it is the only one on offer.
Is there a person you can talk to. It is not unusual to be feeling these things but perhaps better to not suffer in silence of there is a trained person you can talk to? The last two paras are written with kindness. .
Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā (National Maori Pandemic Group) co-leader Dr Rawiri Jansen said
The case numbers should give everybody pause. They are, either frankly, sobering or scary. The region would have to stay at alert level 4 for weeks. This is so hard. I get that it's hard. But honestly, we're facing a ‘this-is hard’ or this is deaths. That's just such a difficult thing.”
Immunologist and Associate Dean (Pacific) at the University of Otago (Wellington)Dr Dianne Sika-Paotonu
We desperately need to buy more time to drive vaccination rates up even further as quickly as possible, and to give more time for our hospitals to be ready for what’s coming.
Dr Dion O’Neale, principal investigator at Te Pūnaha Matatini, said
it doesn’t look like we’re on a trajectory we want to be on
To change the subject to another very important matter, has anyone seen that Stuff have started a detailed investigation into the biodiversity crisis in New Zealand and the world? Has anyone seen it?
The first episode looks at seabirds. Looks like some excellent work by Andrea Vance and Iain McGregor.
From the article, some startling facts :
1. We are ranked 89th in the world for conversion of natural habitat.
2. In New Zealand, there are more than 4000 indigenous species at risk.
3. We are ranked 13th in the world for the use of fertiliser.
4. We are ranked the worst in the world, for the proportion of threatened species we have.
It will make you consider whether you should be eating tuna.
If I have time, I'll put a more detailed report tomorrow.
If too many consumers are contributing to the biodiversity crisis in New Zealand and the world declining fertility should mitigate it. Not a short term fix though.
Our treatment of the NZ environment; flora and fauna is IMO worse than how we deal with CO2, and in my disappointment feel bad giving TG a vote. There is no international distain to be expressed and embarrass our govt into action. Any pressure on the govt is by a small group of kiwis with their efforts going unseen in restoring parts on NZ to its former glory.
This has some short comings yet still worth the time to watch, especially under the current conditions that covid lockdown has allowed. It is currently available on Netflix, and I know of a few families that now will not eat fish.
The environment is my nice place, given the rant above. Last year I considered not voting as all the options IMO were crap. The only reason was my base line the environment. 67% of the voting family voted Green. Next election it appears it will be 33%.
Global warming has the entire world working to pressure leaders in saving it, NZ has only kiwis to pressure our leaders, and that is why IMO NZ needs all effort in save our flora and fauna and TG need to be leading this, instead of saving the world.
Wouldnt it be logical to solve the biggest problems first herodotus ?ie climate change and the threat that poses to all species /? If you are one of the people who thought James Shaw shoudnt go to COPs cause flying is bad then were off to a great start arnt we ! My own personal opinion based on observation of fanatics is that bird watching turns some peoples brains to mush !
To assist in climate change there are some who have purchased large areas of land and are planting it with pine to capture the co2. How does that help to protect and enhance our unique wildlife and their habitats ? By protecting the habitats we are assisting by allowing nzers to see 1st hand the direct benefits eg native bush/forests/coastal areas and secondary doing our bit to rebalance the gases in the atmosphere.
I honestly don't get this. If we get another Labour majority and less or no Green MPs, do you think that we will see more action on biodiversity or less?
As a Labour member, I don't want a Labour majority government, I want a Labour-Green coalition (I joined Labour in part to try to push in that direction).
Its about time some hard questions get asked tbh… we've had alot of time to prepare for this point in our resposne yet govt still hasnt got rapid testing organized, salivia testing is a mess and the vax passport other countries started and finished with it we'restill flailing about developing it.. surely we should have had businesses like hairdressers open by now with a vax passport instead its kicked down the road another two weeks. People are pretty pissed.
Thats my issue we're still mucking about try to organize this stuff and seeminly doing it on the fly
We've had plenty of time to watch what other countries have done well, got to work and had alot of this stuff ready to roll when the inevitable happened.
Auckland should have had a functioning vax passport system 2-3 weeks ago when we went to level 3.9 so small businesses like hairdressers for example could open… its really disheartening because so many people are going to the wall with this lockdown… and they're the little guys hospo staff, retail staff, hairdressers small business manicure shops those little chinese massage places in the malls etc etc wage subsidy doesnt touch the sides in Auckland. Company I work for burnt through 150k during level 4 keeping everyone at 80 percent and covering all the fixed outgoings we can operate at almost breakeven in level 3 which means at least we all have jobs… which makes us lucky.
internal elimination (PCR testing and contact tracing and wastewater testing) and border bubble (maybe with Oz at some point) – Level 1 economy
vaccination, then open up and use rapid testing at workplaces/schools etc and "passports".
Sure if they had planned for a delta outbreak they could not eliminate – then they might have had easier saliva testing and also rapid testing in place to help manage it, and also vax ID for use at Level 3 lite.
As it is, this got going in recent weeks as they realised elimination might fail or would require another month at Level 4. Those businesses in Auckland that got Level 3 and Level 3 lite benefited from that decision.
Yes in Auckland, it's getting financially very ugly for alot of people especially in the service industry. Think hairdressers, the nail salons, massage all sorts of little businesses really. Having a passport ready would have allowed them to at least start making some income.
people can still transmit covid when fully vaxxed, although the risk is much lower*. Are you saying that Auckland should abandon containment and come out of L3+?
One of the big risks we are about to face is if people think double vax makes other measures unnecessary.
*in reality, I don't think we know yet what the risk is. I really wish we would be more honest about this.
Auckland couldnstill be ring fenced all im saying is if we had some tools ready like vaccine passports and rapid tests more businesses in Auckland could open which would act as a pressure release valve.
We cant stay in an endless level 3.9 lockdown cycle there are other massive costs besides the obvious financial ones, on a personal level my daughter is really starting to struggle with the social isolation now, one of her friends has become completely withdrawn and tbh online school is pretty grim.
The govt just seems so unprepared and we've had time to be ready to deal with this stuff.
the point of L3+ is to get as many people vaxxed as possible while at the same time trying to contain and limit spread of covid as much as possible. No-one is suggesting that it be endless (although I'm sure it feels like that).
I can't see how hairdressers and massage therapists could operate currently while trying to limit spread.
Afaik the government has plans for both rapid testing and vax passports.
