Insiders from both sides said agreement was only reached through negotiation between the political leaders, with officials at an impasse.
Despite the local complaints that the PM shouldn't have gone, looks like her presence and Damien O'Connor's presence were critical to getting the deal over the line.
In addition to some good outcomes, it also includes climate enforcement, so a handy tool to convince the agricultural sector to reduce emissions.
It does seem rather ironic based on some of the crap I read prior to the trip.
However I wonder if her critics have the capacity to understand irony. It usually seems to me that they are rather wedded to living in a misogynistic 19th century society.
Mind you I also consider they are such completely incompetent wannabe arse-lickers (Mike Hosking comes to mind) that they fail to understand that having skill in business has virtually no relevance to having skills in politics.
I've worked in and around both (I avoid becoming a politician or a manger) and I can't see much of transfer between the skills sets. My opinion is that being competent line manager is usually a detriment to becoming a politician. John Key was interesting when you look over his career. I get the impression that his business roles were more selling and politics than managerial.
I haven't time to do a full article on it, but structural theorists ought well have a crack at the reaggregation of the state since as of today we now have one single health entity.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s so many public services gained fresh legislation that assumed strong communitarian voice into prioritisation of many kinds of state service.
Primary and secondary education got Tomorrow's Schools and the formation of school boards with locally elected representatives.
Local government got the 1989 act that required all budgets to go to public consultation. Hundreds of tiny councils were joined into sub-regional blocs.
Regional government was professionalised and given specific tasks held over from Rabbit Boards and the like.
Health got the full regionalisation of health provision with the formation of mostly elected District Health Boards to reflect regionally specific delivery.
Polytechs were clumped together into regions to reflect industry specialisation and response.
Even the entire territorial ocean was divided up into policed and tradeable blocs of fish.
Maori were strongly regionalised through negotiating Treaty settlements through iwi, and professionalised as a result.
Government also generated regional growth strategies, encouraged with bounteous wheelbarrows of cash if the regions did the work.
This regionalised set of structures corresponded with a strong legislative underpinning within the new RMA that local voices could, if regionally collected , truly stop or alter the power of the big state and of big business – and that still remains the case.
The citizen empowered was at the heart of this. They were to stand and represent within public service structures.
Power and decisionmaking was supposed to be delegated down to the lowest appropriate level.
It is this government that has killed most of this communitarian citizen off in favour of centralised structures.
There is no current proof recentraliation will do good. It will of course take many, many years to measure any good in it. And we are a vastly different country to what we were 35 years ago.
There's certainly a pattern to what Labour are doing, but I'm not sure there's a logic.
If one is around for long enough in a business or other organisation – it's not uncommon to see an oscillation between centralisation and decentralisation, with each announced as exciting and original, and each aimed at solving the same set of problems. Which might suggest that neither the origin of, nor the solution to, those problems lies in the structures of the body tasked with solving them. But working on structure and culture is a technocratic and non-ideological thing to do – a comfortable place for centrists to play in.
We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. Presumably the plans for our employment were being changed. I was to learn later in life that, perhaps because we are so good at organizing, we tend as a nation to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization. During our reorganizations, several commanding officers were tried out on us, which added to the discontinuity. – Ogburn (1957)
The revised, extended version of the poem focuses more clearly on its true subject – the onset of acquisitive individualism and a society of conspicuous consumers. In the poem, purchased artefacts displace human agency and "trivial things" come to dominate. – Pope (1712)
At the start of Covid one of the main reported problems was that hospital systems could not talk to one another. It wasn’t supposed to be like that but 22 separate ideas on what computer system was needed ended up in an expensive farce for only 5 million people.
Canterbury DHB is in the red to the tune of $180 million and its board and senior management can't agree about what should be done about it.
Seven executive members leaving within a few weeks was "a crisis for Canterbury". She had told the board that its adversarial approach to the senior management team had made it impossible for her to continue.
"Fraud on a grand scale" was how Justice Lyn Stevens yesterday described the actions of former Otago District Health Board chief information officer Michael Swann and his friend and business associate Kerry Harford.
Just another neolib failure…..these 22 !! DHB’s act as self contained mini empires. Who ever thought that was a good idea ? !
Also when whistle blowers tried to alert of the above linked CRIMS..(and there are many more) they were told mind your own business !. Hey, just like always.
"Throughout these investigations the board were kept fully informed of the issues and potential risks they posed," he said.
"I am confident that throughout the period the health and welfare of patients and staff was not compromised. I am also confident that the appropriate authorities were kept informed of the issues."
He refused to be interviewed by RNZ, instead issuing a statement.
You need to go back earlier than that. This timeline is some help – though I can remember locally-elected hospital boards prior to 1983 where this timeline starts. In short, there is a long history of structural tinkering from both major parties. A quote from the piece:
New Zealand has undergone four previous public health transformations since the early 1980s, each bringing with it a new set of organisations and structures to fund and deliver health services to the community.
The first was the establishment of Area Health Boards in 1983, followed by the Regional Health Authorities and Crown Health Enterprises (1993-1997), and Health Funding Authority and Hospital and Health Services (1998-2001). Eventually, this led to the introduction of 21 District Health Boards (DHBs) in 2001.
The problem is that there are drawbacks to both centralisation and regionalisation.
