How long will the NZ Herald last as a print edition?
Yesterday's edition had about four ads in it, only one was a full pager (propaganda from the dairy industry). The real estate and travel advertising that underpins the print edition has collapsed. The trouble is the Herald is crippled with debt, loaded up with it in classic corporate raider behavior so it's got nothing in the bank for a rainy day.
Last night on Twitter I saw that David Cormack and David Slack have been axed, the sports desk is for the chop and I am sure the cuts are going to be way deeper than that. They'll be left as the print version of the ZB Taliban and the likes of Kerre McIvor, who genuinely seems to believe the collection of boomer losers who call her represent NZ.
A lot of people are posting about how tragic the demise of the Herald is, all the good journalists being let go yada yada yada – and they are right, up to a point. But when Shayne Currie's priority is to pay an obscene salary to Mike Hosking rather than keep on six beat reporters, you have to say what everyone seems to be studiously ignoring – that NZME have destroyed the Herald's brand, trashing it favour of short termist decision making and the need to keep pumping cash to the owners.
Lets be honest – it is actually now a shit newspaper with a few bright spots.
COVID-19 will probably claim the print edition of the Herald as amongst it's victims.
I have a close friend whose partner works at the Herald. They almost immediately laid off a number staff after the lockdown announcement. Like you, I think the outlook is not too good for the print edition.
"Lets be honest – it is actually now a shit newspaper with a few bright spots."
Ain't that the truth! They seem to have been in self-destruct mode for quite a while quite apart from the problems with generating advertising revenue that most commercial media faces
Maybe, just maybe, one of the changes when the dust settles is a return to truly local newspapers and radio stations. As opposed to these real estate publications fluffed up by some token items that are newsworthy.
For a while now, the three 'local' papers, The Feilding Herald, The Manawatu Standard and The Dominion are 50-80% same content.
I suppose this industry is facing huge pressure from the internet, but their race-to-the-bottom business model isn't serving them at all well.
NZME has been looking to merge (watch them go all out for it now) and overselling the quality of the current service.
It's run by an ex telco so no change in MO there. It's always been a soapbox that's made no bones about nailing blue colours to it's mast which has been independently verified by media observers in academia.
Best of luck with an approach that identifies with Mikey's audience rather than the more general business of actually informing people on a range of issues.
Yeah they do want to merge but, as somebody put it, instead of two supposedly struggling companies , we would have no competition and one struggling company.
Still NZME looks to some extent as if they are the authors of their own misfortune.
In the 2019 annual report they appear to have 1500 employees and an annual wages bill of $156m so $13m a month.
418 Employees on $100k+ and 6 directors take home $64m . So 28% of employees take home 41% of the payroll .
The remaining 1100 employees 72% take home 59% of the payroll.
Chop the top wages all back to $100k and that gives $23 mill slack so a couple of months wages.
The management will be trying to get some return on the NZME assets. They wanted to buy Fairfax and weren't allowed to because it would cut the competition and width of reporting. Will they have another go, saying they can't make it profitable as things now stand?
Will the authority see through their ploy and avoid allowing them to strip what's left of Fairfax, which had a good go by selling TradeMe and therefore the basic advertising that would have been their backbone, just on-line instead of on paper?
Is the ComCom the authority that decides for or against mergers ? I hope they have in their songbook Bracken's anthem for us – God Save NZ. With these predatory efficiency-hounds doing the business on us, we must look to a higher authority.
And that's not to mention those with skills we should have considered as desirable (such as people expert in things like preservation of wildlife, purity of water tables, Robert Guyton type land use practices, etc) for whom we've made it impossible to stay, OR things such as some of these folk:
Unconscious racial snobbery and Eurocentrism at it's finest. First, report on Europe. Then "The Americas" (the USA). next on the pecking order is Asia-pacific, you know, where we actually live. Bringing up the rear, as befitting lesser races, is the Middle East and Africa.
My daughter is currently considered an essential worker – working in a local glasshouse. She was planning to save for a year before studying. Her wage was increased yesterday, thanks to the minimum wage increase. While we were walking after she got back from work, I was thinking how very little we value those who are providing the necessities for all of us going through the lockdown.
Supermarket workers, waste management workers, cleaners, horticultural and agricultural workers, transport drivers, hospital support staff – a large proportion of these are on the minimum wage. But they are showing the worth of their labour, when all the excess has been stripped away.
For those that haven't read it. The New Economics Foundation 2009 report: A Bit Rich, is worth the time. NEF is an economic organisation that I actually enjoy reading.
(As you mention, the Number 8 wire approach seems to have emigrated to India. We could relearn a lot from their ingenuity)
Supermarket workers, waste management workers, cleaners, horticultural and agricultural workers, transport drivers, hospital support staff – a large proportion of these are on the minimum wage.
And you can tell a lot about a person's character by observing how they treat these people.
For those like me, who enjoy seeing the personification of the ranter in their head in the form of a British comedian – Tom Walker, an excerpt from Jonathan Pie on the value of our essential workers:
"…checkout girls, and shelf stackers, working for minimum wage helping the worst of humanity with their bagging errors – these people are the backbone of society…"
"…this sickness, this sense of entitlement. It's a sickness in our society, this narcissism. Nobody lives in the world anymore. You don't think the world applies to you. You fool yourself that you are not involved. With personal freedom comes personal responsibility. You can't have both. You have a responsibility to be part of society. You are part of society. You are part of a group. Whether you like it or not. It's time to act like it, and be part of society by locking your door and staying as far away from society as you possibly can…"
"Do you know who they're going to blame? They're going to blame you, Jonathan. They're going to blame you. It's all your fault. You're the one to blame…. You shouldn't have bought the pot plant!!". – the ranter, and the hypocrite that lives in most of us.
Immigration NZ use a combination of ANZSCO (Australia New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations) and pay rate (median wage or higher) to determine skill of a job for immigration purposes.
ANZSCO is maintained by Stats NZ and its Australian counterpart. Occupations are classified from skill levels 1 to 5 based on level of qualification/time taken to be competent in a role. Skill level 1 is degree level or 5 years. Skill levels 2 and 3 are post-secondary qualifications/3 years. Skill level 4 is secondary level qualifications (e.g. NCEA)/1 year. Skill level 5 is no qualification or experience required (maybe some on the job training).
The Immigration definition of skilled employment is skill level 1-3 ANZSCO and at least median wage, or 1.5 x median wage regardless of ANZSCO.
If there are issues with the skill level of the job, point the blame at the government (who decide what the criteria are, including the definition of skill for immigration purposes) or the departments responsible for ANZSCO.
Once again, you seem to be rather defensive about INZ.
I'm well aware of the way INZ does things. And if you're suggesting they, (and MBIE) as a whole have no part in setting policy – as is the case with most other government agencies, then there are a raft of people across the public service that are serving no useful purpose – Policy Analysts, some in middle and senior management, etc. And that is not the case.
ANZCO lists; IELTS levels, the demographic profiling/spreadsheets (that someone in-house came up with) et al, you'll be well aware of the Eurocentrism, and in some cases racism that people have experieinced INCLUDING former employees of the place
Now that employers cannot import, compliant, cheap, slave labour, on temporary visa's, or use back packers looking for pocket money, maybe Northlands thousands of unemployed, mostly Māori, youngsters, can get a look in?
Maybe even with wages at a level that enables them to afford to work?
Actually, one of the people/examples I referred to (above – to do with being well-equipped with green credentials, but who eventually just had to give up and leave) wanted nothing more than to train younger unemployed indigenous folk – hoping to set them and their families up for life.
Unfortunately, after being bashed a couple of times; had passport stolen with the inevitable hassle, AND COST over visas and passport replacements, with a NZ-born daughter and a wife that had been sexually abused by an overstayer, and having committed a decade of his life to contributing to "lil 'ole Nu Zull that punches above its weight" – he/they just had to give up.
And believe me, that's not the only example I could tell you about. And for each of those cases, 'under-resourcing' as an excuse just doesn't cut it. There have been quite a few absolute muppet policy decisions (some of "an operational" nature that have nothing to do with politicians – of any stripe).
We've known for a while that under pre-COVID, the pace of change was increasing, and yet we haven't had a government administrative (public service) response that could keep up.
Even now, MBIE cannot walk and suck eggs at the same time, and nor can quite a few other government departments.
One of the good things to come out of all this is probably the realisation that things can't continue as they have, and I'm pretty sure JA (and one or two others) is intelligent and astute enough to see where a lot of the roadblocks are/have been.
I've always maintained that reform was well overdue and probably was something the coalition should have tackled first. If you're interested – Efeso Collins as posted something on TDB, and the last two paragraphs seem pretty relevant to me :
"Interestingly, the panel of experts the government has asked to look over all the shovel-ready projects, is made up of four, white, men. In the midst of the greatest international crises of our time, the people who will oversee how we kickstart our construction industry and reboot our economy, just don’t reflect the society we are, or more importantly, will be."
He's referring to different government agencies but sure as shit its equally, if not more applicable to the Ministry for Everything
and……..
"……….. The other side [of this pandemic] needs to be diverse and dynamic; anchored on equity and focused on climate change. These will become the foundational pillars of the new NZ we’ll be in the next little while. ……….. "
Anyway, I'm starting to rave, but as we have been over the past few decades is not going to work in the decades to come
This guy is a lifestyle blogger; his track record is sane and middle of the road.
The content is all public domain information. Make of it what you will.
My partner and I know first hand personally of two identical incidents at ESR Kenepuru (Porirua), we know this sort of thing happens and gets covered up … even in NZ.
What in God's name is the actual point of all that?
How does it help us ?
Why is the Spanish flu still called the Spanish flu when we all by now know it was started in the US and effectively covered up .Are you still railing against the US for visiting the world's so far most killing pandemic upon our forebears …And lying about it
You have an almighty hate of (you call it the CCP, I suspect there's a racist element )and it's uncharacteristic of you to express that kind of unrelenting hate .
You are usually a person who wants to mend rifts, encouraging people to embrace the perceived other
I find finger pointing and blame in this instance to be a total waste of emotional energy
You make a good point and it deserves a straight answer.
My auntie is Chinese, we've lived with a Chinese family this past two years, my oldest friend's mother is Chinese, I have an adopted son who uses my family name who is Chinese.
It's from these people that I've picked up my loathing of the CCP as a deeply dangerous and vile entity. They have enslaved an entire people and then tell the rest of the world how wonderful they are.
There is a distinction between institutions and people. I will always give people the benefit of the doubt and treat them courteously as the context requires; I expect the best for them.
But dangerous ideologies and the institutions they spawn will get nothing from me.
Some of the most rascist, zenophobic arseholes, I know have Asian or Indian wives.
Being misogynists as well, those guys like "compliant" Asian women for wives.
Having Asian relatives is not proof of being non xenophobic. "I have a Black friend".
In my immediate family we have New Zealand Chinese, as well, who have been following events in China. They are no fans of the CCP, as the family escaped a few steps ahead of the chairman's death squads.
People repeating anti Chinese propaganda, basically exaggerated bull, from US, sources, makes life difficult for them and other Chinese here.
I find finger pointing and blame in this instance to be a total waste of emotional energy
It does serve a purpose as an outlet of negative emotions such as anger and fear. The risk is that it takes over and ‘a life of its own’ and leads to tar & feathers and lynch mobs. Underlying (or overt) racism is always simmering under the surface ready to erupt in violence. When this turns into social unrest and mass violence, we are screwed. And it can all start with pointing a finger.
The "point" of all that (and a lot of stuff in a similar vein that swilling around) is pretty much explained in the article I've linked to at Comment 3.5 below.
Funny innit, how well researched, intelligent articles don't get pushed with the same passion, or by similar numbers of organisations and useful idiots, as does the likes of the "laughably" xenophobic rubbish from the loawhy86's of the world.
The explanation for that is pretty much covered in the article too – it's the usual story of politically motivated and well funded (if fucking nutty) propaganda. But I digress, and must away to the neighbours and check the results of my 'door knob painting' skills…
The guys presentations are full of arm waving lies. Did you actually bother to check any of his claims, or did you just take him at his word? I provided comprehensive links that explain the background to much of the anti-China bullshit flying around that's being peddled by your loawhy86 as well as Bloomberg News, The Guardian and others. Did you read through the links provoded and check the veracity of what was being said there?
You understand that anti-China propaganda leads directly to Asians being targeted in the streets, yes? You okay with that are you? And to be clear. I'm not talking about factual criticism of China, or the Chinese government, but about the lies and bullshit being peddled by loaway86 and corporate mouthpieces of official western narratives.
Here's a wee example of what I'm alluding to, that was shoehorned into a Guardian article and that sticks out like dogs bollocks (and if you read the links I provided, you'll be in a place to understand the genesis and garbage basis of this precise example)
He [Trump] again questioned China’s reported numbers on the virus: “The numbers seem to be a little bit on the light side – and I am being nice when I say that – relative to what we witnessed and what was reported.”
The comments followed a Bloomberg news story that said a classified US intelligence report had concluded that China had under-reported the total cases and deaths it had suffered. On Wednesday – the last day of available figures – China reported 82,361 confirmed cases and 3,316 deaths.
You claimed he was xenophobic (which is just a polite word for racist) when you knew nothing about him and his background. You have no answer to that.
The guys presentations are full of arm waving lies.
He's been blogging for years and is a close friend of the very popular Serpentza (Winston) who both started out as lifestyle bloggers simply recording their daily life in China and their impressions living and working in a culture they were determined to understand and present to the wider world. In this they've built a large and appreciative audience over many years for making mainland Chinese society more accessible. It was my adopted son who first pointed me to them about five years ago.
It's only been the past few years under Xi Xinping that things have changed for them both. The CCP has become a lot more oppressive and especially hawkish toward foreigners in the past four years. This they've recorded and expressed their dismay over it’s impact on ordinary Chinese people.
In this particular video all of his information is public domain and widely scrutinised by his substantial audience fluent in the language. Understand that in a closed society with no journalism, no independent rule of law and no democratic accountablility … nothing can ever be 'proved' to a standard you would approve of.
So I followed the link to the somewhat dense lecture and found the relevant passage:
Secondly, you know that usually religions tell people how to conduct themselves. Science, meanwhile, also has [a system that] starts from elementary school and spans to high school and college. In religions there are priests, bishops, and other clergy. Yet this science is even more developed. It has its teachers, people with bachelors, masters, doctorates, and post-docs, and also advisors. The higher the degree someone possesses, the more scientific doctrines he’s mastered. The names and titles for its teachers and administrators are numerous. In this respect it’s well developed. Usually religions teach people to believe spiritually so as to achieve material transformation, whereas science tells people to perceive materially so as to elicit people’s spiritual trust and support. Science, however, is not something gods imparted to humans. Instead, it was passed down to humans by alien beings inside the Three Realms, and for the purpose of controlling humankind. People’s belief in it has surpassed everything. But I tell you that precisely because of its shallowness, this science has caused the degeneration of morality in human society. This is most terrifying. Because science isn’t able to perceive microscopic matter’s specific forms of existence, it doesn’t know that karma is generated when humans commit bad deeds or that this black substance brings disaster to humans. It doesn’t know that when people do good deeds they bring about the white substance, which brings them happiness, and brings them conditions and rewards that they’ll experience when they reincarnate in different dimensions. Moreover, science isn’t capable of proving the existence of heavenly paradises. So whenever you mention these things, those people who believe in science will say that you’re spreading “superstition”—“None of those exist. What I believe in is science.” Think about it, then: Isn’t science ruthlessly striking like a big club at the most vital thing that protects humanity—morality? This is extremely terrifying!
If you strip away the traditional idioms and allegories unfamiliar to the Western mind, the basic message is simple enough … that science on it's own is an insufficient basis for morality. This is an assertion I think is very true, as do millions of people who place an equal or greater weight on the spiritual domain.
Yet the author of the Grayzone piece strip mines this presentation for the most gaudy and contentious possible interpretation. A sure sign of a hostile and biased agenda.
You claimed he was xenophobic (which is just a polite word for racist) when you knew nothing about him and his background. You have no answer to that.
What the actual fuck are you on Red? The guy's videos are almost cut and paste propaganda of the sort explored in the Greyzone article. And that propaganda leverages off historical western racist attitudes towards Asians in the broad sense and Chinese in the narrower one.
I don't have to know jack-shit about the guy to understand the underlying nature of his argument or position.
On the specifics that he talks to, like I said before, there is a lot of arm waving (eg – conspiracy theory junk over a missing picture) and out-right lies (eg – the gap in timing between given events.)
