Looking forward to seeing the results of Fonterra being taken to the Financial Markets Authority. Would have been better if Landcorp had done it, but at least someone has the heft to hold them to account.
Big companies can have big problems…whats so new about that.
Its a cooperative which HAS to take the milk …every day whether it wants it or not. It cant say during peak season, we are cutting volumes by 5% this month as the market for milk powder is weak or the cheese factory is past its production limit. No siree.
Ask sheep and beef farmers about the joys of not having a guaranteed buyer at the same price all year, and you have to pay to deliver to the works.
Why anyone would invest in these non-transacting Fonterra shares escapes me.
You're not a transacting shareholder, so have very limited rights and say over how the company is run, and you're giving your money to farmers, and Theo Spierings, to play with. They may pay you a dividend, in a good year, maybe. And your shares may hold their value, on a rising market with a string of good years.
Otherwise bend over and look like you're enjoying it.
This could become a telling commentary on New Zealand corporate and investor culture. Not holding my breath though.
Sterling work from Kirsty Johnston and Chris Knox behind the Herald paywall.
While the 'experts' have been rabidly and wrongly apportioning blame for the measles outbreak to the 'anti-vax' movement the real reasons for the declining immunisation rates have been largely ignored.
Those of us who have tried to point out that blaming so called anti vaxxers has simply made the situation worse have been dismissed…or worse.
"Vaccination rates are dropping across the country as fewer families immunise their babies.
Now, in the midst of a measles epidemic, a Herald analysis of immunisation data finds just 77 per cent of six-month-olds are now getting their vaccines on time.
While the debate has been centred around the impact of the anti-vaxx movement, the numbers paint a different picture.
Plummeting vaccination rates are being driven largely by the failure to immunise babies born into poor or Māori families – not by parents deliberately opting out. "
'While the 'experts' have been rabidly and wrongly apportioning blame for the measles outbreak to the 'anti-vax' movement.
But of course thats my opinion on your wording . Can you correct my mistaken view?
People decline medical treatment or interventions all the time, thats OK.
What is a plague is those people who actively campaign to get others not to immunize, those are generally called anti -vaxxers
As I found further down about the 1990s massive epidemics , low immunization rates – the aim of the anti vaxxers- make epidemics spread.
Stuff has a detailed series of articles issued today with some very good reporting,finding that it is the antivax movement ,and detailing the effects of the perpetrators .
The question arises that should NZ call a measles emergency? Invocation of the Civil defence act emergency powers would enable suppression of the transfer of false information during an epidemic.The censor would be required to review any information imparted etc.
It's a mix of both Rosemary and you know it. Trying to hide behind the well known fact that poverty stricken families are also failing to have their children immunised does you no favour. This has long been the case and until these families are better educated and better informed it will always be the case.
Anti-vaxxers have a great deal to answer for, and I think it is about time the government rolled out a campaign to counter the pseudo scientific crap being spread across the internet. It might look impressive to the gullible of mind but it is still crap.
Babies and toddlers in particular are going to die due to this latest epidemic, and those peddling the anti-vax myths have to take their fair portion of the blame.
You're going to have to provide some evidence to back that up Anne. It is simply too easy to blame 'anti-vaxxers' for declining immunisation rates.
And are you assuming that these 'anti-vaxxers' are part of some organised group whose major mission is to convince parents that all vaccines are bad?
It is just as likely that the individuals who make up the 1300 claims of significant vaccine injury accepted by ACC since 2006 have whanau and friends who have been influenced by these events.
Seeing a previously 'normal' child now in a wheelchair being peg fed and having to be suctioned to clear secretions because of the vaccine induced brain damage sends a powerful message. Having our health authorities deny/dismiss that these adverse events happen….or worse…not warn parents that a very high fever and resulting seizures after a vaccination is not normal…is negligent.
Trouble is… with suppressing discussion about vaccine adverse events and casting all who have concerns about possible side-effects from vaccines into a pseudo criminal group who are personally responsible for every single case of measles that ends up in hospital you're simply going to drive the discussion underground.
Surely it would be better to be able to have open and transparent discussions…instead of resorting to name calling?
Okay…so we have a bunch of trendy 'yummy mummy' midwives catering to the well heeled of Auckland. These are the folk with spare $$$ to be 'educated' about vaccines and immunisation.
How many of the un-vaccinated measles sufferers parents attended such a course?
Herne Bay, one of the wealthiest places in the country has seen rates for all milestone ages fall from 93 to 84 per cent in two years.
A few kilometres across the city to the east in Glen Innes – among the bottom quarter of most deprived suburbs in the country in 2013 – rates rose about three percentage points in the same time.
We've had a decade of social-media-spread fear-mongering about vaccinations, and this data is backing it up – falling vaccination rates doesn't map to areas of social deprivation.
The reasons for not vaccinating vary, and in the most vulnerable populations access remains the core issue, not anti-vax material. Afaik this has been the position of the MoH for a long time.
This doesn't mean anti-vax material isn't also an issue, but railing against social media use while we could instead be urging the govt to increase access seems stupid.
Then, perhaps, we can have the conversation as to whether or not it is acceptable to dismiss and diminish those who have suffered significant injuries due to vaccinations at a rate of over 100 per year.
Bearing in mind that the majority of cases of measles resolve with no lasting effects.
….which thwarts my bid to gain stats back to 1940 because,
" Measles immunisation was introduced in 1969 [18]and measles has been a notifiable disease since June 1996. " Wtf? Not a notifiable disease until 1996? For the supposed Death Plague?
Grrr….the frustrating thing is that it is difficult to assess what has not been accurately measured. One has to wonder why the data has not been collected or collated into one document like the UK stats. No wonder we're left with readily discredited anecdata.
It's not the "death plague". It is, however, an infectious disease that kills a larger proportion of the people who get it than the vaccine that prevents it.
But no, I meant literally email or call the ministry of health or similar.
For deaths, try trawling the NZ yearbooks – they stop reporting measles deaths separately apparently in the early 1980s, though before then measles deaths are reported. Went to listing major causes of death.
The greater good argument would be more sound if it did take into account people damaged by vaccines. At the moment there's a taboo on speaking their names. That's just shitty. Maybe the next greater good argument is that we can hide those people because it helps a better vaccine engagement. Meanwhile, we run a shitty neoliberal economy that sacrifices large numbers of people all the time, and the public debate around measles is hating on anti-vaxxers instead of expecting the MoH to do it's job better and make access to the MMR vaccine much easier.
Sometimes vaccine harm is emphasised while minimising e.g. measles harm. Not just deaths, but longer term conditions as well. And I doubt they'd get ACC coverage.
@McFlock re vaccine harm vs long term disability from measles.
1300plus accepted vaccine injury claims by ACC since 2006.
Rightfully treated as a Treatment Injury by ACC and a fluctuating (depending on the flag over the Beehive) rate of acceptance.
(If there as a way of posting the OIA reply here I would.)
If one could prove there were errors or omissions by medical personnel in treating a case of measles that led to a death or impairment then I guess give an ACC claim a shot. Nothing ventured.
Let's not start a side discussion on the inequities between ACC and MOH for supports for long term impairments.
1: all vaccines vs measles is not a reasonable comparison of harm – what's the ACC rate for the MMR vaccine specifically?
2: harm from vaccine preventable diseases in a vaccinated population will be significantly smaller than the harm from those diseases in an unvaccinated population. To judge the value of vaccines, it would be more logical to compare vaccine harm against disease harm in an unvaccinated population, no?
Vaccine vs unvaxxed population seems to be at least reasonably doable, as opposed to guessing the disease prevalence at some sort of equilibrium level of vaccination where the number of opt-outers or delayers is balanced by the selfish who only vaccinate when there is a threat level they can understand, incorporating any other shortcomings in health literacy or systemic alienation that might be a barrier to primary healthcare.