If everything is centralised, services are integrated and consolidated but you lose the local representation, and then decisions like "oh, it's most efficient to have a single head trauma centre up here, 95% of patients will have helicopter access within ideal treatment times", and bugger the 5% who don't get treatment in time. The old "the numbers are so small it doesn't matter" problem.
But likewise, regionalisation gives so much local control that treatment can become a postcode lottery, and cooperations between areas is difficult.
And then governments see a big restructure as a great way to conceal (or promise to address) the systemic underfunding of the health sector that has existed for decades.
Yes Labour installed a healthcare system that is now considered to 'complicated for a nation of 5 million.
Maybe they should have thought about that when they invented that system? Btw, what was Andre Little doing during the Helen Clark years?
seriously, this is not even ment as a zinger, this is literally what happened during the life time of all of us.
but surely if you want to complain about healthcare – but not include the labour party and the parts it plays in mananing healthcare in this country – then just simply pretend that the 22 DHB are the best thing since sliced toast, and stop asking who thought it was a good Idea. Cause in the end you will always come back to the Labour Party and Helen Clark and her ministers at the time.
After becoming “too complicated for a small nation”, Aotearoa’s health system will be overhauled in just a couple of weeks’ time, and the 20 district health boards will be scrapped. So what’s actually changing come July 1?
That became evident within months of the DHB's forming with quite a lot of previously integrated systems falling down.
As a user I really disliked the DHB system – if you have ever moved DHB's regions and had children under specialists it is a nightmare. More so if they actually get admitted in one DHB area who only have the responsibility to get your child "fit to travel to their own DHB". Having had a child discharged while still very unwell from one DHB and us having to drive frantically back to our own DHB as they turned bluer and bluer as their oxygen depleted and going immediately to our local DHB where they went straight into intensive care was a nightmare.
Trust me you never wanted to get admitted seriously unwell in the wrong DHB area.
As for BOT's having sat on these – once after a previous board full of lawyers and accountants set up ridiculous forward contracts for school maintenance amongst other things – my biggest observation is that local input has allowed the religious into state schools. This isn't unintended in my view and was always part of the plan in devolving centralised control. It isn't co-incidence the connection between the religious and the right and the notion of localism.
My wife works for a northern DHB. They have just introduced a new computer program that seriously effects her job. No training. Fiasco is one word. Another way of describing it is monumental cluster fuck.
Yes, a friend of mine moved from Auckland to Blenheim 4 years ago. She was really annoyed to find that several of the tests she had regularly in Auckland because of previous illnesses and family histories were not available at her new DHB because of their differing standards and policies relating to her age.
22 DHB's for 5 million people. 22 boards, levels of managers, finance, supply etc and all that branding.
National serve capital not people as this 'reform' had nothing to do with efficiency just more carving up the public asset to hopefully flog it off to mates.
he Helen Clark-led Labour government introduced the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000, which led to the creation of 20 district health boards (DHBs) across the country.
Yes Adrian, that computer linking is a biggie. They also developed their own silos. They overpaid Boards and Managers. Just to name a few wee problems.
“I know what the average Māori (person) will think and they’re not walking around every day thinking about the United Nations’ Declaration of Indigenous Peoples – they’re thinking about their housing, their health, their education.’’
For all those critics of Pharmac and the current Government’s efforts in healthcare:
There's been a carve out for New Zealand medicines and Pharmac, as patent requirements sought by the EU would have made medicines here more expensive by hundreds of millions of dollars a year – New Zealand refused and that's not part of the deal, the only country in the OECD to have that exemption.
That's really good news, I am very pleased to see that the pharmaceutical industry's campaign against Pharmac hasn't weakened the Governments commitment to it.
Yeah an insidious part of that campaign was the "but Australia pays for it" neglecting to point out that Australia pays for more high cost medicines in part because they (the government) pay much less of basic medical care costs for which you are expected to pay a higher price or have insurance.
NZ puts much more money proportionally into basic health care.
You are, if you have a decent income for instance expected to have medical insurance. If you don't you get levied on your income. Even with Medicare you pay quite a bit more for your doctor and prescriptions than here. It is a clear government policy.
This reduces the cost to the government for basic health care and frees up money to be spent on expensive medicines.
NZ doesn't spend enough per capita is definitely a problem though.
Proportionally was related to basic care vs costly new medicines. not Aus to NZ on a population basis. I can see why that was confusing in how I wrote it.
I have posted this previously but I remember being at a DHB meeting where their accountant got up and spoke about his disgust at reducing the hours of care for elderly to save costs. He made the point that many of the staff will still do the extra work needed and that they, the managers new this. He had calculated his estimate of the "free hours" each year they would get and it ran into millions. Not a single DHB manager disputed his claims and they proceeded uncaringly with the cuts. In my experience most DHB managers had previously worked to wreck the system in the UK and were now here wrecking ours.
Mental Health spending is another area they have consciously done things like reduce bed numbers despite staff opposition. to doing so. The neglect of dental health for low income and disabled is another area where they have reduced their effort year on year. These things were all management decisions that had everything to do with costs not to do with local health needs.
Reversing this stuff can't be done without spending more money and that has to include responding to the supply and demand staff shortages.
