Because she isn't that nutty righty, which is what is far right.
She could probably be classed as far right on a bad day if you take her anti-immigration antics seriously, but there are plenty of left people who dislike immigration.
Right, far right and alt right seem to be shifting in the days of the orange idiot.
Now anyone who voted Republican and Trump seems to be classed as far right in the US at the mo'.
A couple of defining features of the alt right are being anti-feminist and white supremacist. Compared to far right libertarians like David Seymour, who run politics of privilege but are not particularly racist or misogynist. Southern looks alt right to me. It's why the meme is funny.
Now anyone who voted Republican and Trump seems to be classed as far right in the US at the mo'.
Well, not anyone who voted for the orange wonder.
Just the ones who hoped for the policies he's actually implementing. And the ones who chanted "build the wall" and "lock her up". And the ones who liked his birtherism about Obama. And a few others.
As for voting for other Repuclicans, that a very broad brush. There might be some Republican candidates who don't jack off about child separations and indefinite detention. People who vote for those candidates might not be "far right".
If so, maui, to what is she and her group saying "Ok"? Is it, "I am happy to be at the centre of this group and I am Ok with their group associations and ideology?"
I went once to hear speak a Nigerian Anglican priest. He fulminated against Islam. At the door afterwards I told him I could smell the gunsmoke. He said that he could tell from my body language during the speech that I was not in agreement. I certainly was not giving him the "OK" signal! The signals we give are more accurate than our words as to what we believe..
If a bunch of idiot white supremacist arseholes decide to take up hand shaking for a laugh and it turns into "a sign", are you going to stigmatise anyone who shakes someones hand and make it a white supremacist thing?
So here's the point. The alt-right cultures are using common symbols, memes etc to both communicate with each other and confuse and mock the general public and create confusion. People might find it funny up to the point we remember that the Chch mosque mass murderer is one of the people who used the sign, and organised and networked on 8chan.
The other way is a few white supremacist idiots on sites like 8Chan are taking the piss and normal people are falling for it and some other alt right idiots are falling for it and taking it seriously and doing the "symbolism" and every day things are suddenly made bad because of a few loud normal peoples over reaction and triggering.
Should just ignore the obvious trolling, and it tends to go away after a month or two.
Yes. And they love to keep recycling the "joke". The shared humour serves exactly the same group bonding and self-identification purpose as "serious" gestures.
The other way is a few white supremacist idiots on sites like 8Chan are taking the piss and normal people are falling for it and some other alt right idiots are falling for it and taking it seriously and doing the "symbolism" and every day things are suddenly made bad because of a few loud normal peoples over reaction and triggering.
If it's an in-joke for some far-right fuckwits and a serious symbol for other far-right fuckwits, then calling it a far-right fuckwit behaviour is not an over-reaction. To point it out is a public service, because we know what happens when far-right fuckwits hide in the dark for too long.
We have a problem Minister, it needs to be dealt and it means resources, stop blaming years of underfunding and start funding us correctly – New Zealand Resident Doctors' Association's national secretary, Deborah Powell
She said the association didn't want to hear excuses about the previous Government's lack of funding.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director, Ian Powell, said patients' lives were being put at risk in large part because of a severe shortage of specialists and other staff in emergency departments.
"Health Minister David Clark and National health spokesman Michael Woodhouse are bickering about whose government is to blame for the mess our EDs are in," he said.
"The truth is both politicians' respective parties have been like floundering fish when it comes to running the public health system."
Australasian College for Emergency Medicine president elect, Dr John Bonning, said if it was an a emergency patients would be treated, but for others there can be an offloading delay, which can affect patient outcomes. If somebody is waiting with angina that might be turning into a heart attack, if somebody has a critical infection that can get worse. There are some time critical conditions that might not be immediately obvious when they first come in. There needed to be more surgical and medical ward resourcing, so patients can be admitted to those wards, to take the strain off EDs.
St John medical director Dr Tony Smith said this (ambulance ramping) reduces the availability of ambulances to respond to the next emergency in the community.
Back to the topic (for those who care about it) the current Minister's excuse doesn't stack up.
Yes, it does take years to train both senior nurses and clinicians but why can't he source more (already trained) senior nurses and clinicians from offshore to fill the current shortfall?
Dr Clark said the problem can't be solved overnight.
"These resources are people, their training takes a long period of time, both senior nurses and clinicians take upwards of seven years to train," he said.
I'm not that fussed where he sources them from as long as they are fit for purpose.
And yes, I do think it comes down to funding, more precisely, their BRR. Additionally, what they have chosen to prioritise. So much for wellbeing and the year of delivery.
With all due respect, that is not an excuse as such, is it? The Minister wasn’t really excusing anything.