I suspect such math would be more in line with economics than the real world, and with similar reliability.
Rosemary, you or someone else could try this link and then have a chat to Stats NZ to ask for the measles stats using the offer of help in the pop-up on the lower right hand side of the page Sorry, I am not available to do this as while I sometimes still read TS, I am rarely interested in commenting here these days.
Thanks vw. I just might send them an email…or…make an OIA to the Misery of Health. It disturbs me greatly that this guy Rainger/Ranger is saying..
" The fatality rate for measles was one in 1000, Rainger said, and as the numbers rose the likelihood of a fatality did too. "
…when, unlike the data from the UK showing the number of deaths per 1000 cases to be many times lower, there is no readily available pool of NZ stats to support such a claim.
I've suggested this previously, but IMHO when the annual death rate from measles cases is low (maybe not comparatively low, but low in an absolute sense – 1 in 1000 is a low rate in absolute terms), off a historically low annual number of cases (due to vaccination programmes), then that annual death rate it will bounce around a bit.
For the last 28 years, NZ's annual death rate from measles has been VERY low (zero; not bouncing around at all), so for the last 28 years NZ's annual death rate from measles has been the same or lower than that in the UK, because for some of those years the UK has also had no deaths from measles, while in other years it has had a few deaths, including in 1999 when the UK's rate of death from cases of measles (3 deaths from ~2400 cases) was higher than NZ's annual death rate during our biggest 'recent' measles epidemic (in 1991), and much higher than in NZ during every year since 1991.
To begin to understand why there was roughly 1 death for every 1000 cases of measles in NZ in 1991, the first port of call might be health workers/administrators/managers in the thick of it – there must quite a few still around. There was probably a health review commissioned, possibly some academic analysis too. But the reasons could include, or even be largely due to, chance, just as it was probably chance that the UK had a higher annual death rate from measles in 1999 than NZ has had for a very long time.
There may be some risk to patient safety, in terms of health sector/worker preparedness/familiarity in treating serious (life-threatening) cases of measles associated with this year's outbreak, given that there hasn't been a major outbreak for 28 years. But, hopefully, some will remember.
After all, "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it "
"If this outbreak is not stamped out by March next year NZ will lose its hard-earned measles elimination status."
Tbh, I wouldn't try to attach too much significance to year-to-year differences in annual rates of death from measles in or between developed countries. There will have been an enormous amount of medical/academic research on this by 1000s of health professionals and researchers, and I doubt that they have missed something I'm likely to spot, and/or are trying to cover up some glaring statistical anomaly.
This is an informative brief presentation by a medical doctor who thinks the death rate from measles is 3-4 per thousand, which seems very high (hence ‘don’t attach too much significance’, etc.) There's also a nice (Australian) comparison of the risks associated with contracting measles and the risks associated with being vaccinated for measles – very helpful.
Thanks Rosemary. I was hoping the MSM would address this. Pity it's behind a paywall. This has long been the issue, that the lowering numbers of vaccination in NZ are in part due to poor access to healthcare. The people who choose intentionally to not vaccinate are still afaik a small % of the population. I'd like to see some research done on that.
Thanks weka. This is the sole reason I coughed up the $$$ to read work like this from a journalist I respect.
I have linked on more than one occasion here on TS to the same databases the writers use. The data tells a different story to the one promulgated by the angry ranty DHBs who were embarrassed by their falling vaccination rates.
There are two major issues that I see here…the most significant is deprivation and difficulty accessing reliable health care in some communities. Only true transformational governance will ease this. It might alsoaddress that true indicator of our third world health status….rheumatic ever and the two hundred deaths per year from preventable heart damage.
The other issue is the fact that some New Zealand children have been injured by vaccines. Not many, but a significant enough number to be relevant to any discussion about vaccine efficacy and safety. We are not allowed to discuss these incidents without a barrage of abuse and accusations of being anti- vax and hence pro-plague.
I suggest that folk go out of doors into their communities and speak with the parents of these vaccine damaged children.
I see it similarly. Also, the people choosing not to access from informed consent (so not necessarily the anti-vaxers, although overlaps), often have a good enough standard of living so that if their child gets the measles or whooping cough they're more able to provide optimal care for that child (thus decreasing the chances of complications). I'd love to see some research on that too, but it's another of the taboo subjects.
"speak with the parents of these vaccine damaged children."
Oh dear. I cant see how campaigning against vaccination is allowed on this site. Personal choice is fine as for all medical interventions
The facts are
"The death rate for measles is about one-to-three people in every thousand. An estimated 10 per cent of cases require hospital treatment, and up to 30 per cent of people will develop complications, including pneumonia, diarrhoea and ear infections."
Thats only one of the diseases we vaccinate for as measles is covered by MMR Measles , Mumps,
Rubella is particularly nasty for unborn children leading to severe abnormalities
No surprise here: "The number of rubella cases has fallen dramatically since the vaccine became available in 1969. "
[perhaps you need some time out to reread the Policy. You were warned by me as a mod, and Rosemary asked you why you were calling her an anti-vaxxer, and you’ve ignored both of those and just carried on with misrepresenting her position. I don’t want to have to spend moderator time today reading your comments to see if you’re still passive-aggressive flaming. 2 day ban – weka]
I cant see how campaigning against vaccination is allowed on this site.
Are you accusing me of campaigning against vaccinations because I suggest folk go and speak with the families of those 1300 plus people who have been vaccine injured in the past 13 years in NZ?
Perhaps we should be asking ourselves why a supposedly first world country like NZ anticipates such a high death rate from what used to be a nasty but usually survivable childhood illness.
Perhaps we should also talk about our shameful rates of other third world diseases.
Maybe death rates are sometimes higher during measles epidemics because public health services are stretched thinner. That may have contributed to the comparatively high rate of death (1 death in 1000 cases) during NZ's 1991 measles epidemic (7000 cases).
In NZ, no deaths have been attributed to measles since 1991, so a big shout out to GPs and other health workers (and of course to parents who took advantage of free vaccinations for their children) for that excellent result.
If the current measles outbreak is restricted to one or two thousand NZers then maybe the health service will be able to prevent any measles-related deaths, but I'm guessing that health spokespersons don't want to appear too confident about that, for fear of vaccination rates falling still further.
In NZ, no deaths have been attributed to measles since 1991, so a big shout out to GPs and other health workers (and of course to parents who took advantage of free vaccinations for their children) for that excellent result.
For the life of me I cannot find similar data for NZ…ie…number of cases of measles and number of deaths from measles per year.
A pity, or we could have made a true comparison.
Of course the parents of fully vaccinated children cannot claim credit for there having been no deaths due to measles because their children, being vaccinated, will not have got measles. The UK data refers to deaths from actual measles.
I still don't understand why here in NZ there were a reported 7 deaths from around 7000 notified cases of measles while in the UK in the same year (1991) there was 1 death from 9680 notified cases.
There is something seriously wrong with our health system.
I still don't understand why here in NZ there were a reported 7 deaths from around 7000 notified cases of measles while in the UK in the same year (1991) there was 1 death from 9680 notified cases.
Which statistical test to go by for these numbers is an esoteric discussion of which I know nothing. The point is that the lower confidence bound for the 7/7000 death rate for any given test is slightly lower than the upper bound for the 1/9680 rate (bear in mind the comparison numbers are in different magnitudes).
Does this mean there isn't some systemic difference? No. Just that we can't say for sure that either system is better than another, based on the samples we have to work with.
The rate ratios indicate there might me some difference using Byars, but it's not a binary "no difference/significant difference" situation. The intervals are pretty wide, and the gap is pretty narrow.
I freely admit to a superficial understanding of statistics, and the deep stuff you're directing me towards has given me a headache. I will consult my stats and data advisor later.