"There's been a carve out for New Zealand medicines and Pharmac, as patent requirements sought by the EU would have made medicines here more expensive by hundreds of millions of dollars a year – "
This smells like spin and nonsense, PHARMAC are very very slow at funding new medicines and we only spend around a billion a tear on pharmaceuticals. Existing product prices wouldn't increase as they are subject to funding agreements.
This smells like lazy reckons and sour grapes, which is ironic. Pharmac is the funder and Medsafe is the regulator and these are very different roles that both require proper evidence-based decision-making and that takes time. Who said anything about existing product prices? And if you make assertions about funding agreements set in stone then you need to back that up, which won’t be an easy task for you as they are confidential. So, pull the other one.
it is a fact that vote health spends in the order of 1 billion a year on pharmaceuticals per the pharmaceutical schedule via retail pharmacy and via in hospital usage – this is publicly available information.
The majority of pharmaceuticals that have lost intellectual property (IP) protection are supplied within a tender system the prices are contracted and visible and again this is publicly available information.
The pharmaceuticals that are protected by IP are subject to many and varied contracts between the manufacturer and PHARMAC and again the prices are contracted (along with rebates that are confidential). Prices for these pharmaceuticals do not go up – certainly not since the arrival of PHARMAC some decades ago.
Therefore we are left with the newer products which PHARMAC has yet to fund – as you will be aware there is a rather large number of these and they are remarkably slow at funding newer agents despite the new funds that have been made available to them.
To suggest that patent extensions and the like would have added 'hundreds of millions of dollars' to the pharmaceutical costs in nz annually is a nonsense unless one expects a large proportion of the newer agents are suddenly due to come off patent and would be subject to longer patent terms and that there are cheaper generics available and that this situation repeats itself on an annual basis.
Again we spend just over a billion a year funding pharmaceuticals – the ‘hundreds of millions a year ‘ throwaway comment is simply not credible.
The only one who’s not credible here is you because you still haven’t provided any support for your reckons, just more reckons and throw away comments, which for all I know you’ve made up from scratch. I can easily do your homework for you, e.g., link to Pharmac’s tender outcomes, but I didn’t make your reckons. If you want I can park you in Pre-Mod until you have put up something with a bit of substance or change your nom de plume to something more fitting for the quality of your comments here. In particular, you have not countered the claim by the Government as per my original quote.
As I have previously said the claim by the government is hyperbolic nonsense for a total pharmaceutical budget in NZ that is just over a billion dollars per annum and where new patent protected medicines are 'drip fed' to the medical community.
Perhaps a challenge for you – provide an example of a pharmaceutical funded by the government in NZ that has had an increase in price increase over the last decade which could support the government's statement.
I'm not sure where the statement from the government originated, I very much doubt it was from PHARMAC or any healthcare professionals – maybe from the health ministers spin doctors ? They do appear to be coming up with a load of codswallop on a daily basis at present.
So, you cannot or don’t want to back up your own comment, just digging in and doubling down.
It really is a stupid move to put the onus back on somebody who challenges you to provide support for your reckons. You make the claims, you back it up.
The main outcome of the new health structure – at least in the short/medium term – is going to be the rationalisation and centralisation of elective surgery and other procedures. New Zealanders are going to have to be prepared to travel for advanced healthcare to just a few centres. It makes sense to have excellent care in one city rather than very good care in six.
Maori health has now been given the rope it has been demanding, we will see if they hang themselves or haul up Maori health outcomes with it. The ball is in their court.
To keep up with medical innovations and to be involved in clinical trials a close relationship with [the 2] medical schools is a huge advantage if not a prerequisite. The latter need to have a bigger presence and footprint in the heartland of NZ.
Which is what used to happen previously to rationalise spare capacity e.g. Taumarunui during the off-ski season used to do lots of hip replacement operations.
People didn't mind travelling for serious stuff. What happened is people in place like Taumarunui now had to travel for hours for normal every day stuff. For those communities that used to have local hospitals medical travel has ben a way of life ever since the DHB system was set up.
Many of those rural hospitals also were close to high Maori population areas in the NI at least.
Healthcare is everything from the everyday stuff such as GP visits (incl. Pharmacy) and taking & dropping off samples to full-on hospital care (incl. A&E) with all the more specialised services plus all the wrap-around services (incl. radiology service, for example). It is huge.
Patients need community for well-being and healing (and for palliative & ‘pastoral’ care). This has been brought up again during the pandemic and all isolations that people had to endure. This can be very hard on people who are scared, confused, unwell, or in pain (mentally or physically). For example, elderly people are confined to their rooms even today when there are any positive cases in their rest-home and it is bloody hard on them (and on staff and relatives).
"Medical tourism" was great for Taumarunui. Some one I knew whose mother had her hip done there spent the best part of a week contributing to the local economy. They drove their Mum down, and then spent several nights in a very nice motel while she recovered from the surgery and was OK to be driven back home.
The US Supreme Court has ruled that federal action on climate change is against the constitution:
Supreme Court handcuffs Biden’s climate efforts
The decision comes amid accumulating warnings from scientists that human-caused climate change is increasing the likelihood of more severe floods, droughts, storms and other calamities in the coming decades.
