A negative test days before flying is no guarantee of being uninfected on arrival. So where is the extra security there?
The negative test requirement adds burden to lower income people and is either not possible in some countries, or it is expensive. This is the Nats through and through. If you're not wealthy then we don't want you back.
Refusing entry to people who have Covid-19 demonises them. All people with Covid 19 are 'dangerous' in Reti's eyes. The compassionate thing is to repeat, “people aren't the problem, the virus is”. No surprise National missed this crucial point.
'One hour wait for testing' is a ridiculous fast-food meme which is unlikely to be achieved in surge situations of which there would be many until any National/ACT government.
How is the current requirement for people to pay for their 14 day mandatory quarantine working out for low income returnees? Is that cheaper than the current free Covid test people can get now?
Venezuela is the right wing's favourite whipping boy.
This article is paywalled by our own right wing press so I can't read it, but the similarities between Venezuela's policy of criminalising Covid-19 suffers, and the National party's policy of denying entry to Covid-19 sufferers are hard to ignore.
National's border policy…………a relative of mine is flying back from the UK in November. They have been told by the airline they have to have a covid test 4 days before travel……………..Its a good idea as a bit of protection but we all know that there are false negatives, that what happens in the three days between flying and the test? And also it seems likely some people are picking up the virus in transit…………So not much use. would still have to quarantine etc, otherwise risk quite high
Great to see Heather Duplicity-Allan finally come around to the idea that the border and its integrity is critical to the way New Zealand navigates Covid-19.
Not weeks ago she was criticising the government for not creating a travel bubble with the Cook Islands. She will also have been keen on relaxing restrictions for international students, and for wealthy Americans to build bunkers. Her own sugar-daddy husband told us the government's warnings about resurgence were purely political.
I guess for Heather epiphanies come fast and cheap. Let us pray she has a few more.
Heather does not strike me as the most aware of people… Judith C has A similar quality, to my mind. Why else would she make such a preposterously silly suggestion, fatuously thinking that the majority of folks will agree…
Already, every critcism I have seen pointing out all the blatantly obvious failings of her policy read far better than her vacuous justification.
I think the Nats will have to quietly drop this idea. Now that the election date is another month away, they also have the possibility of not-so-quietly dropping Judith herself.
How many of them will be bright enough to seize the opportunity?
Already, every critcism I have seen pointing out all the blatantly obvious failings of her policy read far better than her vacuous justification.
I wonder if this pandemic is going to wake people up to the fact that National doesn't really do policy – that what they do is uncosted, untested, and uncontestable reckons.
I am in a quandary. My 4 yr old phone, which does everything I want it to, is rated as too old to take the covid tracing app. Do I now have to spend mega bucks on a new phone in order to be a responsible citizen? Maybe this is part of the reason why the uptake of the app is low. It's not lack of civic duty.
it's becoming a problem, I don't get the civil defence warnings either. My phone is starting to not work for some websites too. It's 6 years old, nothing wrong with it other than Apple don't update the OS and thus it's not supported by developers.
None of which would bother me except I'm not that confident that society and its systems is not going to centre itself around late model phones. I can't tell if the CD siren thing is an issue or not, and I shouldn't even have to be thinking about that.
The CD thing doesn't worry me so much – chances are we know someone who will get it and be all "wtf", or we'd notice the traffic heading for the hills.
But the covid tracer is a bit worse. Either make a single version that's retro-compatible, or do a version for the last ten year's or so of OS. And then there's the entire expectation that everyone has a phone of some sort anyway.
The economic demographic most likely to have incompatible phones quite possibly overlaps the demographic most likely to spend most of their time working all hours for f-all pay, getting their roster texted to them because they're casualised disposable. But they're also the ones most likely to still be having contacts when everyone else is zoom-working from home.
The CD thing doesn't worry me so much – chances are we know someone who will get it and be all "wtf", or we'd notice the traffic heading for the hills.
She'll be right Trev, lol.
It's more that I don't know if CD are relying on the phones and not focusing on the other systems now. I can't tell if we even still have sirens. That your answer didn't mention them suggests I'm not alone in that. Bad luck for people that live on their own I guess or happen to be around people with old phones. Hmm I wonder who that will affect most.
I caught the tail end of a conversation on RNZ about a lanyard with a card on it. I assume this registers via Bluetooth or some other witchcraft and automatically logs yr movements.
I am having similar issues as my Huawei doesn't support the app.
I missed where they were addressing the privacy/data side of things.
I have been reflecting on my own shift in attitudes over the last few years. 5 years ago I would have agreed with you. Now, not so much.
Not saying your concerns are unfounded or wanting to argue with you. I see it as a good solution for the 'electronically impaired' or the elderly who can get a bit flustered with these new processes.
Before they lost the last election National were already rolling out major plans to remove privacy rights in NZ (they were intending to reform our privacy laws), and they started with beneficiaries and low income people. As part of the beneficiary class, I take that very seriously. Until National change how they operate, and/or the left parties put some major Tory-proofed protections in, then *everything that involves tech and privacy should be viewed through the lens of what will National do? It's too hard to claw back rights after National destroys them.
Less of an issue, but still an issue, is I don't particularly trust government ICT security given the number of fails we've had.
Future-proofing IT seems like a no brainer, but not many people seem to be thinking about it. Maybe there's a niche there for some of the geeky people.
Would love to know if it's a tech issue, a cultural issue or a money one. How hard would it be to have produced a basic app that worked on all phones?
I have an iphone 5c. It said it needed some funny-numbered thing to download the Govt Covid tracker. I gave up. Unless I am working, I leave the thing next to my bed for the entire day anyway.