Yes I know they have 'plans' I think they should be already devloped and in use…
If we did that for fully vaxed people it will perhaps encourage a few more accross the line to access said freedoms and it might well actually help level 3.9 hold.
It gets busier everyday here, Mt Eden was packed sunday morning with people getting coffee etc chatting on the footpath sitting at tables that have reappeared on the footpaths… basically the longer this goes on the more disobedient people will get and that's going to lead to worse outcomes.
Vaxing is in fact irrelevant the determining factor is does a person have transmissible infection or not. The present testing system only tells us the status 15 hours to three days ago – nothing prevents infectious viral loading after test and before result.
This is where rapid testing of high reliability is so needed – the viral loading status NOW is known right on the spot. This even negates the 'Vax Passprot' … which only shows probable less susceptibility to personal health effects NOT infection and Transmissibility.
I would rather KNOW that infection was not present rather than if someone (or myself) had been jabbed – probably some considerable time ago.
As long as we have a Privacy Act and people who will be quite annoyed about data breaches, developing a vax passport app based on realtime connection to the Covid-19 register is going to be slow going no matter who does it. Also, if we are going to mandate denial of service/entry based on this app, best make sure it's accurate.
As pointed out by the DG and others, rapid antigen testing is not nearly as accurate as other testing, so was actively unhelpful while we could reasonably test and deliver results at pace. Useful in an outbreak, not much use otherwise. Saliva testing uses the same lab infrastructure as nasal swabs, so the main improvement is comfort (and in earlier days, a loss of accuracy), not anything else (that's a worthy improvement, but it's not like it's a serious difference in terms of the Covid response).
Most of the issues are simply that we thought we had the time to pick out the best parts of Covid responses elsewhere, and then Delta arrived early.
It's notable that when elimination resulted in Level 1 freedom, lock downs to get this result were well supported.
But when lock downs are only to hold down the rate of spread, as originally intended last year to keep the health system safe, they begin to seem onerous to "freedom". Which might explain the USA and UK opposition to lock downs because of some "flu". And in those places that opposition to any "pandemic regime" has extended to opposition to vaccination itself and also to vaccination "passports".
The current Auckland lock down has been shorter than in Sydney – and Melbourne has had the longest total period of lock downs in the world.
It retrospect we were lucky to arrive at elimination, because the society division that would have occurred (racial disharmony and inequality exacerbated – working class deaths) would have been terrible.
We'll only get a taste of that in the year ahead with greater freedoms and more deaths – including among the vaccinated.
Wouldnt it be logical to solve the biggest problems first herodotus ?ie climate change and the threat that poses to all species /? If you are one of the people who thought James Shaw shoudnt go to COPs cause flying is bad then were off to a great start arnt we ! My own personal opinion based on observation of fanatics is that bird watching turns some peoples brains to mush !
Possibly, I do hope they start talking about actual benefits in terms of outcome compared to actually catching covid in that age cohort… so far its just it triggers a good immune response… if there isnt a demonstable drop in hospitalisation/serious outcomes why give it?
Males 12-15 and those 5-12 are not advantaged by vaccination – but presumably the rest of us are (because of break through infections in older people).
Yeah I struggle with that reasoning in terms of giving a vacc to that younger age cohort I read a stuff article saying similar, to me thats not a good enough reason personally better be ready to go with booster shots for those that need them which based on our rollout will be fairly soon.
Any precedent, apart from being Japanese in America after Pearl Harbour or Moslem after 9/11? After all this is paranoia that others are not in the same team right?
We'll need 500 ICU like beds (not 250 + 100 staffed by surgical nurses under supervision – surgical nurses being spare because of reduced surgeries).
Which means getting in vaxxed migrant ICU pandemic experienced nurses – and place them here via airbnb.
We have over 3.5M vaccinated people and 1% of them might need hospitalisation if infected (and by the end of 2022 a lot will have been) and 500,000 unvaxxed (going down to 400,000) of whom 10% might need hospitalisation (which is not ICU care).
While a lot of the hospitalisations will not need ICU care, just monitoring and treatments it will be tight at 500 for mine.
We're lucky there will be the Merck anti-viral treatment for the vaxxed and unvaxxed alike and the monoclonal antibody treatment for the unvaxxed used in the USA.
What the government should also do is bring in the Astra Zeneca Cov2 anti-body cocktail – this is effective prior to and post infection as an alternative to vaccination. This should reduce the risk on the health system.
Well that's great but I need my nails cut and my hair styled now, not in 2 or 3 or who knows how many weeks. This whole thing is a shambles! Signed…..Judith.
This video includes personal musings and 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). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
The PSA have released a survey of 4000 public service workers showing that budget cuts are taking a toll on the wellbeing of public servants and risking the delivery of essential services to New Zealanders. Economists predict that figures released this week will show continued increases in unemployment, potentially reaching ...
The Prime Minister’s speech 10 days or so ago kicked off a flurry of commentary. No one much anywhere near the mainstream (ie excluding Greens supporters) questioned the rhetoric. New Zealand has done woefully poorly on productivity for a long time and we really need better outcomes, and the sorts ...
President Trump on the day he announced tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, unleashing a shock to supply chains globally that is expected to slow economic growth and increase inflation for most large economies. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 9 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 3Politics: New Zealand Government cabinet meeting usually held early afternoon with post-cabinet news conference possible at 4 pm, although they have not been ...
Trump being Trump, it won’t come as a shock to find that he regards a strong US currency (bolstered by high tariffs on everything made by foreigners) as a sign of America’s virility, and its ability to kick sand in the face of the world. Reality is a tad more ...
A listing of 24 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 26, 2025 thru Sat, February 1, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
What seems to be the common theme in the US, NZ, Argentina and places like Italy under their respective rightwing governments is what I think of as “the politics of cruelty.” Hate-mongering, callous indifference in social policy-making, corporate toadying, political bullying, intimidation and punching down on the most vulnerable with ...
If you are confused, check with the sunCarry a compass to help you alongYour feet are going to be on the groundYour head is there to move you aroundSo, stand in the place where you liveSongwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck.Hot in the CityYesterday, ...
Shane Jones announced today he would be contracting out his thinking to a smarter younger person.Reclining on his chaise longue with a mouth full of oysters and Kina he told reporters:Clearly I have become a has-been, a palimpsest, an epigone, a bloviating fossil. I find myself saying such things as: ...