…
The 6-3 ruling erects a significant obstacle to Biden’s hopes of addressing global warming through executive branch action — barely six months after a Senate stalemate shut down congressional Democrats’ efforts to pass their biggest-ever climate bill.
The Senate filibuster prevented their attempt at regulation and the Supreme Court ruling preempts any further attempts. The descent of US empire has accelerated this week. Sadly this will have ramifications for us all.
Its part of a Fascist coup in the USA with the aim of cementing white minority rule. The United States is one Democratic president serious about taking on Fascism – or one election clearly rigged by voter suppression and Gerrymanders – away from serious and escalating civil violence.
How the Supreme Court could radically reshape elections for president and Congress
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Thursday that it has agreed to hear a case next term that could upend election laws across the country with the potential endorsement of a fringe legal theory about how much power state legislatures have over the running of congressional and presidential elections.
…
Depending on how broadly the Supreme Court rules in the North Carolina redistricting case, Amar says support for the theory by the court could affect the 2024 presidential election. States with Republican-controlled legislatures could see it as an invitation to set new election rules that take power away from voters when picking electors for the Electoral College or to make state lawmakers, not courts, the judges in disputes after the election.
FDR was able to leverage that threat to ensure the enactment of the New Deal, so it is potentially possible. I don't see it as likely given the current impotent response of the Democratic party. AOC however raises the justifiable impeachment of at least two of the Justices:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for supreme court justices to be impeached for misleading statements about their views on Roe v Wade.
Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks took aim at justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. Both were appointed by former president Donald Trump and had signaled that they would not reverse the supreme court’s landmark 1973 decision in Roe v Wade during confirmation hearings as well as in meetings with senators.
On Friday, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch formed part of the conservative majority which in effect ended legal access to abortion in most states, and Ocasio-Cortez said “there must be consequences” for that.
Anne Gorsuch, a radical anti-environmental activist, was appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1981 to be the first female administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. She worked hand-in-glove with Reagan’s controversial Secretary of the Interior James Watt to undermine federal environmental regulations.
Here is how The Washington Post described her controversial 22-month tenure as EPA administrator in her 2004 obituary. In 1983, after she and her first husband, David Gorsuch, divorced, she married Robert F. Burford, a rancher and head of the Bureau of Land Management.
Her 22-month tenure was one of the most controversial of the early Reagan administration. A firm believer that the federal government, and specifically the EPA, was too big, too wasteful and too restrictive of business, Ms. Burford cut her agency's budget by 22 percent. She boasted that she reduced the thickness of the book of clean water regulations from six inches to a half-inch.
Republicans and Democrats alike accused Ms. Burford of dismantling her agency rather than directing it to aggressively protect the environment. They pointed to budgets cuts for research and enforcement, to steep declines in the number of cases filed against polluters, to efforts to relax portions of the Clean Air Act, to an acceleration of federal approvals for the spraying of restricted pesticides and more.
It seems likely some who have been very vocal about not accepting what happened, and telling things as they are, don't want to tell things as they were and certainly don't want them to be called what they were.
Interesting that it appears at this time, following a narrative framework that replicates the back alley abortion clinics and systems that were set up to aid women.
Sometimes, illegal abortion clinics were all about the money for those performing – so, there is no guarantee that the intention is altruistic in either case. But here it is assumed.
There are many factors to unpick here, but one noticeable lack is a failure to mention that there is a large number of people who have a castration sexual paraphilia, (which is not replicated in regards to abortion).
(The transgender messaging has long moved on from discomfort in one's sexed body, to body modification without need for distress, a fundamental difference that many choose to ignore.)
The eunuch community online, also expresses the desire to halt development for growing people, and offers up castration as a means to do so.
There really needs to be better scrutiny and discussion on these topics, rather than promotional puff pieces in the media.
The conservative backlash against this insanity is going to be ugly and violent. Because these disturbed and amoral individuals have captured the narrative of oppression and the levers of power in “polite” society, the only tool that remains for normal people who want to protect women and children, is rough justice.
I do not endorse that prospect, but it is clearly happening right now in the US of A, with the growth of the Proud Boys and the irrational rulings of the Supreme Court.
So surgery is to be granted to someone who identifies as eunuch identity if they are in danger of self harm. Does it not occur to anyone that the person would have to be really disturbed to threaten or be at risk of self harm if they are not castrated. I have known quite a few suicidal people over the years and the treatment or support that is offered has never included give them what they want. It’s a bit like telling the ex partner of someone who is suicidal to go back to them to stop them suiciding.
It's about Eunuchs being recognised and treated as a gender identity – and I think they may have pulled the draft off the site, which is hard to navigate if you are unfamiliar with it.
Isaiah 5:8-9 “Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land. The Lord Almighty has declared in my hearing: “Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants.”
Luxo: "bottom feeders GTFO"
Luke 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Luxo: "abortion = murder!!!11!1"
Ecclesiastes 6:3-6 "A stillborn child is better than [the prideful man] — for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness. Though it has not seen the sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man… Do not all go to one place?"
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Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
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https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300626662/eu-and-new-zealand-secure-free-trade-agreement
Despite the local complaints that the PM shouldn't have gone, looks like her presence and Damien O'Connor's presence were critical to getting the deal over the line.
In addition to some good outcomes, it also includes climate enforcement, so a handy tool to convince the agricultural sector to reduce emissions.