I await a better system, like that card, which I would happily take with me.
The further back you want to take it, the more difficult it can be.
An app programmer would be able to comment about how far off the track I am, but apps aren't generally typed linearly in one big file. The operating system isn't just a translator between the app and the transistors on the chips, it has libraries of subroutines that apps can call. They all operate the same way across different manufacturers, and they save a LOT of programming time. But each new edition of an operating system introduces new subroutines, so you need to write ones that work for older systems.
But also the other issue is that new editions also deprecate inefficient or insecure subroutines, so they no longer work on newer versions. It can be difficult to program to suit an old version and expect it to work on newer systems. It needs to be as simple as possible, which might reduce functionality that saves power or is needed for a covid tracer.
There would eventually be a hard line where it goes to before there was cross-company standards and even getting equivalent-generation phones to work would be massively difficult.
But some location apps were around in Android 3 or earlier, so the tech would seem to be feasible for that level. I suspect they took an industry estimate and figured "95% is good enough", but it isn't. We need everyone who can to do, to make up for those who can't or won't.
tbh, I never sorted out the privacy issues, so I'm not even sure I would use it if I could. The CD one irks though.
How much of the problems with past proofing are a trade off to get more and new exiting developments. I'm guessing in a sane world the balance would sit somewhere else.
A lot of it's legitimate – anyone going to a website that hasn't been updated in 20 years can see that.
And once someone finds a security hole in a subroutine, it needs to go.
I suspect some apps use only later generation versions to target their customers, too. They don't necessarily want late adopters, either because their product doesn't warrant close examination or because they don't want broke people skewing their data.
Like uber and lime are too modern for my phone. But my banking app works fine and google maps does too (if slow). So it's not impossible to write it for me, but they probably figure someone with a phone >3years old is unlikely to be inclined or have the credit rating to use their service – and my using it might make their service look bad, anyway.
There was also at least one phone manufacturer caught issuing software updates that demonstrably slowed their phones, just before their nextgen phones hit the shelves. Planned obsolescence has been replaced by obsolescence-on-command.
My partner’s iPhone 7 with 128Gb of storage is just starting to do the usual Apple death – the available RAM is a running short doing routine tasks. This is pretty much the usual pattern. It has 2Gb RAM and it has been interesting watching the memory bloat creep up. The support with either stop for it this September or next year in the usual fashion.
Since this is the third iPhone that she has had that has died or started dying in the same manner (iPhone 3G, iPhone 5(?), and iPhone 7) I’m hoping she is going to do what I did after the 3G and do the switch to a large capacity android.
I have given up on Apple multiple times now. Writing code for the bloody horrible iOS made it lose the sheen of the front-end interface for me. Paying for excessive annual developer licenses and the equipment upgrades doesn’t help either. But the real kicker is the planned obsolescence in their APIs which essentially makes most code bases using Apple systems obsolete within a few years and almost invariably inside a decade.
At least windows provides some strong backwards compatibility and open development tools.
But mostly I do open source Linux wherever possible and Android kotlin/NDK if I need to work on mobiles.
You have not the right phone so therefore you can't reguster as a citizen and you must then be treated as an alien. Is that how it will be?
The PTB did that when we first got computers, and wiped some people out of existence causing them great hardship. Some were registered as dead, and it was no use saying it's me here are my docs. NZ Post and others have established Real Me presumably to prevent that happening. But I do not like the tech takeover, I do not like it at all.
I won't be using Real Me as long as we have a Labour and a National that treat beneficiaries as second class citizens. Nat's plans around data are particularly scary.
Uh well that's out for me. I don't want to lay down in the road and let technology run over me – decision it is more efficient in fuel to run over this person and drag them away, than to stop and swerve round. Don't laugh anybody, we already have gummint departments thinking like that about beneficiaries, you might have need but can't get anything done while you can still struggle to your feet.
keep a log of where you go and use sign-in sheets where possible.
Sound advice.
I am becoming increasingly concerned that a whole generation of young people are growing up reliant on bits of plastic technology to do all their thinking and communicating for them.
Once upon a time there were no cell phones and people relied on their own sensibilities when it came to solving problems and keeping themselves and others safe from harm. I suspect we are creating generations of young people who will grow up having no idea how to do that for themselves.
This is no reflection on Rosielee who obviously can think for herself, but its something I feel strongly about. My young relatives frequently get a 'sermon' on the subject from me although I fear they take no notice. 🙁
There's a joke that years ago we figured folks would make better decisions if they had more information, but now they have all human information available at their fingertips and we're more stupid than ever.
But I'm not so sure about that. The stupid is just louder, but young 'uns seem about the same – even smarter, maybe.
When it comes to adrenaline sports, you get to see everything that could go wrong, in endless slo-mo detail. No imagination needed for that "is this really a good idea?" moment. But the young'uns are doing shit many levels up from anything we were doing back when I wasn't far from being near the top of one of those sports.
Yeah, but that's the selected extreme population. Not sure base jumpers are pushing the envelope any further than the wing-walkers of the 1920s.
But the day to day stupidity seems about the same. Uni student disorder was getting out of hand about 15 years ago, but there were some decent riots 15 years before that, and skyrocket wars and burned fences in the 80s. If anything the student parties are a bit less hazardous than the drinking horns from back in the day.
My niece's cohort seems pretty sensible – still dramas, but fewer hospital admissions lol
So I can't fault 'em too much where I am, anyway. We still have hoons and wannabe thugs and drunken dickheads who think daddy's wallet acts as a force-field against a broken jaw, but not any worse than back in my day.
The problem isn't that we have all the information available but that all the stupid things that are just plain wrong are also available and many people only accept what they believe as factual anyway.