You should be “fussed where he sources them from as long as they are fit for purpose” because either you are ignorant of the problem or you are disingenuous. You don’t seem to realise or acknowledge that good qualifications, be it for teachers, nurses or doctors, for example, are in hot demand globally and it is a highly competitive market.
Is it enough to advertise? Can they step straight into their new position without additional education and/or training?
I disagree that it simply is a matter of throwing a few dollars at it. If it were that simple (!), the problem would be solved by lunchtime. Evidently, it isn’t this simple.
With all due respect, that is not an excuse as such, is it?
I believe so. First off, no one in their right mind thinks it can be solved overnight. But even the professionals in the sector expect it to be solved within a reasonable time as would most. So that line (overnight) is a total joke really.
And stating locals take time to train is an excuse, because doctors can be and are brought in from offshore. I haven't seen a Kiwi doctor on both occasions I've been in there of late, they have all be from offshore. Ireland is a popular place to source them from. They love it over here.
Yes, there is a global demand for doctors, etc, that's where money helps to attract them along with our lifestyle.
Can they step straight into their new position without additional education and/or training?
Probably not, but it wouldn't take several years to do that. Again, coming back to a more reasonable, thus acceptable (within the profession and public's mind) time frame.
IMO an excuse is when someone doesn’t really want to fix the problem or doesn’t want to do anything about it. I don’t think that applies here as is evident from your link @ 2.
Many love it over here. Some come and some stay and some move on. Life is quite expensive over here, especially in the main centres. Teachers and nurses struggle with housing costs and even medical specialist gasp at (choke on) living expenses. Their (recent and overdue) pay rises are just a drop in a bucket.
Additional or re-training won’t take seven years or so but even so, it will take time and depends on capacity as well, i.e. somebody has to oversee and undertake this. We’re not talking about WOF inspectors or builders and we are not talking about just a simple written exam to check off things.
What is considered a “reasonable” or “acceptable” time frame depends on one’s perception and understanding of the situation. An ignorant or gullible person could easily be made to believe that a few dollars and a few weeks is all that is needed …
IMO an excuse is when someone doesn’t really want to fix the problem or doesn’t want to do anything about it.
As you can see from the initial post, that's the feeling the professionals in the sector have i.e. he's not doing enough to correct the problem. Hence, they are speaking out and it is they that are sick of the excuses.
Life is quite expensive over here
Yes, many I came across stated that. Hence they would have to pay well. Which, of course, comes down to money.
What is considered a “reasonable” or “acceptable” time frame depends on one’s perception and understanding of the situation. An ignorant or gullible person could easily be made to believe that a few dollars and a few weeks is all that is needed.
I'm sure the professionals in the linked article (above) have a good understanding of this.
The Minister and his cabinet colleagues are awaiting the full health system review led by Heather Simpson. How much change do you expect them to make in the meantime?
@The Chairman Systemic and chronic underfunding of social services is a natural result of letting neoliberals run amok with cost cutting and demanding profits from the public sector, with a view to privatising the lot. The model for the last 40 years has failed, glad to see you recognise that
Of course health professionals and their unions want action immediately in their parts of the system. Does not mean it is possible, nor that they grasp the whole picture.
However there are things beyond increasing workforce than can be started now, so I do not buy the Minister hanging everything on that.
Of course health professionals and their unions want action immediately in their parts of the system. Does not mean it is possible, nor that they grasp the whole picture.
Are you implying health professionals and their unions are extremists demanding action that can't be met? Moreover, they have no grasp of what is doable in their profession?
I'm confident our health professionals and their unions have more grasp of the matter than you do.
Health practitioners are hired to deliver healthcare within their particular scope pf practice, not to manage competing priorities across disciplines or delivery timeframes for change programmes.
It's like expecting a bus driver to know about road network planning or rail electrification. They can see a need for better timetables and more colleagues to share the load, sure.
Health practitioners are hired to deliver healthcare within their particular scope pf practice…
Being on the front line in delivering healthcare within their particular scope of practice gives them a very good insight on what is required to improve that delivery, opposed to a manger stuck behind a desk that doesn't really have a clue on the daily ins and outs.
Moreover, Unions have a wider oversight, giving them a far broader view, thus insight.
Additionally, so does the Minister and his advisers, which are meant to be there to help. Yet the best he can come up with when pressed on the matter is he can't fix it overnight, he's holding a review and it will take several years to train up more. He seems to have had a better grasp on the matter when he was in opposition, but now that he's in charged, requires a review. Which will no doubt largely rely on the insights of the Union and staff.
