“This deeply tragic event was unexpected, but that does not mean it was unforseeable,” he said.
“The victims – both workers and visitors – all had a reasonable expectation that they could go to the island knowing that those organisations involved had done all they were required to do to look after their health and safety. But had they? That’s the question WorkSafe was mandated to investigate.
“After the largest and most complex investigation WorkSafe has ever undertaken, we have concluded that 13 parties did not meet their obligations and should face charges in court.”
A thorough investigation is owed to those who died and those who were injured. Where there were safety issues which were not considered there needs to be a criminal penalty for this.
I cannot recall a fortnight like the last one when it comes to the mention of lives taken unexpectedly and when scrutinised this was likely to have been preventable had people who were in charge not have made the wrong decisions.
Erebus, Christchurch terror attacks, Cave Creek, Whakaari, Pike River and the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.
ACC was never set up for the above as organisational failure has occurred. The ACC process is not easy to navigate and it can be adversarial.
Those who want and need answers are entitled to get them and reasonable compensation for loss of life, income, health and loss of support from the deceased.
I have to say, although this is Worksafe's job, the regulatory culture of prosecuting the survivors is pretty backward. We see the same routinely from the MSA.
You build the fence out of case law from prosecutions – making it more likely that all organisations will prioritise safety because it may cost them if they do not. That's how it works everywhere else.
I'm not sure case law does the trick. Institutions in principle can learn from prosecutions and develop more responsible cultures. But smaller operators of the kind typical of NZ are often wiped out by the combination of whatever misadventure followed by prosecution. With their loss, whatever institutional learning was possible is also lost. We need, as a country, to be smarter than that.
Operators being wiped out sets an example to others, building their institutional knowledge and culture. Big missing ingredient in NZ workplace safety compared with say Australia.
There is no fence at the top of the cliff. Were there a fence it would be well written legislation on safety and responsibility. Notice no one puts their hand up and says we were in charge of the safety of those in our care or we did not tell people that there were hidden dangers. Any medical procedure the adverse effects need to be explained.
this is meaty. A couple of people on the post on Stuffs apology to Maori, criticised it as virtue signalling etc, etc. but owning up to the bias against Maori abusing their kids and presenting this picture of Pakeha kids who have been brutally abused, truly gets the message home.
I am beginning to think after today it is just a cynical, starting to look like a self indulgent campaign by Stuff. Especially given the timing and heading into xmas slow news time.
But I am sure it will come out in the wash, and it will be interesting to see how their reporting changes next year.
I agree. But I think if a cynical & self indulgent campaign can achieve improvements leading to an end to systemic racism in Stuff then perhaps it is worthwhile. You know, the old ends justifies the means argument.
And yes, slow news time coming and now there is an ability to fill the columns with chest beating and mea culpas.
I would far rather that they had made the change for the better and then told us, perhaps they may not have needed to tell us as the improvement would have been noticeable……
Do you think it will lead to a doing away with the verbal brawls and 'gotchas' questioning we saw after the pressers on Covid? Also from the opposite angle will it lead to more competent investigative stuff? Sometimes even short articles end with the meaty questions unasked and unanswered and I think…..
I think it will be an in-depth introspective spread out till xmas and then by about february/march next year, by then everyone will have forgotten, and it will just go back to as it was.
A story about faith being driven underground in the UK, I found it an interesting read especially given the contrast with NZ. Not being a religious person it isn't entirely clear to me why everything can't be done via Zoom, guessing fellowship is just as important.
We need to remember stories like this when people like David Seymour push for an end to the Human Rights Commission.
But where do you draw the line at risk ?. The dangerous precedent here is that the Great Walks and all others should be closed, as for instance weather forecasters can not guarantee that a extreme blizzard on the Milford Track or anywhere else may kill some trampers and would face prosecution because the risk is “ unexpected but foreseeable “ which has to be a contradiction in terms.
The Tongariro Walk should be canned immediately, and any landowner cannot possibly give permission for anyone to cross farmland or any type of land in case there is an earthquake that loosens a rock that hurts someone that GNS has not predicted.
It is a very dangerous precedent to make to hold scientists responsible for the eruption of volcanoes or the rupture of faultlines.
I think there is a big difference between tramping and volcano tourism. I can judge the weather, I have no way of knowing if a volcano will explode.
There is also a difference between people choosing to tramp of their own accord, and those that pay a company to take them on a trip.
Metservice went through this some years ago after a flash flood drowned some students on a school trip. Metservice hadn't predicted the amount of rain. Might be worth looking at that process (they weren't charged with anything).
I'll wait for the details of the charges with Whakaari before forming an opinion. I think the issue is about whether it's a random thing that couldn't have been predicted (the weather oddity, but this will become more normal with climate change), and something that could. eg how was risk being assessed, and were the tourists and workers given full exclosure of exactly what the risk was.