Warning: This post contains references to sexual assaultOn Saturday, I spent far too long editing a video on Tim Jago, the ACT Party President and criminal, who has given up his fight for name suppression after 2 years. He voluntarily gave up just in time for what will be a ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is global warming ...
Our low-investment, low-wage, migration-led and housing-market-driven political economy has delivered poorer productivity growth than the rest of the OECD, and our performance since Covid has been particularly poor. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty this ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.As far as major government announcements go, a Three Ministers Event is Big. It can signify a major policy development or something has gone Very Well, or an absolute Clusterf**k. When Three Ministers assemble ...
One of those blasts from the past. Peter Dunne – originally neoliberal Labour, then leader of various parties that sought to work with both big parties (generally National) – has taken to calling ...
Completed reads for January: I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson The Black Spider, by Jeremias Gotthelf The Spider and the Fly (poem), by Mary Howitt A Noiseless Patient Spider (poem), by Walt Whitman August Heat, by W.F. Harvey Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White The Shrinking Man, by Richard Matheson ...
Do its Property Right Provisions Make Sense?Last week I pointed out that it is uninformed to argue that the New Zealand’s apparently poor economic performance can be traced only to poor regulations. Even were there evidence they had some impact, there are other factors. Of course, we should seek to ...
Richard Wagstaff It was incredibly jarring to hear the hubris from the Prime Minister during his recent state of the nation address. I had just spent close to a week working though the stories and thoughts shared with us by nearly 2000 working people as part of our annual Mood ...
Odd fact about the Broadcasting Standards Authority: for the last few years, they’ve only been upholding about 5% of complaints. Why? I think there’s a range of reasons. Generally responsible broadcasters. Dumb complaints. Complaints brought under the wrong standard. Greater adherence to broadcasters’ rights to freedom of expression in the ...
And I said, "Mama, mama, mama, why am I so alone"'Cause I can't go outside, I'm scared I might not make it homeWell I'm alive, I'm alive, but I'm sinking inIf there's anyone at home at your place, darlingWhy don't you invite me in?Don't try to feed me'Cause I've been ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ star is on the rise, having just added the Energy, Local Government and Revenue portfolios to his responsibilities - but there is nothing ambitious about the Government’s new climate targets. Photo: SuppliedLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
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I have deleted and re edited this comment many times, most version are not that complementary to our PM, government and enablers.
Try dealing with school kids losing it over exams and from my social circles and family who teach this is wider spread than a few isolated examplesDon’t tell high school students and parents to wait until Wednesday for some direction on our path. The emotional toll is mounting and I hope that any out there also utilise the help out there. I will leave it there before I embarrass someone 🤬
Yeah, today's performance was totally fucking unsatisfactory.
What is the target Auckland needs to get to, to get out of level 3?
Jacinda might grace us with the magic number on Friday. Maybe.
She hasn't promised a plan for how to get to whatever that magic number might be.
I was pretty unimpressed with todays speech from the podium. Being in Auckland, all I know for sure is we are still locked down at level 3.1 for the next two weeks at least. What is happening about schools? What does Auckland need to do to get out of this lockdown? No dates, no targets. Only future announcements where we might learn more.
Well, as HC would have said … … "diddums".
I'll pass on your kind thoughts to those hairdressers, beauticians, shop keepers and other business people trying to keep people employed on wage subsidies and their businesses afloat after nearly 10 weeks of lock downs and no income I'm sure when they are re-mortgaging their houses they will think of your kind words "diddums".
There is a lot to consider on allowing students back to school. Those in year 11, 12 and 13 due to exams and NCEA levels.
Those in new entry to year 8 who are not eligible for vaccination are going to be exposed to a virus and take it home.
I think it will not be compulsory to send a student back to school. Levels of anxiety are going to be seen in schools and this will need to be managed. Some students may end up learning more at home.
The learning resources need to be made available to students who are being disadvantaged.
No one wants students to be deprived of receiving the best education that can be given. Or to expect teachers to be responsible for the welfare of their students when not knowing how Covid is going to impact the school community.
and yet here we are 18 month into a pandemic that is world wide, has caused havoc world wide, and we have no plan up and running in regards to anything, not even how to educate our children.
Hindsight is a wonderful things ain't it Sabine. We all knew from early 1920 that this is exactly where we would be in October 1923. So clever of us, so why didn't the government and the experts know? (sarc)
We have had 18 month of hindsight. The delta outbreak in India happened earlier this year. China welded the doors shut on apartment doors in January last year.
The US has agressively been vaccinating since Biden moved to the white house. Ditto France, Germany, Italy etc. All have seen several waves of Covid wash over their countries, and we should be able to learn from it.
At the very least we should have some plans in place for the education of our young ones. But we always seem to be one step behind.
If we dont' start having some hindsight by now, we never will, and how can we have then foresight to anticipate? Or is that something the governments risk analysts don't do?
Think you have missed my point. We as a nation of people had no more hindsight in early 2020 than the experts did so rabbiting on about a lack of hindsight by experts is a bit of an own goal.
As for plans for the future. Did you not hear the bit about:
1) Plan for Maori community. Today I think.
2) Plan for Educational sector. Tomorrow
3) Big plan for whole country. Friday.
Preserving life has been the plan. A plan needs to deliver a good outcome. If it does not then it has failed. Same for having no plan.
Anyone heard anything more about packs of dogs supposedly running wild up north ?Doc spokespeople ive heard on the subject a couple of times say they,re a threat cause they might carry Rabies !.Im just supprized there havnt been more reports of dog attacks on stock although they could be living on possums i guess .
There are big problems with stock, quite alot of articles 100s of stock killed or mauled, apparently a risk to people as well just one of many below.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/451643/feral-dog-fitted-with-gps-collar-to-track-movements-of-pack-attacking-stock
Thanks crickle interesting
If NZ emerges from this pandemic with a per capita Covid death rate one tenth that of Aussie's, and less than one 300th that of the UK/USA, then at least some voters will cut our government a bit of slack, personal feelings of entitlement notwithstanding – I know I will.
Unite against COVID-19
https://covid19.govt.nz
Your sense of security and other warm fuzzies is being taken from the hides of Aucklanders suffering really fucking onerous removals of our actual rights. With our government failing to provide any kind of clarity on any substantial actions to get us out of the situation, just trying to make do with soothing meaningless noises about some kind of plan maybe sometime vaguely in the future.