Two years they have been in power and we are still awaiting a review, meanwhile more lives are being put at risk. Frankly, it's not good enough, hence the outcry. Do better.
Chair, as a self-proclaimed friend of the left, do you reckon NZ's public health service/sector/system would be better placed to serve the NZ public now if National rather than Labour/NZ1st/Greens had been (re-)elected in 2017?
Dr Jonathan "Safe Pair of Hands" Coleman may have had a vested interest in ensuring that NZ's public health sector was well and truly ***ked over 'looked after'.
Chair, as a self-proclaimed friend of the left, do you reckon NZ's public health service/sector/system would be better placed to serve the NZ public now if National rather than Labour/NZ1st/Greens had been (re-)elected in 2017?
Of course not. But that is no excuse to allow Labour to get away with falling short too.
There is little point of keeping them (National) out of power if Labour aren't going to be much better. If that is continually going to be the case, it's long past time we on the left look for better representation or press Labour harder.
Spot the telltale signs of ingrained anti-Labour bias:
Of course not. But that is no excuse to allow Labour to get away with falling short too.
There is little point of keeping them (National) out of power if Labour aren’t going to be much better. If that is continually going to be the case, it’s long past time we on the left look for better representation or press Labour harder. [my bolds for clarity]
Chair, you're making no sense. Surely there is a great deal of point to keeping the National party's self-serving wreckers ('Working for NZ'; 'Brighter Future' – my arse) out of power if the current coalition government is doing even slightly better.
You yourself just acknowledged (@10:58 am) that the NZ public health service would be less well placed to serve the NZ public now if a National government was still in charge – well done!
The fact Labour are only slightly better than National is a main reason many people I know no longer vote at all. They no longer see a point as they know they are largely screwed either way.
And the more people on the left don’t vote the more our politics moves to the right.
“The fact Labour are only slightly better than National” is youropinion, repeated ad nauseam here in your disingenuous “lefty” “more left than most” fashion.
IMHO the current coalition government (with all its constraints) is a much better government for all New Zealanders than a National-led government ever could/would be.
Chairman, you have been blowing your own cover for so long without cease that I think you may have some kind of compulsion disorder. You are now the concern troll with the longest record for pretending innocence while repeating the offence – trying to project your concerns into discredit for the Left.
Even if, as Drowsy Kram so nicely reminds us, you consider yourself "more left than most." I guess that those 'most' are people who just feel 'alright'.
As you can see from the responses to a serious issue, I'm clearly more left than most of you lot. Seems not many here are willing to talk the truth when it may harm Labour. Whereas, I'm of the belief of holding them to account to help bring about change for the better.
Nonetheless, I'm not the topic. Hence, care to try again? Or do you just want to join the mob and continue to throw crap at me?
Once again, back to the topic. I'm surprised I've yet to hear the media pull the Minister up on his line they take time to train. I'd love to hear what he would say about not bringing in more from offshore?
Would the minister need to place the ads personally, or are these specialists just sitting on a shelf somewhere ready to relocate at a moment's notice with full NZ-compatible certification for their specialty areas?
Ever been to hospital of late, it's like being at the UN.
Sourcing doctors from offshore is nothing new, they've been doing it for years.
I've recently experienced both sides of it. On an urgent matter, the service was great. But a on a not so critical visit, the wait time (although they did admit me in the end) was atrocious.
"Ever been to hospital of late, it's like being at the UN."
hang on there mr chair more-left-than-most man – what exactly are you implying with that sentence because it reads a bit dicey to me. How can you tell a UN like person from a kiwi?
"They all have accents and none I came across were Kiwi."
accents you say? oh dear I think mr chair more-left-than-most man you are digging a bit of a hole – best to front up now and own the issue you have.
Of course you may have unnatural powers and abilities to discern a persons citizenry from their accent – daresay in some parallel universe you may be considered a marvel but as you've yet to confirm that ability here, then, the question is moot.
Medical language sounds quite foreign to most people. And some patients hallucinate under the influence of some medication. I’m glad to see that The Chairman has fully recovered and has is back to his former self and with us to share his pearls of newly gained wisdom during his obviously traumatic and eye-opening descend into the foreign-operated and woefully underfunded healthcare system of Aotearoa-New Zealand.
I wasn't claiming I know their citizenship status. Merely highlighting many are from offshore.
Strong foreign accents is a good indication people aren't originally from here. And many I conversed with openly admitted they have recently come from abroad. Foreign doctors practicing here is nothing new. Just as Kiwi doctors heading offshore isn't a new concept. Many Kiwi doctors head to the UK in search of better pay. After all, they have large loans to pay off.
sure mr chair more-left-than-most man you stick with that story. Truth is you let a cat out the bag and the cat is not nice at all and you know it. Your observations are unpleasant and bigoted imo – foreign this and that from accents is bullshit.