25 years ago it was part of my duties in a particular government agency to train new recruits how to put their newly acquired knowledge into practice. It included making simple calculations in one's head. Not one of them could do it without a calculator. In the end I made them put their calculators away and learn how to work it out for themselves.
Why? Calculators/computers are quicker, and if the calculations are that important, there'll be an additional checking process anyway.
I can't claim any ability to do long division in my head. But I read a paper from the 1950s that took 105 person-years of collation and analysis to produce. I can literally replicate updated results of that information within half an hour.
We develop the skillsets we need, and we let the unneeded ones become boutique curiosities.
house brand phones are reasonably powerful , large and cheap I suggest checking them last time I bought one was a vodafone with a 5" screen about 3-4 years ago cost $100
If I'm not going to buy a new phone and transfer all my apps & shit, I'm definitely not going spend even more time seeing if I can root my phone without trashing all my apps and shit.
Looking online, the thing’s only 5 years old and already secondhand in that time lol. Regardless of generation of OS, it shouldn’t be so obsolete.
I'm definitely not going spend even more time seeing if I can root my phone without trashing all my apps and shit.
Not talking about putting in after market OS. Just seeing if it can be updated to a later version. My phone came out standard with Android 5 but its now running 7.1.1 but I had to tell it to update. It wouldn't do it automatically because it did a full reset of the data.
All your apps can be reinstalled and you should have backups of data.
Looking online, the thing’s only 5 years old and already secondhand in that time lol.
Tech changes and moves on but the big one for me is the security vulnerabilities in an old OS that are no longer being fixed.
That confirms to me that this is all a big con, the obsolescence thing, a forced sale of device or you will lose out on communication. To put it crudely the techs have got us by the short and curlies.
Really, the phone has one OS that applies across many makes and models. It's not specifically customised for you – its for everyone which means that each OS has every protection it can built in whether you think you want it or not. The fact that you obviously think that you don't probably does mean that you're an open book to the cyber criminals.
That software needs processing power and so, as the OS develops, so to does the hardware. You can't, effectively, run a new OS on old hardware.
The relationship between hardware and software is pretty arbitrary. The most obvious example is Linux. I just upgraded my old Sony laptop circa 2009 to kubuntu 20.04. No problems. No particular loss of speed since I first dropped ubuntu on in 2009.
I mowtly write code, read email, and read the net on it. Nothing fancy. Had a external USB wifi as that chip failed on the board.
But it had a full HD screen on it when I got it and 3GB Ram. Replaced the hdd with a ssd.
Still using both the origonal lithium batteries and they still last for about 3 hours.
The software issues on cell phones are mostly and issue with design and marketing.
And yes, I've seen some apps stop working after they got "updated" to newer OS.
But all major banks in NZ seem to still be happy giving their customers apps that work on my OS. So they don't think I'm wide open to cyber criminals, otherwise they'd have gone the way of… the wikipedia app (obviously in need of higher security than banking apps, that).
Now, my suspicion is that the banks know their apps are secure enough on an older OS, and because it helps them keep customers they put the work into updating their apps in such a way to keep them working for their customers. Whereas it's in the interests of other apps to simply ignore compatibility issues with older phones because of cost, and because the market information apps gather is most valuable for data gathered on people who are early/midlevel adopters.
But you can always explain why a bank will leave customers wide open to cyber criminals while the wikipedia app developers are so much more cautious.
Professor Rod Jackson on Radio NZ this afternoon made the observation that the best takeout from National’s border policy release today is that finally we’ve got broad consensus across the political spectrum that what we are doing is the right thing to do. All the gang that have been advocating open borders and open slather have effectively been sidelined. It’s only taken 6 months!
Yeah just saw that. I was thinking more of Thornley and the Plan B gang. And the Unis. National have quietly dropped their plan to let tertiary education providers manage quarantine for international students.
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Unis will have to attend closely to students' pastoral needs and not have any dying unnoticed, alone. Well that was Canterbury and perhaps all of them have fallen for factory education – have you caught up with Chch's latest distasteful disaster? I think that should be enough to have his contract broken.
Senior lecturer in chemical engineering Luke Schneider posted answers suggesting that beneficiaries should commit suicide, that he would “shoot to kill” looters in a riot to protect private property and that a virus which killed “the lowest IQ people” would help get back a “sustainable planet”.
The comments were among about 600 posted by Schneider to American question-and-answer website Quora, which lists Schneiders full name, job title and where he studied in the United States. One answer from a question about social security wealth redistribution on August 11, read: “If you can’t survive without the largess of others, it’s your patriotic duty to commit suicide”. ..
Schneider’s LinkedIn profile says he was educated at South Florida and Princeton universities in the United States, and has worked in both the Unites[d] States and New Zealand.
Not all….theres still a vocal and enabled minority pushing a different agenda….and National's position is loose enough to continue to support that agenda
Judith also said that if there was Bill of Rights implications for the pre-travel Covid testing she would legislate to override it ‘within the first hundred days’. So there you go April at the very earliest.
It won't negate the need for 14 day quarantine and day 3 and 12 testing, while creating headaches for kiwis in countries where test results can take over a week to come back, or where limited test stocks are reserved for symptomatic people only. So then the question is why?
Basically, National like to have the appearance of being tough on stuff by taking measures that don't make any difference. You could even call it virtue signalling LOL
This is great. The PM in her element with people. But also the way the the PMO is cleverly contrasting the PM with the Leader of The Opposition. Sheer brainpower.