I'm not a stats engineer (more a data tradie lol) but the gist is that we're looking at whether the difference is actually a difference in the ability of each system, or is it just broadly what we'd expect from identical systems with reasonable variation in outcomes. E.g. if the car accident rate lowered from year to year, is this just random noise in the system or have things actually improved?
So the statisticians created probability tests for different circumstances. Some are p-values, personally I prefer CIs. p-values hurt my brain, and people love to view their significance as binary "care or do not care about result", whereas things are more subtle than that.
So using Byars, our 7/7000 equals a rate of 1 per 1000 with a lower bound of0.4/1000 and upper of 2/1000.
1/9680 gives a rate of 0.1/1000, with a CI range of 0.001/1000 to 0.57/1000. Obviously one rate is ten times the other as observed, but because the CIs overlap we can't be reasonably sure that the results won't be swapped the next time each health service faces an outbreak.
Now, they only just overlap so there might be something there if we look more closely with larger samples, but at this stage it's not a given either way.
A chart example of NZ child assault deaths is here. The numbers bounce about, the rates bounce about, but because the confidence intervals are so wide there probably isn't any real difference between them all. Even the lowest rate might just be an outlier, because we have so many datapoints so that might just be the way 95% CI (or 1:20 odds) rolled that time.
edit:
BTW, my math tends to fold in on itself and deliver garbage, so if anyone wants to check it please do. If I’m in a hurry or multitasking, I still find my code screws up because the alligator teeth point the wrong direction when looking for high-low pass filters lol
you know my eyes started glazing over when you said p values right?
I'm assuming (loosely) that it's probably both the maths and there are factors affecting actual rates (NZ being different from the UK). Having the long term yearly rates would be useful.
If it's any consolation, I spent 20 minutes trying to make sure my conversion of rates per ten thousand to rates per thousand went the right direction 🙂
I got Matt to check my maths recently for a post where I was working with millions and tens of thousands. I was only out by a factor of 10. That would still have been fairly embarrassing, lol.
When we were trying to have an inclusive nation and counting people as citizens not human resources, there were very strong moves against TB, and there were health buses that would travel to areas where you could go for vaccination against polio. These two diseases are not totally beaten but we need now the same sort of initiative to get measles down and under control again. Capice?
It is wrong for government and the Dept of Health to do the contract thing and lay the problem at overworked DHBs feet. The policies of the government have resulted in numbers of incoming people bringing more disease and health problems with them. Since the welfare budget was severely cut in 1991 it has never been adequate for families wellbeing, and without that income, and with fewer state houses for lower-income people we have a rolling, rising problem.
The PM himself said he was planning on having a low-wage economy, it takes a boofhead not to see that we are not extending services to people whose needs have been neglected. And lack of quality welfare leads to lack of quality in a country's achievements and standards.
thats not correct. Waiheke, Herne bay and the coromandel are leading the trend down, and they aren’t poverty stricken.
the science is settled on immunisation. Defending the “right to choose” to vaccinate is akin to defending the right opt out of Climate change prevention measures because of the chance of personal adverse outcomes. Humanity is at stake hear. Vaccine damage occurs at an infinitesimal rate compared to the occurrence of infectious diseases during an outbreak.
Herd immunity needs around 90% vaccinated rate (according to science). No reason why the 5% or so of the population that choose to not vaccinate shouldn't be allowed to.
Writing off the people who have been damaged doesn’t help convince anti-vaxxers btw, it makes things worse.
so when vaccinations are at 88% of the population, that 88% should be imperilled because of the poor choices of, at that point, a critical 5%?
Good to know that 5% of the population should be allowed to make choices that can adversely affect the other 95%, and shouldn’t be made to feel bad about it either
Climaction. Defending the “right to choose” to vaccinate is akin to defending the right opt out of Climate change prevention measures because of the chance of personal adverse outcomes.
Weird conflation…but nevermind…it is to be expected from certain groups who have an almost religious zeal when presenting their particular views.
So, and correct me if I'm wrong, those individuals who choose not to vaccinate because of well founded concerns over adverse effects are to blame for 'imperilling' the 88% who are vaccinated.
Excuse me…but if the vaccine is effective (as well as safe) how can the unvaccinated possibly imperil the fully vaccinated?
And how dare you dismiss the experiences of those who have been significantly adversely affected by a vaccine.
How dare I not subscribe to your views that your hurt is of greater meaning than the families of those poor defenceless children suffering from preventable disease they are too young to be immunised against? Interesting value pyramid you live within.
Vaccines are effective and safe. How many of the “vaccine damaged” 1300 since 2006 were from the measles vaccine? A critical part of your stat missing there when denying that not vaccinating kids by choice has no bearing on a measle outbreak
Vaccines are effective and safe. How many of the “vaccine damaged” 1300 since 2006 were from the measles vaccine?
Bear with me a minute. This is very difficult to ascertain as this report…
https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/topic_sheets/adverse-event-summary.pdf …is at odds with the ACC data I obtained through an OIA. The above document states that between 2005 and 2009 that " Of the 4,757 reports, 174 (3.6%) meet the criteria of a serious report." Peculiar as ACC data shows 299 accepted claims for vaccine injury during the same period.
There is a wee chart in the Adverse Events Summary that does indicate which particular vaccine is being 'blamed' for the adverse event. MMR accounts for 25 of the 174 of the total 'serious' reports.
The discrepancy in numbers between the two might be an administrative lag between date of vaccination, onset of adverse event, reporting date, and the date that ACC made its decision.
Additionally, there might be some differences in criteria – adverse events are any event within X period of the vaccination, while ACC might have different causal threshold.
As for 25 serious reports, "serious" includes "hospitalisations", so I suggest the number of MMR-correlated incidents in that five year period has been thoroughly outstripped by hospitalisations in the current outbreak. Probably several times over by now.
Australia has 99 % vacination rate. No vacination,no playgroup,kindy or school.How simple is THAT.This is a major failure of Government public health policy.
Spot on Rosemary, the consequences of regional differences in vaccination rates in NZ, due to socioeconomic, cultural and other factors, seem to mirror trends seen in Europe.
Measles in Europe: record number of both sick and immunized (lessons for NZ?)
“This means that gaps at local level still offer an open door to the virus,” says Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab. “We cannot achieve healthier populations globally, as promised in WHO’s vision for the coming five years, if we do not work locally.”
More children in the WHO European Region are being vaccinated against measles than ever before; but progress has been uneven between and within countries, leaving increasing clusters of susceptible individuals unprotected, and resulting in a record number of people affected by the virus in 2018. In light of measles data for the year 2018 released today, WHO urges European countries to target their interventions to those places and groups where immunization gaps persist.
Measles killed 72 children and adults in the European Region in 2018. According to monthly country reports for January to December 2018 (received as of 01 February 2019), 82 596 people in 47 of 53 countries contracted measles. In countries reporting hospitalization data, nearly 2/3 (61%) of measles cases were hospitalized. The total number of people infected with the virus in 2018 was the highest this decade: 3 times the total reported in 2017 and 15 times the record low number of people affected in 2016.
The surge in measles cases in 2018 followed a year in which the European Region achieved its highest ever estimated coverage for the second dose of measles vaccination (90% in 2017). More children in the Region received the full two-dose series on time, according to their countries’ immunization schedules, in 2017 than in any year since WHO started collecting data on the second dose in 2000. Coverage with the first dose of the vaccine also increased slightly to 95%, the highest level since 2013. However, progress in the Region, based on achievements at the national level, can mask gaps at subnational levels, which are often not recognized until outbreaks occur.
“The picture for 2018 makes it clear that the current pace of progress in raising immunization rates will be insufficient to stop measles circulation. While data indicate exceptionally high immunization coverage at regional level, they also reflect a record number affected and killed by the disease. This means that gaps at local level still offer an open door to the virus,” says Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab. “We cannot achieve healthier populations globally, as promised in WHO’s vision for the coming five years, if we do not work locally. We must do more and do it better to protect each and every person from diseases that can be easily avoided.”