Your actual rights? And what are they pray tell.? What about your responsibilities? Who do you think you are?
Well said, RosieLee.
As citizens, we have responsibilities to others.
Bill of Rights Act:
Manifestation of religion and belief
Freedom of peaceful assembly
Freedom of association
Freedom of movement
(2)Every New Zealand citizen has the right to enter New Zealand. REMOVED
I've done my responsibilities and got fully vaccinated at my first available opportunity. Have you?
Who the fuck do you think you are?
At this point you shouldnt be angry at the unvaxxed as of weeks ago there should have been a vax passpot system and rapid testing up and running allowing a bunch of places like hairdressers for example to reopen. Thats a govt failure.
Govt I feel is happy for the unvaxxed to take the blame for the lack of freedoms as it deflects from the lack of a coherent strategy.
Its rapidly turning into a fucking joke… the mood was firstly relief that we wernt back to level 4 then anger… Aucklands starting to simmer…
Still beats being dead or so severely stricken with disease that most of those rights are unable to be realised.
Almost as if it is not about "vaccination" but rather addiction to control?
Roll me over – Jab me again!
Andre and Maurice we have had more freedoms than most all through this. Delta has been and is a different beast. Those who listen for one thing don't hear the other messages. I will be lambasted for this but really…
We are struggling to keep the r infection rate to a safe level. It could easily spiral away as happened in Melbourne and in Singapore. So yes Lock down.
Those asking for "Plans" are really saying "I don't like this plan so what else have you got?" because they don't want to wait for 90% of the eligible to get vaccinated. (remember that is really 75%)as 11 years down and some cannot be vaccinated yet.
The plan is to keep a lid on this to allow time for the young to get their first have 3 weeks get their second and have 2 more weeks.
When Delta is detected in all those suburbs of Auckland and in Hamilton, well we hunker down till our defences are in place otherwise we accept a daily death toll and high numbers of sick.
Every country has failed unless they have used draconian measures or have natural immunity in those left or vaccinated at speed after 4 or 5 waves.
Accusing the Health team and the Government of enjoying this is so silly it flies in the face of sane behaviour.
Use the channels available for help if you feel that upset and angry. Some here are being patient and this means surgery delays so yes sometimes we write about hopeful warm fuzzy things. They are the teddy bears in our window to get through.
We are anxious separated from loved ones and come here to discuss ideas and touch base. Nasty rants don’t change anything and often make things worse. Now I feel better even if you don’t.
Patricia, the very obvious problem here is the glacial pace of new first vaccinations.
This very obvious problem needs a plan to address it. Now.
There is zero evidence that the government has any urgency in developing and implementing a plan to lift those glacially slow first vaccination rates. Instead they appear to be just finding it easier to keep indefinitely extending Auckland's lockdown, while murmuring sweet nothings about how important vaccinating is.
By the time polls show Auckland's turn against the government for being continually shat on with ever-extending lockdowns with zero effort to bring the end closer, it will be too late. The minds and warmth and kudos for the previous good management will be lost, and will be very difficult to get back.
I don't know for sure whether I've gone past the point of no return on that, but it certainly feels like it right now. Lefties around the country gleefully advocating inflicting yet more level 4 on Auckland, while posting apologia and justifications and encouragement for the vaccine refusers, have certainly contributed to what I'm feeling right now.
Disagree with "gleefully", and particularly with "encouragement for the vaccine refusers" (as would Goudie and King), but since you feel "continuously shat on" by our government's pandemic response you should definitely shift your vote to a party (National or ACT) that more closely matches your current hopes and dreams vis-à-vis COVID.
During this pandemic the team has enjoyed extended periods of some of the least stringent restrictions on day-to-day activities – this has likely contributed to resentment towards alert level 4/3/2 restrictions of the last 2 months.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-stringency-index?tab=chart&country=IND~NZL~AUS~SWE~GBR~USA~IRL
I try not to lose sight of the purpose of these temporary restrictions, which is to limit the freedom of COVID-19 to spread and cause illness and death.
The COVID response remains a challenging balancing act for our govt. Some armchair critics grizzle and gripe about temporary alert level restrictions curtailing freedoms, while others object to some of the relatively strong vaccine mandates that are being put in place – each of us knows what the government should do, because we each know what's best for ourselves.
Spare me the smug sanctimony.
Regarding your “smug sanctimony” jibe, my preference was and still is for NZ's pandemic response to prioritise health outcomes. This response may not be morally superior to others, but it has indisputably saved (or at least delayed the loss of) Kiwi lives – regrettably it’s no longer sustainable.
While NZ did well in that comparison it's more useful to look deeper into the data.
https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?QueryName=350
.. and undoubtedly it'll be more useful to look at relative performance of health and economic outcomes in a few years time.
Undoubtedly; if only our govt had access to that 'outcome data' now.
Does what is best for ourselves include the following
A slow vaccine rollout.
A very low percentage of ICU beds per head of population and little to no remediation of this during the past 18 months.
Blocking the entry of healthcare professionals to NZ over the last 12 months.
Incoherent mumblings from the podium which appear to change on a daily basis.
…asking for a friend.
This advice from a commenter here tickled my fancy – enjoy
Unite against COVID-19
https://covid19.govt.nz/
Thanks that's really useful.
Almost as useful as those of us that had to suffer through 6 hours of indoctrination on how to deliver COVID injections as we had spare time during Level 4 lockdown despite decades of experience.
Thanks for the aspiration.
I will examine what I write carefully. I do not ever wish to rub salt in wounds.
About Jacinda Ardern, she at some point will separate from the Advisors as she is aware of the pain. I think she instructed Hipkins and Bloomfield to come up with milestones regarding vaccination. I believe she has asked for more support for Auckland businesses from Robertson to be presented on this Friday. We will see. We get it. It's all like a slow train wreck.
But this is rather like being on the Titanic, having the knowledge of the coming iceberg. Knowing you can't completely miss it and frantically planning implementing communicating and fighting off the loud entitled who insist we can't sink and the ball in the ballroom has to go ahead as planned or there will be panic.
Our Titanic is Delta, and our iceberg is the number of alternative thinkers out there who are endangering themselves and threaten to wreck our systems.