GOnna be interesting to see the mental gymnastics over the freedom loving Nat supporters supporting this, if Collins doesn't like a law she will just change it.
not sure "eugenics" is the right word, but I'm sure someone could figure out a way to exclude or alienate groups they don't like. Having about fifty diseases to make the testing costs prohibitive, for example, or targeting diseases common in potus' s-hole countries even if we don't have effective vectors for those diseases here.
Even if they keep "infectious" in the legislation.
I find myself double-thinking quite a few reasonable or harmless ideas with "now, what if Judith Collins were in charge of this policy?"
Apparently in Taiwan new arrivals can choose to isolate in hotels, Air BnBs, or private homes but they are monitored by cell phone.
Student politician, David Seymour, wants to do the same thing here.
Curious he's picked Taiwan as a model. It is a country living under extreme paranoia and has done for several decades. A country pre-loaded for isolation, its citizens have been told to distrust anyone since birth in case they are infiltrated. A country which cannot get legitimacy from the West for fear of repercussion from China via a cutting off of cheap and under represented labour which makes the West’s 1%, and 10% so rich.
David Seymour also wants to re-open The Rock to house his scheme's rule breakers. Me-thinks another riot wouldn't be far behind that decision.
Question: Would New Zealand be better off without student politician, David Seymour?
If the next government hasn't figured out how to corral state entities like NZSuper to stop actively undermining NZTA, then they just don't have the muscle for the job to happen.
Twyford expressing "preferences" at this point in the election cycle has far less credence than when he announced the same thing three years ago at the same time.
Woods, Simpson and Roche are busy with other stuff. Time for a Cabinet with a really powerful integrated infrastructure portfolio set.
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Juli Ann Genter sounds confident in that stuff link. What about heavy goods? Is there something left in the kitty and space on the ground to ensure a good run for that to where it should deliver? Getting people round, getting goods around, they are both important.
Surface light rail on the Dominion Rd route will be more accessible, and quicker and cheaper to put in place. That means more money to invest in more rapid transit lines around Auckland, like rail to the North Shore and northwest,” Genter said.
She said her party was the party to trust when it comes to transport infrastructure. “The Green Party has a history of campaigning for successful public transport projects well before other parties pick them up, like the Northern Busway, electrification of Auckland’s rail network, and the CRL [City Rail Link],” Genter said.
“The Greens are the party people can trust to deliver when it comes to excellent public transport.”
We are now in construction for Auckland's Third Main line. Also electrification of Papakura to Pukekohe is underway, which is close to completing full electrification from Auckland to Hamilton to Wellington. That's also the secret to Kiwirail getting a fully electrified fleet for the North Island.
Most of the multiple billions Kiwirail are getting this term have come through New Zealand First cabinet advocacy at the Budget table.
Modular houses built in China because they're much cheaper to built there. Fancy that eh. We can scrap our home building industry and just import houses. Be terrible if we export logs there to have them turned into houses and returned here mind you. We could probably bring in workers from offshore to assemble and finish them though. Long hours, low wages, imagine the money someone could make.
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The amount of paint needed to paint a car depends on a number of factors, including the size of the car, the number of coats you plan to apply, and the type of paint you are using. In general, you will need between 1 and 2 gallons of paint for ...
Jump-starting a car is a common task that can be performed even in adverse weather conditions like rain. However, safety precautions and proper techniques are crucial to avoid potential hazards. This comprehensive guide will provide detailed instructions on how to safely jump a car in the rain, ensuring both your ...
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara Solomon Islands’ incumbent prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has been re-elected in the East Choiseul constituency. It is the opening move in the political chess match to form the country’s next government. Returning officer Christopher Makoni made the declaration late last night after ...
Headline: The moment of friction. – 36th Parallel Assessments In strategic studies “friction” is a term that it is used to describe the moment when military action encounters adversary resistance. “Friction” is one of four (along with an unofficial fifth) “F’s” in military strategy, which includes force (kinetic mass), ...
The Fast-track Bill, if passed, would allow three Ministers, unchallenged and unchecked, to approve the immediate extraction and exhaustion of one-off resources. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne iamharin/Shutterstock For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay ...
Emmas Hislop, Sidnam and Wehipeihana discuss what’s in a name. Emma Sidnam: Hello Emmas! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. My first question for you is related to what’s been on my mind for a while. It’s very important. You see we’ve recently had some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
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There's plenty wrong with Reti's border policy:
A negative test days before flying is no guarantee of being uninfected on arrival. So where is the extra security there?
The negative test requirement adds burden to lower income people and is either not possible in some countries, or it is expensive. This is the Nats through and through. If you're not wealthy then we don't want you back.
Refusing entry to people who have Covid-19 demonises them. All people with Covid 19 are 'dangerous' in Reti's eyes. The compassionate thing is to repeat, “people aren't the problem, the virus is”. No surprise National missed this crucial point.
'One hour wait for testing' is a ridiculous fast-food meme which is unlikely to be achieved in surge situations of which there would be many until any National/ACT government.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/08/covid-19-national-s-border-policy-slammed-as-fraught-by-labour-deeply-disappointing-by-greens.html
How is the current requirement for people to pay for their 14 day mandatory quarantine working out for low income returnees? Is that cheaper than the current free Covid test people can get now?
Hey moron. First time returnees are not charged.
This is the kind of thing that gets lost with the stupid right and they will try to push falsehoods.
Unbelievably, it is still necessary to stand up to this rampant idiocy whenever it appears.
Venezuela is the right wing's favourite whipping boy.