I vividly remember this awful tragedy. (One of my kids had attended a school camp at the same place. I had to pick him and another lad up early as they were both sick and the weather was truly shit on that day. The rain in the immediate area of the camp was particularly ferocious.) The weather was atrocious on the day of the tragedy, and the forecast for the North Island clearly warned of 'rapidly rising river levels.' As the news unfolded it was truly baffling that instructors would take kids out on such an adventure when the forecast warned of such an eventuality.
there's no doubt that the trip organisers were majorly culpable. I was commenting on the Metservice side because it's relevant to the charging of GNS this week. Probably poorly worded on my part.
"From the inaccurate weather report (the word "thunderstorms" was omitted from the MetService fax)"
I'm interested in how hopeless the online Metservice is. They have reorganised their page setup, which wasn't bad but can't get faster changes on the weather chart online. By the time it is hosing where I am I expect it to show something on the screen, but it might show a big 0.
It is quite handy for checking between radio announcements but a placebo if it isn't up to scratch a lot, and could lead to a false optimism and death.
When I look at the rain radar it shows what has happened and I want an idea of what will be soon or near future. I look at the one that shows the rain in yellow and blue. Is that what you watch?
And I also expect that the whole system will be more responsive to changes, I have the feeling that it is on a two hour change. But even so usually it should register rain likely within the next two hours. Yet I have looked and the panel will show no rain at all for the whole of the day while it is raining outside, though on the occasion I am quoting I can't remember whether it showed some at night.
I want an idea of what will be soon or near future
As i said, the rain radar "works in real time and updates every seven minutes", so every seven minutes it will tell you what is happening right then which will save you looking out the window. Worst case it tells you what was happening seven minutes ago while also showing you how that weather has moved over the last hour enabling you to make a very good prediction of what will happen in seven minutes time.
edit:
with the radar set to your location it shows an area larger than the rain could travel in two hours. Your guess on how it will unfold over a couple of hours is probably as good as theirs.
I guess I can wet my finger to site the wind direction, and study the clouds from my encyclopaedia, now is that a stratus or cirrus. The cumulus have all gone so it is not looking good etc.
I'm allowed to have a whinge when something doesn't fit my needs. Of course you may be one of the NZs who accept everything and never complain, or put forward an idea different from the norm.
In general if you don't have an opinion and a viewpoint about anything you just get what others decide to dish up. Maybe that is why we are on our knees in our dear country trying to salvage NZ from going down the gurgler as a truly developed country.
edit
This is an example of what you get when government adopts the view that business knows best and should be left to make decisions that are appropriate. There is a bunch of chickens come home to roost at the moment; questions about the SIS and how government here had got it wrong because they are a bunch of insensitive twerps under the control of USA even bigger twerps and racists, the Pike River situation gets mentioned, the CTV collapse where the engineer in charge wasn't even one at all (do I remember that right?) and the man appointed was not experienced enough. The buck can't be passed to him, it didn't sound as if he had much responsible mentoring.
Now the White Island thing and I put up the other day that GNS had a new system of monitoring ready to go, but in the right way of doing things the Island people should have been checking each morning to see if the indications were for greater risk. And have been warned that they should have been closed for two or so days anyway which would have hurt their pockets, but ultimately been for everyone's good. They might have taken visitors out and stayed on the boat, or just landed and looked across so they could say they were near an active volcano at half price.
It seems banana republic fumbling to me. I have doubts about going on things here myself now. There is a carelessness and callousness showing up that just contrasts with the emotion that flows when something bad happens. It's just sentimentality when the real caring comes from preventing things happening, and making sure that there are limits to risks, warnings given with specified safety items to be worn and carried, strict limits on the route etc.
And I think also hanging over everything , the knowledge that people will have to pay a cost for emergency assistance not too high, but expected immediately or someone will be detained till paid for those who initiate trips and excursions that go wrong for a foreseeable risk. It isn't on that the public purse, which can't afford to provide decent health and education for those at the bottom, can pay to help those who have the option to choose to enjoy risky recreation. The country can't afford it. Full stop!
I really can't believe that GNS Science is being prosecuted because it failed to predict the volcano. Perhaps the charges involve the processes around their work, for example maintenance of equipment and transfer of information to appropriate agencies.
Blame will not undo anything. It is about preventing such a tragedy from occurring again, discovering what happened and supporting the injured and the bereaved families and compensation for the disability and loss of people. When an organisation failed in their duty of care compensation is warranted. ACC is a no fault scheme so ACC cannot prosecute. Workplace accidents are a health and safety issue which need to hold people to account.