1990s epidemics were greater , many thousands caught the disease. What happened then.. really dont think there was some sort of national emergency proclaimed
"
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, Jim Bolger was prime minister, and New Zealand was sick with measles.
Vaccination coverage was low and the highly infectious disease was ripping through the population. Estimates vary, but as many as 40,000 to 60,000 people likely got sick, according to a previous version of the immunisation handbook, put out by the Ministry of Health.
Seven people died, including four unimmunised children. Six years later, in 1997, a second, smaller epidemic struck. There were 2169 cases around the country. About 950 people were hospitalised across both events, according to the 2011 handbook.
"People have forgotten what used to happen when we didn't have such high vaccination rates," said Dr Jill Sherwood, a public health medicine specialist at ESR, a Crown Research Institute."
Because there's absolutely nothing else threatening the wellbeing of the country right now, the most tech-literate Government ever!1 has decided that it's a good time to do some pearl-clutching about adult content on the Internet.
There's a measles epidemic, men and boys are killing themselves in greater numbers than ever before, people are sleeping in cars, carbon emissions are increasing, water quality is declining, so of course it's time for a bit of "won't someone think of the children" dead-cat distraction.
Here are some things that have my spidey sense tingling:
" Five draft laws have been proposed to the Minister by Family First "
–oh neat, Family First. Just who I need advice on matters of sexuality and freedom of expression.
" Directing the state department of education to take a direct role in educating parents of enrolled students on the harms of pornographic material. "
–telling parents what to think doesn't sound outside the department's purview AT ALL.
"Options being looked at include: R18 access to porn websites: Residents will have to provide age ID to have access "
–hands up who trusts the NZ government to secure an enormous digital collection of identity documentation?
Valid point about family first lobbying ministries, but the real question should be, with the large number of children regularly accessing hardcore pornagraphy, especially that which is degrading and exploitative of women, and the persistence of rape culture, misogyny and brutal disrespect to them in our society, can we afford not to impose restrictions on who gets to view it?
Those too are valid points. But in the real world we also have to acknowledge two things:
1. The NZ Government is technically illiterate. It wouldn't have the foggiest idea how to block some people's access to parts of the Internet without screwing other parts of the Internet up for everyone.
2. One person's perversion is another person's expression of identity. If the Government blocks (for example) trans or non-binary porn for people who are over the legal age of consent, it will be a disaster.
Perhaps you could characterise both points as parts of the same problem – it’s crazy to trust the imposition of morality on the Internet to wealthy, able-bodied, old, white, straight, cisgender technophobes.
Adult people can perve their hearts out for all I care, but the issue is children having free access and the damage it does not only to the viewer, but those who form relationships or encounter them in the present and future.
In the old days you found a mag on the common or under your dads bed, and that was your exposure to porn, but this digital media age has much worse content, viewed by many many more people.
I'm not a prude, nor do I have the solution, though I think for the safety and mental well being of our younglings, something should be done, whatever it is.
"My country unleashed a horrific war that would cost more than 50 million people — among them millions of Polish citizens — their lives. This war was a German crime," the president said in a speech before Polish President Andrzej Duda, US Vice President Mike Pence, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, as well as representatives of 30 other countries.
The Russians' fond belief that they were hapless, peace-loving victims of WW2 is something Putin's trying to reinforce, so chances of an admission of guilt = 0.
These days, as far as Russia's concerned the war started on 22 June 1941. Quibbling about who did what before that is for bigoted, ant-Slavic westerners who want to undermine the heroic Soviet achievement because they're embarrassed at their own countries' dismal failure to contain the Nazi threat. It's going down a treat inside Russia – not so much in Poland, Finland, the Baltic Republics or Romania, mind…
The response to the Bridges National Cancer "Plan" recently seemed to be heavily commented on in MSM.
An actual Cancer Plan published yesterday seemed to have a muted response, except for the expected rapid denigrating response from National. "Too little. Too late." Strange for a National Party after 9 long years?
Unless the government already had such a 'cancer plan' in the pipeline before National presented theirs, you have to wonder why they let National and the MSM set the agenda in the first place. Who said that that was the problem de jour, that everyone has to address this week? It's important, to be sure, but why not focus on your own legislative agenda?
After the last three years, the work of a just and righteous God cannot be considered credible evidence of His goodness unless He picks all of Mar-a-lago up by the roots, sails it across half of Florida and heaves it on top of Doral and its every last bedbug. https://t.co/5UblkKzF1c
Fucknuts, we are invoking an omnipotent divinity capable of heaving one Trump shithole atop another, destroying the realty and leaving no other soul’s hair mussed. And hey, roaming twitter with a flatlining sense of humor and some manufactured outrage just sucks unwashed ass. https://t.co/BVA12JwYEv
Aotearoa is no Australia just because they like using the big stick userly it is used on the people who are down and out. Aotearoa can come up with a smart solution to the measles problem in Aotearoa.
The old health system was the best in the Papatuanuku in value for money and services. My experience with the health system is not good at all I seen the way that they discriminated against me and my mokopuna. I don't trust anyone in that system
Ma Te wa the Kiwi build is a good move by the Coalition government to fix the last lots Houseing short they were serving themselves rubbing there hands together reaping the capital gains cause by shonkys short.
Dorain is a powerful force from Tawhirimate and Papatuanuku we need to heed our scientists warning and drop carbon out of our lives as fast as possible.
Its great that our Prime Minister is taking to Ngāti Porou about our Awa Tangaroa and the state of the Fisheries on the East Coast to resolve the issues that were agreed appon in the 1980s
Ka pai Chris these loan sharks cost Maori and Pacific tangata heaps of money with their huge interest charged on their loans to people who can least afford to pay it back Eco Maori dislike these people .
Tangata whenua do value our ENVIRONMENT more than western society's do we know that we are part of all things in our environment be it whenua Tangaroa or Tawhirimate.
The Tangata Whenua O Australia are being discriminated against by the Australian Crown its a very sad situation that they are in WTF it that common Tangata whenua Australia its no who's in the hinaki its who hasn't been to jail what a waste of great talenteEd tangata. Shane Phillips Ka pai with your mahi
Ngāti Manawheno it's great to see our tamariki preforming it's better for Eco Maori to see all our Wahine stepping up to the hard mahi in Aotearoa.
Alone, Alone, All, All, Alone: To argue that the Prime Minister is the victim of her advisers’ failure to keep her informed may offer Jacinda some measure of exoneration – but only at the cost of casting her as a hopeless political ingénue. A star-dusted muppet, whose only purpose is to ...
In times of hysteria about the “World coming to an end” and “rising sea levels” so-called ‘Journalists’ who can barely spell words longer than four letters are having a ball! Though the majority of the Public have worked out that manmade climate change is nothing short of pseudo-science, and the ...
I don't want to give pblicity to certain parts of the internet that are better left to fester in their own irrelevance (I know, a bit like this place) but the listing of Chris Trotter as a 'author' on Cameron Slater's spinoff website, the BFD requires some explanation.Now, I don't ...
The text below is a Twitter thread by Heather Heying that explains the essence of sexual reproduction and it long evolutionary history. She is an evolutionary biologist and a “professor-in-exile” after she and her husband, Bret Weinstein, stood up to supporters of an enforced “Day of Absence” for white staff and teachers ...
With crunch time for new Zealand climate policy approaching, most of the New Zealand media have got on board with a global reporting effort to cover the issue. There's one strand of stories today about polling and what it shows about changing public attitudes to the crisis, but the strand ...