Our Doctor just this morning said 3+ Doctors are being assessed by the Medical Council for promoting alternative views and discouraging vaccination. Some areas also have poor Leadership around vaccination from Church Leaders and the Anti-Vax supporters as well. This is a lifeboat with a hole in it.
It is really hard, keep the faith, this Government wishes to do their best for us. Thanks for your thoughtful reply, keep feeling you can express your anger.. that is a healthy reaction actually.
Just observing that the team has managed to achieve some pretty good Covid health outcomes to date – not without considerable sacrifice and suffering of course, and some will have struggled more than others.
Going by the 'f**k count', feelings are running pretty high. So if having a go at my supposed "sense of security and other warm fuzzies" [?] helps then have at it.
Yes, some always suffer more then others, and sadly they the same that have suffered before the pandemic. And yeah, next year there will be another trickle down increase in their benefit rates that will at the same time be removed from a side benefits, but it will make us all feel so fuzzy and warm and good about our self. Trickle trickle trickle. And if it is not enough and you can't pay rent and eat, here be housed in a unsued motel somewhere with no cooking or laundry facilities. Don't you feel so warm and fuzzy now?
But hey, i hear someone is getting married. Now that is good news.
Leave the PM's private life out of it. She is not flaunting that. Granny Herald is getting muck from Slater. Read "The Hollow Men"
From the luxury of the position we are in we are free to philosophise, pontificate and ponder.
It's as if we watched a big tsunami heading our way, wiping out lots of places on its way to get us. We got in a such a position though it didn't get us past bits around the edges.
We say, "Thank God for that, that was close, we're been spared. Thank you for those who led us to here?"
No. We say, "Why did you got that way, why didn't you do this instead? Why didn't you think about this, why didn't you consider that? You did this wrong, you stuffed that up. You are incompetent. We would have done it so much better." And on and on.
Early on it was "We should be doing what Australia's doing." A week later, "We should be copying Singapore." A week on, "Why aren't we copying Sweden?"
And we've been to Finland and Japan and back to Australia several times, or just some states of our neighbours. And to Taiwan and just about everywhere except the US.
We had more scientific experts per capita than anywhere in the world, all qualified overnight. Fancy that, we got the real advice from the real scientists not the local internet ones.
Tonight I see from Maori TV via the Herald: "Murupara kaumātua says he and other local Māori don't want the Pfizer vaccine and are waiting for other vaccines they think will be more effective."
I see "Covid 19 Delta outbreak: 1000 surgeries cancelled every week."
The tsunami didn't get us but waves like that are smashing us. Idiots like Brian Tamaki are smashing us. I don't mind them having a death wish. I don't mind the non-vaxxers worrying about the microchips carried in the vaccine or the fact that the vaccine as the lunatic American doctor claimed, will magnetise their bodies.
I don't like the idea though that they threaten my family, my friends and me. And for the information of that mad cow American, metal won't stick to my brow because of the magnetism in the vaccine.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/covid-19-delta-outbreak-murupara-doesnt-want-pfizer-vaccine-kaumatua-says/Q6AG522GP3HNNTTP7NXQNIQJ3E/
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-delta-outbreak-1000-surgeries-cancelled-every-week/UWGKLTITX5AW77V4XQMIZLYWO4/
Agreed Drowsy.
United we stand. Divided we fall.
... personal feelings of entitlement notwithstanding – "
That is the message coming through to me too.
I dont' know where anyone here lives, and i don't live in Auckland, but frankly these guys have had three month now on Home D. Maybe a bit of kindness is on order now? Just a wee bit. Specially from those that are not currently locked up at home without an end in sight.
I'm just so so proud of all you posting and commenting standardistas on the restraint and decorum displayed re the news that HDPA is expecting a son. I read this blog assiduously and I thought, oh no the sarcy comments are going to flow. Indeed I thought of a few myself. Well done guys, having a child is special.
Interesting article in the Guardian just out.
Especially what the experts are saying.
What are these experts proposing to do to lift our vaccination rate?
What are you doing to help prepare NZ mentally for lots of deaths and disability?
Pretty easy to point the finger.
I've actually spent a lot of time with some vaccine hesitants getting them actual accurate information, and talking them through how routine vaccination is just a normal part of life for the large majority of the population.
I'm pretty sure I was mostly responsible for one success, and it feels close for a second.
But I'm utterly fucking disgusted with those that are encouraging the conditions that will contribute to that death and disability by posting apologia and encouragement for vaccine hesitancy.
that's great Andre, I think as many of us doing the vaccine outreach as possible is a big part of it.
Honestly that should never be asked from someone who obviously has been in lockdown now for almost 3 month. Not needed.
We all do what we can. I don't think anyone is trying to get covid or spread it. We all try to live with it as much as we can. But we can not ask for some to be under constant home D without accepting that people will lose it. That would be downright cruel and / or foolish. We can also not demand that people stay in lockdown and watch their lifes and their lifelyhood disappear down the drain, no matter if that is a hair dresser or a restaurant or just a retail business.
the government had 18 month now of information on how this plague works, we have seen it in China, Italy, France, Germany, USA, South America, UK, India etc. And here we are, getting a daily update on numbers and nothing else.
No plan on how to educate our kids other then what was set up last year, which is inadequite and does not work for all – re connectivity and hardware. Need a doctor or surgery, well that is a no. Can't enter the country, can't leave the country. ETC etc etc.
At some stage they need to serve up something better then this lukewarm warmed up re-iteration of 'be kind – to us specially, and use up your savings if you are running out of money, cause hey ……Grant likes to underspent his budgets.
And fwiw, the whole of the North Island is struggling. Maybe the South Island is so remote taht if the north island implodes it can go chugging along – growing their own kale and milking the last few cows that are allowed, but here in the North Island Auckland is needed and Aucklanders are part of our whanau. If that is still something that we consider of worth. .
So what are we going to do after the 90% vaccination rate? Keep the country closed until we are back to 0 cases? what if that does not happen? Seriously, this discussion needs to be had.
It was a rhetorical question that Andre doesn't need to answer any more than Baker and Hendy need to answer for raising vax rates.
I agree the bigger conversation needs to be had. I've been trying to have it the whole time. Only I don't think there's a BAU to return to. Andre's stress and frustration is totally understandable. I've been there before covid, as have plenty of others. Only the limiting factors were being disabled and having a government and society that basically didn't give a shit. So my perspective on it is different. Having sometimes severe limitations on one's life isn't new to many of us.