It's worth noting that relations between Australia and China are plummeting to a dangerous new low that could easily have serious implications for NZ. Clearly Beijing has determined to make an example of Australia with a series of economic and diplomatic offensives that show no sign of abating.
Indeed. It looks like the CCP are rightly contemptuous of the Anglo Saxon elites – for being addicted to the rush of money from trade with China, while treating our own populations like serfs, joining every lunatic US imperial adventure going, and yet grandstanding about China's (real) human rights abuses. If we weren't such a hypocritical mess, we wouldn't be such an easy target.
It looks like the CCP are rightly contemptuous of the Anglo Saxon elites – for being addicted to the rush of money from trade with China,
Perhaps, but what exactly was it that lifted so many 100's of millions of Chinese serfs out of poverty, if it were not this 'rush of money' they gained from open trade with the world?
As for hypocrisy, the sight of Chinese diplomats using Twitter to dish out this contempt, when they strictly censor the same media from their own people has to be pretty damned rich for a start.
But here is the real point; no nation is perfect and there is no question Australian troops went over the line in Afghanistan. And after a painful, difficult, yet trusted investigation the Australian government has made the conclusions public. And then acknowledged the failure and is holding the individuals responsible to account. This is what you want to have happen when things go wrong.
But for the CCP to then exploit this transparency for a blatantly aggressive purpose, a transparency they're infamously deficient in themselves, is just plain rude at best.
Yes I recall reading an article a while back (sorry forgotten linky) that the CCP deliberately targeted regional or local govts when it was useful to bypass or undermine a national one. They have definite track record on this, not just in Australia.
Iron ore is the big one. So far the Australians have deliberately refrained from pulling that lever, and while the Chinese could try and source from Brazil and Africa, neither are really a good substitute on quality or reliability.
At the moment there is a huge fleet of coal bulkers sitting off the coast of Shanghai awaiting unloading. Given that the coal was paid for immediately it left the Australian port, that may well reflect a drop in actual demand within China more than anything else. Still there is no question it's another lever the CCP are pulling because they can.
The Chinese 99 year lease on the Port of Darwin is another obvious target to nationalise.
Stuff publishing its history of racial abuse is froggen amazing.
Stuff needs to put the light on the rest of its reporting ie economic reporting completely one sided.
The NZ initiative and the taxpayers union one in the same the business round tables new propaganda machine,pushing 1\2 truths to make up false narratives such as how the minimum wage increases unemployment.
When the OECD has shown it has reverse effects increasing economic activity more jobs more business etc.
Stuff has said it shouldn't let those in power dictate what it publishes around Maori news which they admit has been biased .
Yet they let economists who only represent big business run their poorly researched propaganda.
they all pretty much parrot the b.s. supporting the neoliberal paradigm..
..(despite the evidence before their eyes of the poverty/inequality grown/fostered/nurtured by that poxy/failed economic belief-system)
t.i.n.a. – there is no alternative – to that neoliberal paradigm ..being a favoured trope/big lie..
and given that maori are perhaps the biggest victims of that don't-give-a-fuck about the 'losers' dictum of neoliberalism…stuff undertaking that re-evaluation of their role in getting us to this place..
..would be timely..
..would be them being seen walking the walk..eh..?
Yes I took up an offer which gives me 6 papers a week for not very much, paid monthly. I have set up an automatic payment so they have security of payment coming regularly. Which is why they need subscriptions. Go stuff go, and yes a regular report on say the Welfare Index if there is one, instead of just the foreign exchange for today and the repetitive cries of business leaders for more of something or less of something that impedes them in their single-minded purpose to be wealth creators for themselves.
I often read that there aren't enough enterprises to invest in in NZ so people with money have to invest in houses. Peter Jackson has done marvels in opening up a business opportunity that offers employment. Yet he has a USA guy buying him out. All the keen smart guys and gals should have a special investment fund they contribute to that will back NZ greenfield developments that aren't involved in land and housing! It may be that the investor brings both cash and contacts in the USA though, which would be beneficial to Weta.
The followup today is that HR is too difficult for orchardists.
They said they did not have time to respond to every application because, faced with a dearth of workers, juggling work with processing applications was too much.
"We can’t be online all the time" was the general reaction to New Zealanders who claimed they had applied and got no response.
There's an odd complaint that NZ workers are too inexperienced, yet they can get experienced workers from overseas. Seems to me they let the local workforce wither away, and now are paying the price.
I'd like to see those orchardists who don't have time to respond, who applied for RSEs, prosecuted for making false statutory declarations. Part of the process requires them to state that they could not find any suitable New Zealanders for the job.
I am not sanguine of course – the big fishing companies have been making the same false statutory declarations for decades without consequences. The rule of law has come to apply only to individuals – corporates can break it indefinitely without consequences. Lesse majeste – the state is failing.