How good it is I can't say yet, a lot to take in. But it's worth it just to watch the PM's haters react …
"We need a proper CEO to get a trade deal not a princess doing a photo-op what a wasted journey she'll never get …
oh shit, she has."
It does seem rather ironic based on some of the crap I read prior to the trip.
However I wonder if her critics have the capacity to understand irony. It usually seems to me that they are rather wedded to living in a misogynistic 19th century society.
Mind you I also consider they are such completely incompetent wannabe arse-lickers (Mike Hosking comes to mind) that they fail to understand that having skill in business has virtually no relevance to having skills in politics.
I've worked in and around both (I avoid becoming a politician or a manger) and I can't see much of transfer between the skills sets. My opinion is that being competent line manager is usually a detriment to becoming a politician. John Key was interesting when you look over his career. I get the impression that his business roles were more selling and politics than managerial.
I haven't time to do a full article on it, but structural theorists ought well have a crack at the reaggregation of the state since as of today we now have one single health entity.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s so many public services gained fresh legislation that assumed strong communitarian voice into prioritisation of many kinds of state service.
Primary and secondary education got Tomorrow's Schools and the formation of school boards with locally elected representatives.
Local government got the 1989 act that required all budgets to go to public consultation. Hundreds of tiny councils were joined into sub-regional blocs.
Regional government was professionalised and given specific tasks held over from Rabbit Boards and the like.
Health got the full regionalisation of health provision with the formation of mostly elected District Health Boards to reflect regionally specific delivery.
Polytechs were clumped together into regions to reflect industry specialisation and response.
Even the entire territorial ocean was divided up into policed and tradeable blocs of fish.
Maori were strongly regionalised through negotiating Treaty settlements through iwi, and professionalised as a result.
Government also generated regional growth strategies, encouraged with bounteous wheelbarrows of cash if the regions did the work.
This regionalised set of structures corresponded with a strong legislative underpinning within the new RMA that local voices could, if regionally collected , truly stop or alter the power of the big state and of big business – and that still remains the case.
The citizen empowered was at the heart of this. They were to stand and represent within public service structures.
Power and decisionmaking was supposed to be delegated down to the lowest appropriate level.
It is this government that has killed most of this communitarian citizen off in favour of centralised structures.
There is no current proof recentraliation will do good. It will of course take many, many years to measure any good in it. And we are a vastly different country to what we were 35 years ago.
There's certainly a pattern to what Labour are doing, but I'm not sure there's a logic.
If one is around for long enough in a business or other organisation – it's not uncommon to see an oscillation between centralisation and decentralisation, with each announced as exciting and original, and each aimed at solving the same set of problems. Which might suggest that neither the origin of, nor the solution to, those problems lies in the structures of the body tasked with solving them. But working on structure and culture is a technocratic and non-ideological thing to do – a comfortable place for centrists to play in.
It 's not enough to simply observe it as a generational binge-purge cycle.
It affects services delivered to us all, from cradle to grave.
"I think we've really cracked it this time…" – hope springs eternal.
At the start of Covid one of the main reported problems was that hospital systems could not talk to one another. It wasn’t supposed to be like that but 22 separate ideas on what computer system was needed ended up in an expensive farce for only 5 million people.
Just another neolib failure…..these 22 !! DHB’s act as self contained mini empires. Who ever thought that was a good idea ? !
Also when whistle blowers tried to alert of the above linked CRIMS..(and there are many more) they were told mind your own business !. Hey, just like always.
Geraint Martin……I certainly remember that name….and then he shuffled off to Te Papa. And after “fixing” things, then shuffled off from there…..
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/te-papa-chief-executive-geraint-martin-quits-after-controversial-restructure/ROIIS65LEFTWHI6RFZGF4UFVNM/
Labour thought that they were a good idea at the time. The DHB came into being under Helen Clark.
You need to go back earlier than that. This timeline is some help – though I can remember locally-elected hospital boards prior to 1983 where this timeline starts. In short, there is a long history of structural tinkering from both major parties. A quote from the piece:
The problem is that there are drawbacks to both centralisation and regionalisation.
If everything is centralised, services are integrated and consolidated but you lose the local representation, and then decisions like "oh, it's most efficient to have a single head trauma centre up here, 95% of patients will have helicopter access within ideal treatment times", and bugger the 5% who don't get treatment in time. The old "the numbers are so small it doesn't matter" problem.
But likewise, regionalisation gives so much local control that treatment can become a postcode lottery, and cooperations between areas is difficult.
And then governments see a big restructure as a great way to conceal (or promise to address) the systemic underfunding of the health sector that has existed for decades.
It was…………..Labour? Aaargh. And Helen Clark ? Noooooo.
Well if that was meant to be some shocking zinger for me….bad luck, lol.
As with every IDEA … fuckwits will pervert the intent. HENCE my comments about the Mini Empires.
And the fraudulent crims.
Yes Labour installed a healthcare system that is now considered to 'complicated for a nation of 5 million.