Dangerous Foes: For those readers of Bowalley Road who feel disposed to dismiss any prospect of an Israeli destabilisation of New Zealand politics, the example of the United Kingdom repays close attention. Ever since the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the British Labour Party, the Israelis have sanctioned, funded and ...
Make It 16, the youth-led campaign to lower New Zealand's voting age, is holding an official campaign launch at Parliament this Friday from 16:30. If you'd like to attend, you can register using EventBrite here. ...
by Don Franks It was a lovely sunny Wellington afternoon with blue skies above the beaches. In Courtenay Place, political activists packed out a stuffy upstairs room for an important meeting. The assembled pacifists, anarchists, communists and independent young radicals of Peace Action Wellington felt the need for a mission ...
Current and former NZDF top brass are being publicly grilled this week by the hit and run inquiry over their public responses to allegations of civilian casualties. Previously, they've claimed there were no casualties, a position which led them to lie to Ministers and to the public. Now, they're saying ...
by Rafael D. Quiles (gender-critical gay man from Puerto Rico) The writing on the wall is right in people’s faces and people just don’t see it or don’t want to. What could actually possess a heterosexual male to want to feminize himself and claim that he is a lesbian? Because ...
From the Wall Street Journal:Inside a room of the ornately decorated Hotel du Palais during last month’s Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, President Trump awaited a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Mr. Trump looked over a gathering of American and Egyptian officials and called out in ...
by the Redline blog collective At Redline we are very saddened to hear of the death of Magdalen Burns who passed away on the morning of Friday, September 13 (British time). Magdalen was a great fighter for the rights of women in general and lesbian women in particular, a defender ...
The Brexit issue has certainly brought with it a series of apparently difficult constitutional issues, many of them concerning the respective roles of the executive and parliament. Most of them arise because of the unwillingness of MPs, despite their professions to the contrary, to be bound by a constitutional rarity ...
. . This blogpost is different to my usual format of reporting on issues… Since July 1011, I have blogged on a variety of political issues; near always political and/or environmental; mostly highly critical of the previous National Government. Other issues included Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and repression of ...
Those close to the Police Minister believe the initiative may be the result of Nash “seeing a great deal” on AliExpress. In a move that comes seemingly out of nowhere, Police Minister Stuart Nash announced this afternoon that he expects all frontline staff to don bearskin hats, famously worn by ...
The government has released its Arms Legislation Bill, containing the second tranche of changes to gun laws following the March 15 massacre. And it all looks quite sensible: a national gun register, higher penalties for illegal possession and dealing, tighter restrictions on arms dealers and shooting clubs, and a shorter ...
Private prisons are a stain on humanity. Prison operators explicitly profit from human misery, then lobby for longer prisons terms so they can keep on profiting. And in the US, prison companies run not only local and state prisons, but also Donald Trump's immigration concentration camps. Faced with this moral ...
When National was in power, they were very keen on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) - basicly, using private companies to finance public infrastructure as a way of hiding debt from the public. They were keen on using them for everything - roads, schools, hospitals. But as the UK shows, that "service" ...
Moving And Shaking: There was a time when people spoke matter-of-factly about the “labour movement” – a political phenomenon understood to embrace much more than the Labour Party. Included within the term’s definition was the whole trade union movement – many of whose members looked upon the Labour Party as ...
by Philip Ferguson Much of the left, even people who formally identify as marxists, have collapsed politically in the face of postmodern gender theory of the sort pioneered by American philosopher Judith Butler. For Butler even biological sex is socially constructed. “If the immutable character of sex is contested, perhaps ...
The media is reporting that the (alleged) Labour party sexual assaulter has resigned from their job at Parliament, which means hopefully he won't be turning up there making people feel unsafe in future. Good. But as with everything about this scandal, it just raises other questions. Most significantly: why the ...
By Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern I am every bit as angry as you are. I am every bit as disappointed as you must be. The people with power, oversight and the ability to do something about these processes within the Labour Party should be ashamed. Whoever those people are, I ...
Property developers think there is an "oversupply" of houses in Auckland:High turnover rates and falling prices may be a sign that there are too many new houses going in to some parts of Auckland, commentators say. [...] Property developer David Whitburn said there was a "bit of an oversupply" in ...
Labour Party president Nigel Haworth resigned yesterday over the party's sexual assault scandal. But while that's good news, its unlikely to take away the stench of a coverup. Because according to Paula Bennett in Parliament yesterday, pretty much everyone in the Prime Minister's office was involved as well:I have been ...
Two-Faced? Labour insiders' commitment to the neoliberal status quo puts them at odds with their party’s membership; its trade union affiliates; and a majority of Labour voters, but this only serves to strengthen the perception they have of themselves as a special elite. Among the lesser breeds, they’ll talk up a ...
There has been a lot of talk about Boris Johnson wanting an election, and he has blustered with great gusto about 'chicken' Jeremy Corbyn refusing one, but I think there are many reasons why he is secretly glad he has been refused the opportunity:The Tories are an utter rabble,tearing themselves ...
Scottish appeal court judges have declared that Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament in the run-up to the October Brexit deadline is unlawful. The three judges, chaired by Lord Carloway, Scotland’s most senior judge, overturned an earlier ruling that the courts did not have the powers to interfere in the prime ...
By Simon Bridges. The following is a press release from the office of Simon Bridges, leader of The National Party. Key ora, New Zealand. Happy Maori Language Week. Look, I’m writing to you today because I want to clear something up. There’s been a lot of kerfuffle around some things ...
I understand there's some stuff going round about how the SIS "was removed from the list of public offices covered by the Public Records Act in 2017". The context of course being their records derived from US torture, which will be disposed of or sealed. The good news is that ...
Dr. Christopher Labos and Jonathan Jarry discuss the recent Canadian fluoride/IQ research. They provide an expert analysis of the paper and its problems. Click on image to go to podcast. The critical debate about the recent ...
Australia is burning down again, and meanwhile its natural disaster minister is denying climate change:Australia’s minister responsible for drought and natural disasters, David Littleproud, has said that he doesn’t “know if climate change is manmade”. Clarifying earlier comments that the question is “irrelevant” when considering the Coalition government’s response to ...
Auckland Philippines Solidarity is excited to host Professor Judy Taguiwalo for a speaking tour of NZ in September. She is a well-known activist in the Philippines and was a political prisoner under the Marcos dictatorship. Professor Taguiwalo briefly served as a Cabinet member under President Duterte but was forced from ...
This open letter to the Green Party was penned after an opinion piece by Jill Abigail, a feminist and founding member of the party, was censored by the Greens’ leadership. (Redline has reprinted her article here).The intolerance of the Green Party leaders and their acceptance of the misogyny of gender ...
Today is a Member's day, and David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill continues its slow crawl through its committee stage. They're spending the whole day on it today, though the first hour is likely to be spent on voting left over from last time. After that they'll move on ...
An ambitious plan to fly to Los Angeles petered out into a brief sight-seeing trip and a desire to return home and get some sleep before work tomorrow. Air New Zealand has confirmed a flight to Los Angeles last night was turned back about a quarter of the way into ...
There appears to be consensus – by omission – that the concept of indigenous futures should be accepted at face value. So I scavenged the internet to see if I could locate an academic descriptor or a framework around how we think about it as a concept, and whether it ...
Here’s another novelty chocolate to shove in your gob, New Zealand Cadbury could be seeking to make itself great again with a rumoured new release: Pineapple Trumps, a spin on its classic chocolate-encased pineapple treat and do-it-yourself tooth remover. The global confectionery manufacturer and bumbling “before” character in an infomercial, ...
During my time in the Pentagon I had the privilege of sitting down with military leaders and defence and security officials from a variety of Latin American nations. Sometimes I was present as a subordinate assistant to a senior US defence department official, sometimes as part of a delegation that ...