The comments below these stories are very enlightening. Some orchards appear to have got off their butt and made decent plans – others not so much. There was even a start up up Gisborne way that linked workers and orchards which looked pretty good. I've lost the link to that though. But good on the ODT for exposing the orchard employers. Wonder how many of these places are overseas owned with the profits going off shore.
It certainly is discrimination, and I'm sure if they were a fashionable ethnic group instead of a nationality, the Human Rights Commission would have something to say about it. Not our diversity driven MPs of course – they're more concerned with the right to wear hats or disparage retired folk.
A small Kura spent $18,077 on a professional development trip to Calgary for three staff members and $18,133 on further travel through the United States, which included visiting Disneyland and other resorts. Meanwhile….
The Audit Office also said it "could not obtain sufficient evidence to confirm the validity of a payment of about $467,000 for a management fee" from two former charter schools, Middle School West Auckland and South Auckland Middle School, to their sponsoring agency, Villa Education Trust.
Villa Education Trust chief executive Karen Poole said the trust worked with a facilitator appointed by the Ministry of Education throughout the process of transitioning the two charter schools to become special-character state schools from January 2019.
But Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Mangatuna principal Tania Hunter said her kura actually raised $67,000 from its community for the trip to Canada and Disneyland, which more than covered the $36,200 cost of the trip.
"My school came away with surplus money. It's still in the school," she said.
She said she, another teacher and a kaiāwhina (helper) went to Canada to attend the 11th World Indigenous People's Conference on Education in Toronto, and did not visit Calgary as the audit report claimed.
…
She said the visit to Disneyland and other places in the United States came in the week before the conference, which was the last week of the July school holidays in 2017.
"That was a one-week holiday," she said.
She felt justified in using the money raised from the community because she and the other two people who went on the trip did much of the fundraising themselves.
"The three people that went, we catered at the local marae for a three-day conference, we worked from 4am to 10pm, three meals and morning teas. That was $3000 being paid to the school, but it was being put aside for our trip," she said.
"We fundraise like Trojans from external funding literally all year round."
Thanks for that weka – disparaging remarks can present such a wrong slant. I think a $26,000 trip overseas for two in 1999ish to hook up to hip-hop groups got damned probably by Rodney Hide and was a final straw in the effort of Labour to give Maori a chance to find new ventures and strengths. The end of the Closing the Gaps that riled a lot of pakeha who tried to stop it
Winston Peters on it: In June 2000, Winston Peters, leader of the New Zealand First party, described the program as "social apartheid". One of his downing Maori and working against their best interests which I considered made him a type of turncoat, though always perfectly tailored of course.
Racial bias in action – almost the entire article was about the spending of a Māori school yet the Poole's [could not obtain sufficient evidence to confirm the validity] payment merited little more than a footnote.
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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, ...
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. ...
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. ...
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. ...
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 is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
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 ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
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 ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
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Imagine if this official response had happened after Pike River? https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/431772/whakaari-investigation-worksafe-charges-10-organisations-three-directors
Worksafe’s CEO:
A thorough investigation is owed to those who died and those who were injured. Where there were safety issues which were not considered there needs to be a criminal penalty for this.
I cannot recall a fortnight like the last one when it comes to the mention of lives taken unexpectedly and when scrutinised this was likely to have been preventable had people who were in charge not have made the wrong decisions.
Erebus, Christchurch terror attacks, Cave Creek, Whakaari, Pike River and the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.
ACC was never set up for the above as organisational failure has occurred. The ACC process is not easy to navigate and it can be adversarial.
Those who want and need answers are entitled to get them and reasonable compensation for loss of life, income, health and loss of support from the deceased.
Fair enough as it goes, but the legislation enabling the White Island prosecution arose from the Pike River disaster among other events.
So its not a black and white comparison.
WorkSafe is better than the Pike River prosecution context.
It shows what was missing at the time of Pike. Sad.
I have to say, although this is Worksafe's job, the regulatory culture of prosecuting the survivors is pretty backward. We see the same routinely from the MSA.
Where is the fence at the top of the cliff ?
It was supposed to be the people/entities who have subsequently been charged.
They're not prosecuting the survivors, they're prosecuting the fence-builders. If there's overlap between the two groups, so be it.
You build the fence out of case law from prosecutions – making it more likely that all organisations will prioritise safety because it may cost them if they do not. That's how it works everywhere else.
I'm not sure case law does the trick. Institutions in principle can learn from prosecutions and develop more responsible cultures. But smaller operators of the kind typical of NZ are often wiped out by the combination of whatever misadventure followed by prosecution. With their loss, whatever institutional learning was possible is also lost. We need, as a country, to be smarter than that.