As for the "item" you want to dissect by way of your second comment, well…the piece explicitly states that science was passed down to humans by alien beings. And that was the sole reason Ajit Singh provided the link in his Grayzone piece – to show that he wasn't just making shit up when he wrote on an aspect of the Falun Gong belief system.
I guess you're being serious when you call that basic journalistic practice a "sure sign of a hostile and bias agenda"….
The guy's videos are almost cut and paste propaganda of the sort explored in the Greyzone article.
And if I accused you of doing 'cut and paste' CCP propaganda it wouldn't fly for one simple reason … while you and I have never met, we have interacted here for almost a decade. We have a sense of each other's authenticity.
I don't have to know jack-shit about the guy to understand the underlying nature of his argument or position.
By contrast I do know more than jack-shit about the guy and have gained a sense of who he is over a period of some years now. (I just can't recall exactly when I first watched one of his videos. Typically the two of them would hop on their motorbikes and using wireless headsets, chat on random topics while driving around showing you the real country). The point is, him and Winston some of the relatively rare Westerners who have lived in mainland China for a decade or so, speak the language and have a strong social network into Chinese society. What is more they are reflecting very similar information that I am hearing from my own much more modest circle.
The Chinese people are not a vast hive mind; millions loath the CCP for much more intimate reasons than we understand.
the piece explicitly states that science was passed down to humans by alien beings.
And that's always the problem when scientific materialists read religious writings literally. Substitute the word 'angel' for 'alien' and you can find very similar ideas within many other religious works.
And if I accused you of doing 'cut and paste' CCP propaganda it wouldn't fly for one simple reason …
Hmm. I don't read any languages other than English and am not therefor subjected to much propaganda from non-English sources. "Your" wee fella on the other hand is outright parroting lines that have been debunked or found to have no underlying credible source and that, in addition, come from very specific and identifiable actors that have obvious political agendas to push.
You might also want to reflect that the lines he parrots do not correlate with what epidemiologists working through notionally independent bodies attached to the UN are saying. (I say "notionally" because many orgs affiliated to the UN are generally and quite reasonably regarded as projections of "western" power throughout much of the world).
One of the basic techniques for on-line propaganda is to build up audiences off the back of innocuous posts. So saying you "know" some online presence on the basis of previous non-political postings they've made, and spring-boarding from their non-political presence to assert that they're neutral or trustworthy, doesn't really mean very much when it comes down to discerning credibility.
See, I'll just stick my hand straight up and say that for me, a person who just 'all of a sudden' starts posting political content that's obviously deeply informed by a political ideology, is a big red flag indicating that a bit of digging or caution is in order, aye?
"Your" wee fella on the other hand is outright parroting lines that have been debunked or found to have no underlying credible source and that, in addition, come from very specific and identifiable actors that have obvious political agendas to push.
Ah no. Go back and actually watch the damn video. He's quoting official public domain sites for his core information.
One of the basic techniques for on-line propaganda is to build up audiences off the back of innocuous posts.
Ah not for six or more years … that's stretching it.
I'll just stick my hand straight up and say that for me, a person who just 'all of a sudden' starts posting political content
Again no. These two guys have been doing this for years now, and the transition to 'political' posts has been a natural consequence of real life events they've gone through.
You know, not everyone on the internet who is saying something you don't like is necessarily speaking in bad faith.
Why are you so keen to discredit two ordinary people on YT when we know the CCP has lied about so many other things? Their human rights record is appalling, they have no independent media or court system. Foreign journalists have either been expelled or intimidated. People who embarrass the Party are silenced, there is a massive firewall around their internet, everything in China is either censored or beholden to the CCP and it's dictates.
Yet for some weird reason their word is pure fucking gospel on this COVID debacle. /facepalm
Yet for some weird reason their [CCP] word is pure fucking gospel on this COVID debacle. /facepalm
Really? Because I don't think I've read or linked to a single source from the CCP. I've linked to investigative pieces that have been published by highly credible sites such as The Grayzone. And I've read what various epidemiologists from around the world who do not seem to have any political angle – (ie – they focus on their area of expertise) – reckon on the Chinese reaction to Covid.
And then I've read or watched the stuff that you and Tony and others have put up here, and it simply doesn't hold water. I've also read various corporate media pieces that shoehorn obvious propaganda into their pieces (When I say "obvious", I'm referring to stuff that has been investigated and debunked).
And again. (How often am I going to have to reiterate this?) I don't trust Chinese bureaucracy any more or any less than I trust bureaucracy embedded in any other political or ideological framework.
Funny you should post this cause I started watching this guy a couple of weeks back + Serpentza. The coverage today of what China is doing to foreigners will be interesting (ADV podcast channel).
This isn't a very useful indicator. Dual SIM phones are very common in China (especially Oppo which we use ourselves). In a major downturn like this it's highly likely millions of people simply let one of their SIM cards go.
Okay. Having done laughing my arse off at the level of stupid in this sub-thread, I thought people who stumble across this part of Open Mike and who have a modicum of common sense, might want to read a piece of journalism that essentially and efficiently rips to pieces the type of xenophobic tripe on display hereabouts
What was the name of the guy in 1984 everyone was meant to scream at when his image came up on screen? That guy. You guys who keep pushing these anti-Chinese conspiracies are like bulgy eyed members of that audience.
And no. I'm not an advocate for Chinese style governance and don't pick sides when it comes to different styles and levels of bureaucratic governance – it's all toxic.
Yes, there is [from China] very good data. The studies that have been done are excellent and so rapidly produced, but it is all about the context in infectious diseases. There will be some genetic differences in the way that we respond to diseases. That’s not unheard of. So I have a bit of wariness. The data that is coming out of here matters the most and Public Health England is looking at that.
That's certainly one way to combat xenophobic tosh…provide authoritative links/voices to the contrary. Personally, I prefer to simply unmask the peddlers of hate and their agenda. Plus, it short circuits idiots who might be tempted to play a numbers game based on a volume of sources… 😉
Well, I prefer to go with evidence-based info. I particularly liked that piece because it's clear and factual.
The other thing I found interesting in the interview was that the best way to respond to a pandemic is to stop people travelling, and tell them to stay at home.
Two different, though not entirely separate things on the go in this sub-thread. One is medically based info on a virus and how to combat its spread…the other is how to combat the spread of politically motivated narratives that 'bad actors' are constructing on the back of the virus.
A prime example of the adage. "An expert is a person who learns more and more about less and less, until he knows everything about nothing".
I respect his motives, but he sees everything through the lens of his narrow finance and economic studies.
Now he is saying don't put money, in the privatised super scheme, Kiwisaver. You know, the one he made millions out of. FIFY.
And. Isn’t using the “boomer” meme, getting a bit tired. It was never accurate in the first place. Following the lazy idea that it was a generation, and not class, that is screwing people.
"…And. Isn’t using the “boomer” meme, getting a bit tired…"
Actually, I think in Morgan's case here it is appropriate as he is clearly is a boomer still fighting the battles of the 1980s, mentioning Muldoon and dragging out tired think big tropes, before launching into a full blooded Rogernomics prescription complete with the worn out business jargon of the 80's and 90's .
Gareth makes the point that 'saving the economy' in the wake of the 1970's oil shocks was what Muldoon attempted … with very mixed results. Including the virtual bankruptcy of the nation, destabilising NZ and ushering in the conditions that made Rogernomics possible. Unintended consequences and all that …
Right now I support what Ardern's govt is doing to keep our business community treading water for a few months while we get this damned bug under control … but it's a strategy that does have it's risks.
As an aside has anyone noticed what Josh Frydenburg has just implemented an interesting measure that reduces the threshold for their Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) from $1.2b to zero … effectively giving him complete control over all foreign investment into Australia. Clearly the concern is that CCP run state owned entities will exploit the distressed state of Australian business assets to swoop in and buy up even more of Australia at firesale prices.
"Right now I support what Ardern's govt is doing to keep our business community treading water for a few months while we get this damned bug under control … but it's a strategy that does have it's risks."
An alternative view is exactly what Gareth is talking to. He's right in this … neither Australia nor NZ can afford to keep this level of wage subsidy up for more than a three months or so … otherwise we run the very real risk of losing what little economic sovereignty we have left.
Depends on whether they pay banks to expand the money supply, Muldoon biggest mistake, or, they use the means that took us out of the 30's depression.
Call it money printing, helicopter money or whatever you like, it worked, without leaving us hopelessly in debt.
Very doubtful it will lead to runaway inflation, when the economy is so deep in recession. And necessary to kickstart economic activity, to replace what we have lost.
The extra taxes, and increased capability, resulting, from increasing the velocity of turnover locally, paid for the recession, "money printing" just as it will, now. It needs a Government with the courage to say we have to increase the Government share of the economy. To work, money needs to go to the bottom end, who will spend it.
The alternative, the one pursued after Muldoon, did not work then, and it won't work, now.
That the Nation was “bankrupt” after Muldoon is an easily debunked myth. From those indulging in what Naomi Kline calls “disaster capitalism” to make themselves rich from the situation. Helped by a crop of deluded ideological fools in Government.
it is a mistake to view the NZ economy in isolation
"I asked him [Keynes] if he would borrow if he were in New Zealand in order to get through the crisis. Keynes replied, ‘Yes, certainly if I were you I would borrow if I could, but if you asked me as a lender I doubt whether I would lend to you.’
(Diary of the Minister of Finance Downie Stewart, 1932)
It is also a mistake to overestimate the necessary effects of overseas trades and cashflows on an economy.
As we have already discussed tourism, to take one example, having almost a net zero, or even negative effect on our foreign exchange balance. To keep those people in work, we need money circulating internally, so New Zealanders will take those bus tours and use that accommodation, for several years to come.
In New Zealand we are in the fortunate position of having enough resources to supply most necessities internally.
It is not going to help if we have hungry people, while there is food sitting unused on a farm. Just for lack of money to make the transfer.
Interesting from 1932. Because to a large extent they didn’t borrow. They “printed money” to use the unemployed planting forests, building and road making, utilising resources that didn’t need overseas money.
and as has already been explained NZ produces very little that is critical to the functioning of a first world economy so you cannot expect to replace foreign currency generating activity solely with domestic activity.
Don't you have faith in capitalism, to remedy that?
Losing activity, such as international tourism, where inbound activity was close to outbound activity, has little effect on our ability to buy imports.
The problem is those without work, in New Zealand.
while our ability to supply those needs has deteriorated since the 80s (and the complexity of those needs has increased)…it has always been the case in NZ since the beginning of colonial time…so do I have faith that capitalism will change that?….it hasnt in approaching 200 years
Yes. It has always been Government, at least here, which has grown our capability in the big things.
I do have faith in Kiwi ingenuity, in the small things.
Many times in my life, I've had to find workarounds and substitutes, simply because New Zealand's month long supply lines can't get me a part or a tool in reasonable time. We are used to it.
And. I suspect we are going to get many of our competent tradespeople back from Australia, if we start to value them, again.
"It needs a Government with the courage to say we have to increase the Government share of the economy." Too true.
Unfortunately I don't think Grant Robertson has such courage or perhaps that he even understand the consequences of the economy being left in the hands of private interests.
Stop fearmongering without basis. New Zealand and Australia can afford wage subsidies in 3 months time as will likely be necessary. New zealands economic sovereignty is the reason for that and not under threat.
The NZ dollar is not a reserve currency. The more we borrow the lower the value of our currency drops. Drop too far and our assets become available to overseas buyers at very low prices …
Whether it's three months or six I'm not sure anyone can tell; but logically borrowing to fund this cannot go on forever so there must be some upper limit. Any ideas?
Morgan misrepresents what is occurring….he makes the same misidentification as Rod Oram did the other day….the government largesse is not a stimulatory measure , it is life support ….and the business support is not a universal underwriting of business viability but will dispensed on the basis of future viability (as determined by the banks)…there will be a few exceptions deemed nationally critical such as Air NZ…Robertson has repeatedly explained this.
All of this is short term and temporary…..if it proves not to be then the debate can be had.
What Morgan appears to be calling for is some form controlled herd immunity so business may resume asap and let the chips fall where they will…..as a strategy its both mindless and heartless not to mention entirely impractical but it is a sure fire way to create the conditions that could see the implementation of martial law
I have just been looking at Susan Miller who is an astrology. She has a 2020 Corona virus outlook. The planets are certainly aligned and her prediction is based on astrology.
A mix of not being able to publish in hardcopy during the lockdown, as well as the drop in ad revenue from other businesses affected by the lockdown? I assume this is a pragmatic decision from the German owners around their own business survival post-pandemic.
Gareth Morgan should do something useful and buy the Listener then hand it over to someone else to run.
I hope so. It would be very cool if some of the progressive journos got together and formed a collective. No-one would do that before because of the financial risk, but now so many are losing their income 🙁
Time for a range of new non-corporate funding options to be explored. Won't solve the investigative journalism issue though, which I assume needs major infrastructure.
subscription service for corporations, government agencies, local councils, NGOs, and other premium clients, is based in Wellington.
Spinoff was founded initially by Lightbox, but now uses some funding from "partners", meaning some "brands", plus they get some government funding from NZ On Air, and Creative NZ.
Both use PressPatron for public donations.
I think you are on the right track to point to these publications, weka, because they look to be in a good position to pick up some of the slack left by Bauer's withdrawal from NZ.
I think it probably should be on the government's public service media agenda to support such publications as part of it's Covid-19 economic package.
Can't wait for the likes of Mike Hosking, his wife (whose name I can never remember), HDPA, Barry Soper and that doyen of the CC deniers, Leighton Smith go down in a heap of burning cinders.
They will have to sell their mansions, holiday homes (they don't have baches and cribs), their orchards and vineyards.
This is a media death-spire which is a permanent alteration to media.
Most if not all of those publications will not come back. Many more radio stations will die. Maybe a few of the hardy trade publications will get picked up.
We can list the sum total of the surviving media like so:
– TVNZ (in its digital form once merged with RNZ)
– Mediaworks including TV3 and the radio stations (but we know Oaktree will sell or just kill them off one by one)
– NZME/NZHerald
– Otago Daily Times. Family owned.
– Kiwiblog
– The Standard
– The Daily Blog
– Scoop (for those who just want to see the raw releases)
I think that's it now.
Can anyone think of a publication which can survive three monthly cycles with a 90% drop in advertising?
Its pretty ironic that mass deregulation only leads to less choice and diversity, as big players swallow up smaller players.
The US market is more regulated than ours, yet, it has way more media choices, especially in the likes of radio and suscriber TV.
For example, there is no way anywhere in the world that a pay TV operator would have been able to own a free to air channel (Prime), or single operators would be able to own multiple radio frequencies in the same area.
If the ComCom had any imagination, they would have waved through the Sky/Vodafone and StuffMe mergers on the condition that Sky sells Prime, and NZME sells some of its radio 'brands'.
The US is the biggest media market in the world so I can't see how the comparison is useful. It has more choices because it has 330 million people, and we have less than 5.
I'm not sure why you're complaining about lack of media diversity here but also supporting the mega-merger. As you can see today a merger of titles is no protection against total loss.
Sky is next on the data-watch list.
The media rules for everyone from the Prime Minister to the Commerce Commission to the Minister of Broadcasting to the remaining leaders and brands are getting re-written right this very day.
Oh it can and it will kill more, the advertising industry is all but dead for the foreseeable, retail shops will be decimated, pretty much everything travel related is toast, the list is huge and the flow on effects are going to be massive.
Watch Suicides increase dramatically in the next 12 months, everyone is fearing Covid right now but the really scary thing is how the country looks in 3-6 months.
Mortgage holidays just kick the can down the road, consumer debt will be left unpaid, Debt collectors will be busy…
But the fantasy is that the lockdown is the cause, and somehow NZ could escape the virus and the horrendous global consequences by doing … something that is never made specific.
The choices were Bad or Worse or Unthinkable. We've gone with Bad and that was the right choice.
Probably in the same media outlets that places Jacinda on the front page.
But given that the remaining media outlets are increasingly likely to be owned by the government only, Paula won't get a look in.You'll only have Jacinda to look forward to on a regular basis.
Today's news represents a major blow to the freedom of expression and the contest of ideas in New Zealand society.
Why, have they closed down Google and Facebook and Twitter and all the other outlets for media and social media? There are vastly more outlets for free speech than there ever were in the glory days of magazines.