Kia ora, Aotearoa. It’s that magical time of year. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. In English, the week that frightens talk radio. As you probably know by now, all your favourite media outlets are participating, some more successfully than others. Stuff has changed its name to Puna for the ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. So how's that going? I was curious, so I asked for all advice about the proposal. ...
As the Brexit saga staggers on, the focus is naturally enough on the Prime Minister and his attempts to achieve Brexit “do or die”. But the role played by the Leader of the Opposition is of almost equal interest and complexity. The first problem for Jeremy Corbyn is that he ...
Last week, English Prime Minister Boris Johnson boldly declared that he would rather die be dead in a ditch than delay Brexit. Unfortunately for him, the UK parliament accepted the challenge, and promptly dug one for him. The "rebellion bill" requires him to ask for and secure yet another temporary ...
Lost In Political Space: The most important takeaway from this latest Labour sexual assault scandal, which (if I may paraphrase Nixon’s White House counsel’s, John Dean’s, infamous description of Watergate) is “growing like a cancer” on the premiership, is the Labour Party organisation’s extraordinary professional paralysis in the face of ...
by Daphna Whitmore Every Sunday for the past two months unionists from First Union, with supporters from other unions, have set out to the Ihumatao land protest, put up gazebos and gas barbeques, and cooked food for a few hundred locals and supporters who have come from across the country. ...
Newsroom today has an excellent, in-depth article on pine trees as carbon sinks. The TL;DR is that pine is really good at soaking up carbon, but people prefer far-less efficient native forests instead. Which is understandable, but there's two problems: firstly, we've pissed about so long on this problem that ...
Canan Kaftancioglu is a Turkish politician and member of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). Like most modern politicians, she tweets, and uses the platform to criticise the Turkish government. She has criticised them over the death of a 14-year-old boy who was hit by a tear gas grenade during ...
Hi there, just call me Tim.We face tough problems, and I’d like to help, because there are solutions.An Auckand District Health Board member has nominated me for as a candidate for the ADHB, because her MS-related pain and fatigue is reduced with hemp products from Rotorua. Nothing else helped her. If I ...
The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security has published their report on whether the SIS and GCSB had any complicity in American torture. And its damning. The pull quote is this:The Inquiry found both agencies, but to a much greater degree, the NZSIS, received many intelligence reports obtained from detainees who, ...
Bewhiskered Cassandra? Professor Hugh White’s chilling suggestion, advanced to select collections of academic, military and diplomatic Kiwi experts over the course of the past week, is that the assumptions upon which Australia and New Zealand have built their foreign affairs and defence policies for practically their entire histories – are ...
For most of the time I was a British MP, my party was out of government – these were the Thatcher years, when it was hard for anyone else to get a look-in. As a front-bencher and shadow minister, I became familiar with the strategies required in a parliamentary democracy ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh On August 29th a video in which veteran FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) commander Iván Márquez announced that they had taken up arms again was released. There was no delay in the reaction to it, from longtime Liberal Party figure and former president Uribe, for ...
Air New Zealand couldn’t believe its luck that this seemingly ideal piece of real estate had so far gone entirely unnoticed. Air New Zealand’s search for a site to build a second Auckland Airport may have made a breakthrough this afternoon, after employees scanning Google satellite imagery spotted a huge, ...
No-one on the anti-capitalist left in this country today puts forward a case that Labour is on the side of the working class. There are certainly people who call themselves ‘socialist’ who do, but they are essentially liberals with vested interests in Labourism – often for career reasons. Nevertheless, there ...
When National was in government and fucking over the poor for the benefit of the rich, foodbanks were a growth industry. And now Labour is in charge, nothing has changed: A huge demand for emergency food parcels means the Auckland City Mission is struggling to prepare for the impending arrival ...
Gayford, pictured here on The Project, before things got wildly out of control. A bold public relations move by the Government to encourage parents to vaccinate their children has gone horribly wrong. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appeared on tonight’s episode of Three’s The Project, where the plan was for her ...
Mr. Whippy’s business model has driven it down a dark road of intimidation. Residents in major centres around the country are becoming disgruntled by the increasingly aggressive actions of purported ice cream company Mr. Whippy, who have taken to parking on people’s front lawns and doorsteps in a desperate attempt ...
Today the government released its Action Plan for Healthy Waterways, aimed at cleaning up our lakes and rivers. Its actually quite good. There will be protection for wetlands, better standards for swimming spots, a requirement for continuous improvement, and better standards for wastewater and stormwater. But most importantly, there's a ...
Today I appeared before the Environment Committee to give an oral submission on the Zero Carbon Bill. Over 1,500 people have asked to appear in person, so they've divided into subcommittees and are off touring the country, giving people a five minute slot each. The other submitters were a mixed ...
Anti-fluoride activists have some wealthy backers – they are erecting billboards misrepresenting the Canadian study on many New Zealand cities – and local authorities are ordering their removal because of their scaremongering. Many New Zealanders ...
So, those who “know best” have again done their worst. While constantly claiming to be the guardians of democracy and the constitution, and respecters of the 2016 referendum result, diehard Remainers (who have never brought themselves to believe that their advice could have been rejected) have striven might and main ...
Following publication of this article, the Ministry has requested it to be noted that this supplied image is not necessarily representative of what the final house will look like, and it “probably won’t be that nice.” As part of today’s long-anticipated reset of the Government’s flagship KiwiBuild policy, Housing Minister ...
Over the next week or two we will be running three synopses of parts of the opening chapter of John Smith’s Imperialism in the 21st Century (New York, Monthly Review Press, 2016). The synopsis and commentary below is written by Phil Duncan. Marx began Capital not with a sweeping historical ...
The State Services Commission and Ombudsman have released another batch of OIA statistics, covering the last six months. Request volumes are up, and the core public service is generally handling them within the legal timeframe, though this may be because they've learned to extend rather than just ignore things. And ...
In 1994, I was editing an ambitious street mag called Planet, from a fabled office at at 309 Karangahape Road. The thirteenth issue of the magazine was published in the winter of that year and its cover embodied a particularly ambitious goal: the end of cannabis prohibition.I wanted to do ...
KiwiBuild was one of the Ardern government's core policies. The government would end the housing crisis and make housing affordable again by building 100,000 new homes. Of course, it didn't work out like that: targets weren't met, the houses they did build were in the wrong place, and the whole ...
As the climate crisis escalates, it is now obvious that we need to radically decarbonise our economy. The good news is that its looking easy and profitable for the energy sector. Wind is already cheaper than fossil fuels, and now solar is too:The levellised cost of solar PV has fallen ...
NZUS Council executive director Jordan Small welcomes the news New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will meet with US President Donald Trump in New York next week. ...
The recent NZIER report trivialises the significant role the dairy sector plays in New Zealand’s economy – and fails to look at the specifics of the Government’s freshwater package, according to DairyNZ. DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle said ...
This week, the New Zealand Parliament and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) will jointly host a seminar on tackling the global spread of illicit weapons. ...
In a landmark judgment issued this morning, the Court of Appeal confirmed that the Southern Response Concealment Class Action will proceed issued on an "opt out” basis. ...
Mainstream media, as the purveyors of truth and source of balanced information, took another backward step today with the announcement by Stuff that most New Zealand organisations had joined 170 media outlets from around the world in the “Covering ...
The goal of one million Kiwis having basic conversations in te reo by 2040 is unrealistic if more is not done to get serious about reo acquisition says the Māori Party. “While small steps have been taken to bolster efforts to increase the numbers of speakers, ...
Changes announced today by the Immigration Minister to employer-assisted visas will help businesses, but more work is needed to boost economic growth says Business Central. ...
DairyNZ Chief Executive Dr Tim Mackle is welcoming today’s announcement that the Government will be streamlining the employer assisted work visa process to help businesses and farms fill skills shortages. ...