Operators being wiped out sets an example to others, building their institutional knowledge and culture. Big missing ingredient in NZ workplace safety compared with say Australia.
Where is the fence at the top of the cliff?
There is no fence at the top of the cliff. Were there a fence it would be well written legislation on safety and responsibility. Notice no one puts their hand up and says we were in charge of the safety of those in our care or we did not tell people that there were hidden dangers. Any medical procedure the adverse effects need to be explained.
QA background – if you're doing it right, you know why you're not having problems.
What is QA?
Quality Assurance – something we should expect would be visible in Worksafe's efforts.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/our-truth/300159717/our-truth-t-mtou-pono-how-weve-made-mori-the-face-of-child-abuse-and-minimised-the-abuse-of-pkeh-children
this is meaty. A couple of people on the post on Stuffs apology to Maori, criticised it as virtue signalling etc, etc. but owning up to the bias against Maori abusing their kids and presenting this picture of Pakeha kids who have been brutally abused, truly gets the message home.
I have to respect the fact stuff is doing such a detailed autopsy of their past/racist failings..
this to me says this is much more than an exercise in virtue-signalling..
and that there is no intention on the part of stuff to go back to those bad old-days…
now we wait for similar self-examinations/mea culpas from the other long-standing media entities ..
..all of whom share the historic-guilt stuff has admitted to..
in summary: to my mind this detailing by stuff just underlines the sincerity of the exercise..
In my personal opinion (yes, see the disclaimer)
I am beginning to think after today it is just a cynical, starting to look like a self indulgent campaign by Stuff. Especially given the timing and heading into xmas slow news time.
But I am sure it will come out in the wash, and it will be interesting to see how their reporting changes next year.
I am not holding my breath.
I agree. But I think if a cynical & self indulgent campaign can achieve improvements leading to an end to systemic racism in Stuff then perhaps it is worthwhile. You know, the old ends justifies the means argument.
And yes, slow news time coming and now there is an ability to fill the columns with chest beating and mea culpas.
I would far rather that they had made the change for the better and then told us, perhaps they may not have needed to tell us as the improvement would have been noticeable……
Do you think it will lead to a doing away with the verbal brawls and 'gotchas' questioning we saw after the pressers on Covid? Also from the opposite angle will it lead to more competent investigative stuff? Sometimes even short articles end with the meaty questions unasked and unanswered and I think…..
and?
and?
I think it will be an in-depth introspective spread out till xmas and then by about february/march next year, by then everyone will have forgotten, and it will just go back to as it was.
But then I might be wrong.
“The fact that we have to sneak around to worship God, in fear of criminal prosecution, is alarming.”
A story about faith being driven underground in the UK, I found it an interesting read especially given the contrast with NZ. Not being a religious person it isn't entirely clear to me why everything can't be done via Zoom, guessing fellowship is just as important.
We need to remember stories like this when people like David Seymour push for an end to the Human Rights Commission.
I can't see how it is being driven under ground.
It seems to be a bunch of idiots trying to break the law……probably a sin. They are all going to hell.
Funny how the virus doesn't seem to give a rat's about their religion.
https://twitter.com/Meidas_UMaine/status/1333383420425199628
But where do you draw the line at risk ?. The dangerous precedent here is that the Great Walks and all others should be closed, as for instance weather forecasters can not guarantee that a extreme blizzard on the Milford Track or anywhere else may kill some trampers and would face prosecution because the risk is “ unexpected but foreseeable “ which has to be a contradiction in terms.
The Tongariro Walk should be canned immediately, and any landowner cannot possibly give permission for anyone to cross farmland or any type of land in case there is an earthquake that loosens a rock that hurts someone that GNS has not predicted.
It is a very dangerous precedent to make to hold scientists responsible for the eruption of volcanoes or the rupture of faultlines.
I think there is a big difference between tramping and volcano tourism. I can judge the weather, I have no way of knowing if a volcano will explode.
There is also a difference between people choosing to tramp of their own accord, and those that pay a company to take them on a trip.
Metservice went through this some years ago after a flash flood drowned some students on a school trip. Metservice hadn't predicted the amount of rain. Might be worth looking at that process (they weren't charged with anything).
I'll wait for the details of the charges with Whakaari before forming an opinion. I think the issue is about whether it's a random thing that couldn't have been predicted (the weather oddity, but this will become more normal with climate change), and something that could. eg how was risk being assessed, and were the tourists and workers given full exclosure of exactly what the risk was.