Today's news is bad for many reasons, not least the people losing their jobs. But it has no lasting effect on "freedom of expression", and trying to crowbar it in is pretty low.
Yes but we had freedom to speak before the internet so that aspect of it really has nothing to do with access to twitface google, if we are talking about the state not controlling what people can say.
However they said freedom of expression, and also said, in the same sentence, the importance of contesting ideas, which I think speaks more to their concerns about the MSM. I'd prefer a broad and robust MSM. Not sure if today's closure threatens that or not.
The Bauer decision smacks of a bit of disaster capitalism, they've been looking to off load those mastheads for a while so why not do it now and blame the virus/govt.
Exactly. They’ve been in the shit for ages. Now they have a handy excuse to pull the pin and something to blame other than their own incompetence and irrelevance.
I haven’t read it for years either. Not since they disgracefully got rid of Lois Daish, one of the few really good food writers we’ve ever had in NZ. Coincidentally as I heard the news about Bauer on the radio today I was just putting Lois’s great Lemon Macaroon Cake in the oven.
It's is lifestyle and health magazine with some light opinion pieces, some of which can sometimes be a bit of light relief. Nothing more nothing less. Anything which engages the brain and leaves you asking for more has been absent many years now -even the TV guide is useless as the content isn't worth watching anyway. No tears from this writer.
*&ck the "media" The private media for profit and propaganda model was and is broken. My heartfelt plea to this government is to let them fall . and establish a proper independent state funded media.
The BauerMedia closure will be nothing short of disastrous if those iconic titles are allowed to disappear permanently. They're a NECESSITY for information, entertainment (most important in a time of severe lockdown), and morale generally.
The government will take a huge hit from this unless they change their tin-eared approach very, very quickly.
Only if people are dumb enough to believe "Jacinda dunnit". Or more likely, pretend to believe it for tiresome point-scoring.
The history of print media is littered with shutdowns and strikes and titles transforming. The Times of London was off the shelves for a year back in the pre-digital age. It's still around.
Global recession + internet = no advertising. Add in a conglomerate that cares little for NZ's "icons" and you have an inevitable result. Only the excuse has changed.
Don't think it will be that disastrous (apart from the people losing jobs) there are plenty of other news sources & people quickly adapt. In 6 months time they will probably be mostly forgotten.
Lol – just watching Parliament TV and the Natz trying to be seen as relevant by picking small holes in the government's response to the pandemic. And, incidentally, wasting the time of important people who should be dealing with important matters.
Just remember, if you want an indication of how Simon and the Natz would have handled this crisis, just look at what Trump, Johnson and Morrison have achieved.
They would have put the interests of the economy first, however much they are rabbiting on about quarantine and so on.
The NZ Police are now going to at least have a chance at becoming half-decent now that the crooked piece of filth Mike Bush has finally slung his hook.
With a bit of luck the old creepy way those from Bush'es era think, is gone from the Office of the Commissioner of Police. I have dealt with creepy top cops and unfortunately I might need to again.
I am looking forward to see what Andrew Coster does age 44 to modernise the NZ Police and to reduce certain behaviour.
I do have praise for frontline cops and know that they do good work.
Follow-up: Bauer have now admitted that they did NOT apply for the wage subsidy. Even though the government was willing to pay it.
So unless you think the government should have allowed all economic activity to continue, or spend up large on advertising in magazines, then I'd suggest looking elsewhere for a scapegoat.
Yeah I think they are just taking advantage of the shutdown – and from Germany this place would look like a far off nuisance.
However, I'd like to think that one of the state owned media would buy the titles for a $1 and put the journo's on the wage subsidy until this can be sorted through.. Also and this has happened with some of the newspapers – because they have been operating so long the back numbers photo's etc are covered by our various archive acts so they can't be dumped in the tip or transfered off shore. We lost a lot offshore when some other newspaper closed.
He/she can't give up teasing us with a carrot, and donkeys that we are, we go forward. You know the solution; send to Coventry.
The person sent to Coventry is considered as absent; no one must speak to or answer any question he asks, except relative to duty, under penalty of being also sent to the same place.
Maybe we should just nationalise the group and pay everyone the $575 k a week. Then sort through the mess and sue the directors for running something insolvent and claw back any excess distributions. Covid didn't do this.
'Maybe we should just nationalise the group and pay everyone the $575 k a week.'
I vote no, the government should not be buying or running the women's weekly and other similar publications. If the publications are in serious demand they should be purchased by a private company.
The NZ government has far more serious problems and issues to spend its (our) money on.
Sorry I didn't really go far enough. No I'm not suggesting the government run it but if they can put it in a holding pattern & let the employees sort through the value as a likely co-operative while on the $575 a week that might give enough breathing space. It could actually be temporarily housed under one of the government media companies.
Although I confess these are still maturing thoughts. Generally though it is harder to rebuild a business from scratch than extract value form an existing situation or see that value fall to overseas hands.
I agree. Ardern was asked about the Bauer exit in her press stand up this afternoon. She said the government had offered them money to help them keep going but Bauer would not take it. Ardern said Bauer didn't exit NZ because of Covid-19, but were probably going to leave anyway.
So if the government was willing to provide support to Bauer, why not give a similar amount of money to enable some Kiwis to take over, at least some of the publications – especially the Listener?
I have spent a good part of the day lobbying Fonterra directors to put a bid on the Womans Weekly .The dairy womens network could rebrand it to the Dairy Womens Weekly and educate the people on where their food comes from.
Hard to see how they would consider it bearing in mind their recent balance sheet write offs. I think that they have gone off the hopeless investment strategy.
Correct. Jacinda gave Bauer an easy out by not declaring them essential. Companies like Jucy Rentals were struggling big time before this governance disaster and Likely to get a golden parachute as well. The list goes on. This government is completely out of its depth and we are the meat in a shit sandwich.
We thought that this is a worthy way of helping out the poor and the hungry.
As the COVID-19 outbreak in New Zealand continues, we know that the most vulnerable in our communities are being greatly affected. Please donate to The Foodbank Project and support other Kiwis who are less fortunate during these uncertain times.
As industrial styles of land use diminish these habitats, and species (including humans) that were formerly separated are brought into closer proximity, scientists have long suggested that diseases (eg Sars, Ebola, Covid-19) are more likely to jump inter-species barriers.
There are good examples of bacterial and virus interaction with human antecedents such as australopithicus in Plagues progress (arno karlen) where arthritis caused one species to descend from the trees,and here we are now.
Na the main reason they jump is filthy, and inhumane practices around meat markets . Love or hate supermarkets nz style supply chains you wont be catching a whole new nasty from them .
It's time to strike – when your in a shitty job, being paid shitty wages, told your essential then it's time to use that essential tag they threw at you and go on strike.
Given the way our so called top business people are reacting to this crisis with yesterdays unworkable strategies then I think Grant needs to ask a few questions before handing out subsides.
Things like – have all employees and directors who are being paid over $100k been reduced to the annual equivalent of $100k for the next 3 years. For the avoidance of doubt of doubt directors should be considered as a .15FTE as many sit on multiple boards. (Have they been advised that they may not resign without a doctors certificate and have they undergone drug & alcohol tests. – not really)
Have all share buybacks been canned, are there worker reps appointed to the boards, Have plans been put in place to clawback excessive remuneration , dividends to overseas owners and other excessive payment arrangements.
Would you think it a good idea if a maximum salary of $100 k be set for anyone who is working in the State sector.
That would of course include all the MPs from the very top to the bottom. And we could remove all their perks. Do you agree? I'm sure Grant will implement it if you ask him nicely.
I wasn't actually claiming that State employees were necessarily on extremely high salaries.
However RedBaronCV seemed to regard $100 k as being a perfectly reasonable absolute maximum so I assume he will encourage Grant to apply the same rule to everyone employed by the taxpayer.
Trying for the distraction again by referencing public servants.
I have been discussing the private sector where top level salaries are huge compared to the average worker. We have been fed a diet for years about how these business leaders are so great etc etc that they deserve every cent. Well now there is trouble and if these businesses are to survive then they need to cut costs. Overall it is better for the economy if they do survive albeit for a time paying lower but more evenly spread wages. Once a business goes it's a lot harder to rebuild it from the ground up.
A disproportionate level of payroll is going to the upper end so that is any easy hack and the recipients should have the resilience to wear this given what they have earned in the past.. Many of these businesses are also going to use the government subsidy. Taxpayers fund that money and the national borrowing will have to be paid back and this will fall harder on younger taxpayers who have many more years to pay.
Frankly I am dammed if I can see why they should be lumped with the burden of supporting high end earners.
I also understand that you are likely to be mourning the loss of the " greed is good mantra" and extreme capitalism but this crisis has shown that it is a very hollow beast if it needs to be fed by the state. So sympathy but the rulles need to change.
“The fact is all the overpaid managers, greedy directors and parasitic shareholders could not even live, let alone have fortunes without the efforts of cleaners, technicians, plumbers, lath hands, secretaries and rubbish collectors”.
Do you really regard $100 k/year is huge, or upper end, or high end?
If so why does that as a limit not apply to everyone. If you don't really see it as the top of what anyone should earn why do you propose that no-one in a private firm should earn more?
Suggesting that the high wages could be repurposed to minimize drain on the taxpayer before govt handouts are given is not advocating a blanket level .
happy to drop to $50k but the $100k is the level above which disclosure is given in most annual reports so its useful to roughly calculate the skew or estimate the GINI .
But hey if these overpaid managerial staff were that great then they would be easily able to ride out a month shutdown by having sufficient reserves. When their only strategys are firing people and wanting a socialist bailout then they are not worth the money being paid to them.
However, I suspect that they will fight hard to remain part of the problem not part of the solution.
University of Auckland staff are working closely with the Auckland District Health Board to increase capacity for testing for the COVID-19 virus, including repurposing laboratory space and accredited laboratory staff volunteering to do the tests.
I had a great time out doors today trimming back the tall grass adjacent to where I live. I found a really good use for a 350mm Mitre 10 handsaw cost $6.28c. It was better to use than hedge clippers ( which I would have had to walk 30 mins to get and I might of been stopped and questioned) or secateurs which cause joints to swell. The handsaw cuts grass really well from the base. Can't wait to get out there tomorrow for another hour.
Also a handsaw is good to cut agapanthus. Ingenuity is a good thing.
Has anyone found a good use for something during the lockdown?
Yeah, I made a fadge holder for the wool fadges I use for holding weeds on the way to the compost heap.. A commercial mower man was next door with a fadge holder and I thought I could make one like his from the poles of a small and cheap unusable canopy, the ones with the plastic corners and joiners that fit 12mm pipe. So I made a very light but strong square pipe framed box with 900mm sides and height and use 20mm plastic pipe split lengthwise to hold the fadge onto the top pipe rail. Cost nothing. Very useful and holds far more than a wheel barrow and is so easy to fill.
Has anyone found a good use for something during the lockdown?
Tools.. yeah no problem..
I was getting frustrated with having to go through hoops to push data back from a linux box to the code repository server at work.
Problem was that the vpn able to access work was a windows only app due to compliance. But working at home I don't want to hook my monitor to the frigging laptop because it was setup for the TS server. So I code using the linux server and a bitlocked external SSD.
But this was awkward, and on monday I managed to trash the bitlocked partition after the usb link to the drive went down during the weekend – looks like that is something to avoid with fuse file systems. After I recovered it….
So I got the git tool to clone the repo on windows. Then got the git tool on linux to clone the code from the windows repo via the unreliable cifs over the bench network.
Going the other way, edited code is committed to the local git and pushed to the windows laptop. Finally at the end of the day I push the culmative changes to the repo server at work.
That saves me endless grief and still keeps those code mods safe and me not compromising my home setup.
Is that the type of tool use you were looking for?
Now to digress completely. The RSS feeds on the side – for a couple of them when the title of the article is clicked on I would normally expect to see the actual article. However Frank's has always given us a nice picture of Frank and now Pundit gives us the Photo attached to the article. Any chance of dazzling them with a bit of computorize so they can rehook up the trailer correctly to the car – so to speak.
Chris Martenson on his latest Covid-19 Peak Prosperity
[about 6.30 in]
posting discusses the blame game – Dr. Birx saying that China didn’t provide enough data/correct data so the USA didn’t take the epidemic seriously.
Apart from the fact that China lied, and everyone with half a brain knew that, he (Chris) pointed out that the American security services would have been listening to telephone/internet traffic in China throughout the developing days of the crisis. They (CIA or whoever) must have known how serious the problem was – but apparently they didn’t pass this information onto the White House, or Trump didn’t want to believe anything negative about his good friend Xi.
Which begs the question: if the USA security service knew about the crisis in Wuhan, why didn’t the other 5 Eyes partners also know? And if they knew, why didn’t our spooks warn our government?
It makes you wonder what the hell our GCSB or SIS or etc are doing, and whether they even remotely start to resemble value for money!
Dr. Birx saying that China didn’t provide enough data/correct data so the USA didn’t take the epidemic seriously.
Dr Birx is a lying little cunt of a man then – Tony Veitch (not etc) who has been provided with, and never challenged, the published timeline that shows up Dr Birx as a lying little cunt of a man … right?
Or are you so far gone that reason and common sense occupies a universe you're no longer a part of?
Look. Here's a repeat of a link I provided under another piece of your xenophobic bullshit that will helpfully explain where these narratives you push are coming from. For an even deeper understanding and insight of the people and orgs pushing this barrel you've put your shoulder to, click through the links that the article provides. (The fair.org articles are comprehensive and worth the while)
And when you've done reading, don't come back here posting any xenophobic bile and expect any kind of a free pass on the basis of your supposed ignorance.
You have just provided a great example of going off half-cocked without reading/watching the video – even though close direction was given to the relevant part.
Of course Dr. Birx was lying – but that doesn't mean the CCP haven't also lied.
You may say you're no apologist for the murdering repressive CCP regime, but . . .
On the one hand, there is your sickening Sinophobia, and on the other there is my recognition that all bureaucracies share distinct characteristics whether they are Chinese bureaucracies embedded within a state capitalist context or a NZ bureaucracy embedded within the context of a representative parliamentary democracy.
I've provided comprehensive links from trustworthy journalists and publications that demonstrate the falsehood of the narrative you keep pushing – a false narrative that puts people of Asian appearance in harms way.
Did you actually read the link and the embedded references?
The Wuhan authorities actively suppressed (ie lied) information about the human to human transmission of the virus. Perhaps that information could have been useful to other governments?
Li Wenliang warning other medical people about the emergence of a dangerous new virus and then was forced to admit to 'spreading false rumours' is not evidence of CCP lies/suppression?
Dial back on the emotive language ('sickening') if you want to have a mature debate, hey.
So hang on, you are saying the local bureaucrats lied, or that the medical profession lied? And what did they lie about? Covid wasn't identified in early December, and so any information about transmission of human to human (if there was any realisation on that front) would have been a notification about SARs or MERs – ie, incorrect "best guess" information. The very type of information that Dr Li, somewhat understandably, but utterly unethically released to his class mates…and that he was correctly reprimanded for. (Just as would have happened in NZ, Germany, the US or elsewhere)
I'm no medical expert, so I can only guess it takes as long as the identification of Covid took to identify a new virus. But sure, before the elimination of all other possibilities, it might be prudent to give authorities a heads up.
So..
Dr Zhang reports to the local Centre for Disease Control on Dec 27.
The Wuhan Health Commission alerts the National Health Commission, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and the WHO on Dec 31
Covid identified on Jan 7
Virus sequences shared on Jan 12.
Btw, this new piece you're throwing up (The Lancet study it relies on) flat stick contradicts those stupid videos you posted before. Y'know, the ones that claimed to have identified "patient zero" and the source of the outbreak?
Anyway…you mention "mature debate". So how about you get off the anti-China bandwagon that's stirring up animosity towards Asian looking people everywhere, and be aware there are identifiable actors in western circles who are furthering their own political agenda by creating and pushing the false anti-China lines you're posts have been running?
And I'll say this again. All bureaucracies, whether Chinese or Kiwi or whatever, tend to self protect. So major issues are routinely downplayed or ignored (Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Christchurch asbestos, Mad Cows Disease….) while lower level bureaucrats learn to cover their arses and not be the messenger whose career trajectory will come to an abrupt halt.
Knowing that, beyond a broader analysis, shouldn't our attention be on the bureaucracies and the decisions that affect us – ie, the ones we might have some impact on? Though maybe you prefer to be a footsoldier for someone else's cause and to spend your time firing off in the direction they point you at. I dunno.