Maybe they should have thought about that when they invented that system? Btw, what was Andre Little doing during the Helen Clark years?
seriously, this is not even ment as a zinger, this is literally what happened during the life time of all of us.
but surely if you want to complain about healthcare – but not include the labour party and the parts it plays in mananing healthcare in this country – then just simply pretend that the 22 DHB are the best thing since sliced toast, and stop asking who thought it was a good Idea. Cause in the end you will always come back to the Labour Party and Helen Clark and her ministers at the time.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300614631/cheat-sheet-how-new-zealands-health-system-is-changing
That became evident within months of the DHB's forming with quite a lot of previously integrated systems falling down.
As a user I really disliked the DHB system – if you have ever moved DHB's regions and had children under specialists it is a nightmare. More so if they actually get admitted in one DHB area who only have the responsibility to get your child "fit to travel to their own DHB". Having had a child discharged while still very unwell from one DHB and us having to drive frantically back to our own DHB as they turned bluer and bluer as their oxygen depleted and going immediately to our local DHB where they went straight into intensive care was a nightmare.
Trust me you never wanted to get admitted seriously unwell in the wrong DHB area.
As for BOT's having sat on these – once after a previous board full of lawyers and accountants set up ridiculous forward contracts for school maintenance amongst other things – my biggest observation is that local input has allowed the religious into state schools. This isn't unintended in my view and was always part of the plan in devolving centralised control. It isn't co-incidence the connection between the religious and the right and the notion of localism.
My wife works for a northern DHB. They have just introduced a new computer program that seriously effects her job. No training. Fiasco is one word. Another way of describing it is monumental cluster fuck.
Yes, a friend of mine moved from Auckland to Blenheim 4 years ago. She was really annoyed to find that several of the tests she had regularly in Auckland because of previous illnesses and family histories were not available at her new DHB because of their differing standards and policies relating to her age.
Agree. DoSmith
22 DHB's for 5 million people. 22 boards, levels of managers, finance, supply etc and all that branding.
National serve capital not people as this 'reform' had nothing to do with efficiency just more carving up the public asset to hopefully flog it off to mates.
why National?
blame N for defunding the DHB during their reign, but don't blame them for 20 of the 22 DHBs. That was grown on Labours compost pile. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/explained/124915117/the-plan-to-get-rid-of-district-health-boards-and-centralise-healthcare-explained#:~:text=Sure
Yes Adrian, that computer linking is a biggie. They also developed their own silos. They overpaid Boards and Managers. Just to name a few wee problems.
“I know what the average Māori (person) will think and they’re not walking around every day thinking about the United Nations’ Declaration of Indigenous Peoples – they’re thinking about their housing, their health, their education.’’
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/jackson-not-comfortable-with-co-governance-draft
For all those critics of Pharmac and the current Government’s efforts in healthcare:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/470119/new-zealand-and-european-union-secure-historic-free-trade-deal
That's really good news, I am very pleased to see that the pharmaceutical industry's campaign against Pharmac hasn't weakened the Governments commitment to it.
Yeah an insidious part of that campaign was the "but Australia pays for it" neglecting to point out that Australia pays for more high cost medicines in part because they (the government) pay much less of basic medical care costs for which you are expected to pay a higher price or have insurance.
NZ puts much more money proportionally into basic health care.
'NZ puts much more money proportionally into basic health care.'
Nonsense, spending per capita on health in Australia is above 5k US per annum in NZ it is barely 4k.
Didn't say they spent less per capita.
You are, if you have a decent income for instance expected to have medical insurance. If you don't you get levied on your income. Even with Medicare you pay quite a bit more for your doctor and prescriptions than here. It is a clear government policy.
This reduces the cost to the government for basic health care and frees up money to be spent on expensive medicines.
NZ doesn't spend enough per capita is definitely a problem though.
Proportionally was related to basic care vs costly new medicines. not Aus to NZ on a population basis. I can see why that was confusing in how I wrote it.
you reckon these guys will be paid better or worse after renegotiating their old contracts with the old/new owner?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300614631/cheat-sheet-how-new-zealands-health-system-is-changing
If I had to take a punt better.
I have posted this previously but I remember being at a DHB meeting where their accountant got up and spoke about his disgust at reducing the hours of care for elderly to save costs. He made the point that many of the staff will still do the extra work needed and that they, the managers new this. He had calculated his estimate of the "free hours" each year they would get and it ran into millions. Not a single DHB manager disputed his claims and they proceeded uncaringly with the cuts. In my experience most DHB managers had previously worked to wreck the system in the UK and were now here wrecking ours.
Mental Health spending is another area they have consciously done things like reduce bed numbers despite staff opposition. to doing so. The neglect of dental health for low income and disabled is another area where they have reduced their effort year on year. These things were all management decisions that had everything to do with costs not to do with local health needs.
Reversing this stuff can't be done without spending more money and that has to include responding to the supply and demand staff shortages.
Time will tell.
"There's been a carve out for New Zealand medicines and Pharmac, as patent requirements sought by the EU would have made medicines here more expensive by hundreds of millions of dollars a year – "
This smells like spin and nonsense, PHARMAC are very very slow at funding new medicines and we only spend around a billion a tear on pharmaceuticals. Existing product prices wouldn't increase as they are subject to funding agreements.