Lawrence Yule MP wrote to our Office with concerns about the Department of Corrections' approach to procuring design and build services for rapid deployment of prison accommodation. We have published our response to Mr Yule on our website . ...
That from the chair of the Wellington Region of the College of Midwives, Siobhan Connor, following the news that Hutt Valley District Health Board is targeting midwives from overseas to help fill gaps in maternity units. ...
70% of New Zealand’s surface water take is allocated to Meridian’s Manapouri Power Scheme. But when Environment Minister David Parker asked to exempt the Scheme from his Freshwater Action Plan, he didn’t tell Cabinet that. ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that officers responded in a timely and appropriate manner as soon as they were aware that a fleeing driver had hit a pedestrian. ...
prevention and intervention. Following Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s post-Cabinet press conference we are encouraged to see the acknowledgement of the mistakes made and the need to address this. The five points outlined in the action plan, which ...
A surge in teen vaping rates and a series of deaths being linked to vaping has resulted in a number of bans on the sales of flavoured Vape juice products in the United States. Though it is widely acknowledged that vaping is far less harmful than smoking tobacco, ...
The governments’ new environmental proposals will further accentuate the move of good, productive farmland into forestry according to environmental lobby group 50 Shades of Green. ...
17 September 2019: New Zealanders are acutely aware of the impact food production processes have on our planet according to new research released today by the 5+ A Day Charitable Trust. ...
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL is awarding three New Zealand climate youth groups with its Ambassador of Conscience award, its highest recognition for human rights work, previously given to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Ai Weiwei and Malala Yousafzai. ...
On 14 September 2017, the pipeline that brings diesel, petrol, and jet fuel from Marsden Point Oil Refinery into Auckland ruptured. It leaked jet fuel into rural properties and stopped the transmission of fuels into Auckland for 10 days. The rupture ...
Victims Advocate Louise Nicholas - Labour should have brought in “specialist support” “When there is a complaint especially a serious complaint of sexual assault, the first thing that should have happened was specialist support brought in to ensure ...
Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods says New Zealand is ‘not close’ to bringing in oil reserves after the attack on Saudi fields. “We would have to see prices rise by about $20 per barrel in order for some of those strategic reserves ...
New Zealand's new fresh water regulation rules will have no major impacts on the national economy, according to an independent report just out. The report by independent economic consultancy New Zealand Institute of Economic Research shows that dairying ...
Fish & Game New Zealand has welcomed the findings of a New Zealand Institute of Economic Research report, which rejects claims the Government’s freshwater proposals will have a significant economic impact. ...
The Council of Licensed Firearms Owners (COLFO) says the Government should take its proposed firearms legislation to the people with a touring Select Committee, as it just has with the Zero Carbon bill. ...
Water reforms and the long term sustainability of water will be a key focus at the Water New Zealand conference and expo this week (18-20 September) in Hamilton. ...
“Kiwi ex-smokers are mobilising against the Government’s plans to drastically limit vaping flavours. Flavours have been key to them quitting tobacco and they now just want other smokers to have the same chance,” says Jonathan Devery, co-owner ...
Oil company Tamarind Resources has reportedly halted drilling at its Tui oil field off the Taranaki coast after the first of the three planned wells came up dry and bad weather caused delays. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the left-wing campaign group “ActionStation” to front up and be transparent about how much taxpayer funding it takes from the Government to underwrite its activism activities. Earlier in the month, the Taxpayers’ ...
The ‘ Unplanned ’ movie is here and Family First has secured one of the first screenings in New Zealand tonight. ‘Unplanned’ brings an eye-opening look inside the abortion industry from a woman who was once its most passionate advocate. All ...
James Renwick claim that NZ is failing on climate change is valid, and since James has been receiving widespread media coverage that we outline most of it again here now as we gear up for the ‘Global climate change conference’ beginning next week. ...
Protestors will be outside the venue of the fourth hearing for Operation Burnham Inquiry on Monday morning from 8.30am to give a message to former and current military officers as they arrive to speak about the ongoing coverup of the 2010 attack on ...
The long-running campaign against purported Chinese “interference” in New Zealand’s political system intensified in the past week following a five-day visit to Beijing by opposition National Party leader Simon Bridges. ...
National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett spent the week claiming a serious cover-up in the Prime Minister's office. She used parliamentary privilege to name three of the Prime Minister's closest advisors who, she says, knew about the sexual assault ...
Six months on from the worst terrorist attack in New Zealand history, Simon Shepherd asked Al Noor Mosque spokesperson Anthony Green how the Christchurch Muslim is community faring. ...
“The Game Animal Council is concerned that the Government’s second tranche of firearms legislation released today may contain unreasonable provisions that will unfairly impact hunters,” says Game Animal Council Chair Don Hammond. ...
Government policy work on the Carbon Zero bill highlights connections between climate change, carbon sequestration and agriculture. Water quality and allocation are also topical with the release of the Draft Policy Statement for Freshwater Management ...
DairyNZ Chief Executive Dr Tim Mackle is welcoming this afternoon’s announcement that consultation on Essential Freshwater has been extended by two weeks - but is calling on the Minister to go further. ...
DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle is calling on the Government to move swiftly to extend the six-week timeframe of the Essential Freshwater consultation. ...
Immigration New Zealand could really benefit from an large investment of money, comments Ms June Ranson, chair of the New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment (NZAMI) , a leading voice in the immigration sector. “Instead of spending $25m ...
In recent times there has been no shortage of commentary regarding whistleblowers, with the proposed amendments to the Protected Disclosures Act 2000. These are aimed at strengthening the protection available to whistleblowers in New Zealand. That ...
Gun Control NZ strongly welcomes the comprehensive gun law reform bill and calls on all political parties to support it. Gun Control NZ encourages New Zealanders to let their MPs know they support this Bill, submit to the Select Committee, and ...
Federated Farmers agrees with most of the steps by government to protect people from illegal or irresponsible firearms use. But concerns about pest control and the effectiveness of a register remain. ...
Today at Parliament the NZ Drug Foundation released Taking control of cannabis: A model for responsible regulation, a new report that shows how we can take back control of cannabis from organised crime. ...
It was another wild week in our favourite island paradise, as our remaining celebrities continued their quest to win cash for charity. Tara Ward power ranks. The bells of change have rung on Celebrity Treasure Island, and we’re now knee deep in an individual game of trickery, ping-pongery, and Tim-Tammery. The two ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Arthur Sinodinos will soon leave the Senate, and early next year take up the position of Australian ambassador in Washington. A former staffer and one-time public servant as well as a former minister, in this ...
The fishing industry is fighting back against claims its ad campaign is 'spin', saying protecting the Māui dolphin shouldn’t come at the expense of commercial fishers. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melanie Walters, PhD candidate in music, University of Adelaide Review: XXX Neon Sign, composed by Dan Thorpe, Rumpus Theatre More than perhaps any other instrument, the grand piano symbolises the classical music canon and its rigid traditions. Placing such an instrument centre-stage ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sebastian Leuzinger, Associate Professor, Auckland University of Technology CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Conway, Senior Lecturer – Games and Interactivity, Swinburne University of Technology Two of the biggest tech companies in the world, Apple and Google, are launching cloud-based gaming services this year. Apple Arcade, due for release in two days, will ultimately go ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andy Marks, Assistant Vice-Chancellor, Strategy and Policy, Western Sydney University “How good is Gladys Berejiklian?” Prime Minister Scott Morrison asked a jubilant crowd of Liberal supporters on the evening of her March 23 2019 state election win. Only as good as her ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona Charlson, Conjoint NHMRC Early Career Fellow, The University of Queensland This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) recently declared ...
Life insurance companies have been taken to task for being too slow to improve their culture and conduct by regulators, which appears set to lead to tougher regulation. ...