So do you think they were sitting on a shelf waiting for a job in NZ? Or can the hiring of even one specialist from overseas become a process that takes years?
After all you're the one who wrote upthread "I'm not that fussed where he sources them from as long as they are fit for purpose".
Do you have any idea as to the process that ensures specialists sourced from overseas are assessed to be "fit for purpose"? Even if the minister snapped his fingers to bypass two or three levels of governance/management separation and removed every other barrier to employing staff, how long would you expect it to take to solve the problem?
Strangely enough, most I've come across love to travel. My own GP even has worked in several countries before practicing here. And I've had several over the years as most came from overseas and have taken off again. It seems Kiwi ones largely do the same, which would explain why there aren't many here.
“How long would you expect it to take to solve the problem?”
Far less than several years, most I’ve come across don’t even stay here that long. And it seems (going off the article) those in the profession agree with me. They wouldn’t be complaining if the Minister’s excuse was legit.
Yeah, it's a bit more complex than just turning up and saying "I'm an emergency cardiothoracic trauma surgeon".
First off, I never claimed it was that easy.
From your link
If you are applying for registration in a vocational scope and do not hold an approved Australasian postgraduate medical qualification such as a Fellowship, Diploma or Certificate, your training, qualifications and experience will first need to be assessed to see whether they are equivalent to those of a locally trained specialist
So how many doctors do you think hold an approved Australasian postgraduate medical qualification, enough for us to meet our current shortfall?
Moreover, how many doctors in the world do you think hold qualifications and experience that can meet the assessment to see whether they are equivalent to those of a locally trained specialist?
One would expect globally, there would be thousands.
You do realise ambulance ramping is a problem in Ausas well, right? So # specialists with Australasian qualifications = "not enough".
So then you have qualifications in other parts of the world, and assessing their experience and quals not just in the specialty, but also in general medical basics and things like medical ethics and dr-patient communication. Each of those needs formal and thorough assessment, while encouraging and sorting out immigration issues and general things like "is this doctor a sexual predator".
You seem to think it's about the number of trained doctors. It's not. It's about doctor availability, retention, and the attractiveness of working in the NZ health sector and the associated workplace conditions.
Very few of these are under ministerial control. Does the health sector need yet another shake-up, or would that just make things even worse?
You seem to think it's about the number of trained doctors. It's not. It's about doctor availability, retention, and the attractiveness of working in the NZ health sector and the associated workplace conditions.
We require a higher number of trained doctors.
The higher the number of trained doctors available globally, the easier it is to source them. So numbers is part of it.
So to is money,
Money is required to help attract and retain them and this applies to locally trained ones too.
And speaking of locally trained ones, what is the Government doing to grow their numbers?
The thing is, DHB's are largely in financial stress. Thus, they require more money to better do this. Which is totally in the Government's hands.
Just because Australia is also under pressure doesn't mean we can't poach doctors from there. Again, money along with work place conditions helps with this which again, is largely under ministerial control.
And again, I never said finding those that meet our assessment needs was going to be easy, but it needs to be done to help solve this problem.
ooo – DHB elections are coming up, ain't they? You could fix the problem in your DHB and show the minister how it's done. It'd really help you campaign for the nats next year, too, with the credibility you build up hiring new specialists.
Yep there is a real war going on and indigenous activists and environmentalists and protectors of the land are being murdered in alarming numbers. This scum will mow down many indigenous communities and people – we are about to lose whole cultures in that jungle and there is fuck all we can do about it.
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
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 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
If sprinter Zoe Hobbs lines up in the 100m final in Paris this year, her Olympic campaign will have been a success. Even if she doesn’t climb the podium, her presence will be as good as gold. But if Dame Lisa Carrington comes fourth, the country will record it as ...
Pushing it to call her alt-right tbf.
But the bloke she hung out with was an odd unit.
Pushing it to miss the scare quotes.
why wouldn't you call her alt-right?
Because she isn't that nutty righty, which is what is far right.
She could probably be classed as far right on a bad day if you take her anti-immigration antics seriously, but there are plenty of left people who dislike immigration.
Right, far right and alt right seem to be shifting in the days of the orange idiot.
Now anyone who voted Republican and Trump seems to be classed as far right in the US at the mo'.
So she is on a par with you, not far right or anything.
Now I'm far right?
Lol
Let me guess something
You think the following are far right. Key, Hoskings and Peterson.
My first sentence was supposed to be she isn't nutty righty enough to be alt right btw.