This smells like lazy reckons and sour grapes, which is ironic. Pharmac is the funder and Medsafe is the regulator and these are very different roles that both require proper evidence-based decision-making and that takes time. Who said anything about existing product prices? And if you make assertions about funding agreements set in stone then you need to back that up, which won’t be an easy task for you as they are confidential. So, pull the other one.
it is a fact that vote health spends in the order of 1 billion a year on pharmaceuticals per the pharmaceutical schedule via retail pharmacy and via in hospital usage – this is publicly available information.
The majority of pharmaceuticals that have lost intellectual property (IP) protection are supplied within a tender system the prices are contracted and visible and again this is publicly available information.
The pharmaceuticals that are protected by IP are subject to many and varied contracts between the manufacturer and PHARMAC and again the prices are contracted (along with rebates that are confidential). Prices for these pharmaceuticals do not go up – certainly not since the arrival of PHARMAC some decades ago.
Therefore we are left with the newer products which PHARMAC has yet to fund – as you will be aware there is a rather large number of these and they are remarkably slow at funding newer agents despite the new funds that have been made available to them.
To suggest that patent extensions and the like would have added 'hundreds of millions of dollars' to the pharmaceutical costs in nz annually is a nonsense unless one expects a large proportion of the newer agents are suddenly due to come off patent and would be subject to longer patent terms and that there are cheaper generics available and that this situation repeats itself on an annual basis.
Again we spend just over a billion a year funding pharmaceuticals – the ‘hundreds of millions a year ‘ throwaway comment is simply not credible.
The only one who’s not credible here is you because you still haven’t provided any support for your reckons, just more reckons and throw away comments, which for all I know you’ve made up from scratch. I can easily do your homework for you, e.g., link to Pharmac’s tender outcomes, but I didn’t make your reckons. If you want I can park you in Pre-Mod until you have put up something with a bit of substance or change your nom de plume to something more fitting for the quality of your comments here. In particular, you have not countered the claim by the Government as per my original quote.
Fill you boots bud.
https://pharmac.govt.nz/medicine-funding-and-supply/the-funding-process/medicines-and-medical-devices-contract-negotiation/
As I have previously said the claim by the government is hyperbolic nonsense for a total pharmaceutical budget in NZ that is just over a billion dollars per annum and where new patent protected medicines are 'drip fed' to the medical community.
Perhaps a challenge for you – provide an example of a pharmaceutical funded by the government in NZ that has had an increase in price increase over the last decade which could support the government's statement.
I'm not sure where the statement from the government originated, I very much doubt it was from PHARMAC or any healthcare professionals – maybe from the health ministers spin doctors ? They do appear to be coming up with a load of codswallop on a daily basis at present.
So, you cannot or don’t want to back up your own comment, just digging in and doubling down.
It really is a stupid move to put the onus back on somebody who challenges you to provide support for your reckons. You make the claims, you back it up.
Noted for future reference.
The government spin-meisters made the claims – they should back them up.
I clearly explained why their claims were absurd hyperbole, that you are unable or unwilling to comprehend what I point out is hardly my problem.
That is a big win. "Today is a good day for Kiwis"
The main outcome of the new health structure – at least in the short/medium term – is going to be the rationalisation and centralisation of elective surgery and other procedures. New Zealanders are going to have to be prepared to travel for advanced healthcare to just a few centres. It makes sense to have excellent care in one city rather than very good care in six.
Maori health has now been given the rope it has been demanding, we will see if they hang themselves or haul up Maori health outcomes with it. The ball is in their court.
Or the difference between specialist service and no service at all: https://thestandard.org.nz/mother-nature-gives-groundswell-nz-the-middle-finger/#comment-1804112.
To keep up with medical innovations and to be involved in clinical trials a close relationship with [the 2] medical schools is a huge advantage if not a prerequisite. The latter need to have a bigger presence and footprint in the heartland of NZ.
Otago Medical School are very present in Dunedin and Christchurch so it's mainly the North Island that needs to catch up.
Which is what used to happen previously to rationalise spare capacity e.g. Taumarunui during the off-ski season used to do lots of hip replacement operations.
People didn't mind travelling for serious stuff. What happened is people in place like Taumarunui now had to travel for hours for normal every day stuff. For those communities that used to have local hospitals medical travel has ben a way of life ever since the DHB system was set up.
Many of those rural hospitals also were close to high Maori population areas in the NI at least.
Thank you for your comments.
Healthcare is everything from the everyday stuff such as GP visits (incl. Pharmacy) and taking & dropping off samples to full-on hospital care (incl. A&E) with all the more specialised services plus all the wrap-around services (incl. radiology service, for example). It is huge.
Patients need community for well-being and healing (and for palliative & ‘pastoral’ care). This has been brought up again during the pandemic and all isolations that people had to endure. This can be very hard on people who are scared, confused, unwell, or in pain (mentally or physically). For example, elderly people are confined to their rooms even today when there are any positive cases in their rest-home and it is bloody hard on them (and on staff and relatives).
"Medical tourism" was great for Taumarunui. Some one I knew whose mother had her hip done there spent the best part of a week contributing to the local economy. They drove their Mum down, and then spent several nights in a very nice motel while she recovered from the surgery and was OK to be driven back home.
The US Supreme Court has ruled that federal action on climate change is against the constitution:
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/30/supreme-court-handcuffs-biden-on-major-climate-rule-00043423
The Senate filibuster prevented their attempt at regulation and the Supreme Court ruling preempts any further attempts. The descent of US empire has accelerated this week. Sadly this will have ramifications for us all.