…a flash flood drowned some students on a school trip.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangatepopo_Canyon_disaster
I vividly remember this awful tragedy. (One of my kids had attended a school camp at the same place. I had to pick him and another lad up early as they were both sick and the weather was truly shit on that day. The rain in the immediate area of the camp was particularly ferocious.) The weather was atrocious on the day of the tragedy, and the forecast for the North Island clearly warned of 'rapidly rising river levels.' As the news unfolded it was truly baffling that instructors would take kids out on such an adventure when the forecast warned of such an eventuality.
there's no doubt that the trip organisers were majorly culpable. I was commenting on the Metservice side because it's relevant to the charging of GNS this week. Probably poorly worded on my part.
"From the inaccurate weather report (the word "thunderstorms" was omitted from the MetService fax)"
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/features/3542548/A-tragedy-that-could-have-been-avoided
I'm interested in how hopeless the online Metservice is. They have reorganised their page setup, which wasn't bad but can't get faster changes on the weather chart online. By the time it is hosing where I am I expect it to show something on the screen, but it might show a big 0.
It is quite handy for checking between radio announcements but a placebo if it isn't up to scratch a lot, and could lead to a false optimism and death.
I find the rain radar to be extremely accurate. The thing works in real time and updates every seven minutes.
When I look at the rain radar it shows what has happened and I want an idea of what will be soon or near future. I look at the one that shows the rain in yellow and blue. Is that what you watch?
And I also expect that the whole system will be more responsive to changes, I have the feeling that it is on a two hour change. But even so usually it should register rain likely within the next two hours. Yet I have looked and the panel will show no rain at all for the whole of the day while it is raining outside, though on the occasion I am quoting I can't remember whether it showed some at night.
I want an idea of what will be soon or near future
As i said, the rain radar "works in real time and updates every seven minutes", so every seven minutes it will tell you what is happening right then which will save you looking out the window. Worst case it tells you what was happening seven minutes ago while also showing you how that weather has moved over the last hour enabling you to make a very good prediction of what will happen in seven minutes time.
edit:
with the radar set to your location it shows an area larger than the rain could travel in two hours. Your guess on how it will unfold over a couple of hours is probably as good as theirs.
I guess I can wet my finger to site the wind direction, and study the clouds from my encyclopaedia, now is that a stratus or cirrus. The cumulus have all gone so it is not looking good etc.
You can see what the wind direction and speed is on the rain radar. Or you could if you didn't just want to have a whinge.
I'm allowed to have a whinge when something doesn't fit my needs. Of course you may be one of the NZs who accept everything and never complain, or put forward an idea different from the norm.
In general if you don't have an opinion and a viewpoint about anything you just get what others decide to dish up. Maybe that is why we are on our knees in our dear country trying to salvage NZ from going down the gurgler as a truly developed country.
ok then don't use the rain radar and keep on whinging.
heh..!
I use MetVu for rain forecasting. Generally more accurate than Metservice.
http://www.metvuw.com/forecast/forecast.php?type=rain®ion=nzsi&noofdays=7
Thanks weka I'll keep that link on hand.
I have been reliably informed by a couple of geologists they were forbidden to go on the island, because of the islands excited state.
They were flabbergasted that tourism was allowed to continue.
edit
This is an example of what you get when government adopts the view that business knows best and should be left to make decisions that are appropriate. There is a bunch of chickens come home to roost at the moment; questions about the SIS and how government here had got it wrong because they are a bunch of insensitive twerps under the control of USA even bigger twerps and racists, the Pike River situation gets mentioned, the CTV collapse where the engineer in charge wasn't even one at all (do I remember that right?) and the man appointed was not experienced enough. The buck can't be passed to him, it didn't sound as if he had much responsible mentoring.
Now the White Island thing and I put up the other day that GNS had a new system of monitoring ready to go, but in the right way of doing things the Island people should have been checking each morning to see if the indications were for greater risk. And have been warned that they should have been closed for two or so days anyway which would have hurt their pockets, but ultimately been for everyone's good. They might have taken visitors out and stayed on the boat, or just landed and looked across so they could say they were near an active volcano at half price.
It seems banana republic fumbling to me. I have doubts about going on things here myself now. There is a carelessness and callousness showing up that just contrasts with the emotion that flows when something bad happens. It's just sentimentality when the real caring comes from preventing things happening, and making sure that there are limits to risks, warnings given with specified safety items to be worn and carried, strict limits on the route etc.
And I think also hanging over everything , the knowledge that people will have to pay a cost for emergency assistance not too high, but expected immediately or someone will be detained till paid for those who initiate trips and excursions that go wrong for a foreseeable risk. It isn't on that the public purse, which can't afford to provide decent health and education for those at the bottom, can pay to help those who have the option to choose to enjoy risky recreation. The country can't afford it. Full stop!
I really can't believe that GNS Science is being prosecuted because it failed to predict the volcano. Perhaps the charges involve the processes around their work, for example maintenance of equipment and transfer of information to appropriate agencies.