So how about you get off the anti-China bandwagon that's stirring up animosity towards Asian looking people everywhere
How about a lot of lefties getting off the anti-Trump bandwagon that stirs up animosity towards white looking people everywhere?
The logic of both statements being flawed …. but can you spot it?
Here is the simple logic of what we are talking about. For decades the CCP has routinely lied about almost everything, from Tianamen Square, to their economic data, to organ theft, to concentration camps in the north, and on and on.
Then they have no independent media. All foreign journalists are either expelled or intimidated. The have a vast firewall around their internet. And you ask us to trust them?
Where did I say that trust should be extended to a bureaucracy of any shape or form?
You think I question the stories coming from "our side" because I trust the word coming from some bureaucratic structure or other?!
And your comparison to establishment Democrats and their corporate media allies running crap lines against Trump (with all that entails) is a pretty poor comparison, but does give the lie to your implication that western media is 'independent' or free in any meaningful sense of the word (they "follow the script" aye?)
Dr. Birx saying that China didn’t provide enough data/correct data so the USA didn’t take the epidemic seriously.
Or Dr Birx is doing her level best to lay blame anywhere but where it belongs.
The American disease expert, a medical epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency, left her post in July, according to four sources with knowledge of the issue. The first cases of the new coronavirus may have emerged as early as November, and as cases exploded, the Trump administration in February chastised China for censoring information about the outbreak and keeping U.S. experts from entering the country to help.
“It was heartbreaking to watch,” said Bao-Ping Zhu, a Chinese American who served in that role, which was funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2007 and 2011. “If someone had been there, public health officials and governments across the world could have moved much faster.”
We know for sure that the White House response was utterly inadequate and incompetent even given the things that were publicly known early on, and she has every reason to try to divert blame elsewhere.
But that isn't evidence for the accuracy or honesty of info coming out of China. I have yet to see any reason to be less skeptical of Chinese government statements than I am of White House statements.
We know for sure that the White House response was utterly inadequate and incompetent even given the things that were publicly known early on
However I think we can fairly sheet the blame for the train wreck of inaction and incompetence that has been the US response to this pandemic fairly and squarely on the nincompoop who currently occupies the Oval Office. She is really just following orders.
A Fireside Chat from POTUS in His Own Words
(courtesy of The Washington Post)
[Deleted long string of text with zillions of links in it. And where is the link to the quoted text?]
However I think we can fairly sheet the blame for the train wreck of inaction and incompetence that has been the US response to this pandemic fairly and squarely on the nincompoop who currently occupies the Oval Office.
We can also add that America has such a narrow, one eyed ideological view of the world… they never set up a state funded health system (call it what you like) because they thought it was "Communism". Such a health system – which Obama tried to set up but was knocked back – would have been better geared towards a swift and commonsense response throughout the country instead of the fragmentation and the blame game they are currently playing.
They have no-one to blame but themselves for their foolishness.
I'm all for quotes being kept small, and I'm grateful to mods that go to the effort of trimming oversized ones. But if it isn't any more work, any chance of leaving a paragraph or even just a couple of sentences of the quote to make it easier to find the original piece?
In this case, the title that was left behind after my mass cull was a strong enough clue, I thought. The onus is on the commenter to put in the link to avoid others (including Moderators) having to search for it.
We have been lenient lately, but this not-linking habit is getting worse and it will lead to ‘educational’ bans soon.
With the complete liquidation of over half of our country's remaining print editors, photographers, reporters, columnists, copywriters, ad buyers, printers, and distributers, it's probably a bit early to tell everyone to calm down just because you can see that the vultures have arrived.
Seriously I cannot get over the number of utterly heartless pricks here who just want a little giggle when multiple industries, careers, and families just got wrecked in a single day.
What you are really claiming is that an obsolete industry, and that is what the newspaper and hard copy magazines are, should be kept going, and that the taxpayer should pay for it.
Well I would rather pay for things that are useful, such as healthcare. If you have some spare cash available why don't we spend it on lovely things like the manufacture of horse drawn carriages? Why do we need cars, or even trains, when we can have the stage coaches like the ones Cobb and Co used?
Why do we need the internet when we can use telegrams. They were much more romantic things than e-mails and everyone should be required to use them. Think of how you had them for weddings and the Queen would send you one on your hundredth birthday.
We could even go back to using leeches in our medical practices. To hell with those new fangled things like antibiotics.
I can quite readily have sympathy for the people who are losing their jobs, and I am not sitting having a "little giggle". The solution for the people involved is not to preserve their industry if it is obsolete. The thing to do is to retrain them for a new occupation. That is where our efforts should go. Our efforts shouldn't be spent on keeping alive things that nobody really wants anymore.
Of course if you really think that the old must be preserved and used at any cost I assume you will stop using the Internet to communicate and get news. Limit your news to what you read in the daily paper and your commenting to writing letters to the Editor. Would you do that? I certainly wouldn't.
You are absolutely correct. I do still have log tables and a slide rule.
They are mine. I paid for them. I don't expect the taxpayer to supply me with new ones if I lose, or break, them. If I decide I still want them I will attempt to track down replacements and pay for them.
Do you see the difference? What I do is what I would ask you to do if you think an obsolete technology should be preserved. Pay for it yourself.
Bit of an esoteric thread for a company that refused government assistance to get through the period where it couldn't sell to customers, and promptly folded.
If they were obsolete businesses I would agree with you.
The NZ Women's Weekly had a readership of over 500,000.
Even the Listener still had a solid subscription base of 30,000.
Magazines are not necessarily obsolete.
You are confusing obsolescence with the massacre of half an industry through Bauer treating New Zealand as a single unit.
Yours is the same logic that enabled Roger Douglas to go through the entire country and kill whole industries within years. There was no need for the speed and force of that destruction in the late 1980s and there's no need for it now either.
That is what has made the Prime Minister react so vehemently.
To be really clear with you: there is no private sector industry in New Zealand outside of health that will not be devastated in the next year. So your sorry logic is just crap.
"The NZ Women's Weekly had a readership of over 500,000."
Really. Figures I have seen say that the circulation peaked at about 250,000 copies in the early 1980's. It had a circulation of about 82,000 in 2011. I don't now what the current numbers are but I understand it had continued to decline
According to Roy Morgan it had a readership of 140,000 in the year to June 2019. Thsi was a drop of 24,000 from the previous year.
Where does your 500,000 come from? That seems to be a lot of readers/copy and seems well out of line with the Roy Morgan numbers.
There’s going to be more tragedies and wrecked lives than you can poke a stick at in the coming weeks and months Ad. Most of us, however, won’t get a national platform like the media types do to bitch and complain about it. We’ll just have to get on and try and make the best of it.
Comparing "Australasia's largest independent contract newspaper printer” with a TS commenter is either utterly stupid or a troll move, which is utterly stupid too. Can you use your newly found calculator and work out what I’m telling you?
Whew. What a relief. Head MOH Honcho is going to look closely at the US CDC 's aggressive review of the Who Gets To Wear a Facemask policy.
Despite health professionals and care workers and those with lived experience of surviving in a virus soup all clamouring for the Ministry of Health to review its decree that only those who are symptomatic and those in contact with obviously sick people need to wear masks…Ashley Bloomfield (who will deservedly go down in history as yet another numpty MOH Boss) still refuses to change that advice until he gets the go ahead by the experts on SARs type pandemic management…our US overlords.
I feel you are being unreasonably harsh upon those working within the MoH (and DHBs)…yes the community care sector is and has been poorly resourced but are doing stirling work (some are exceptional) for scant financial reward but IMO the Gov response has been very good, perhaps given the starting point and timeframe , exceptional….that is not to say there are not shortcomings or improvements to be made but we would be hard pressed to find a more competent response anywhere else in the world.
After reading and seeing idiots not complying with separation, which has the potential to extend this level 4 shutdown, and that we don't have a plan B to isolate.
How will we know if what we have sacrificed was worth it, and the marginal cost should we extent this shut down ? especially as the personal cost (both financial and emotional) that we are all incurring increases.
If they show any symptoms or don't have an acceptable self-isolation plan they go into quarantine.
If they don't have symptoms and have an acceptable self-isolation plan, they are released to go into self-isolation and are supposed to be checked on in their self-isolation within 72 hours.
For the sake of trying to end the lockdown as soon as possible, for sure just toss 'em all into quarantine and be done with it.
On the other hand, that they are trying to avoid being unnecessarily draconian suggests civil liberties still play at least some role in their thinking.
It also strikes me as an easy solution to a problem that doesn't necessarily exist.
Sure, do audit checks to make sure homecomers are self-isolating and so on, but I wonder if the more frequent dangerous non-compliers are people who didn't go overseas and don't think they're at risk.
Simon Bridges said that!? The Leader of the Party whose dogma is personal responsibility? Or The Leader of the Party who is strong on Law & Order and that likes to pick on beneficiaries and others who’re already down? Give me a break, please! In the first meeting of ERC, he was asking repeatedly about over-reaching, etc. The guy is politicking, FFS.
Gotta say, there's definite silver linings to these unscheduled rapid creations of wildlife reserves. Even if the price includes a few years of three-eyed fish.
All good. Negative result. Today is 14 days after possible contact, so I'm free to…… stay at home, keep safe and plant leeks and onions. 70 year olds acknowledge their age and vulnerability, and stay in the bubble, at home with the bubbles, and toast life.
I once played in 'Fiddler on the Roof" the role of the butcher, Lazar Wolf, who sang a duet with Tevya- "L'chaim!" "To Life!"
Epidemiologists did predict a second wave. But this soon?
Henan province in central China has taken the drastic measure of putting a mid-sized county in total lockdown as authorities try to fend off a second coronavirus wave in the midst of a push to revive the economy.
Curfew-like measures came into effect on Tuesday in Jia county, near the city of Pingdingshan, with the area’s roughly 600,000 residents told to stay home, according to a notice on the country’s official microblog account.
Special approval was required for all movement outside the home, it said.
So the "Cheese Pizza Award for Dumb Melonfarmer" goes to the dude who tried to drive a train into a USNavy hospital ship in Los Angeles because he thought it was up to something other than basic relief in a pandemic. Apparently he would "wake people up".
Well that was a bit stupid of the health minister to drive to a deserted mountain bike trail when they are telling the public not to go hunting, swimming, surfing or basically anything. What was he thinking!
Considering all of the stupidity around in the world from anti-vaxers to conspiracy dreamers, from virus-proof youth to brain-proof world leaders, from media 'personalities' to foolish know-it-alls, from narcissistic sociopaths to the god-fearing righteous, probably he was seeking a moment's peace away from us all.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
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A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
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How long will the NZ Herald last as a print edition?
Yesterday's edition had about four ads in it, only one was a full pager (propaganda from the dairy industry). The real estate and travel advertising that underpins the print edition has collapsed. The trouble is the Herald is crippled with debt, loaded up with it in classic corporate raider behavior so it's got nothing in the bank for a rainy day.
Last night on Twitter I saw that David Cormack and David Slack have been axed, the sports desk is for the chop and I am sure the cuts are going to be way deeper than that. They'll be left as the print version of the ZB Taliban and the likes of Kerre McIvor, who genuinely seems to believe the collection of boomer losers who call her represent NZ.
A lot of people are posting about how tragic the demise of the Herald is, all the good journalists being let go yada yada yada – and they are right, up to a point. But when Shayne Currie's priority is to pay an obscene salary to Mike Hosking rather than keep on six beat reporters, you have to say what everyone seems to be studiously ignoring – that NZME have destroyed the Herald's brand, trashing it favour of short termist decision making and the need to keep pumping cash to the owners.
Lets be honest – it is actually now a shit newspaper with a few bright spots.
COVID-19 will probably claim the print edition of the Herald as amongst it's victims.
I have a close friend whose partner works at the Herald. They almost immediately laid off a number staff after the lockdown announcement. Like you, I think the outlook is not too good for the print edition.
"Lets be honest – it is actually now a shit newspaper with a few bright spots."
Ain't that the truth! They seem to have been in self-destruct mode for quite a while quite apart from the problems with generating advertising revenue that most commercial media faces
Maybe, just maybe, one of the changes when the dust settles is a return to truly local newspapers and radio stations. As opposed to these real estate publications fluffed up by some token items that are newsworthy.
For a while now, the three 'local' papers, The Feilding Herald, The Manawatu Standard and The Dominion are 50-80% same content.
I suppose this industry is facing huge pressure from the internet, but their race-to-the-bottom business model isn't serving them at all well.
They have to keep Mike Hoskings on, Everyone is waiting for him to get something right
They keep contacting me and offering it free for a couple of weeks….I don't bother as they just end up straight in the recycling bin.
NZME has been looking to merge (watch them go all out for it now) and overselling the quality of the current service.
It's run by an ex telco so no change in MO there. It's always been a soapbox that's made no bones about nailing blue colours to it's mast which has been independently verified by media observers in academia.
Best of luck with an approach that identifies with Mikey's audience rather than the more general business of actually informing people on a range of issues.
Yeah they do want to merge but, as somebody put it, instead of two supposedly struggling companies , we would have no competition and one struggling company.
Still NZME looks to some extent as if they are the authors of their own misfortune.
In the 2019 annual report they appear to have 1500 employees and an annual wages bill of $156m so $13m a month.
418 Employees on $100k+ and 6 directors take home $64m . So 28% of employees take home 41% of the payroll .
The remaining 1100 employees 72% take home 59% of the payroll.
Chop the top wages all back to $100k and that gives $23 mill slack so a couple of months wages.
The management will be trying to get some return on the NZME assets. They wanted to buy Fairfax and weren't allowed to because it would cut the competition and width of reporting. Will they have another go, saying they can't make it profitable as things now stand?
Will the authority see through their ploy and avoid allowing them to strip what's left of Fairfax, which had a good go by selling TradeMe and therefore the basic advertising that would have been their backbone, just on-line instead of on paper?
Is the ComCom the authority that decides for or against mergers ? I hope they have in their songbook Bracken's anthem for us – God Save NZ. With these predatory efficiency-hounds doing the business on us, we must look to a higher authority.
Not sure if anyone noticed this (haven't yet read yesterday's OM) but its an interesting observation on our immigration policies of the past:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/413177/unskilled-workers-now-keeping-new-zealand-going
The 'low skilled' now appear to be essential.
And that's not to mention those with skills we should have considered as desirable (such as people expert in things like preservation of wildlife, purity of water tables, Robert Guyton type land use practices, etc) for whom we've made it impossible to stay, OR things such as some of these folk:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52106565 who we have made it damn near impossible to come
Snobbishness and Eurocentric policies are not always going to be the things we'll need in the future
"…Snobbishness and Eurocentric policies are not always going to be the things we'll need in the future.."
Look at the RNZ news page this morning on COVID-19:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/413193/latest-on-the-spread-of-the-coronavirus-around-the-world
Unconscious racial snobbery and Eurocentrism at it's finest. First, report on Europe. Then "The Americas" (the USA). next on the pecking order is Asia-pacific, you know, where we actually live. Bringing up the rear, as befitting lesser races, is the Middle East and Africa.
My daughter is currently considered an essential worker – working in a local glasshouse. She was planning to save for a year before studying. Her wage was increased yesterday, thanks to the minimum wage increase. While we were walking after she got back from work, I was thinking how very little we value those who are providing the necessities for all of us going through the lockdown.
Supermarket workers, waste management workers, cleaners, horticultural and agricultural workers, transport drivers, hospital support staff – a large proportion of these are on the minimum wage. But they are showing the worth of their labour, when all the excess has been stripped away.
For those that haven't read it. The New Economics Foundation 2009 report: A Bit Rich, is worth the time. NEF is an economic organisation that I actually enjoy reading.
(As you mention, the Number 8 wire approach seems to have emigrated to India. We could relearn a lot from their ingenuity)
Supermarket workers, waste management workers, cleaners, horticultural and agricultural workers, transport drivers, hospital support staff – a large proportion of these are on the minimum wage.
And you can tell a lot about a person's character by observing how they treat these people.
In many ways inequality is not measured solely in dollars or GINI coefficients. It's the snobbery, the carelessness and hardness of heart that it so easily engenders which is the real harm.
" And you can tell a lot about a person's character by observing how they treat these people. "
I think that is true of societies as well.
That interesting and painful irony is we pay those the least, that will be looking after us in our old age, it's quite short sighted really.