This article is paywalled by our own right wing press so I can't read it, but the similarities between Venezuela's policy of criminalising Covid-19 suffers, and the National party's policy of denying entry to Covid-19 sufferers are hard to ignore.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12358072
National's border policy…………a relative of mine is flying back from the UK in November. They have been told by the airline they have to have a covid test 4 days before travel……………..Its a good idea as a bit of protection but we all know that there are false negatives, that what happens in the three days between flying and the test? And also it seems likely some people are picking up the virus in transit…………So not much use. would still have to quarantine etc, otherwise risk quite high
Indeed….looks like more pointless bureaucracy…something National constantly rail against
I think both Emirates and Etihad both have that requirement if you are transiting through their hubs.
The airline wants to reduce risk. It is just trying to be practical and care for its passengers and staff.
Great to see Heather Duplicity-Allan finally come around to the idea that the border and its integrity is critical to the way New Zealand navigates Covid-19.
Not weeks ago she was criticising the government for not creating a travel bubble with the Cook Islands. She will also have been keen on relaxing restrictions for international students, and for wealthy Americans to build bunkers. Her own
sugar-daddyhusband told us the government's warnings about resurgence were purely political.I guess for Heather epiphanies come fast and cheap. Let us pray she has a few more.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12358297
Heather does not strike me as the most aware of people… Judith C has A similar quality, to my mind. Why else would she make such a preposterously silly suggestion, fatuously thinking that the majority of folks will agree…
Already, every critcism I have seen pointing out all the blatantly obvious failings of her policy read far better than her vacuous justification.
I think the Nats will have to quietly drop this idea. Now that the election date is another month away, they also have the possibility of not-so-quietly dropping Judith herself.
How many of them will be bright enough to seize the opportunity?
I wonder if this pandemic is going to wake people up to the fact that National doesn't really do policy – that what they do is uncosted, untested, and uncontestable reckons.
I am in a quandary. My 4 yr old phone, which does everything I want it to, is rated as too old to take the covid tracing app. Do I now have to spend mega bucks on a new phone in order to be a responsible citizen? Maybe this is part of the reason why the uptake of the app is low. It's not lack of civic duty.
keep a log of where you go and use sign-in sheets where possible.
It's not our fault the default for the tech industry is "people who can buy new phones every year".
if your phone does the net, you can log your activity manually at https://tracing.covid19.govt.nz
it's becoming a problem, I don't get the civil defence warnings either. My phone is starting to not work for some websites too. It's 6 years old, nothing wrong with it other than Apple don't update the OS and thus it's not supported by developers.
None of which would bother me except I'm not that confident that society and its systems is not going to centre itself around late model phones. I can't tell if the CD siren thing is an issue or not, and I shouldn't even have to be thinking about that.
The CD thing doesn't worry me so much – chances are we know someone who will get it and be all "wtf", or we'd notice the traffic heading for the hills.
But the covid tracer is a bit worse. Either make a single version that's retro-compatible, or do a version for the last ten year's or so of OS. And then there's the entire expectation that everyone has a phone of some sort anyway.
The economic demographic most likely to have incompatible phones quite possibly overlaps the demographic most likely to spend most of their time working all hours for f-all pay, getting their roster texted to them because they're casualised disposable. But they're also the ones most likely to still be having contacts when everyone else is zoom-working from home.
She'll be right Trev, lol.
It's more that I don't know if CD are relying on the phones and not focusing on the other systems now. I can't tell if we even still have sirens. That your answer didn't mention them suggests I'm not alone in that. Bad luck for people that live on their own I guess or happen to be around people with old phones. Hmm I wonder who that will affect most.
I caught the tail end of a conversation on RNZ about a lanyard with a card on it. I assume this registers via Bluetooth or some other witchcraft and automatically logs yr movements.
I am having similar issues as my Huawei doesn't support the app.
the privacy issues never got addressed adequately for me (app or card).
I missed where they were addressing the privacy/data side of things.
I have been reflecting on my own shift in attitudes over the last few years. 5 years ago I would have agreed with you. Now, not so much.
Not saying your concerns are unfounded or wanting to argue with you. I see it as a good solution for the 'electronically impaired' or the elderly who can get a bit flustered with these new processes.
Before they lost the last election National were already rolling out major plans to remove privacy rights in NZ (they were intending to reform our privacy laws), and they started with beneficiaries and low income people. As part of the beneficiary class, I take that very seriously. Until National change how they operate, and/or the left parties put some major Tory-proofed protections in, then *everything that involves tech and privacy should be viewed through the lens of what will National do? It's too hard to claw back rights after National destroys them.
Less of an issue, but still an issue, is I don't particularly trust government ICT security given the number of fails we've had.
Future-proofing IT seems like a no brainer, but not many people seem to be thinking about it. Maybe there's a niche there for some of the geeky people.
Would love to know if it's a tech issue, a cultural issue or a money one. How hard would it be to have produced a basic app that worked on all phones?
Not everybody’s got a phone.
some of us still have a phone tied to the wall.
Point taken 🙂
I should have qualified it as meaning mobile phone.
I have an iphone 5c. It said it needed some funny-numbered thing to download the Govt Covid tracker. I gave up. Unless I am working, I leave the thing next to my bed for the entire day anyway.
I await a better system, like that card, which I would happily take with me.
I’ll wait for National to microchip me when they get back in power 😉
I’ve very little understanding of it but the CovidCard seems like something that could work well, at least for me.
quite. Emergency systems shouldn't be so dependent on a small thing.
Not so much "future proofing" as "past proofing".
The further back you want to take it, the more difficult it can be.
An app programmer would be able to comment about how far off the track I am, but apps aren't generally typed linearly in one big file. The operating system isn't just a translator between the app and the transistors on the chips, it has libraries of subroutines that apps can call. They all operate the same way across different manufacturers, and they save a LOT of programming time. But each new edition of an operating system introduces new subroutines, so you need to write ones that work for older systems.