But who knows? Maybe it will be like the prosecution of Italian scientists around the L'Aquila earthquake in 2009 – https://www.theverge.com/2014/11/11/7193391/italy-judges-clear-geologists-manslaughter-laquila-earthquake-fear
Here's a view on the charges from a NZ academic working in earth sciences – https://www.thespinoff.co.nz/science/01-12-2020/why-scientists-should-welcome-charges-against-gns-over-whakaari/
He says "But this must not be about blame", but isn't that exactly what a prosecution is meant to ascertain?
Blame will not undo anything. It is about preventing such a tragedy from occurring again, discovering what happened and supporting the injured and the bereaved families and compensation for the disability and loss of people. When an organisation failed in their duty of care compensation is warranted. ACC is a no fault scheme so ACC cannot prosecute. Workplace accidents are a health and safety issue which need to hold people to account.
It's worth noting that relations between Australia and China are plummeting to a dangerous new low that could easily have serious implications for NZ. Clearly Beijing has determined to make an example of Australia with a series of economic and diplomatic offensives that show no sign of abating.
Indeed.. our economies are inextricably linked and Oz our largest trading partner
Immediately i heard the news i thought:
That Penfolds and Henschke are going to massively discount. Woooooooo!
Well I guess a stash of cheap plonk could come in handy if it all turns to total custard.
(My daughter works as a courier driver, and tells me that alcohol deliveries went through the roof during the COVID lockdown.)
They did. Consumption soared. I hope it is dropping now, but I wonder…
new zealand culture and alcohol..
'you know you're soaking in it'..
..eh..?
Indeed. It looks like the CCP are rightly contemptuous of the Anglo Saxon elites – for being addicted to the rush of money from trade with China, while treating our own populations like serfs, joining every lunatic US imperial adventure going, and yet grandstanding about China's (real) human rights abuses. If we weren't such a hypocritical mess, we wouldn't be such an easy target.
It looks like the CCP are rightly contemptuous of the Anglo Saxon elites – for being addicted to the rush of money from trade with China,
Perhaps, but what exactly was it that lifted so many 100's of millions of Chinese serfs out of poverty, if it were not this 'rush of money' they gained from open trade with the world?
As for hypocrisy, the sight of Chinese diplomats using Twitter to dish out this contempt, when they strictly censor the same media from their own people has to be pretty damned rich for a start.
But here is the real point; no nation is perfect and there is no question Australian troops went over the line in Afghanistan. And after a painful, difficult, yet trusted investigation the Australian government has made the conclusions public. And then acknowledged the failure and is holding the individuals responsible to account. This is what you want to have happen when things go wrong.
But for the CCP to then exploit this transparency for a blatantly aggressive purpose, a transparency they're infamously deficient in themselves, is just plain rude at best.
If the claim that it's an attack on Morrisons stance on the Victorian BRI is true then perhaps we should drag this one out a little longer.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300036015/nz-still-plotting-place-in-chinas-belt-and-road
Yes I recall reading an article a while back (sorry forgotten linky) that the CCP deliberately targeted regional or local govts when it was useful to bypass or undermine a national one. They have definite track record on this, not just in Australia.
It's an old imperial tactic.
What’s that saying.
The devils in the detail?
https://www.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-02/Belt-and-Road-Initiative-MOU.pdf
And also made very sure the officers and top brass are exempted from any blame or responsibility
Just those damned lower class squaddies Eh?
The photo the Chinese published was a dramatisation, to call it "photoshopped" is a shameless ploy to divert from human rights atrocities.
It's like Time magazine putting horns on Putin to make a point
Don't the Chinese do these things too? Could it be that we are in a MAD situation – Mutual Assumed Disgust?
Well said AB. Couldn't agree more.
Do you think that China would do a fairer deal with a country for just the product they need.?
What is China dependent on from Australia?
Iron ore is the big one. So far the Australians have deliberately refrained from pulling that lever, and while the Chinese could try and source from Brazil and Africa, neither are really a good substitute on quality or reliability.
At the moment there is a huge fleet of coal bulkers sitting off the coast of Shanghai awaiting unloading. Given that the coal was paid for immediately it left the Australian port, that may well reflect a drop in actual demand within China more than anything else. Still there is no question it's another lever the CCP are pulling because they can.
The Chinese 99 year lease on the Port of Darwin is another obvious target to nationalise.
https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3095851/brazilian-miner-vale-looks-satisfy-chinas-appetite-iron-ore
Stuff publishing its history of racial abuse is froggen amazing.
Stuff needs to put the light on the rest of its reporting ie economic reporting completely one sided.