Apologies
A couple of defining features of the alt right are being anti-feminist and white supremacist. Compared to far right libertarians like David Seymour, who run politics of privilege but are not particularly racist or misogynist. Southern looks alt right to me. It's why the meme is funny.
The meme is hilarious, but only for lovers of sweet irony.
I'm lost in the middle of far-out so sorry Chris T and thanks weka for defining the types of far and alt right, I have a better idea now.
Well, not anyone who voted for the orange wonder.
Just the ones who hoped for the policies he's actually implementing. And the ones who chanted "build the wall" and "lock her up". And the ones who liked his birtherism about Obama. And a few others.
As for voting for other Repuclicans, that a very broad brush. There might be some Republican candidates who don't jack off about child separations and indefinite detention. People who vote for those candidates might not be "far right".
Yes , not all those who voted for Trump. But the neo facists such as "proud Boys" ALL support Trump
Great photo essay of the leaders and hangers on at a proud Boys rally in Portland
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/27/1881553/-Photo-essay-Portraits-of-Proud-Boys-in-Portland
Yet here she is surrounded by actual neo fucking Nazis and throwing the same white supremacy hand signal as the Christchurch murderer.
https://twitter.com/rgcooke/status/1107793414517460992
So she promulgated the "replacement" theory, supported racist and far right groups, and had them provide her security.
Sounds close enough to "far right" for the label to be reasonably descriptive.
Sorry to break this to you Joe… but that is the hand signal for "OK"!
Or is it?
https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/okay-hand-gesture
If so, maui, to what is she and her group saying "Ok"? Is it, "I am happy to be at the centre of this group and I am Ok with their group associations and ideology?"
I went once to hear speak a Nigerian Anglican priest. He fulminated against Islam. At the door afterwards I told him I could smell the gunsmoke. He said that he could tell from my body language during the speech that I was not in agreement. I certainly was not giving him the "OK" signal! The signals we give are more accurate than our words as to what we believe..
she is fully in – that hand signal says it all – cut from the same cloth – she just pretends better so she can make more money imo
Eddie Murphy was apparently a white supremacist
pretend ignorance is so you chris – but it's not enough pretend buddy – please try hard
If a bunch of idiot white supremacist arseholes decide to take up hand shaking for a laugh and it turns into "a sign", are you going to stigmatise anyone who shakes someones hand and make it a white supremacist thing?
if they're white supremacists, sure.
All good
A few idiots on 8Chans joke worked
So here's the point. The alt-right cultures are using common symbols, memes etc to both communicate with each other and confuse and mock the general public and create confusion. People might find it funny up to the point we remember that the Chch mosque mass murderer is one of the people who used the sign, and organised and networked on 8chan.
That is one way to look at it.
The other way is a few white supremacist idiots on sites like 8Chan are taking the piss and normal people are falling for it and some other alt right idiots are falling for it and taking it seriously and doing the "symbolism" and every day things are suddenly made bad because of a few loud normal peoples over reaction and triggering.
Should just ignore the obvious trolling, and it tends to go away after a month or two.
One of those white supremacist idiots murdered 51 Muslims.
I don't know who you think should be ignoring them, but your comment doesn't make sense. They're quite obviously not going away.
Yes. And they love to keep recycling the "joke". The shared humour serves exactly the same group bonding and self-identification purpose as "serious" gestures.
If it's an in-joke for some far-right fuckwits and a serious symbol for other far-right fuckwits, then calling it a far-right fuckwit behaviour is not an over-reaction. To point it out is a public service, because we know what happens when far-right fuckwits hide in the dark for too long.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/397757/doctors-concerned-over-safety-risks-of-ambulance-ramping
Seems the previous Government's lack of funding line is wearing thin.
[I’ve fixed the formatting so it’s clearer what you are quoting, please be more careful in future – weka]
You've warn so thin that you are transparent.
Stop playing the man and address the topic.
The topic was you being a smelly troll, as always.
Its called shroud waving Chairman
So you don't believe there is an actual problem?
The Minster hasn't denied it or suggested as such. In fact, he (the Minister) acknowledged the problem saying it can't be solved overnight.
Back to the topic (for those who care about it) the current Minister's excuse doesn't stack up.
Yes, it does take years to train both senior nurses and clinicians but why can't he source more (already trained) senior nurses and clinicians from offshore to fill the current shortfall?
What exactly is the Minister’s excuse and for what?
Where do you suggest they should be recruiting, the UK and Australia?
Do you think it simply is a matter of funding?
From the article linked above
Dr Clark said the problem can't be solved overnight.
"These resources are people, their training takes a long period of time, both senior nurses and clinicians take upwards of seven years to train," he said.
I'm not that fussed where he sources them from as long as they are fit for purpose.