For those like me, who enjoy seeing the personification of the ranter in their head in the form of a British comedian – Tom Walker, an excerpt from Jonathan Pie on the value of our essential workers:
"…checkout girls, and shelf stackers, working for minimum wage helping the worst of humanity with their bagging errors – these people are the backbone of society…"
"…this sickness, this sense of entitlement. It's a sickness in our society, this narcissism. Nobody lives in the world anymore. You don't think the world applies to you. You fool yourself that you are not involved. With personal freedom comes personal responsibility. You can't have both. You have a responsibility to be part of society. You are part of society. You are part of a group. Whether you like it or not. It's time to act like it, and be part of society by locking your door and staying as far away from society as you possibly can…"
"Do you know who they're going to blame? They're going to blame you, Jonathan. They're going to blame you. It's all your fault. You're the one to blame…. You shouldn't have bought the pot plant!!". – the ranter, and the hypocrite that lives in most of us.
https://youtu.be/y6lhWKX_S0k
Immigration NZ use a combination of ANZSCO (Australia New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations) and pay rate (median wage or higher) to determine skill of a job for immigration purposes.
ANZSCO is maintained by Stats NZ and its Australian counterpart. Occupations are classified from skill levels 1 to 5 based on level of qualification/time taken to be competent in a role. Skill level 1 is degree level or 5 years. Skill levels 2 and 3 are post-secondary qualifications/3 years. Skill level 4 is secondary level qualifications (e.g. NCEA)/1 year. Skill level 5 is no qualification or experience required (maybe some on the job training).
The Immigration definition of skilled employment is skill level 1-3 ANZSCO and at least median wage, or 1.5 x median wage regardless of ANZSCO.
If there are issues with the skill level of the job, point the blame at the government (who decide what the criteria are, including the definition of skill for immigration purposes) or the departments responsible for ANZSCO.
Once again, you seem to be rather defensive about INZ.
I'm well aware of the way INZ does things. And if you're suggesting they, (and MBIE) as a whole have no part in setting policy – as is the case with most other government agencies, then there are a raft of people across the public service that are serving no useful purpose – Policy Analysts, some in middle and senior management, etc. And that is not the case.
ANZCO lists; IELTS levels, the demographic profiling/spreadsheets (that someone in-house came up with) et al, you'll be well aware of the Eurocentrism, and in some cases racism that people have experieinced INCLUDING former employees of the place
Now that employers cannot import, compliant, cheap, slave labour, on temporary visa's, or use back packers looking for pocket money, maybe Northlands thousands of unemployed, mostly Māori, youngsters, can get a look in?
Maybe even with wages at a level that enables them to afford to work?
Let's hope so.
Actually, one of the people/examples I referred to (above – to do with being well-equipped with green credentials, but who eventually just had to give up and leave) wanted nothing more than to train younger unemployed indigenous folk – hoping to set them and their families up for life.
Unfortunately, after being bashed a couple of times; had passport stolen with the inevitable hassle, AND COST over visas and passport replacements, with a NZ-born daughter and a wife that had been sexually abused by an overstayer, and having committed a decade of his life to contributing to "lil 'ole Nu Zull that punches above its weight" – he/they just had to give up.
And believe me, that's not the only example I could tell you about. And for each of those cases, 'under-resourcing' as an excuse just doesn't cut it. There have been quite a few absolute muppet policy decisions (some of "an operational" nature that have nothing to do with politicians – of any stripe).
We've known for a while that under pre-COVID, the pace of change was increasing, and yet we haven't had a government administrative (public service) response that could keep up.
Even now, MBIE cannot walk and suck eggs at the same time, and nor can quite a few other government departments.
One of the good things to come out of all this is probably the realisation that things can't continue as they have, and I'm pretty sure JA (and one or two others) is intelligent and astute enough to see where a lot of the roadblocks are/have been.
I've always maintained that reform was well overdue and probably was something the coalition should have tackled first. If you're interested – Efeso Collins as posted something on TDB, and the last two paragraphs seem pretty relevant to me :
"Interestingly, the panel of experts the government has asked to look over all the shovel-ready projects, is made up of four, white, men. In the midst of the greatest international crises of our time, the people who will oversee how we kickstart our construction industry and reboot our economy, just don’t reflect the society we are, or more importantly, will be."
He's referring to different government agencies but sure as shit its equally, if not more applicable to the Ministry for Everything
and……..
"……….. The other side [of this pandemic] needs to be diverse and dynamic; anchored on equity and focused on climate change. These will become the foundational pillars of the new NZ we’ll be in the next little while. ……….. "
Anyway, I'm starting to rave, but as we have been over the past few decades is not going to work in the decades to come
An interesting and highly plausible take on CV19.
This guy is a lifestyle blogger; his track record is sane and middle of the road.
The content is all public domain information. Make of it what you will.
My partner and I know first hand personally of two identical incidents at ESR Kenepuru (Porirua), we know this sort of thing happens and gets covered up … even in NZ.
What in God's name is the actual point of all that?
How does it help us ?
Why is the Spanish flu still called the Spanish flu when we all by now know it was started in the US and effectively covered up .Are you still railing against the US for visiting the world's so far most killing pandemic upon our forebears …And lying about it
You have an almighty hate of (you call it the CCP, I suspect there's a racist element )and it's uncharacteristic of you to express that kind of unrelenting hate .
You are usually a person who wants to mend rifts, encouraging people to embrace the perceived other
I find finger pointing and blame in this instance to be a total waste of emotional energy
That's just me anyway.
You make a good point and it deserves a straight answer.
My auntie is Chinese, we've lived with a Chinese family this past two years, my oldest friend's mother is Chinese, I have an adopted son who uses my family name who is Chinese.
It's from these people that I've picked up my loathing of the CCP as a deeply dangerous and vile entity. They have enslaved an entire people and then tell the rest of the world how wonderful they are.
There is a distinction between institutions and people. I will always give people the benefit of the doubt and treat them courteously as the context requires; I expect the best for them.
But dangerous ideologies and the institutions they spawn will get nothing from me.
Some of the most rascist, zenophobic arseholes, I know have Asian or Indian wives.
Being misogynists as well, those guys like "compliant" Asian women for wives.
Having Asian relatives is not proof of being non xenophobic. "I have a Black friend".
In my immediate family we have New Zealand Chinese, as well, who have been following events in China. They are no fans of the CCP, as the family escaped a few steps ahead of the chairman's death squads.
People repeating anti Chinese propaganda, basically exaggerated bull, from US, sources, makes life difficult for them and other Chinese here.
It does serve a purpose as an outlet of negative emotions such as anger and fear. The risk is that it takes over and ‘a life of its own’ and leads to tar & feathers and lynch mobs. Underlying (or overt) racism is always simmering under the surface ready to erupt in violence. When this turns into social unrest and mass violence, we are screwed. And it can all start with pointing a finger.
The "point" of all that (and a lot of stuff in a similar vein that swilling around) is pretty much explained in the article I've linked to at Comment 3.5 below.
Funny innit, how well researched, intelligent articles don't get pushed with the same passion, or by similar numbers of organisations and useful idiots, as does the likes of the "laughably" xenophobic rubbish from the loawhy86's of the world.
The explanation for that is pretty much covered in the article too – it's the usual story of politically motivated and well funded (if fucking nutty) propaganda. But I digress, and must away to the neighbours and check the results of my 'door knob painting' skills…
as does the likes of the "laughably" xenophobic rubbish from the loawhy86's of the world.
If so why did they guy live in China 10 years, learn the language fluently and marry locally?
This pathetic old gambit of conflating criticism with racism is what’s truly laughable here.
The guys presentations are full of arm waving lies. Did you actually bother to check any of his claims, or did you just take him at his word? I provided comprehensive links that explain the background to much of the anti-China bullshit flying around that's being peddled by your loawhy86 as well as Bloomberg News, The Guardian and others. Did you read through the links provoded and check the veracity of what was being said there?
You understand that anti-China propaganda leads directly to Asians being targeted in the streets, yes? You okay with that are you? And to be clear. I'm not talking about factual criticism of China, or the Chinese government, but about the lies and bullshit being peddled by loaway86 and corporate mouthpieces of official western narratives.
Here's a wee example of what I'm alluding to, that was shoehorned into a Guardian article and that sticks out like dogs bollocks (and if you read the links I provided, you'll be in a place to understand the genesis and garbage basis of this precise example)
He [Trump] again questioned China’s reported numbers on the virus: “The numbers seem to be a little bit on the light side – and I am being nice when I say that – relative to what we witnessed and what was reported.”
The comments followed a Bloomberg news story that said a classified US intelligence report had concluded that China had under-reported the total cases and deaths it had suffered. On Wednesday – the last day of available figures – China reported 82,361 confirmed cases and 3,316 deaths.
You claimed he was xenophobic (which is just a polite word for racist) when you knew nothing about him and his background. You have no answer to that.
The guys presentations are full of arm waving lies.
He's been blogging for years and is a close friend of the very popular Serpentza (Winston) who both started out as lifestyle bloggers simply recording their daily life in China and their impressions living and working in a culture they were determined to understand and present to the wider world. In this they've built a large and appreciative audience over many years for making mainland Chinese society more accessible. It was my adopted son who first pointed me to them about five years ago.
It's only been the past few years under Xi Xinping that things have changed for them both. The CCP has become a lot more oppressive and especially hawkish toward foreigners in the past four years. This they've recorded and expressed their dismay over it’s impact on ordinary Chinese people.
In this particular video all of his information is public domain and widely scrutinised by his substantial audience fluent in the language. Understand that in a closed society with no journalism, no independent rule of law and no democratic accountablility … nothing can ever be 'proved' to a standard you would approve of.
But the coinkidinkies are stacking up.
Did you read through the links provoded and check the veracity of what was being said there?
Yes I have. In one comment I'm not going to dissect the Grayzone article in full but one small item will have to suffice:
The group also believes that modern science was invented by aliens as part of a scheme to take over human bodies
So I followed the link to the somewhat dense lecture and found the relevant passage:
If you strip away the traditional idioms and allegories unfamiliar to the Western mind, the basic message is simple enough … that science on it's own is an insufficient basis for morality. This is an assertion I think is very true, as do millions of people who place an equal or greater weight on the spiritual domain.
Yet the author of the Grayzone piece strip mines this presentation for the most gaudy and contentious possible interpretation. A sure sign of a hostile and biased agenda.
You claimed he was xenophobic (which is just a polite word for racist) when you knew nothing about him and his background. You have no answer to that.
What the actual fuck are you on Red? The guy's videos are almost cut and paste propaganda of the sort explored in the Greyzone article. And that propaganda leverages off historical western racist attitudes towards Asians in the broad sense and Chinese in the narrower one.
I don't have to know jack-shit about the guy to understand the underlying nature of his argument or position.
On the specifics that he talks to, like I said before, there is a lot of arm waving (eg – conspiracy theory junk over a missing picture) and out-right lies (eg – the gap in timing between given events.)
As for the "item" you want to dissect by way of your second comment, well…the piece explicitly states that science was passed down to humans by alien beings. And that was the sole reason Ajit Singh provided the link in his Grayzone piece – to show that he wasn't just making shit up when he wrote on an aspect of the Falun Gong belief system.
I guess you're being serious when you call that basic journalistic practice a "sure sign of a hostile and bias agenda"….
The guy's videos are almost cut and paste propaganda of the sort explored in the Greyzone article.
And if I accused you of doing 'cut and paste' CCP propaganda it wouldn't fly for one simple reason … while you and I have never met, we have interacted here for almost a decade. We have a sense of each other's authenticity.
I don't have to know jack-shit about the guy to understand the underlying nature of his argument or position.
By contrast I do know more than jack-shit about the guy and have gained a sense of who he is over a period of some years now. (I just can't recall exactly when I first watched one of his videos. Typically the two of them would hop on their motorbikes and using wireless headsets, chat on random topics while driving around showing you the real country). The point is, him and Winston some of the relatively rare Westerners who have lived in mainland China for a decade or so, speak the language and have a strong social network into Chinese society. What is more they are reflecting very similar information that I am hearing from my own much more modest circle.
The Chinese people are not a vast hive mind; millions loath the CCP for much more intimate reasons than we understand.
the piece explicitly states that science was passed down to humans by alien beings.
And that's always the problem when scientific materialists read religious writings literally. Substitute the word 'angel' for 'alien' and you can find very similar ideas within many other religious works.
And if I accused you of doing 'cut and paste' CCP propaganda it wouldn't fly for one simple reason …
Hmm. I don't read any languages other than English and am not therefor subjected to much propaganda from non-English sources. "Your" wee fella on the other hand is outright parroting lines that have been debunked or found to have no underlying credible source and that, in addition, come from very specific and identifiable actors that have obvious political agendas to push.
You might also want to reflect that the lines he parrots do not correlate with what epidemiologists working through notionally independent bodies attached to the UN are saying. (I say "notionally" because many orgs affiliated to the UN are generally and quite reasonably regarded as projections of "western" power throughout much of the world).
One of the basic techniques for on-line propaganda is to build up audiences off the back of innocuous posts. So saying you "know" some online presence on the basis of previous non-political postings they've made, and spring-boarding from their non-political presence to assert that they're neutral or trustworthy, doesn't really mean very much when it comes down to discerning credibility.
See, I'll just stick my hand straight up and say that for me, a person who just 'all of a sudden' starts posting political content that's obviously deeply informed by a political ideology, is a big red flag indicating that a bit of digging or caution is in order, aye?
"Your" wee fella on the other hand is outright parroting lines that have been debunked or found to have no underlying credible source and that, in addition, come from very specific and identifiable actors that have obvious political agendas to push.
Ah no. Go back and actually watch the damn video. He's quoting official public domain sites for his core information.
One of the basic techniques for on-line propaganda is to build up audiences off the back of innocuous posts.
Ah not for six or more years … that's stretching it.
I'll just stick my hand straight up and say that for me, a person who just 'all of a sudden' starts posting political content
Again no. These two guys have been doing this for years now, and the transition to 'political' posts has been a natural consequence of real life events they've gone through.
You know, not everyone on the internet who is saying something you don't like is necessarily speaking in bad faith.
Why are you so keen to discredit two ordinary people on YT when we know the CCP has lied about so many other things? Their human rights record is appalling, they have no independent media or court system. Foreign journalists have either been expelled or intimidated. People who embarrass the Party are silenced, there is a massive firewall around their internet, everything in China is either censored or beholden to the CCP and it's dictates.
Yet for some weird reason their word is pure fucking gospel on this COVID debacle. /facepalm
Yet for some weird reason their [CCP] word is pure fucking gospel on this COVID debacle. /facepalm
Really? Because I don't think I've read or linked to a single source from the CCP. I've linked to investigative pieces that have been published by highly credible sites such as The Grayzone. And I've read what various epidemiologists from around the world who do not seem to have any political angle – (ie – they focus on their area of expertise) – reckon on the Chinese reaction to Covid.
And then I've read or watched the stuff that you and Tony and others have put up here, and it simply doesn't hold water. I've also read various corporate media pieces that shoehorn obvious propaganda into their pieces (When I say "obvious", I'm referring to stuff that has been investigated and debunked).
And again. (How often am I going to have to reiterate this?) I don't trust Chinese bureaucracy any more or any less than I trust bureaucracy embedded in any other political or ideological framework.
Highly plausible.
The 6 people tested who have antibodies (assuming they were infected with Covid-19) to the virus where the bats are, I found this to be interesting.
So why is there not an outbreak where the 6 people are?
Possibly there was an outbreak and it was covered up.
At some point corona virus was going to be a reality whether it came from a lab or a wet market.
No one likes a cover up. Even if the CCP admit it, this is not going to change or influence the impact of Covid -19.
Funny you should post this cause I started watching this guy a couple of weeks back + Serpentza. The coverage today of what China is doing to foreigners will be interesting (ADV podcast channel).
Yep, interesting.
Mortality figures far higher than the CCP admit – as much as 1 million?
The CCP has almost from the beginning lied to the world about the CCPvirus!
Falun Gong have always said the CCP lies.
This isn't a very useful indicator. Dual SIM phones are very common in China (especially Oppo which we use ourselves). In a major downturn like this it's highly likely millions of people simply let one of their SIM cards go.
Okay. Having done laughing my arse off at the level of stupid in this sub-thread, I thought people who stumble across this part of Open Mike and who have a modicum of common sense, might want to read a piece of journalism that essentially and efficiently rips to pieces the type of xenophobic tripe on display hereabouts
What was the name of the guy in 1984 everyone was meant to scream at when his image came up on screen? That guy. You guys who keep pushing these anti-Chinese conspiracies are like bulgy eyed members of that audience.