The NZ initiative and the taxpayers union one in the same the business round tables new propaganda machine,pushing 1\2 truths to make up false narratives such as how the minimum wage increases unemployment.
When the OECD has shown it has reverse effects increasing economic activity more jobs more business etc.
Stuff has said it shouldn't let those in power dictate what it publishes around Maori news which they admit has been biased .
Yet they let economists who only represent big business run their poorly researched propaganda.
@tricledown..
a fair call…
they all pretty much parrot the b.s. supporting the neoliberal paradigm..
..(despite the evidence before their eyes of the poverty/inequality grown/fostered/nurtured by that poxy/failed economic belief-system)
t.i.n.a. – there is no alternative – to that neoliberal paradigm ..being a favoured trope/big lie..
and given that maori are perhaps the biggest victims of that don't-give-a-fuck about the 'losers' dictum of neoliberalism…stuff undertaking that re-evaluation of their role in getting us to this place..
..would be timely..
..would be them being seen walking the walk..eh..?
Yes I took up an offer which gives me 6 papers a week for not very much, paid monthly. I have set up an automatic payment so they have security of payment coming regularly. Which is why they need subscriptions. Go stuff go, and yes a regular report on say the Welfare Index if there is one, instead of just the foreign exchange for today and the repetitive cries of business leaders for more of something or less of something that impedes them in their single-minded purpose to be wealth creators for themselves.
I often read that there aren't enough enterprises to invest in in NZ so people with money have to invest in houses. Peter Jackson has done marvels in opening up a business opportunity that offers employment. Yet he has a USA guy buying him out. All the keen smart guys and gals should have a special investment fund they contribute to that will back NZ greenfield developments that aren't involved in land and housing! It may be that the investor brings both cash and contacts in the USA though, which would be beneficial to Weta.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/431834/us-billionaire-increases-share-in-weta-digital-ownership
Parker has only bought a third of the company, and yes he offers valuable relationships in US tech and venture capital circles.
They're not hiring New Zealanders, according to the ODT.
Once growers get a sniff of cheap exploitable foreign labour, NZ people get the dregs, if they lucky.
I wonder if Winz is giving out loans to go to Oz to pick – they like kiwi labourers there.
The followup today is that HR is too difficult for orchardists.
There's an odd complaint that NZ workers are too inexperienced, yet they can get experienced workers from overseas. Seems to me they let the local workforce wither away, and now are paying the price.
I'd like to see those orchardists who don't have time to respond, who applied for RSEs, prosecuted for making false statutory declarations. Part of the process requires them to state that they could not find any suitable New Zealanders for the job.
I am not sanguine of course – the big fishing companies have been making the same false statutory declarations for decades without consequences. The rule of law has come to apply only to individuals – corporates can break it indefinitely without consequences. Lesse majeste – the state is failing.
I wish authorities would come after incompetent NZ employers in general. But especially this, yes.
The comments below these stories are very enlightening. Some orchards appear to have got off their butt and made decent plans – others not so much. There was even a start up up Gisborne way that linked workers and orchards which looked pretty good. I've lost the link to that though. But good on the ODT for exposing the orchard employers. Wonder how many of these places are overseas owned with the profits going off shore.
Is this discrimination not employing NZ citizens or residents to work in orchards?
The mindset of the orchardists who employ visa holders over non visa holders needs to change.
It certainly is discrimination, and I'm sure if they were a fashionable ethnic group instead of a nationality, the Human Rights Commission would have something to say about it. Not our diversity driven MPs of course – they're more concerned with the right to wear hats or disparage retired folk.
A small Kura spent $18,077 on a professional development trip to Calgary for three staff members and $18,133 on further travel through the United States, which included visiting Disneyland and other resorts. Meanwhile….
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/tiny-east-coast-school-sent-staff-to-disneyland/ZOVRLBDPAWW4IPARMMJXTN2C4Q/
Thanks for that weka – disparaging remarks can present such a wrong slant. I think a $26,000 trip overseas for two in 1999ish to hook up to hip-hop groups got damned probably by Rodney Hide and was a final straw in the effort of Labour to give Maori a chance to find new ventures and strengths. The end of the Closing the Gaps that riled a lot of pakeha who tried to stop it
Winston Peters on it: In June 2000, Winston Peters, leader of the New Zealand First party, described the program as "social apartheid". One of his downing Maori and working against their best interests which I considered made him a type of turncoat, though always perfectly tailored of course.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closing_the_Gaps#Public_opinion
Racial bias in action – almost the entire article was about the spending of a Māori school yet the Poole's [could not obtain sufficient evidence to confirm the validity] payment merited little more than a footnote.
NZ Herald is not part of the Stuff stable so can go on publishing what it likes and with the slant it likes – more's the pity
thanks, I'd missed the point.