And yes, I do think it comes down to funding, more precisely, their BRR. Additionally, what they have chosen to prioritise. So much for wellbeing and the year of delivery.
With all due respect, that is not an excuse as such, is it? The Minister wasn’t really excusing anything.
You should be “fussed where he sources them from as long as they are fit for purpose” because either you are ignorant of the problem or you are disingenuous. You don’t seem to realise or acknowledge that good qualifications, be it for teachers, nurses or doctors, for example, are in hot demand globally and it is a highly competitive market.
Is it enough to advertise? Can they step straight into their new position without additional education and/or training?
I disagree that it simply is a matter of throwing a few dollars at it. If it were that simple (!), the problem would be solved by lunchtime. Evidently, it isn’t this simple.
I believe so. First off, no one in their right mind thinks it can be solved overnight. But even the professionals in the sector expect it to be solved within a reasonable time as would most. So that line (overnight) is a total joke really.
And stating locals take time to train is an excuse, because doctors can be and are brought in from offshore. I haven't seen a Kiwi doctor on both occasions I've been in there of late, they have all be from offshore. Ireland is a popular place to source them from. They love it over here.
Yes, there is a global demand for doctors, etc, that's where money helps to attract them along with our lifestyle.
Probably not, but it wouldn't take several years to do that. Again, coming back to a more reasonable, thus acceptable (within the profession and public's mind) time frame.
Ok, it seems we’re not going to agree.
IMO an excuse is when someone doesn’t really want to fix the problem or doesn’t want to do anything about it. I don’t think that applies here as is evident from your link @ 2.
Many love it over here. Some come and some stay and some move on. Life is quite expensive over here, especially in the main centres. Teachers and nurses struggle with housing costs and even medical specialist gasp at (choke on) living expenses. Their (recent and overdue) pay rises are just a drop in a bucket.
Additional or re-training won’t take seven years or so but even so, it will take time and depends on capacity as well, i.e. somebody has to oversee and undertake this. We’re not talking about WOF inspectors or builders and we are not talking about just a simple written exam to check off things.
What is considered a “reasonable” or “acceptable” time frame depends on one’s perception and understanding of the situation. An ignorant or gullible person could easily be made to believe that a few dollars and a few weeks is all that is needed …
As you can see from the initial post, that's the feeling the professionals in the sector have i.e. he's not doing enough to correct the problem. Hence, they are speaking out and it is they that are sick of the excuses.
Yes, many I came across stated that. Hence they would have to pay well. Which, of course, comes down to money.
I'm sure the professionals in the linked article (above) have a good understanding of this.
The Minister and his cabinet colleagues are awaiting the full health system review led by Heather Simpson. How much change do you expect them to make in the meantime?
Yes, another review (buying them time as some say).
The professionals in the link above expect better and in a far quicker time frame than what the Minister is offering.
Moreover, they would know as they are in the sector, thus are speaking with knowledge.
Ponder this
How would you feel if you or a loved one was caught up in this and something bad happened. Would you and others here still be defending them then?
This isn’t a political game, lives are at risk here.
@The Chairman Systemic and chronic underfunding of social services is a natural result of letting neoliberals run amok with cost cutting and demanding profits from the public sector, with a view to privatising the lot. The model for the last 40 years has failed, glad to see you recognise that
Of course health professionals and their unions want action immediately in their parts of the system. Does not mean it is possible, nor that they grasp the whole picture.
However there are things beyond increasing workforce than can be started now, so I do not buy the Minister hanging everything on that.
Are you implying health professionals and their unions are extremists demanding action that can't be met? Moreover, they have no grasp of what is doable in their profession?
I'm confident our health professionals and their unions have more grasp of the matter than you do.
Health practitioners are hired to deliver healthcare within their particular scope pf practice, not to manage competing priorities across disciplines or delivery timeframes for change programmes.
It's like expecting a bus driver to know about road network planning or rail electrification. They can see a need for better timetables and more colleagues to share the load, sure.
Being on the front line in delivering healthcare within their particular scope of practice gives them a very good insight on what is required to improve that delivery, opposed to a manger stuck behind a desk that doesn't really have a clue on the daily ins and outs.
Moreover, Unions have a wider oversight, giving them a far broader view, thus insight.
Additionally, so does the Minister and his advisers, which are meant to be there to help. Yet the best he can come up with when pressed on the matter is he can't fix it overnight, he's holding a review and it will take several years to train up more. He seems to have had a better grasp on the matter when he was in opposition, but now that he's in charged, requires a review. Which will no doubt largely rely on the insights of the Union and staff.
Two years they have been in power and we are still awaiting a review, meanwhile more lives are being put at risk. Frankly, it's not good enough, hence the outcry. Do better.