But also the other issue is that new editions also deprecate inefficient or insecure subroutines, so they no longer work on newer versions. It can be difficult to program to suit an old version and expect it to work on newer systems. It needs to be as simple as possible, which might reduce functionality that saves power or is needed for a covid tracer.
There would eventually be a hard line where it goes to before there was cross-company standards and even getting equivalent-generation phones to work would be massively difficult.
But some location apps were around in Android 3 or earlier, so the tech would seem to be feasible for that level. I suspect they took an industry estimate and figured "95% is good enough", but it isn't. We need everyone who can to do, to make up for those who can't or won't.
tbh, I never sorted out the privacy issues, so I'm not even sure I would use it if I could. The CD one irks though.
How much of the problems with past proofing are a trade off to get more and new exiting developments. I'm guessing in a sane world the balance would sit somewhere else.
A lot of it's legitimate – anyone going to a website that hasn't been updated in 20 years can see that.
And once someone finds a security hole in a subroutine, it needs to go.
I suspect some apps use only later generation versions to target their customers, too. They don't necessarily want late adopters, either because their product doesn't warrant close examination or because they don't want broke people skewing their data.
Like uber and lime are too modern for my phone. But my banking app works fine and google maps does too (if slow). So it's not impossible to write it for me, but they probably figure someone with a phone >3years old is unlikely to be inclined or have the credit rating to use their service – and my using it might make their service look bad, anyway.
There was also at least one phone manufacturer caught issuing software updates that demonstrably slowed their phones, just before their nextgen phones hit the shelves. Planned obsolescence has been replaced by obsolescence-on-command.
My partner’s iPhone 7 with 128Gb of storage is just starting to do the usual Apple death – the available RAM is a running short doing routine tasks. This is pretty much the usual pattern. It has 2Gb RAM and it has been interesting watching the memory bloat creep up. The support with either stop for it this September or next year in the usual fashion.
Since this is the third iPhone that she has had that has died or started dying in the same manner (iPhone 3G, iPhone 5(?), and iPhone 7) I’m hoping she is going to do what I did after the 3G and do the switch to a large capacity android.
I have given up on Apple multiple times now. Writing code for the bloody horrible iOS made it lose the sheen of the front-end interface for me. Paying for excessive annual developer licenses and the equipment upgrades doesn’t help either. But the real kicker is the planned obsolescence in their APIs which essentially makes most code bases using Apple systems obsolete within a few years and almost invariably inside a decade.
At least windows provides some strong backwards compatibility and open development tools.
But mostly I do open source Linux wherever possible and Android kotlin/NDK if I need to work on mobiles.
You have not the right phone so therefore you can't reguster as a citizen and you must then be treated as an alien. Is that how it will be?
The PTB did that when we first got computers, and wiped some people out of existence causing them great hardship. Some were registered as dead, and it was no use saying it's me here are my docs. NZ Post and others have established Real Me presumably to prevent that happening. But I do not like the tech takeover, I do not like it at all.
I won't be using Real Me as long as we have a Labour and a National that treat beneficiaries as second class citizens. Nat's plans around data are particularly scary.
Uh well that's out for me. I don't want to lay down in the road and let technology run over me – decision it is more efficient in fuel to run over this person and drag them away, than to stop and swerve round. Don't laugh anybody, we already have gummint departments thinking like that about beneficiaries, you might have need but can't get anything done while you can still struggle to your feet.
I hear how your phone won't work, but there is a civil defence alert compatible phone list to check. Mine doesn't work either.
https://getready.govt.nz/prepared/stay-informed/emergency-mobile-alert/capable-phones/
yes, my phone isn't on the list.
Sound advice.
I am becoming increasingly concerned that a whole generation of young people are growing up reliant on bits of plastic technology to do all their thinking and communicating for them.
Once upon a time there were no cell phones and people relied on their own sensibilities when it came to solving problems and keeping themselves and others safe from harm. I suspect we are creating generations of young people who will grow up having no idea how to do that for themselves.
This is no reflection on Rosielee who obviously can think for herself, but its something I feel strongly about. My young relatives frequently get a 'sermon' on the subject from me although I fear they take no notice. 🙁
There's a joke that years ago we figured folks would make better decisions if they had more information, but now they have all human information available at their fingertips and we're more stupid than ever.
But I'm not so sure about that. The stupid is just louder, but young 'uns seem about the same – even smarter, maybe.
Dunno about that.
When it comes to adrenaline sports, you get to see everything that could go wrong, in endless slo-mo detail. No imagination needed for that "is this really a good idea?" moment. But the young'uns are doing shit many levels up from anything we were doing back when I wasn't far from being near the top of one of those sports.
Yeah, but that's the selected extreme population. Not sure base jumpers are pushing the envelope any further than the wing-walkers of the 1920s.
But the day to day stupidity seems about the same. Uni student disorder was getting out of hand about 15 years ago, but there were some decent riots 15 years before that, and skyrocket wars and burned fences in the 80s. If anything the student parties are a bit less hazardous than the drinking horns from back in the day.
My niece's cohort seems pretty sensible – still dramas, but fewer hospital admissions lol
So I can't fault 'em too much where I am, anyway. We still have hoons and wannabe thugs and drunken dickheads who think daddy's wallet acts as a force-field against a broken jaw, but not any worse than back in my day.
The problem isn't that we have all the information available but that all the stupid things that are just plain wrong are also available and many people only accept what they believe as factual anyway.
Jeez. Have I wandered into teatime at the old folks home…?