I also think that covid is the starter and climate/eco crises are going to hit us way harder than this. Best we get on with adaptation and mitigation of both covid and climate change. If kids can't go to school, then society can adapt to homeschool. If people are bored walking in their neighbourhood, then make the neighbourhood a great place to be. If L4 is unbearable, then let's do the mahi of changing that so that it becomes tolerable.
No-one is talking about this because most people thing it's soon going to be over and hey presto all the businesses will be open again and NZers will vote in neoliberal governments and go back to ignoring poor and disabled people and the eco crises.
I am very doubtful that it will be over soon. I think it's possible NZ hasn't had the hardest pandemic year yet, but that that will be 2022 as we have to learn to live with covid in the community and people dying and then how to manage long covid.
Yes, lockdown is fucking hard. Haven't seen too many conversations on TS about the people that are going to have their lives destroyed by long covid and having to be WINZ clients. This isn't to diss people losing it under lockdown, it's to say either way was always going to be really hard. As you know it just hits people differently.
All that shit that the hippies were talking about, we should be stepping up now. Local food, local economy, build strong communities, help each other, plant a shit load of trees, shift values and priorities. It doesn't have to be this bad.
and you know, you can imagine what it's like for someone in my situation to hear a centre leftie saying they're going to vote National. National who destroyed so many of our lives and who would have made covid into an utter disaster instead of the half disaster that it is now.
I posited last year at the beginning of L4 that this plague will take several years, that we will have rolling lockdowns, with all the assorted misery that living under a siege brings with it.
I personally am not too affected by staying at home, i am not a very outgoing person (don't cope well in large settings), and i can understand how those that live with disability have more of a nuanced way of looking at lockdowns due to their own diminished reality of moving about, but we can not overlook the fact that we are the minority and that humans are social beings and like to gather. We can not overlook the fact that not everyone will cope well, and we are seeing this now.
And yet, here we are, and it seems that some of us are quite happy to lock up AKL indefinitely if it keeps them in their supposed 'safe' bubble. Never mind that safe does not exist anymore.
I think that the govt did pretty much everything correct with regards to containing the virus initially, i think that the wage subsidy was simply just a triage mechanism to prevent a million people at once hitting the unemployment queues, and was wasted in many cases, it would have been better to allow businesses to go bust without dragging the owners into bankruptcies, i think that our children should be first priority and that if we can’t educate them we are cutting off our noses.
But here we are 18 month in, and we seem to not have added anything new to what we do.
And it gets tedious, even for those that don't live in AKL. Covid is an utter disaster, even if we managed to feel very smug in our wee island far far away from everywhere for a while.
The brother of a friend of mine killed himself last week. He hang himself in the garage, long haul Covid. He got it last year with his mum. She did fine, he did not. And in the end he killed himself because his body was slowly but surely rotting away – and there was nothing anyone could do.
We need to have this discussion now, because the vaccination are not the great opening to life. Vaccine, permanent mask wearing, keeping social distancing, no contact business to very low contact business, rapid saliva testing, is what will be.
In Germany kids go to school. They wear masks, and have three tests a week. Rapid saliva tests. Essentially they live by the three G's.
Getested – get tested
Geimpft – get jabbed
Genessen – recover from disease
Can we at least demand some quick delivery of rapid saliva tests from the government before someone doo doos us demanding human beings for not being grateful enough for US keeping US safe while we are locking us up in our houses with no end in sight?
I feel that if we don't get really honest real fast, you will see that getting people to have booster shots will be even harder then getting them to get the double jabs now.
Thanks, Sabine.
As you often do, you have taken some of my concerns and written them down coherently.
Sabine yes, we have to lay out the hard truths. His sad death should be noted in the effects of covid.
I think the Government needs to mandate vaccines to assist businesses to achieve this, also mandate mask wearing and social distancing.
Shopping is difficult, as is education, as we need air filtering in every public place before next year. As we learn of helpful methods they should be mandated.
When I was a child chewing tobacco was a thing. Spittoons were in each train carriage. That was to stop people spitting on the floor because of tuberculosis. A sign promised a ten pound fine for expectorating .
I agree. I think one of the most urgent things we need to be doing is teaching resiliency skills (and probably grieving). To do that we'd have to acknowledge the long term nature of the crisis and that some things have been lost.
Rational, maybe, born of long experience of restrictions and learning how to cope. Mindfulness has helped a lot.
There's an edge between compassion for people having a really hard time, and this being a political blog.
Here here.Please, folk out there stay the coarse,I'm down south but am truely grateful for all the people up north trying their best.As Peter Gabriel sings "hold the line".
Surely it is not just about the vaccination rate. I had not thought it was a 'one shot wonder' from the Govt. Ha ha sorry not funny perhaps
How has this been boiled down to this one thing. I know the current focus has been on vaccination. This is not the only part of the plan to open up NZ that is being worked on.
The item that many of us have been watching in the Akl situation is the number of cases that cannot be linked. This is despite not now assigning the results to sub clusters.
When I last looked over the weekend there was a tail of around 114? to be linked.
With my degree in MB epidemiology to my way of thinking this signals that perhaps there are carriers. pockets, people with Delta that are still passing it on. Again with my degree in psychology I would suggest that these are unlikely to be vaccinated.
So I don't think it is a single task and once this is done Akl opens.
What with employers in essential industries not mandating the vaccine for their public facing employees ie border crossing truckies are still allowed despite no vaccination and we now have a rest home in Remuera with a single vaccinated person with Covid. If this is a worker then both employer/ee have left it very late to get started on the vaccination process. How can an employer be happy with a worker with only one part of a two part vaccination working?
A missing part of the equation should also be an expectation that employers will do their bit. I am not getting this feeling that this is happening widely though with MSM who knows?
I have friends in Auckland and they have said that the single thing that has kept them going is the 40 min walk they do every single day. If they need it they do another walk. They start each day with a to do list. One works from home. They have taken advantage of the picnic idea to catch up with another bubble. Not really their thing they say but it is the only one on offer.
Is there a person you can talk to. It is not unusual to be feeling these things but perhaps better to not suffer in silence of there is a trained person you can talk to? The last two paras are written with kindness.
.
More health experts have shared their thoughts.
Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā (National Maori Pandemic Group) co-leader Dr Rawiri Jansen said
Immunologist and Associate Dean (Pacific) at the University of Otago (Wellington)Dr Dianne Sika-Paotonu
Dr Dion O’Neale, principal investigator at Te Pūnaha Matatini, said
To change the subject to another very important matter, has anyone seen that Stuff have started a detailed investigation into the biodiversity crisis in New Zealand and the world? Has anyone seen it?
The first episode looks at seabirds. Looks like some excellent work by Andrea Vance and Iain McGregor.
From the article, some startling facts :
1. We are ranked 89th in the world for conversion of natural habitat.
2. In New Zealand, there are more than 4000 indigenous species at risk.
3. We are ranked 13th in the world for the use of fertiliser.
4. We are ranked the worst in the world, for the proportion of threatened species we have.
It will make you consider whether you should be eating tuna.
If I have time, I'll put a more detailed report tomorrow.
https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2021/this-is-how-it-ends-extinction-documentary/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/300424903/this-is-how-it-ends-natures-dangerous-decline-is-accelerating-why-its-us
If too many consumers are contributing to the biodiversity crisis in New Zealand and the world declining fertility should mitigate it. Not a short term fix though.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/421284/fertility-rate-jaw-dropping-global-crash-in-children-being-born
Our treatment of the NZ environment; flora and fauna is IMO worse than how we deal with CO2, and in my disappointment feel bad giving TG a vote. There is no international distain to be expressed and embarrass our govt into action. Any pressure on the govt is by a small group of kiwis with their efforts going unseen in restoring parts on NZ to its former glory.
This has some short comings yet still worth the time to watch, especially under the current conditions that covid lockdown has allowed. It is currently available on Netflix, and I know of a few families that now will not eat fish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaspiracy
Less Green MPs and it would be worse.
The environment is my nice place, given the rant above. Last year I considered not voting as all the options IMO were crap. The only reason was my base line the environment. 67% of the voting family voted Green. Next election it appears it will be 33%.
Global warming has the entire world working to pressure leaders in saving it, NZ has only kiwis to pressure our leaders, and that is why IMO NZ needs all effort in save our flora and fauna and TG need to be leading this, instead of saving the world.
Wouldnt it be logical to solve the biggest problems first herodotus ?ie climate change and the threat that poses to all species /? If you are one of the people who thought James Shaw shoudnt go to COPs cause flying is bad then were off to a great start arnt we ! My own personal opinion based on observation of fanatics is that bird watching turns some peoples brains to mush !
To assist in climate change there are some who have purchased large areas of land and are planting it with pine to capture the co2. How does that help to protect and enhance our unique wildlife and their habitats ? By protecting the habitats we are assisting by allowing nzers to see 1st hand the direct benefits eg native bush/forests/coastal areas and secondary doing our bit to rebalance the gases in the atmosphere.
my summary what many sequent co2 short term can have detrimental adverse effects elsewhere, a rubrics cube scenario.
And weka love your devotion to the party keep it up even though I may disagree
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/399192/green-rush-will-pines-really-save-the-planet
I honestly don't get this. If we get another Labour majority and less or no Green MPs, do you think that we will see more action on biodiversity or less?
As a Labour member, I don't want a Labour majority government, I want a Labour-Green coalition (I joined Labour in part to try to push in that direction).
It would be about the same.
Yep. Sweet fuck-all.
Exactly Andre, and it's because they are a bunch of fucking Neolibs.
Thanks for the recommendation. I shall watch this film this weekend.
May I recommend another film about the unsustainable economy we operate in New Zealand. The film is coming out at the time of the film festival.
Wellington
https://www.nziff.co.nz/2021/wellington/milked/
Tauranga
https://www.nziff.co.nz/2021/tauranga/milked/
Milked exposes the whitewash of New Zealand’s multi-billion-dollar dairy industry.
Do they get Fonterra to comment on this?
Its about time some hard questions get asked tbh… we've had alot of time to prepare for this point in our resposne yet govt still hasnt got rapid testing organized, salivia testing is a mess and the vax passport other countries started and finished with it we'restill flailing about developing it.. surely we should have had businesses like hairdressers open by now with a vax passport instead its kicked down the road another two weeks. People are pretty pissed.
They have made moves to import the rapid testing for workplaces – it should up and going by the end of the month or early November.
This would have informed their thinking on holding at Level 3 lite till then.
Thats my issue we're still mucking about try to organize this stuff and seeminly doing it on the fly
We've had plenty of time to watch what other countries have done well, got to work and had alot of this stuff ready to roll when the inevitable happened.
Auckland should have had a functioning vax passport system 2-3 weeks ago when we went to level 3.9 so small businesses like hairdressers for example could open… its really disheartening because so many people are going to the wall with this lockdown… and they're the little guys hospo staff, retail staff, hairdressers small business manicure shops those little chinese massage places in the malls etc etc wage subsidy doesnt touch the sides in Auckland. Company I work for burnt through 150k during level 4 keeping everyone at 80 percent and covering all the fixed outgoings we can operate at almost breakeven in level 3 which means at least we all have jobs… which makes us lucky.
Their plan has been
Sure if they had planned for a delta outbreak they could not eliminate – then they might have had easier saliva testing and also rapid testing in place to help manage it, and also vax ID for use at Level 3 lite.
As it is, this got going in recent weeks as they realised elimination might fail or would require another month at Level 4. Those businesses in Auckland that got Level 3 and Level 3 lite benefited from that decision.
In Auckland?
Yes in Auckland, it's getting financially very ugly for alot of people especially in the service industry. Think hairdressers, the nail salons, massage all sorts of little businesses really. Having a passport ready would have allowed them to at least start making some income.
people can still transmit covid when fully vaxxed, although the risk is much lower*. Are you saying that Auckland should abandon containment and come out of L3+?
One of the big risks we are about to face is if people think double vax makes other measures unnecessary.
*in reality, I don't think we know yet what the risk is. I really wish we would be more honest about this.
https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/new-data-on-covid-19-transmission-by-vaccinated-individuals
Auckland couldnstill be ring fenced all im saying is if we had some tools ready like vaccine passports and rapid tests more businesses in Auckland could open which would act as a pressure release valve.