Chair, as a self-proclaimed friend of the left, do you reckon NZ's public health service/sector/system would be better placed to serve the NZ public now if National rather than Labour/NZ1st/Greens had been (re-)elected in 2017?
Let’s hope these Tory scroungers, troughers chancers and their ilk are out of action for a while.
Of course not. But that is no excuse to allow Labour to get away with falling short too.
There is little point of keeping them (National) out of power if Labour aren't going to be much better. If that is continually going to be the case, it's long past time we on the left look for better representation or press Labour harder.
Spot the telltale signs of ingrained anti-Labour bias:
Chair, you're making no sense. Surely there is a great deal of point to keeping the National party's self-serving wreckers ('Working for NZ'; 'Brighter Future' – my arse) out of power if the current coalition government is doing even slightly better.
You yourself just acknowledged (@10:58 am) that the NZ public health service would be less well placed to serve the NZ public now if a National government was still in charge – well done!
Party vote Labour/Green!![wink wink](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/wink_smile.png)
The fact Labour are only slightly better than National is a main reason many people I know no longer vote at all. They no longer see a point as they know they are largely screwed either way.
And the more people on the left don’t vote the more our politics moves to the right.
“The fact Labour are only slightly better than National” is your opinion, repeated ad nauseam here in your disingenuous “lefty” “more left than most” fashion.
IMHO the current coalition government (with all its constraints) is a much better government for all New Zealanders than a National-led government ever could/would be.
Party vote Labour/Green![yes yes](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/thumbs_up.png)
There are alternatives.
onehealth.co.nz/urgent-care/after-hours-doctors/
Evidently, that isn't sufficient. If it were, there wouldn't be a problem.
mod note for you above.
Cool, thanks.
Hi Chairman.
Hi mauī.
Chairman, you have been blowing your own cover for so long without cease that I think you may have some kind of compulsion disorder. You are now the concern troll with the longest record for pretending innocence while repeating the offence – trying to project your concerns into discredit for the Left.
Even if, as Drowsy Kram so nicely reminds us, you consider yourself "more left than most." I guess that those 'most' are people who just feel 'alright'.
As you can see from the responses to a serious issue, I'm clearly more left than most of you lot. Seems not many here are willing to talk the truth when it may harm Labour. Whereas, I'm of the belief of holding them to account to help bring about change for the better.
Nonetheless, I'm not the topic. Hence, care to try again? Or do you just want to join the mob and continue to throw crap at me?
Care to answer why the Minister won’t act?
The Chairman, thinks…
"so long as I never admit it*, they'll never really know…"
*titters
Why would I admit to something I'm not?
Once again, back to the topic. I'm surprised I've yet to hear the media pull the Minister up on his line they take time to train. I'd love to hear what he would say about not bringing in more from offshore?
Would the minister need to place the ads personally, or are these specialists just sitting on a shelf somewhere ready to relocate at a moment's notice with full NZ-compatible certification for their specialty areas?
Ever been to hospital of late, it's like being at the UN.
Sourcing doctors from offshore is nothing new, they've been doing it for years.
I've recently experienced both sides of it. On an urgent matter, the service was great. But a on a not so critical visit, the wait time (although they did admit me in the end) was atrocious.
"Ever been to hospital of late, it's like being at the UN."
hang on there mr chair more-left-than-most man – what exactly are you implying with that sentence because it reads a bit dicey to me. How can you tell a UN like person from a kiwi?
Like the UN as in there are a multitude of races working in our local hospitals. They all have accents and none I came across were Kiwi.
"They all have accents and none I came across were Kiwi."
accents you say? oh dear I think mr chair more-left-than-most man you are digging a bit of a hole – best to front up now and own the issue you have.
Of course you may have unnatural powers and abilities to discern a persons citizenry from their accent – daresay in some parallel universe you may be considered a marvel but as you've yet to confirm that ability here, then, the question is moot.
Medical language sounds quite foreign to most people. And some patients hallucinate under the influence of some medication. I’m glad to see that The Chairman has fully recovered and has is back to his former self and with us to share his pearls of newly gained wisdom during his obviously traumatic and eye-opening descend into the foreign-operated and woefully underfunded healthcare system of Aotearoa-New Zealand.
Context, Marty.
I wasn't claiming I know their citizenship status. Merely highlighting many are from offshore.
Strong foreign accents is a good indication people aren't originally from here. And many I conversed with openly admitted they have recently come from abroad. Foreign doctors practicing here is nothing new. Just as Kiwi doctors heading offshore isn't a new concept. Many Kiwi doctors head to the UK in search of better pay. After all, they have large loans to pay off.
sure mr chair more-left-than-most man you stick with that story. Truth is you let a cat out the bag and the cat is not nice at all and you know it. Your observations are unpleasant and bigoted imo – foreign this and that from accents is bullshit.