Yeah, we can't stand that new-fangled rock'n'roll either.
No.
But to give you an idea what I mean…
25 years ago it was part of my duties in a particular government agency to train new recruits how to put their newly acquired knowledge into practice. It included making simple calculations in one's head. Not one of them could do it without a calculator. In the end I made them put their calculators away and learn how to work it out for themselves.
Why? Calculators/computers are quicker, and if the calculations are that important, there'll be an additional checking process anyway.
I can't claim any ability to do long division in my head. But I read a paper from the 1950s that took 105 person-years of collation and analysis to produce. I can literally replicate updated results of that information within half an hour.
We develop the skillsets we need, and we let the unneeded ones become boutique curiosities.
Don’t be an age-ist 😉
Haha. That’s usually what I’m saying to the kids at work.
Thanks for that. Will try it.
[Fixed typo in user name]
house brand phones are reasonably powerful , large and cheap I suggest checking them last time I bought one was a vodafone with a 5" screen about 3-4 years ago cost $100
mine is too old too. I use a manual system and my eftpos transactions.
Yes. That's what i do already. I'm old but tech savvy and equipped so i thought the app was a great idea. but i am not buying a new phone.
Have you tried updating your phones operating system?
The app requires Android 6.0 or OS11.
A phone that old may require you to manually do it (if it can do it at all). My phone was released in 2014 and can only update to Android 7.1.1
If I'm not going to buy a new phone and transfer all my apps & shit, I'm definitely not going spend even more time seeing if I can root my phone without trashing all my apps and shit.
Looking online, the thing’s only 5 years old and already secondhand in that time lol. Regardless of generation of OS, it shouldn’t be so obsolete.
Not talking about putting in after market OS. Just seeing if it can be updated to a later version. My phone came out standard with Android 5 but its now running 7.1.1 but I had to tell it to update. It wouldn't do it automatically because it did a full reset of the data.
All your apps can be reinstalled and you should have backups of data.
Tech changes and moves on but the big one for me is the security vulnerabilities in an old OS that are no longer being fixed.
no, it can't be updated, and reinstalling all the apps would be bloody annoying.
That confirms to me that this is all a big con, the obsolescence thing, a forced sale of device or you will lose out on communication. To put it crudely the techs have got us by the short and curlies.
So, you would prefer to have you as an open book for the criminals?
The techs and the upgrades go a long way to thwarting them from doing so. To get those benefits does require you to upgrade though.
My bank doesn't think I'm an open book to cybercriminals.
What do the covid app designers know that my bank app designers don't?
/facepalm
Really, the phone has one OS that applies across many makes and models. It's not specifically customised for you – its for everyone which means that each OS has every protection it can built in whether you think you want it or not. The fact that you obviously think that you don't probably does mean that you're an open book to the cyber criminals.
That software needs processing power and so, as the OS develops, so to does the hardware. You can't, effectively, run a new OS on old hardware.
The relationship between hardware and software is pretty arbitrary. The most obvious example is Linux. I just upgraded my old Sony laptop circa 2009 to kubuntu 20.04. No problems. No particular loss of speed since I first dropped ubuntu on in 2009.
I mowtly write code, read email, and read the net on it. Nothing fancy. Had a external USB wifi as that chip failed on the board.
But it had a full HD screen on it when I got it and 3GB Ram. Replaced the hdd with a ssd.
Still using both the origonal lithium batteries and they still last for about 3 hours.
The software issues on cell phones are mostly and issue with design and marketing.
I know they're not tailored for me.
And yes, I've seen some apps stop working after they got "updated" to newer OS.
But all major banks in NZ seem to still be happy giving their customers apps that work on my OS. So they don't think I'm wide open to cyber criminals, otherwise they'd have gone the way of… the wikipedia app (obviously in need of higher security than banking apps, that).
Now, my suspicion is that the banks know their apps are secure enough on an older OS, and because it helps them keep customers they put the work into updating their apps in such a way to keep them working for their customers. Whereas it's in the interests of other apps to simply ignore compatibility issues with older phones because of cost, and because the market information apps gather is most valuable for data gathered on people who are early/midlevel adopters.
But you can always explain why a bank will leave customers wide open to cyber criminals while the wikipedia app developers are so much more cautious.
Take a pic wherever you go, somebody suggested.
you could just photograph the qr code or just the shop frontage photo metadata will give time
no alerts but simple
Professor Rod Jackson on Radio NZ this afternoon made the observation that the best takeout from National’s border policy release today is that finally we’ve got broad consensus across the political spectrum that what we are doing is the right thing to do. All the gang that have been advocating open borders and open slather have effectively been sidelined. It’s only taken 6 months!
+1. See my post at 4.
Finally the opposition has come around. Only took a second outbreak to do it…
Yeah just saw that. I was thinking more of Thornley and the Plan B gang. And the Unis. National have quietly dropped their plan to let tertiary education providers manage quarantine for international students.
edit
Unis will have to attend closely to students' pastoral needs and not have any dying unnoticed, alone. Well that was Canterbury and perhaps all of them have fallen for factory education – have you caught up with Chch's latest distasteful disaster? I think that should be enough to have his contract broken.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/122499126/senior-engineering-lecturer-investigated-after-posting-insensitive-comments-online
(Guess where he comes from – Paranoia Central.)
Senior lecturer in chemical engineering Luke Schneider posted answers suggesting that beneficiaries should commit suicide, that he would “shoot to kill” looters in a riot to protect private property and that a virus which killed “the lowest IQ people” would help get back a “sustainable planet”.
The comments were among about 600 posted by Schneider to American question-and-answer website Quora, which lists Schneiders full name, job title and where he studied in the United States.