Here's the entire sub-header of the article…
A widely disseminated and highly dubious story asserting China concealed tens of thousands of deaths originated from a US government propaganda outlet and a veteran member of a right-wing anti-China cult.
And no. I'm not an advocate for Chinese style governance and don't pick sides when it comes to different styles and levels of bureaucratic governance – it's all toxic.
OTOH, this Cambridge Uni virologist says the data from China is reliable.
That's certainly one way to combat xenophobic tosh…provide authoritative links/voices to the contrary. Personally, I prefer to simply unmask the peddlers of hate and their agenda. Plus, it short circuits idiots who might be tempted to play a numbers game based on a volume of sources… 😉
Well, I prefer to go with evidence-based info. I particularly liked that piece because it's clear and factual.
The other thing I found interesting in the interview was that the best way to respond to a pandemic is to stop people travelling, and tell them to stay at home.
Two different, though not entirely separate things on the go in this sub-thread. One is medically based info on a virus and how to combat its spread…the other is how to combat the spread of politically motivated narratives that 'bad actors' are constructing on the back of the virus.
Horses for courses?
Lol shorter Gareth Morgan on RNZ just now – ancient boomer tilts at yesterdays windmills.
A prime example of the adage. "An expert is a person who learns more and more about less and less, until he knows everything about nothing".
I respect his motives, but he sees everything through the lens of his narrow finance and economic studies.
Now he is saying don't put money, in the privatised super scheme, Kiwisaver. You know, the one he made millions out of. FIFY.
And. Isn’t using the “boomer” meme, getting a bit tired. It was never accurate in the first place. Following the lazy idea that it was a generation, and not class, that is screwing people.
"…And. Isn’t using the “boomer” meme, getting a bit tired…"
Actually, I think in Morgan's case here it is appropriate as he is clearly is a boomer still fighting the battles of the 1980s, mentioning Muldoon and dragging out tired think big tropes, before launching into a full blooded Rogernomics prescription complete with the worn out business jargon of the 80's and 90's .
I'll happily concede that one.
As usual Gareth is not afraid to make himself unpopular
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Gareth got the memo about Homo rationalis, economicus, and closed his mind thereafter.
His redeeming feature though, is that he does have a heart.
Gareth makes the point that 'saving the economy' in the wake of the 1970's oil shocks was what Muldoon attempted … with very mixed results. Including the virtual bankruptcy of the nation, destabilising NZ and ushering in the conditions that made Rogernomics possible. Unintended consequences and all that …
Right now I support what Ardern's govt is doing to keep our business community treading water for a few months while we get this damned bug under control … but it's a strategy that does have it's risks.
As an aside has anyone noticed what Josh Frydenburg has just implemented an interesting measure that reduces the threshold for their Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) from $1.2b to zero … effectively giving him complete control over all foreign investment into Australia. Clearly the concern is that CCP run state owned entities will exploit the distressed state of Australian business assets to swoop in and buy up even more of Australia at firesale prices.
"Right now I support what Ardern's govt is doing to keep our business community treading water for a few months while we get this damned bug under control … but it's a strategy that does have it's risks."
….and TINA
?
An alternative view is exactly what Gareth is talking to. He's right in this … neither Australia nor NZ can afford to keep this level of wage subsidy up for more than a three months or so … otherwise we run the very real risk of losing what little economic sovereignty we have left.
There Is No Alternative….to the immediate actions the Gov is taking.
A crisis by its nature is immediate….the post crisis strategy is where the debate is.
Depends on whether they pay banks to expand the money supply, Muldoon biggest mistake, or, they use the means that took us out of the 30's depression.
Call it money printing, helicopter money or whatever you like, it worked, without leaving us hopelessly in debt.
Very doubtful it will lead to runaway inflation, when the economy is so deep in recession. And necessary to kickstart economic activity, to replace what we have lost.
The extra taxes, and increased capability, resulting, from increasing the velocity of turnover locally, paid for the recession, "money printing" just as it will, now. It needs a Government with the courage to say we have to increase the Government share of the economy. To work, money needs to go to the bottom end, who will spend it.
The alternative, the one pursued after Muldoon, did not work then, and it won't work, now.
That the Nation was “bankrupt” after Muldoon is an easily debunked myth. From those indulging in what Naomi Kline calls “disaster capitalism” to make themselves rich from the situation. Helped by a crop of deluded ideological fools in Government.
it is a mistake to view the NZ economy in isolation
"I asked him [Keynes] if he would borrow if he were in New Zealand in order to get through the crisis. Keynes replied, ‘Yes, certainly if I were you I would borrow if I could, but if you asked me as a lender I doubt whether I would lend to you.’
(Diary of the Minister of Finance Downie Stewart, 1932)
https://briefingpapers.co.nz/public-debt-how-low-should-it-go/
It is also a mistake to overestimate the necessary effects of overseas trades and cashflows on an economy.
As we have already discussed tourism, to take one example, having almost a net zero, or even negative effect on our foreign exchange balance. To keep those people in work, we need money circulating internally, so New Zealanders will take those bus tours and use that accommodation, for several years to come.
In New Zealand we are in the fortunate position of having enough resources to supply most necessities internally.
It is not going to help if we have hungry people, while there is food sitting unused on a farm. Just for lack of money to make the transfer.
Interesting from 1932. Because to a large extent they didn’t borrow. They “printed money” to use the unemployed planting forests, building and road making, utilising resources that didn’t need overseas money.
and as has already been explained NZ produces very little that is critical to the functioning of a first world economy so you cannot expect to replace foreign currency generating activity solely with domestic activity.
Yes. One of the biggest mistakes since the 80's.
Don't you have faith in capitalism, to remedy that?
Losing activity, such as international tourism, where inbound activity was close to outbound activity, has little effect on our ability to buy imports.
The problem is those without work, in New Zealand.
while our ability to supply those needs has deteriorated since the 80s (and the complexity of those needs has increased)…it has always been the case in NZ since the beginning of colonial time…so do I have faith that capitalism will change that?….it hasnt in approaching 200 years
Yes. It has always been Government, at least here, which has grown our capability in the big things.
I do have faith in Kiwi ingenuity, in the small things.
Many times in my life, I've had to find workarounds and substitutes, simply because New Zealand's month long supply lines can't get me a part or a tool in reasonable time. We are used to it.
And. I suspect we are going to get many of our competent tradespeople back from Australia, if we start to value them, again.
"It needs a Government with the courage to say we have to increase the Government share of the economy." Too true.
Unfortunately I don't think Grant Robertson has such courage or perhaps that he even understand the consequences of the economy being left in the hands of private interests.
It remains to be seen.
But, the fact he went ahead with the minimum wage rise and a rise to welfare, even if small, suggests he is not that much of an ideological neo-lib.
Stop fearmongering without basis. New Zealand and Australia can afford wage subsidies in 3 months time as will likely be necessary. New zealands economic sovereignty is the reason for that and not under threat.
The NZ dollar is not a reserve currency. The more we borrow the lower the value of our currency drops. Drop too far and our assets become available to overseas buyers at very low prices …
Whether it's three months or six I'm not sure anyone can tell; but logically borrowing to fund this cannot go on forever so there must be some upper limit. Any ideas?
"The more we borrow the lower the value of our currency drops. Drop too far and our assets become available to overseas buyers at very low prices …"
Your claim is not substantiated by any correlation between govt debt levels and the value of countries currencies however.
Yes, another superb commentary by Gareth. He would offer some sublime leadership and ideas in the Command economy we are heading into.
Morgan misrepresents what is occurring….he makes the same misidentification as Rod Oram did the other day….the government largesse is not a stimulatory measure , it is life support ….and the business support is not a universal underwriting of business viability but will dispensed on the basis of future viability (as determined by the banks)…there will be a few exceptions deemed nationally critical such as Air NZ…Robertson has repeatedly explained this.
All of this is short term and temporary…..if it proves not to be then the debate can be had.
What Morgan appears to be calling for is some form controlled herd immunity so business may resume asap and let the chips fall where they will…..as a strategy its both mindless and heartless not to mention entirely impractical but it is a sure fire way to create the conditions that could see the implementation of martial law
Didn't he say spend money on people, not failing businesses? You disagree with that?
Gareth's motives, are fine.
It is his reliance on the economic dogma that has been applied, and failed, that is questionable.
I have just been looking at Susan Miller who is an astrology. She has a 2020 Corona virus outlook. The planets are certainly aligned and her prediction is based on astrology.
Note: if not a believer, each to their own.
Astrology 🙄 Save me, Jebus.
😂
Astrology …. pfffft. But there's some neighbourhood chickens that should be worried. I feel the need to examine entrails.
"Note if not a believer, each to their own."
Bock bock bock.
I suppose I better look up what bock means in slang incase it means something you should not say. Too late I clicked publish.
I've never heard of someone who is an astrology, but if she is an astrologer then it's all irrelevant, they are just deluded snake oil salesmen.
Correction astrologer, as you have pointed this out.
The whole of Bauer Media just went under.
Listener, Woman's Weekly, Woman's Day, North and South.
Plus a whole swathe of trade publications.
Yeah I have been trying to write a media article about implications which was decidedly pessimistic. Looks like I was beaten to it.
Herald has to be in the gun too.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/02-04-2020/publisher-of-nz-listener-womans-weekly-north-south-to-shut-down/
A mix of not being able to publish in hardcopy during the lockdown, as well as the drop in ad revenue from other businesses affected by the lockdown? I assume this is a pragmatic decision from the German owners around their own business survival post-pandemic.
Gareth Morgan should do something useful and buy the Listener then hand it over to someone else to run.
Yes, it IS a German owned conglomerate.
In the short to medium term this is devastating for the NZ employees of the conglomerate.
But it might also be an opportunity to return media to NZ ownership, and possibly to break up the neoliberal conglomerates.
The financial basis for doing this is no doubt problematic. But it could lead to breaking the neoliberal ethos that dominates our news media.
I hope so. It would be very cool if some of the progressive journos got together and formed a collective. No-one would do that before because of the financial risk, but now so many are losing their income 🙁
Time for a range of new non-corporate funding options to be explored. Won't solve the investigative journalism issue though, which I assume needs major infrastructure.
I wonder how Newsroom and The Spinoff are doing.
The seem to use various funding sources, and don't seem to be dependent on advertising. Newsroom was initially set up by sponsorship from Auckland and Victoria Universities. Now they do use some corporate sponsorship as well as continuing tertiary funding. They also get some funds from their Newsroom Pro, which is a
Spinoff was founded initially by Lightbox, but now uses some funding from "partners", meaning some "brands", plus they get some government funding from NZ On Air, and Creative NZ.
Both use PressPatron for public donations.
I think you are on the right track to point to these publications, weka, because they look to be in a good position to pick up some of the slack left by Bauer's withdrawal from NZ.
I think it probably should be on the government's public service media agenda to support such publications as part of it's Covid-19 economic package.
Can't wait for the likes of Mike Hosking, his wife (whose name I can never remember), HDPA, Barry Soper and that doyen of the CC deniers, Leighton Smith go down in a heap of burning cinders.
They will have to sell their mansions, holiday homes (they don't have baches and cribs), their orchards and vineyards.
Poor things.
to whom will they sell? (should they be forced to)
Will not get much for his pants with stains on
This is a media death-spire which is a permanent alteration to media.
Most if not all of those publications will not come back. Many more radio stations will die. Maybe a few of the hardy trade publications will get picked up.
We can list the sum total of the surviving media like so:
– TVNZ (in its digital form once merged with RNZ)
– Mediaworks including TV3 and the radio stations (but we know Oaktree will sell or just kill them off one by one)
– NZME/NZHerald
– Otago Daily Times. Family owned.
– Kiwiblog
– The Standard
– The Daily Blog
– Scoop (for those who just want to see the raw releases)
I think that's it now.
Can anyone think of a publication which can survive three monthly cycles with a 90% drop in advertising?
But the ginormous winners are:
– Facebook
– Baidu
– Google
– FoxNews
And after that it really just
has Mediaworks already been sold then?
Oaktree Capital haven't had it for that long.
They are selling off their New North Road headquarters and retreating to Ponsonby Road.
The New Zealand media that survive are the ones that have state funding in very large lumps.
Even with that state funding it would be interesting to see if Maori TV survives.
Its pretty ironic that mass deregulation only leads to less choice and diversity, as big players swallow up smaller players.
The US market is more regulated than ours, yet, it has way more media choices, especially in the likes of radio and suscriber TV.
For example, there is no way anywhere in the world that a pay TV operator would have been able to own a free to air channel (Prime), or single operators would be able to own multiple radio frequencies in the same area.
If the ComCom had any imagination, they would have waved through the Sky/Vodafone and StuffMe mergers on the condition that Sky sells Prime, and NZME sells some of its radio 'brands'.
The US is the biggest media market in the world so I can't see how the comparison is useful. It has more choices because it has 330 million people, and we have less than 5.
I'm not sure why you're complaining about lack of media diversity here but also supporting the mega-merger. As you can see today a merger of titles is no protection against total loss.
Sky is next on the data-watch list.
The media rules for everyone from the Prime Minister to the Commerce Commission to the Minister of Broadcasting to the remaining leaders and brands are getting re-written right this very day.
"I'm not sure why you're complaining about lack of media diversity here but also supporting the mega-merger."
As I said before, the Commerce Commission could have asked Sky to sell Prime, and NZME some of its radio brands.
Very hard to know all the variations that were proposed through the multiple High Court challenges to the Commerce Commission double refusals.
All too late now anyway. No sport, so no Sky.
It's very sad news indeed.
But a four week shutdown with a big wage subsidy does not kill a successful business.
Oh it can and it will kill more, the advertising industry is all but dead for the foreseeable, retail shops will be decimated, pretty much everything travel related is toast, the list is huge and the flow on effects are going to be massive.
Watch Suicides increase dramatically in the next 12 months, everyone is fearing Covid right now but the really scary thing is how the country looks in 3-6 months.
Mortgage holidays just kick the can down the road, consumer debt will be left unpaid, Debt collectors will be busy…
Yes, the effects are massive. No argument.
But the fantasy is that the lockdown is the cause, and somehow NZ could escape the virus and the horrendous global consequences by doing … something that is never made specific.
The choices were Bad or Worse or Unthinkable. We've gone with Bad and that was the right choice.
Oh dear this is not good!
Its going to get rough.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/120754944/publisher-of-metro-womans-day-closes-in-nz-amid-coronavirus-woes
Yeah, where will Paula get on a front page now.
The Allen
Probably in the same media outlets that places Jacinda on the front page.
But given that the remaining media outlets are increasingly likely to be owned by the government only, Paula won't get a look in.You'll only have Jacinda to look forward to on a regular basis.
Today's news represents a major blow to the freedom of expression and the contest of ideas in New Zealand society.
Why, have they closed down Google and Facebook and Twitter and all the other outlets for media and social media? There are vastly more outlets for free speech than there ever were in the glory days of magazines.
Today's news is bad for many reasons, not least the people losing their jobs. But it has no lasting effect on "freedom of expression", and trying to crowbar it in is pretty low.
investigative and indepth journalism in NZ was already struggling. More shutting down and leaving us with twitface google is actually really bad.
Shutting down journalism is really bad.
But the FreezePeach line is not about journalism. They don't care about that.
Our freedom to spew is unimpeded (the Listener didn't have to publish my letters, the internet does). Information is what we are losing.
Yes but we had freedom to speak before the internet so that aspect of it really has nothing to do with access to twitface google, if we are talking about the state not controlling what people can say.
However they said freedom of expression, and also said, in the same sentence, the importance of contesting ideas, which I think speaks more to their concerns about the MSM. I'd prefer a broad and robust MSM. Not sure if today's closure threatens that or not.
I note that when we had State owned media, they actually had much better journalism, and a greater diversity of opinion, than we've had recently.
My hope is that the unemployed, real, journalists, club together to give us something great.
If one organisation going under is a major blow to freedom of speech, speech wasn't that free in the first place.
Sucks for the staff, though.
we can hope it's only one organisation.
Sure, there's a wider issue about media in general, but I was particularly replying to the "today's news" bit,
Knew it wouldn't be long before a "but Jacinda" came along lol
I blame Coltheman and his campaign #turnardern.
OTOH, if they had announced it yesterday …
The Bauer decision smacks of a bit of disaster capitalism, they've been looking to off load those mastheads for a while so why not do it now and blame the virus/govt.