No.
It is clearly evident you are clutching and are making accusations you can't sustain in an attempt to tar me in some way, Marty.
Stop playing the man and taking low blows.
So do you think they were sitting on a shelf waiting for a job in NZ? Or can the hiring of even one specialist from overseas become a process that takes years?
After all you're the one who wrote upthread "I'm not that fussed where he sources them from as long as they are fit for purpose".
Do you have any idea as to the process that ensures specialists sourced from overseas are assessed to be "fit for purpose"? Even if the minister snapped his fingers to bypass two or three levels of governance/management separation and removed every other barrier to employing staff, how long would you expect it to take to solve the problem?
Strangely enough, most I've come across love to travel. My own GP even has worked in several countries before practicing here. And I've had several over the years as most came from overseas and have taken off again. It seems Kiwi ones largely do the same, which would explain why there aren't many here.
“How long would you expect it to take to solve the problem?”
Far less than several years, most I’ve come across don’t even stay here that long. And it seems (going off the article) those in the profession agree with me. They wouldn’t be complaining if the Minister’s excuse was legit.
It is the other way round.
Yeah, it's a bit more complex than just turning up and saying "I'm an emergency cardiothoracic trauma surgeon".
Love your anecdata though. Totally expert testimony lol.
First off, I never claimed it was that easy.
From your link
So how many doctors do you think hold an approved Australasian postgraduate medical qualification, enough for us to meet our current shortfall?
Moreover, how many doctors in the world do you think hold qualifications and experience that can meet the assessment to see whether they are equivalent to those of a locally trained specialist?
One would expect globally, there would be thousands.
You do realise ambulance ramping is a problem in Ausas well, right? So # specialists with Australasian qualifications = "not enough".
So then you have qualifications in other parts of the world, and assessing their experience and quals not just in the specialty, but also in general medical basics and things like medical ethics and dr-patient communication. Each of those needs formal and thorough assessment, while encouraging and sorting out immigration issues and general things like "is this doctor a sexual predator".
You seem to think it's about the number of trained doctors. It's not. It's about doctor availability, retention, and the attractiveness of working in the NZ health sector and the associated workplace conditions.
Very few of these are under ministerial control. Does the health sector need yet another shake-up, or would that just make things even worse?
We require a higher number of trained doctors.
The higher the number of trained doctors available globally, the easier it is to source them. So numbers is part of it.
So to is money,
Money is required to help attract and retain them and this applies to locally trained ones too.
And speaking of locally trained ones, what is the Government doing to grow their numbers?
The thing is, DHB's are largely in financial stress. Thus, they require more money to better do this. Which is totally in the Government's hands.
Just because Australia is also under pressure doesn't mean we can't poach doctors from there. Again, money along with work place conditions helps with this which again, is largely under ministerial control.
And again, I never said finding those that meet our assessment needs was going to be easy, but it needs to be done to help solve this problem.
Bullshit.
Ever been to Med School of late, it’s like being at the UN.
I've never been to med school, but I have been to hospital
You’re missing the point. Never mind.
Of course they would need to advertise, Doctors aren't mind readers. And they would have to pay well. Nonetheless, many I've come across like it here.
ooo – DHB elections are coming up, ain't they? You could fix the problem in your DHB and show the minister how it's done. It'd really help you campaign for the nats next year, too, with the credibility you build up hiring new specialists.
Rubbish. Why would you be surprised about the media not holding a Minister to account? That has been happening for years.
You, Chairman, are surprised only on special occasions like this, which suit your dark, sinister, ulterior motives.
I hope for a suitably creative reply.
His (the Minister's) response begged the follow up question, that's why I was surprised it wasn't asked.
Moreover, this isn't the first time I've heard him use those lines, yet I've yet to hear him be pulled up on it.
So inspiring (yawn)
Good night.
Speaking of which, I'm off to bed. Ta ta.
Private equity vampires have taken to sucking the life out of tropical rain forests.
https://twitter.com/theintercept/status/1166455254151499777
They could always fuck off back to Portugal.
https://twitter.com/tomphillipsin/status/1166347061593280513
Yep there is a real war going on and indigenous activists and environmentalists and protectors of the land are being murdered in alarming numbers. This scum will mow down many indigenous communities and people – we are about to lose whole cultures in that jungle and there is fuck all we can do about it.
For no particular reason, here is AC/DC – Let There Be Rock (Official Music Video)
Acca dacca!
https://youtu.be/2lqdErI9uss