One answer from a question about social security wealth redistribution on August 11, read: “If you can’t survive without the largess of others, it’s your patriotic duty to commit suicide”. ..
Schneider’s LinkedIn profile says he was educated at South Florida and Princeton universities in the United States, and has worked in both the Unites[d] States and New Zealand.
Also late last year there was this:
Oct//19 https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/116288238/law-lecturer-outs-himself-as-subject-of-unjustified-harassment-complaint
May be about time for the vicious little shit to go home to seckinamemmintville.
Not all….theres still a vocal and enabled minority pushing a different agenda….and National's position is loose enough to continue to support that agenda
Yep. If National gets power expect the borders to be open within 6 months and a massive surge of the pandemic in NZ within 6 months of that.
Lisa’s giving Judith a hard time on Checkpoint. “How are you going to deliver this, you couldn't even build the bridges in Northland!” Ouch!
Judith also said that if there was Bill of Rights implications for the pre-travel Covid testing she would legislate to override it ‘within the first hundred days’. So there you go April at the very earliest.
Hopefully at least April 2024
It won't negate the need for 14 day quarantine and day 3 and 12 testing, while creating headaches for kiwis in countries where test results can take over a week to come back, or where limited test stocks are reserved for symptomatic people only. So then the question is why?
Basically, National like to have the appearance of being tough on stuff by taking measures that don't make any difference. You could even call it virtue signalling LOL
This is great. The PM in her element with people. But also the way the the PMO is cleverly contrasting the PM with the Leader of The Opposition. Sheer brainpower.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/masked-pm-praises-esr-team-critical-work-in-mapping-covid-19-cases
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018760413/we-ll-make-sure-it-s-legal-collins-on-compulsory-testing-before-flying-to-nz
GOnna be interesting to see the mental gymnastics over the freedom loving Nat supporters supporting this, if Collins doesn't like a law she will just change it.
It's quite a slippery slope isn't it? Why not test for any infectious disease? A eugenics wet dream.
Carrying an infectious disease and eugenics are unrelated AFAIK but I love to be educated.
not sure "eugenics" is the right word, but I'm sure someone could figure out a way to exclude or alienate groups they don't like. Having about fifty diseases to make the testing costs prohibitive, for example, or targeting diseases common in potus' s-hole countries even if we don't have effective vectors for those diseases here.
Even if they keep "infectious" in the legislation.
I find myself double-thinking quite a few reasonable or harmless ideas with "now, what if Judith Collins were in charge of this policy?"
Apparently in Taiwan new arrivals can choose to isolate in hotels, Air BnBs, or private homes but they are monitored by cell phone.
Student politician, David Seymour, wants to do the same thing here.
Curious he's picked Taiwan as a model. It is a country living under extreme paranoia and has done for several decades. A country pre-loaded for isolation, its citizens have been told to distrust anyone since birth in case they are infiltrated. A country which cannot get legitimacy from the West for fear of repercussion from China via a cutting off of cheap and under represented labour which makes the West’s 1%, and 10% so rich.
David Seymour also wants to re-open The Rock to house his scheme's rule breakers. Me-thinks another riot wouldn't be far behind that decision.
Question: Would New Zealand be better off without student politician, David Seymour?
Answer: Computer says yes.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/424035/covid-19-act-wants-to-ditch-government-run-isolation-hotels
Nobody would ever think of leaving their cell phone behind.
https://democracyproject.nz/2020/08/20/josiah-banbury-why-is-national-struggling-to-convince-voters/
Like a phoenix…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300087643/super-fund-still-in-the-picture-as-auckland-light-rail-heads-to-the-election
If the next government hasn't figured out how to corral state entities like NZSuper to stop actively undermining NZTA, then they just don't have the muscle for the job to happen.
Twyford expressing "preferences" at this point in the election cycle has far less credence than when he announced the same thing three years ago at the same time.
Woods, Simpson and Roche are busy with other stuff. Time for a Cabinet with a really powerful integrated infrastructure portfolio set.
edit
Juli Ann Genter sounds confident in that stuff link. What about heavy goods? Is there something left in the kitty and space on the ground to ensure a good run for that to where it should deliver? Getting people round, getting goods around, they are both important.
Surface light rail on the Dominion Rd route will be more accessible, and quicker and cheaper to put in place. That means more money to invest in more rapid transit lines around Auckland, like rail to the North Shore and northwest,” Genter said.
She said her party was the party to trust when it comes to transport infrastructure. “The Green Party has a history of campaigning for successful public transport projects well before other parties pick them up, like the Northern Busway, electrification of Auckland’s rail network, and the CRL [City Rail Link],” Genter said.
“The Greens are the party people can trust to deliver when it comes to excellent public transport.”
Kiwirail is the key to that.
We are now in construction for Auckland's Third Main line. Also electrification of Papakura to Pukekohe is underway, which is close to completing full electrification from Auckland to Hamilton to Wellington. That's also the secret to Kiwirail getting a fully electrified fleet for the North Island.
Most of the multiple billions Kiwirail are getting this term have come through New Zealand First cabinet advocacy at the Budget table.
That would be a big up for NZFirst, that allows them to retire with good wishes and a gold watch, or similar.
I'm guessing minimal poll bump for the Democrats after that Convention.
Which would be a first.
Modular houses built in China because they're much cheaper to built there. Fancy that eh. We can scrap our home building industry and just import houses. Be terrible if we export logs there to have them turned into houses and returned here mind you. We could probably bring in workers from offshore to assemble and finish them though. Long hours, low wages, imagine the money someone could make.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12358131