Exactly. They’ve been in the shit for ages. Now they have a handy excuse to pull the pin and something to blame other than their own incompetence and irrelevance.
Unfortunately, they probably wont be the last company to do this.
To; Mickey Savage – and To; Weka
It is a great Loss. The Listener – a truly brilliant weekly publication. Somehow, I feel the bones of the Listener wiil lay restless – but with Pride.
It will no doubt choose to fly a high Flag. Towering over the brilliance of little New Zealand.
The Listener used to be a brilliant publication, but has declined in recent years.
Ever since the listener started publishing unsigned "editorials" it was clear they were stuffed
You mean Joanne Black reckons?
I haven't read it for years since it shifted to the Right.
I haven’t read it for years either. Not since they disgracefully got rid of Lois Daish, one of the few really good food writers we’ve ever had in NZ. Coincidentally as I heard the news about Bauer on the radio today I was just putting Lois’s great Lemon Macaroon Cake in the oven.
It's is lifestyle and health magazine with some light opinion pieces, some of which can sometimes be a bit of light relief. Nothing more nothing less. Anything which engages the brain and leaves you asking for more has been absent many years now -even the TV guide is useless as the content isn't worth watching anyway. No tears from this writer.
*&ck the "media" The private media for profit and propaganda model was and is broken. My heartfelt plea to this government is to let them fall . and establish a proper independent state funded media.
100% agree, Xanthe
The BauerMedia closure will be nothing short of disastrous if those iconic titles are allowed to disappear permanently. They're a NECESSITY for information, entertainment (most important in a time of severe lockdown), and morale generally.
The government will take a huge hit from this unless they change their tin-eared approach very, very quickly.
Only if people are dumb enough to believe "Jacinda dunnit". Or more likely, pretend to believe it for tiresome point-scoring.
The history of print media is littered with shutdowns and strikes and titles transforming. The Times of London was off the shelves for a year back in the pre-digital age. It's still around.
Global recession + internet = no advertising. Add in a conglomerate that cares little for NZ's "icons" and you have an inevitable result. Only the excuse has changed.
Only if people are dumb enough to believe "Jacinda dunnit".
Quite a lot of dumb people around, me ol' fellow-Ob. (Cf USA, Brazil, etc.)
Don't think it will be that disastrous (apart from the people losing jobs) there are plenty of other news sources & people quickly adapt. In 6 months time they will probably be mostly forgotten.
Lol – just watching Parliament TV and the Natz trying to be seen as relevant by picking small holes in the government's response to the pandemic. And, incidentally, wasting the time of important people who should be dealing with important matters.
Just remember, if you want an indication of how Simon and the Natz would have handled this crisis, just look at what Trump, Johnson and Morrison have achieved.
They would have put the interests of the economy first, however much they are rabbiting on about quarantine and so on.
Vitaly Albatros; life's generally shit so C19 is the least of our concerns.
The NZ Police are now going to at least have a chance at becoming half-decent now that the crooked piece of filth Mike Bush has finally slung his hook.
With a bit of luck the old creepy way those from Bush'es era think, is gone from the Office of the Commissioner of Police. I have dealt with creepy top cops and unfortunately I might need to again.
I am looking forward to see what Andrew Coster does age 44 to modernise the NZ Police and to reduce certain behaviour.
I do have praise for frontline cops and know that they do good work.
Follow-up: Bauer have now admitted that they did NOT apply for the wage subsidy. Even though the government was willing to pay it.
So unless you think the government should have allowed all economic activity to continue, or spend up large on advertising in magazines, then I'd suggest looking elsewhere for a scapegoat.
(Bauer's CEO is worth $3 billion. Just saying).
Think it fairly safe to assume that the lock down merely advanced plans already in place
Yeah I think they are just taking advantage of the shutdown – and from Germany this place would look like a far off nuisance.
However, I'd like to think that one of the state owned media would buy the titles for a $1 and put the journo's on the wage subsidy until this can be sorted through.. Also and this has happened with some of the newspapers – because they have been operating so long the back numbers photo's etc are covered by our various archive acts so they can't be dumped in the tip or transfered off shore. We lost a lot offshore when some other newspaper closed.
Why should the State owned media buy them?
Why don't you make an offer with your own money if you think it is such a good idea?
The "broken record" strikes again.
With the abject failure of the "small Government, low tax, privatise everything ideal, which is now costing us billions.
You would think even the most committed ideolog,would have clicked, by now.
He/she can't give up teasing us with a carrot, and donkeys that we are, we go forward. You know the solution; send to Coventry.
The person sent to Coventry is considered as absent; no one must speak to or answer any question he asks, except relative to duty, under penalty of being also sent to the same place.
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/sent-to-coventry.html
Stuff:
Bauer Media Group has confirmed it did not apply for a wage subsidy to keep it going through Covid-19 disruption.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/120754944/publisher-of-metro-womans-day-closes-in-nz-amid-coronavirus-woes
Maybe we should just nationalise the group and pay everyone the $575 k a week. Then sort through the mess and sue the directors for running something insolvent and claw back any excess distributions. Covid didn't do this.
'Maybe we should just nationalise the group and pay everyone the $575 k a week.'
I vote no, the government should not be buying or running the women's weekly and other similar publications. If the publications are in serious demand they should be purchased by a private company.
The NZ government has far more serious problems and issues to spend its (our) money on.
I think some Government seed money, including maybe the "wage subsidy" to a group of journalists, wouldn't come amiss.
Though I consider print media pretty much overtaken by technology, we still need genuine, journalism.
Sorry I didn't really go far enough. No I'm not suggesting the government run it but if they can put it in a holding pattern & let the employees sort through the value as a likely co-operative while on the $575 a week that might give enough breathing space. It could actually be temporarily housed under one of the government media companies.
Although I confess these are still maturing thoughts. Generally though it is harder to rebuild a business from scratch than extract value form an existing situation or see that value fall to overseas hands.
I agree. Ardern was asked about the Bauer exit in her press stand up this afternoon. She said the government had offered them money to help them keep going but Bauer would not take it. Ardern said Bauer didn't exit NZ because of Covid-19, but were probably going to leave anyway.
So if the government was willing to provide support to Bauer, why not give a similar amount of money to enable some Kiwis to take over, at least some of the publications – especially the Listener?
I have spent a good part of the day lobbying Fonterra directors to put a bid on the Womans Weekly .The dairy womens network could rebrand it to the Dairy Womens Weekly and educate the people on where their food comes from.
"Educate the people" – that sounded kinda … Stalinist.
Hard to see how they would consider it bearing in mind their recent balance sheet write offs. I think that they have gone off the hopeless investment strategy.
Correct. Jacinda gave Bauer an easy out by not declaring them essential. Companies like Jucy Rentals were struggling big time before this governance disaster and Likely to get a golden parachute as well. The list goes on. This government is completely out of its depth and we are the meat in a shit sandwich.
We thought that this is a worthy way of helping out the poor and the hungry.
https://www.foodbank.org.nz/collections/zuru
With the debate on enhanced testing (to ascertain cv in the community) one of the better novel ideas is for sewage testing,
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.29.20045880v1
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-29-03-2020/#comment-1695975
missed that,
I miss heaps …
Good piece by Anne Salmond.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120738955/dame-anne-salmond-a-better-way-to-kickstart-the-economy
There are good examples of bacterial and virus interaction with human antecedents such as australopithicus in Plagues progress (arno karlen) where arthritis caused one species to descend from the trees,and here we are now.
Yes, we can learn much from boring old science.
Now, it seems, a tiny little virus will make us head back to the caves.
Na the main reason they jump is filthy, and inhumane practices around meat markets . Love or hate supermarkets nz style supply chains you wont be catching a whole new nasty from them .
It's time to strike – when your in a shitty job, being paid shitty wages, told your essential then it's time to use that essential tag they threw at you and go on strike.
All right …. until it's decided that strikes in any essential industry will be deemed illegal. Then what?
It already is illegal to strike, for higher wages during the term of an employment contract.
One of the many restrictions on freedom, the supporters of "individual freedom" have legislated.
If you are deemed an "essential industry", grocery workers are not on that list yet, there are regulations about notice periods and continuation of "essential work".
https://www.employment.govt.nz/starting-employment/unions-and-bargaining/strikes-and-lockouts/
The essential workers have been given a 10% rise. National wants to do away with the general rise for the rest.
Got links for that? No one I know who is essential has got a raise.
Given the way our so called top business people are reacting to this crisis with yesterdays unworkable strategies then I think Grant needs to ask a few questions before handing out subsides.
Things like – have all employees and directors who are being paid over $100k been reduced to the annual equivalent of $100k for the next 3 years. For the avoidance of doubt of doubt directors should be considered as a .15FTE as many sit on multiple boards. (Have they been advised that they may not resign without a doctors certificate and have they undergone drug & alcohol tests. – not really)
Have all share buybacks been canned, are there worker reps appointed to the boards, Have plans been put in place to clawback excessive remuneration , dividends to overseas owners and other excessive payment arrangements.
Would you think it a good idea if a maximum salary of $100 k be set for anyone who is working in the State sector.
That would of course include all the MPs from the very top to the bottom. And we could remove all their perks. Do you agree? I'm sure Grant will implement it if you ask him nicely.
Something similar was the case in the State sector in the past.
Salaries were not high, but they had job security, and regular pay rises, and various perks, to compensate.
I haven't noticed extremely high salaries for some State employees, or even private ones for that matter, resulting in a lift in performance.
In fact, in the private sector, high salaries at the top, are a good predictor of a companies lack of longevity.
I wasn't actually claiming that State employees were necessarily on extremely high salaries.
However RedBaronCV seemed to regard $100 k as being a perfectly reasonable absolute maximum so I assume he will encourage Grant to apply the same rule to everyone employed by the taxpayer.
Trying for the distraction again by referencing public servants.
I have been discussing the private sector where top level salaries are huge compared to the average worker. We have been fed a diet for years about how these business leaders are so great etc etc that they deserve every cent. Well now there is trouble and if these businesses are to survive then they need to cut costs. Overall it is better for the economy if they do survive albeit for a time paying lower but more evenly spread wages. Once a business goes it's a lot harder to rebuild it from the ground up.
A disproportionate level of payroll is going to the upper end so that is any easy hack and the recipients should have the resilience to wear this given what they have earned in the past.. Many of these businesses are also going to use the government subsidy. Taxpayers fund that money and the national borrowing will have to be paid back and this will fall harder on younger taxpayers who have many more years to pay.
Frankly I am dammed if I can see why they should be lumped with the burden of supporting high end earners.
I also understand that you are likely to be mourning the loss of the " greed is good mantra" and extreme capitalism but this crisis has shown that it is a very hollow beast if it needs to be fed by the state. So sympathy but the rulles need to change.
You may appreciate this article.
http://kjt-kt.blogspot.com/2011/04/kia-ora-corporatism-and-neo-liberalism.html
“The fact is all the overpaid managers, greedy directors and parasitic shareholders could not even live, let alone have fortunes without the efforts of cleaners, technicians, plumbers, lath hands, secretaries and rubbish collectors”.
Do you really regard $100 k/year is huge, or upper end, or high end?
If so why does that as a limit not apply to everyone. If you don't really see it as the top of what anyone should earn why do you propose that no-one in a private firm should earn more?
Twisting things .
Suggesting that the high wages could be repurposed to minimize drain on the taxpayer before govt handouts are given is not advocating a blanket level .
happy to drop to $50k but the $100k is the level above which disclosure is given in most annual reports so its useful to roughly calculate the skew or estimate the GINI .
But hey if these overpaid managerial staff were that great then they would be easily able to ride out a month shutdown by having sufficient reserves. When their only strategys are firing people and wanting a socialist bailout then they are not worth the money being paid to them.
However, I suspect that they will fight hard to remain part of the problem not part of the solution.
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2020/04/01/lab-staff-put-to-the-tests.html
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/list.html?tag=news:coronavirus
I had a great time out doors today trimming back the tall grass adjacent to where I live. I found a really good use for a 350mm Mitre 10 handsaw cost $6.28c. It was better to use than hedge clippers ( which I would have had to walk 30 mins to get and I might of been stopped and questioned) or secateurs which cause joints to swell. The handsaw cuts grass really well from the base. Can't wait to get out there tomorrow for another hour.
Also a handsaw is good to cut agapanthus. Ingenuity is a good thing.
Has anyone found a good use for something during the lockdown?
Yeah, I made a fadge holder for the wool fadges I use for holding weeds on the way to the compost heap.. A commercial mower man was next door with a fadge holder and I thought I could make one like his from the poles of a small and cheap unusable canopy, the ones with the plastic corners and joiners that fit 12mm pipe. So I made a very light but strong square pipe framed box with 900mm sides and height and use 20mm plastic pipe split lengthwise to hold the fadge onto the top pipe rail. Cost nothing. Very useful and holds far more than a wheel barrow and is so easy to fill.
Sounds great.
Tools.. yeah no problem..
I was getting frustrated with having to go through hoops to push data back from a linux box to the code repository server at work.
Problem was that the vpn able to access work was a windows only app due to compliance. But working at home I don't want to hook my monitor to the frigging laptop because it was setup for the TS server. So I code using the linux server and a bitlocked external SSD.
But this was awkward, and on monday I managed to trash the bitlocked partition after the usb link to the drive went down during the weekend – looks like that is something to avoid with fuse file systems. After I recovered it….
So I got the git tool to clone the repo on windows. Then got the git tool on linux to clone the code from the windows repo via the unreliable cifs over the bench network.
Going the other way, edited code is committed to the local git and pushed to the windows laptop. Finally at the end of the day I push the culmative changes to the repo server at work.
That saves me endless grief and still keeps those code mods safe and me not compromising my home setup.
Is that the type of tool use you were looking for?
😈
Nah – sorry to disappoint.
Now to digress completely. The RSS feeds on the side – for a couple of them when the title of the article is clicked on I would normally expect to see the actual article. However Frank's has always given us a nice picture of Frank and now Pundit gives us the Photo attached to the article. Any chance of dazzling them with a bit of computorize so they can rehook up the trailer correctly to the car – so to speak.
Much thanks
"Is that the type of tool use you were looking for?"
Yes (even though I do not understand what you describe) and it does not need to be limited to the use of tools.
Chris Martenson on his latest Covid-19 Peak Prosperity
[about 6.30 in]
posting discusses the blame game – Dr. Birx saying that China didn’t provide enough data/correct data so the USA didn’t take the epidemic seriously.
Apart from the fact that China lied, and everyone with half a brain knew that, he (Chris) pointed out that the American security services would have been listening to telephone/internet traffic in China throughout the developing days of the crisis. They (CIA or whoever) must have known how serious the problem was – but apparently they didn’t pass this information onto the White House, or Trump didn’t want to believe anything negative about his good friend Xi.
Which begs the question: if the USA security service knew about the crisis in Wuhan, why didn’t the other 5 Eyes partners also know? And if they knew, why didn’t our spooks warn our government?
It makes you wonder what the hell our GCSB or SIS or etc are doing, and whether they even remotely start to resemble value for money!
Spys are not scientists. Maybe Governments thought that they were prepared.
Dr. Birx saying that China didn’t provide enough data/correct data so the USA didn’t take the epidemic seriously.
Dr Birx is a lying little cunt of a man then – Tony Veitch (not etc) who has been provided with, and never challenged, the published timeline that shows up Dr Birx as a lying little cunt of a man … right?
Or are you so far gone that reason and common sense occupies a universe you're no longer a part of?
Look. Here's a repeat of a link I provided under another piece of your xenophobic bullshit that will helpfully explain where these narratives you push are coming from. For an even deeper understanding and insight of the people and orgs pushing this barrel you've put your shoulder to, click through the links that the article provides. (The fair.org articles are comprehensive and worth the while)
And when you've done reading, don't come back here posting any xenophobic bile and expect any kind of a free pass on the basis of your supposed ignorance.
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/04/01/us-conspiracy-theory-on-china-coronavirus-trump/#more-22821
Except Dr Deborah Brix is not a man
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Birx
lol Gotme!
I admit I couldn't get the vid to play first time around and assumed the vids front picture….
Anyway. My bad.
You have just provided a great example of going off half-cocked without reading/watching the video – even though close direction was given to the relevant part.
Of course Dr. Birx was lying – but that doesn't mean the CCP haven't also lied.
You may say you're no apologist for the murdering repressive CCP regime, but . . .