Its part of a Fascist coup in the USA with the aim of cementing white minority rule. The United States is one Democratic president serious about taking on Fascism – or one election clearly rigged by voter suppression and Gerrymanders – away from serious and escalating civil violence.
It gets worse:
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/30/1107648753/supreme-court-north-carolina-redistricting-independent-state-legislature-theory
Is it potentially possible for Biden to alter the number of Supreme Court Judges. Then stack it with human beings?
FDR was able to leverage that threat to ensure the enactment of the New Deal, so it is potentially possible. I don't see it as likely given the current impotent response of the Democratic party. AOC however raises the justifiable impeachment of at least two of the Justices:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/27/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-supreme-court-justices-impeach-kavanaugh-gorsuch-thomas
Biden can't do much as President but as the Constitution is silent on the size of the Supreme Court, the size is set by Congress via legislation.
It's a family thing.
Anne Gorsuch, a radical anti-environmental activist, was appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1981 to be the first female administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. She worked hand-in-glove with Reagan’s controversial Secretary of the Interior James Watt to undermine federal environmental regulations.
Here is how The Washington Post described her controversial 22-month tenure as EPA administrator in her 2004 obituary. In 1983, after she and her first husband, David Gorsuch, divorced, she married Robert F. Burford, a rancher and head of the Bureau of Land Management.
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2022/6/26/2106335/-Gorsuch-poised-to-accomplish-his-mother-s-mission-of-undermining-the-EPA-in-upcoming-SCOTUS-ruling
It must be exciting to be an American and to be there at this time.
A story in the news today highlights the debates going on past abortion, Jan 6, the economy, immigration, cost of living and so on.
"Texas educator group proposes referring to slavery as “involuntary relocation” in second grade curriculum."
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/30/texas-slavery-involuntary-relocation/
It seems likely some who have been very vocal about not accepting what happened, and telling things as they are, don't want to tell things as they were and certainly don't want them to be called what they were.
They’re heading towards repealing the13th Amendment .
Finland/NATO called his bluff. Poots backed down.
https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1542249958161670145
Sympathetic article in the Independent UK, about an barnyard castration clinic in the US, in the early 2000s.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trans-history-underground-sugical-clinic-b2110589.html#comments-area
Interesting that it appears at this time, following a narrative framework that replicates the back alley abortion clinics and systems that were set up to aid women.
Sometimes, illegal abortion clinics were all about the money for those performing – so, there is no guarantee that the intention is altruistic in either case. But here it is assumed.
There are many factors to unpick here, but one noticeable lack is a failure to mention that there is a large number of people who have a castration sexual paraphilia, (which is not replicated in regards to abortion).
The current draft for the WPATH Standards of Care actually included a whole section on eunuchs, which was released late last year.
(The transgender messaging has long moved on from discomfort in one's sexed body, to body modification without need for distress, a fundamental difference that many choose to ignore.)
The eunuch community online, also expresses the desire to halt development for growing people, and offers up castration as a means to do so.
There really needs to be better scrutiny and discussion on these topics, rather than promotional puff pieces in the media.
Yes, Who benefits from the creation of a bunch of people with children's bodies and adult ages?
The conservative backlash against this insanity is going to be ugly and violent. Because these disturbed and amoral individuals have captured the narrative of oppression and the levers of power in “polite” society, the only tool that remains for normal people who want to protect women and children, is rough justice.
I do not endorse that prospect, but it is clearly happening right now in the US of A, with the growth of the Proud Boys and the irrational rulings of the Supreme Court.
So surgery is to be granted to someone who identifies as eunuch identity if they are in danger of self harm. Does it not occur to anyone that the person would have to be really disturbed to threaten or be at risk of self harm if they are not castrated. I have known quite a few suicidal people over the years and the treatment or support that is offered has never included give them what they want. It’s a bit like telling the ex partner of someone who is suicidal to go back to them to stop them suiciding.
Direct link to WPATH here: https://www.wpath.org/soc8
It's about Eunuchs being recognised and treated as a gender identity – and I think they may have pulled the draft off the site, which is hard to navigate if you are unfamiliar with it.
Here’s an archived .pdf copy of what was released:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IL9odleDVgbiGxt6v42dLFnU_SDfDXra/view
Tutorial for men on how to behave on twitter 😂
https://twitter.com/sbartemio/status/1542690958885564416
As opposed to in our BBQ culture presumably
"And a man can cook dinner on a fire pit, yet most women prefer the convenience of a gas stove."
Faaaarrrkkkk…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/vicious-hawkes-bay-prison-assault-mongrel-mob-inmate-stabs-guard-12-times-in-face-in-cowardly-shocking-attack/AYQUW5FK5C3QQNXUSPHRVSV7MM/
Sorry for you and your colleagues Puke. And of course for the poor guy who was stabbed. It must feel very close to the bone
Sorry for you and your colleagues Puck. And of course for the poor guy who was stabbed. It must feel very close to the bone
Luxon vs The Bible
Luxo: "i gots me 7 houses yo"
Luxo: "bottom feeders GTFO"
Luxo: "abortion = murder!!!11!1"