We cant stay in an endless level 3.9 lockdown cycle there are other massive costs besides the obvious financial ones, on a personal level my daughter is really starting to struggle with the social isolation now, one of her friends has become completely withdrawn and tbh online school is pretty grim.
The govt just seems so unprepared and we've had time to be ready to deal with this stuff.
the point of L3+ is to get as many people vaxxed as possible while at the same time trying to contain and limit spread of covid as much as possible. No-one is suggesting that it be endless (although I'm sure it feels like that).
I can't see how hairdressers and massage therapists could operate currently while trying to limit spread.
Afaik the government has plans for both rapid testing and vax passports.
Yes I know they have 'plans' I think they should be already devloped and in use…
If we did that for fully vaxed people it will perhaps encourage a few more accross the line to access said freedoms and it might well actually help level 3.9 hold.
It gets busier everyday here, Mt Eden was packed sunday morning with people getting coffee etc chatting on the footpath sitting at tables that have reappeared on the footpaths… basically the longer this goes on the more disobedient people will get and that's going to lead to worse outcomes.
Vaxing is in fact irrelevant the determining factor is does a person have transmissible infection or not. The present testing system only tells us the status 15 hours to three days ago – nothing prevents infectious viral loading after test and before result.
This is where rapid testing of high reliability is so needed – the viral loading status NOW is known right on the spot. This even negates the 'Vax Passprot' … which only shows probable less susceptibility to personal health effects NOT infection and Transmissibility.
I would rather KNOW that infection was not present rather than if someone (or myself) had been jabbed – probably some considerable time ago.
As long as we have a Privacy Act and people who will be quite annoyed about data breaches, developing a vax passport app based on realtime connection to the Covid-19 register is going to be slow going no matter who does it. Also, if we are going to mandate denial of service/entry based on this app, best make sure it's accurate.
As pointed out by the DG and others, rapid antigen testing is not nearly as accurate as other testing, so was actively unhelpful while we could reasonably test and deliver results at pace. Useful in an outbreak, not much use otherwise. Saliva testing uses the same lab infrastructure as nasal swabs, so the main improvement is comfort (and in earlier days, a loss of accuracy), not anything else (that's a worthy improvement, but it's not like it's a serious difference in terms of the Covid response).
Most of the issues are simply that we thought we had the time to pick out the best parts of Covid responses elsewhere, and then Delta arrived early.
I'm waiting for Federated Farmers to step up and ask all their members to get vaccinated.
They did it over a month ago, press release from 6/9/21
https://www.fedfarm.org.nz/FFPublic/Media-Releases/2021/Farmers_urged_to_enable_staff_to_get_vaccinations.aspx?WebsiteKey=00ff782d-8ff5-4a81-ae69-785972132c32
From what I've seen rural uptake has been high, but the general uptake in Otago is very high, Dunedin and Queenstown are both over 90%
Southland, Northland, Taranaki and East Cape.
Otago is one of the safest CVID-prepared populations around.
It's notable that when elimination resulted in Level 1 freedom, lock downs to get this result were well supported.
But when lock downs are only to hold down the rate of spread, as originally intended last year to keep the health system safe, they begin to seem onerous to "freedom". Which might explain the USA and UK opposition to lock downs because of some "flu". And in those places that opposition to any "pandemic regime" has extended to opposition to vaccination itself and also to vaccination "passports".
The current Auckland lock down has been shorter than in Sydney – and Melbourne has had the longest total period of lock downs in the world.
It retrospect we were lucky to arrive at elimination, because the society division that would have occurred (racial disharmony and inequality exacerbated – working class deaths) would have been terrible.
We'll only get a taste of that in the year ahead with greater freedoms and more deaths – including among the vaccinated.
Just watch Melbourne, the rate in two weeks will be stratospheric. Do you want that here?
Wouldnt it be logical to solve the biggest problems first herodotus ?ie climate change and the threat that poses to all species /? If you are one of the people who thought James Shaw shoudnt go to COPs cause flying is bad then were off to a great start arnt we ! My own personal opinion based on observation of fanatics is that bird watching turns some peoples brains to mush !
And this is a bit of a worry.
Covid 19 Delta outbreak: 1000 surgeries cancelled every week – NZ Herald
Time for the unvaccianted to get criminal nuisance charges.
Going to charge everyone under 12 as well?
Minors aren't generally charged in our justice system.
It'll be full vaccine for 5-and-up very soon.
Possibly, I do hope they start talking about actual benefits in terms of outcome compared to actually catching covid in that age cohort… so far its just it triggers a good immune response… if there isnt a demonstable drop in hospitalisation/serious outcomes why give it?
Males 12-15 and those 5-12 are not advantaged by vaccination – but presumably the rest of us are (because of break through infections in older people).
Yeah I struggle with that reasoning in terms of giving a vacc to that younger age cohort I read a stuff article saying similar, to me thats not a good enough reason personally better be ready to go with booster shots for those that need them which based on our rollout will be fairly soon.
Yup esp some of the old and health compromised vaxxed pre June 30 prior to the Dec/Jan family gathering times.
Youngsters are pretty "disadvantaged" if their parents or grandparents die of covid.
And. If Covid is still around as they get older, which seems likely. Immunity is advantageous.
Any precedent, apart from being Japanese in America after Pearl Harbour or Moslem after 9/11? After all this is paranoia that others are not in the same team right?
We'll need 500 ICU like beds (not 250 + 100 staffed by surgical nurses under supervision – surgical nurses being spare because of reduced surgeries).
Which means getting in vaxxed migrant ICU pandemic experienced nurses – and place them here via airbnb.
We have over 3.5M vaccinated people and 1% of them might need hospitalisation if infected (and by the end of 2022 a lot will have been) and 500,000 unvaxxed (going down to 400,000) of whom 10% might need hospitalisation (which is not ICU care).
While a lot of the hospitalisations will not need ICU care, just monitoring and treatments it will be tight at 500 for mine.
We're lucky there will be the Merck anti-viral treatment for the vaxxed and unvaxxed alike and the monoclonal antibody treatment for the unvaxxed used in the USA.
What the government should also do is bring in the Astra Zeneca Cov2 anti-body cocktail – this is effective prior to and post infection as an alternative to vaccination. This should reduce the risk on the health system.
Well that's great but I need my nails cut and my hair styled now, not in 2 or 3 or who knows how many weeks. This whole thing is a shambles! Signed…..Judith.
..Too much info