Try reading this link before commenting!
https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/chinas-devastating-lies/
On the one hand, there is your sickening Sinophobia, and on the other there is my recognition that all bureaucracies share distinct characteristics whether they are Chinese bureaucracies embedded within a state capitalist context or a NZ bureaucracy embedded within the context of a representative parliamentary democracy.
I've provided comprehensive links from trustworthy journalists and publications that demonstrate the falsehood of the narrative you keep pushing – a false narrative that puts people of Asian appearance in harms way.
Did you actually read the link and the embedded references?
The Wuhan authorities actively suppressed (ie lied) information about the human to human transmission of the virus. Perhaps that information could have been useful to other governments?
Li Wenliang warning other medical people about the emergence of a dangerous new virus and then was forced to admit to 'spreading false rumours' is not evidence of CCP lies/suppression?
Dial back on the emotive language ('sickening') if you want to have a mature debate, hey.
So hang on, you are saying the local bureaucrats lied, or that the medical profession lied? And what did they lie about? Covid wasn't identified in early December, and so any information about transmission of human to human (if there was any realisation on that front) would have been a notification about SARs or MERs – ie, incorrect "best guess" information. The very type of information that Dr Li, somewhat understandably, but utterly unethically released to his class mates…and that he was correctly reprimanded for. (Just as would have happened in NZ, Germany, the US or elsewhere)
I'm no medical expert, so I can only guess it takes as long as the identification of Covid took to identify a new virus. But sure, before the elimination of all other possibilities, it might be prudent to give authorities a heads up.
So..
Dr Zhang reports to the local Centre for Disease Control on Dec 27.
The Wuhan Health Commission alerts the National Health Commission, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and the WHO on Dec 31
Covid identified on Jan 7
Virus sequences shared on Jan 12.
Btw, this new piece you're throwing up (The Lancet study it relies on) flat stick contradicts those stupid videos you posted before. Y'know, the ones that claimed to have identified "patient zero" and the source of the outbreak?
Anyway…you mention "mature debate". So how about you get off the anti-China bandwagon that's stirring up animosity towards Asian looking people everywhere, and be aware there are identifiable actors in western circles who are furthering their own political agenda by creating and pushing the false anti-China lines you're posts have been running?
And I'll say this again. All bureaucracies, whether Chinese or Kiwi or whatever, tend to self protect. So major issues are routinely downplayed or ignored (Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Christchurch asbestos, Mad Cows Disease….) while lower level bureaucrats learn to cover their arses and not be the messenger whose career trajectory will come to an abrupt halt.
Knowing that, beyond a broader analysis, shouldn't our attention be on the bureaucracies and the decisions that affect us – ie, the ones we might have some impact on? Though maybe you prefer to be a footsoldier for someone else's cause and to spend your time firing off in the direction they point you at. I dunno.
So how about you get off the anti-China bandwagon that's stirring up animosity towards Asian looking people everywhere
How about a lot of lefties getting off the anti-Trump bandwagon that stirs up animosity towards white looking people everywhere?
The logic of both statements being flawed …. but can you spot it?
Here is the simple logic of what we are talking about. For decades the CCP has routinely lied about almost everything, from Tianamen Square, to their economic data, to organ theft, to concentration camps in the north, and on and on.
Then they have no independent media. All foreign journalists are either expelled or intimidated. The have a vast firewall around their internet. And you ask us to trust them?
Where did I say that trust should be extended to a bureaucracy of any shape or form?
You think I question the stories coming from "our side" because I trust the word coming from some bureaucratic structure or other?!
And your comparison to establishment Democrats and their corporate media allies running crap lines against Trump (with all that entails) is a pretty poor comparison, but does give the lie to your implication that western media is 'independent' or free in any meaningful sense of the word (they "follow the script" aye?)
Or Dr Birx is doing her level best to lay blame anywhere but where it belongs.
The American disease expert, a medical epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency, left her post in July, according to four sources with knowledge of the issue. The first cases of the new coronavirus may have emerged as early as November, and as cases exploded, the Trump administration in February chastised China for censoring information about the outbreak and keeping U.S. experts from entering the country to help.
“It was heartbreaking to watch,” said Bao-Ping Zhu, a Chinese American who served in that role, which was funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2007 and 2011. “If someone had been there, public health officials and governments across the world could have moved much faster.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-cdc-exclusiv/exclusive-u-s-axed-cdc-expert-job-in-china-months-before-virus-outbreak-idUSKBN21910S
Both those things could be true.
We know for sure that the White House response was utterly inadequate and incompetent even given the things that were publicly known early on, and she has every reason to try to divert blame elsewhere.
But that isn't evidence for the accuracy or honesty of info coming out of China. I have yet to see any reason to be less skeptical of Chinese government statements than I am of White House statements.
However I think we can fairly sheet the blame for the train wreck of inaction and incompetence that has been the US response to this pandemic fairly and squarely on the nincompoop who currently occupies the Oval Office. She is really just following orders.
[Deleted long string of text with zillions of links in it. And where is the link to the quoted text?]
We can also add that America has such a narrow, one eyed ideological view of the world… they never set up a state funded health system (call it what you like) because they thought it was "Communism". Such a health system – which Obama tried to set up but was knocked back – would have been better geared towards a swift and commonsense response throughout the country instead of the fragmentation and the blame game they are currently playing.
They have no-one to blame but themselves for their foolishness.
Link is here.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/31/fireside-chat-trump-should-deliver/?outputType=amp
Ta
I'm all for quotes being kept small, and I'm grateful to mods that go to the effort of trimming oversized ones. But if it isn't any more work, any chance of leaving a paragraph or even just a couple of sentences of the quote to make it easier to find the original piece?
In this case, the title that was left behind after my mass cull was a strong enough clue, I thought. The onus is on the commenter to put in the link to avoid others (including Moderators) having to search for it.
We have been lenient lately, but this not-linking habit is getting worse and it will lead to ‘educational’ bans soon.
We have a possible buyer already for Bauer's titles:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12322014
People need to calm down, and realize that the closure of a couple of magzine titles is not going to somehow lead to Stalinist Russia.
With the complete liquidation of over half of our country's remaining print editors, photographers, reporters, columnists, copywriters, ad buyers, printers, and distributers, it's probably a bit early to tell everyone to calm down just because you can see that the vultures have arrived.
Are you going to make an offer yourself if you think they are such a bargain?
It's not a bargain, it's a tragedy.
Seriously I cannot get over the number of utterly heartless pricks here who just want a little giggle when multiple industries, careers, and families just got wrecked in a single day.
What you are really claiming is that an obsolete industry, and that is what the newspaper and hard copy magazines are, should be kept going, and that the taxpayer should pay for it.
Well I would rather pay for things that are useful, such as healthcare. If you have some spare cash available why don't we spend it on lovely things like the manufacture of horse drawn carriages? Why do we need cars, or even trains, when we can have the stage coaches like the ones Cobb and Co used?
Why do we need the internet when we can use telegrams. They were much more romantic things than e-mails and everyone should be required to use them. Think of how you had them for weddings and the Queen would send you one on your hundredth birthday.
We could even go back to using leeches in our medical practices. To hell with those new fangled things like antibiotics.
I can quite readily have sympathy for the people who are losing their jobs, and I am not sitting having a "little giggle". The solution for the people involved is not to preserve their industry if it is obsolete. The thing to do is to retrain them for a new occupation. That is where our efforts should go. Our efforts shouldn't be spent on keeping alive things that nobody really wants anymore.
Of course if you really think that the old must be preserved and used at any cost I assume you will stop using the Internet to communicate and get news. Limit your news to what you read in the daily paper and your commenting to writing letters to the Editor. Would you do that? I certainly wouldn't.
… sez the man who just a day or two ago was waxing poetic about his use of a slide rule and log tables.
You are absolutely correct. I do still have log tables and a slide rule.
They are mine. I paid for them. I don't expect the taxpayer to supply me with new ones if I lose, or break, them. If I decide I still want them I will attempt to track down replacements and pay for them.
Do you see the difference? What I do is what I would ask you to do if you think an obsolete technology should be preserved. Pay for it yourself.
Bit of an esoteric thread for a company that refused government assistance to get through the period where it couldn't sell to customers, and promptly folded.
If they were obsolete businesses I would agree with you.
The NZ Women's Weekly had a readership of over 500,000.
Even the Listener still had a solid subscription base of 30,000.
Magazines are not necessarily obsolete.
You are confusing obsolescence with the massacre of half an industry through Bauer treating New Zealand as a single unit.
Yours is the same logic that enabled Roger Douglas to go through the entire country and kill whole industries within years. There was no need for the speed and force of that destruction in the late 1980s and there's no need for it now either.
That is what has made the Prime Minister react so vehemently.
To be really clear with you: there is no private sector industry in New Zealand outside of health that will not be devastated in the next year. So your sorry logic is just crap.
"The NZ Women's Weekly had a readership of over 500,000."
Really. Figures I have seen say that the circulation peaked at about 250,000 copies in the early 1980's. It had a circulation of about 82,000 in 2011. I don't now what the current numbers are but I understand it had continued to decline
According to Roy Morgan it had a readership of 140,000 in the year to June 2019. Thsi was a drop of 24,000 from the previous year.
Where does your 500,000 come from? That seems to be a lot of readers/copy and seems well out of line with the Roy Morgan numbers.
Circulation in 1980's and 2011
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Woman%27s_Weekly
Readership June 2019
http://www.roymorgan.com/industries/media/readership/readership-new-zealand
There’s going to be more tragedies and wrecked lives than you can poke a stick at in the coming weeks and months Ad. Most of us, however, won’t get a national platform like the media types do to bitch and complain about it. We’ll just have to get on and try and make the best of it.
Can you please stop with the trolling?
Comparing "Australasia's largest independent contract newspaper printer” with a TS commenter is either utterly stupid or a troll move, which is utterly stupid too. Can you use your newly found calculator and work out what I’m telling you?
https://twitter.com/K_IngalaSmith/status/1245425346717114373
lol…wheres that from?…as in what country?
UK, I suspect?
Thatcher was admiringly referred to, by her followers, as "The Iron lady, not for turning.
so i believe….the rust reference is particularly entertaining
Yep, UK.
North East London, Lived there for a few years.
Yes. Me too. Walthamstow.
Whew. What a relief. Head MOH Honcho is going to look closely at the US CDC 's aggressive review of the Who Gets To Wear a Facemask policy.
Despite health professionals and care workers and those with lived experience of surviving in a virus soup all clamouring for the Ministry of Health to review its decree that only those who are symptomatic and those in contact with obviously sick people need to wear masks…Ashley Bloomfield (who will deservedly go down in history as yet another numpty MOH Boss) still refuses to change that advice until he gets the go ahead by the experts on SARs type pandemic management…our US overlords.
RNZ has the piece.
Read it and weep.
We are very possibly doomed.
The clowns are running the circus.
I feel you are being unreasonably harsh upon those working within the MoH (and DHBs)…yes the community care sector is and has been poorly resourced but are doing stirling work (some are exceptional) for scant financial reward but IMO the Gov response has been very good, perhaps given the starting point and timeframe , exceptional….that is not to say there are not shortcomings or improvements to be made but we would be hard pressed to find a more competent response anywhere else in the world.
Competent?
You are joking right?
Because there are health professionals out here who disagree.
Like doctors and nurses and epidemiologists and other academics who don't require gimmicky hairdos to boost their profile.
Still persisting in the message that asymptomatic people are not a risk to others….sigh.
no..i am not joking. have a look at whats happening around the world
After reading and seeing idiots not complying with separation, which has the potential to extend this level 4 shutdown, and that we don't have a plan B to isolate.
How will we know if what we have sacrificed was worth it, and the marginal cost should we extent this shut down ? especially as the personal cost (both financial and emotional) that we are all incurring increases.
We'll know if we're using ice rinks as morgues and using the army to transport truckloads of corpses by the end of it.
Refrigerated trucks are being used in NY, let's keep trying to keep that at bay huh?
that sort of thing, yeah.
My god I have to agree with bridges on something.
All returning kiwis must go into compulsory 14 day quarantine.!!!
Don't they already?
Or is he after internment camps?
No most still get to toddle off home on an honesty system .
Not good enough .
Which even our health minister points out is very different to being quarantined.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120780372/health-minister-drives-to-local-park-to-ride-his-mountain-bike-amid-coronavirus-lockdown
If they show any symptoms or don't have an acceptable self-isolation plan they go into quarantine.
If they don't have symptoms and have an acceptable self-isolation plan, they are released to go into self-isolation and are supposed to be checked on in their self-isolation within 72 hours.
https://www.customs.govt.nz/about-us/news/media-releases/coronavirus-update/
Yeah na still not good enough
How would the state quarantine 4,000 people over a number of weeks? I'm curious for someone to answer this.
Lots of empty motels
and?
I'm of two minds.
For the sake of trying to end the lockdown as soon as possible, for sure just toss 'em all into quarantine and be done with it.
On the other hand, that they are trying to avoid being unnecessarily draconian suggests civil liberties still play at least some role in their thinking.
It also strikes me as an easy solution to a problem that doesn't necessarily exist.
Sure, do audit checks to make sure homecomers are self-isolating and so on, but I wonder if the more frequent dangerous non-compliers are people who didn't go overseas and don't think they're at risk.
The young locals that hung out and worked at places backpackers jammed into …
The "party of individual responsibility" doesn't trust people to use "individual responsibility"!
Note that, those who are untrustworthy themselves, tend to be the ones that don't trust other people.
Just saw your comment, a min after posting mine 😉
It's not about trust it's about stamping this fucking bug out.
2 weeks in a motel isnt much to ask . The only ones who would bitch will be the ones who had no intention of self isolating.
Simon Bridges said that!? The Leader of the Party whose dogma is personal responsibility? Or The Leader of the Party who is strong on Law & Order and that likes to pick on beneficiaries and others who’re already down? Give me a break, please! In the first meeting of ERC, he was asking repeatedly about over-reaching, etc. The guy is politicking, FFS.
The world is being run by idiots.
https://twitter.com/axios/status/1245457959829864448
We won't be missed.
https://twitter.com/billybragg/status/1245357272726937600
Someone might eat them if they get hungry enough.
Animals Rule Chernobyl Three Decades After Nuclear Disaster
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/04/060418-chernobyl-wildlife-thirty-year-anniversary-science/
Fukushima same.
Gotta say, there's definite silver linings to these unscheduled rapid creations of wildlife reserves. Even if the price includes a few years of three-eyed fish.
What she said.
https://twitter.com/DrPeckPNP/status/1244062665535864832
Yep, didn't half make me want to sneeze!
All good. Negative result. Today is 14 days after possible contact, so I'm free to…… stay at home, keep safe and plant leeks and onions. 70 year olds acknowledge their age and vulnerability, and stay in the bubble, at home with the bubbles, and toast life.
I once played in 'Fiddler on the Roof" the role of the butcher, Lazar Wolf, who sang a duet with Tevya- "L'chaim!" "To Life!"
'L'chaim, everybody, l'chaim".
Epidemiologists did predict a second wave. But this soon?
Henan province in central China has taken the drastic measure of putting a mid-sized county in total lockdown as authorities try to fend off a second coronavirus wave in the midst of a push to revive the economy.
Curfew-like measures came into effect on Tuesday in Jia county, near the city of Pingdingshan, with the area’s roughly 600,000 residents told to stay home, according to a notice on the country’s official microblog account.
Special approval was required for all movement outside the home, it said.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3078010/chinese-county-goes-coronavirus-lockdown-country-tries-get-back
So the "Cheese Pizza Award for Dumb M
elonfarmer" goes to the dude who tried to drive a train into a USNavy hospital ship in Los Angeles because he thought it was up to something other than basic relief in a pandemic. Apparently he would "wake people up".Stupid never dies, I guess.
Might be mental health issues.
The US has a charge of train wrecking, of course they do.
Well that was a bit stupid of the health minister to drive to a deserted mountain bike trail when they are telling the public not to go hunting, swimming, surfing or basically anything. What was he thinking!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120780372/health-minister-drives-to-local-park-to-ride-his-mountain-bike-amid-coronavirus-lockdown
Considering all of the stupidity around in the world from anti-vaxers to conspiracy dreamers, from virus-proof youth to brain-proof world leaders, from media 'personalities' to foolish know-it-alls, from narcissistic sociopaths to the god-fearing righteous, probably he was seeking a moment's peace away from us all.
Worried about the economy?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/03/theyre-leaving-us-to-die-ecuadorians-plead-for-help-as-virus-blazes-deadly-trail