In this extract from a chapter called ‘Deep Time’ in Rebecca Priestley’s new memoir, Fifteen Million Years in Antarctica, Rebecca remembers her peculiar, legume-heavy, art-saturated childhood in Wellington. (And a note from the author: if anyone has a painting from Ruth Priestley’s Antarctic Dream series, Rebecca would love to hear from ...
The government is introducing a new employer-led work visa that it says will help plug shortages, reduce exploitation, and improve conditions for New Zealand workers. ...
The Spinoff’s cartoonist Toby Morris chats and draws with New Zealand’s doodlers in the webseries Two Sketches. In the fifth episode, Toby sits down with comic artist Ben Stenbeck. Two Sketches returns with another leisurely draw and a chat hosted by award-winning illustrator Toby Morris. In this episode, Toby chats with ...
The government's proposed clean up of waterways will not harm New Zealand's overall economy, a report by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) has suggested. ...
New Netflix movie The Tall Girl was roundly mocked before it even came out. Josie Adams, a tall girl herself, reviews it.“You know that really, really, really tall girl you go to school with? The one that people call LeBron, Skyscraper, Patty long legs?”That’s Jodi, the 6-foot-1 protagonist of The ...
A spate of court cases around the world has highlighted a new kind of risk for carbon emitters, and the big investors that support them - expensive litigation. ...
The government's proposed clean up of waterways will not harm New Zealand's overall economy, a report by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) has suggested. ...
The government's proposed clean up of waterways will not harm New Zealand's overall economy, a report by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) has suggested. ...
Children, pregnant women and the elderly are the most at risk from extreme weather and heat – but the impact is already felt across every specialty of medicine. ...
Most KiwiSaver funds are managed by one of the big Australian banks, which create returns through investments in fossil fuels, human rights violations, tobacco and weaponry. With attitudes shifting towards sustainability, what can ordinary investors do?This month 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg completed a journey across the Atlantic in a ...
A swathe of gloomy global headlines appear to have further dampened consumers' outlook about the economy but they are feeling more upbeat about their own personal finances. ...
Covering Climate Now: From CFCs to nuclear weapons, history has shown that the first step to eliminating a threat is to ban it, argues Thomas Nash.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to the contributions of Spinoff Members. Join The Spinoff Members to help us do ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Labour Party sexual assault allegations Richard Harman (Politik): Goodbye Labour – Hello Brand Jacinda Barry ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has "called time" on opposing claims over sexual assault allegations against a Labour Party staffer being contested in public. ...
ByRNZ Pacific Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has said she “regrets and strongly condemns” the Solomon Islands’ decision to establish diplomatic relations with China. The Solomons cabinet made the decision yesterday after which Taiwan terminated its 36-year relationship with the Pacific country. Tsai said China’s promises of financial assistance ...
In our latest local elections 2019 race briefing (read the rest here), Josie Adams assesses the bastion of progressive virtue that is Dunedin/Ōtepoti.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The SpinoffMembers. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here.Where?Dunedin, or Ōtepoti, is also known as “the ...
The Commerce Commission has been accused of miscalculating how much money the country's biggest fuel retailer Z Energy is making, in its initial report on competition in the sector. ...
A Canterbury startup is exposing medical equipment manufacturers’ deliberate one-use design tricks and proving that hospitals can reuse and recycle. There has been a lot of hype about the phasing out of plastic bags at supermarkets. But what about far more expensive items which only ever get used once and are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Wilkes, Senior Research Geophysicist, CSIRO At some point in recent weeks, a once-in-a-lifetime event happened for people at Greenwich in the United Kingdom. Magnetic compasses at the historic London area, known as the home of the Prime Meridian, were said to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison McEwen, Head of Discipline of Genetic Counselling, Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au.Why are some twins identical and some not? – Chloe, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marc Hudson, Researcher, University of Manchester Paddy Manning’s excellent account of the Australian Greens will not be the last word on Australia’s most successful third party, but will doubtless remain important and influential for many years to come. Manning’s exhaustive (but never ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Abby Mellick Lopes, Senior Lecturer in Design, Western Sydney University This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. A recent report by the Greater Sydney Commission ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eve Vincent, Senior Lecturer, Macquarie University “This is a bit controversial, we know that,” deputy prime minister Michael McCormick told the National Party’s federal council, which on the weekend voted for a national roll-out of cashless debit cards for anyone younger than ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pat Ranald, Research fellow, University of Sydney The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership has been touted as the best hope for keeping world trade flowing after the attacks on the World Trade Organisation. The WTO isn’t dead yet, but in a two-pronged attack, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sasha Grishin, Adjunct Professor of Art History, Australian National University In 1955, an enormous photographic exhibition, The Family of Man, challenged the world as to what it meant to be human. The curator, Edward Steichen, assembled 503 photographs by 273 photographers from ...
Open mike 02/09/2019 
A short and incredibly powerful speech from a young lesbian woman. No one is born in the wrong body. ...6 hours ago
Back in June, the UK Court of Appeal ruled that that country's continued arms sales to Saudi Arabia were unlawful. So you'd expect that the UK government stopped approving them, right?Of course not:The government has apologised for breaching a court ruling against the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia that ...7 hours ago
14 hours ago
In times of hysteria about the “World coming to an end” and “rising sea levels” so-called ‘Journalists’ who can barely spell words longer than four letters are having a ball! Though the majority of the Public have worked out that manmade climate change is nothing short of pseudo-science, and the ...14 hours ago
1 day ago
Dangerous Foes: For those readers of Bowalley Road who feel disposed to dismiss any prospect of an Israeli destabilisation of New Zealand politics, the example of the United Kingdom repays close attention. Ever since the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the British Labour Party, the Israelis have sanctioned, funded and ...1 day ago
Make It 16, the youth-led campaign to lower New Zealand's voting age, is holding an official campaign launch at Parliament this Friday from 16:30. If you'd like to attend, you can register using EventBrite here. ...1 day ago
by Don Franks It was a lovely sunny Wellington afternoon with blue skies above the beaches. In Courtenay Place, political activists packed out a stuffy upstairs room for an important meeting. The assembled pacifists, anarchists, communists and independent young radicals of Peace Action Wellington felt the need for a mission ...1 day ago
From the Wall Street Journal:Inside a room of the ornately decorated Hotel du Palais during last month’s Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, President Trump awaited a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Mr. Trump looked over a gathering of American and Egyptian officials and called out in ...2 days ago
The Brexit issue has certainly brought with it a series of apparently difficult constitutional issues, many of them concerning the respective roles of the executive and parliament. Most of them arise because of the unwillingness of MPs, despite their professions to the contrary, to be bound by a constitutional rarity ...4 days ago
. . This blogpost is different to my usual format of reporting on issues… Since July 1011, I have blogged on a variety of political issues; near always political and/or environmental; mostly highly critical of the previous National Government. Other issues included Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and repression of ...4 days ago
Those close to the Police Minister believe the initiative may be the result of Nash “seeing a great deal” on AliExpress. In a move that comes seemingly out of nowhere, Police Minister Stuart Nash announced this afternoon that he expects all frontline staff to don bearskin hats, famously worn by ...4 days ago
Moving And Shaking: There was a time when people spoke matter-of-factly about the “labour movement” – a political phenomenon understood to embrace much more than the Labour Party. Included within the term’s definition was the whole trade union movement – many of whose members looked upon the Labour Party as ...5 days ago
By Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern I am every bit as angry as you are. I am every bit as disappointed as you must be. The people with power, oversight and the ability to do something about these processes within the Labour Party should be ashamed. Whoever those people are, I ...5 days ago
Two-Faced? Labour insiders' commitment to the neoliberal status quo puts them at odds with their party’s membership; its trade union affiliates; and a majority of Labour voters, but this only serves to strengthen the perception they have of themselves as a special elite. Among the lesser breeds, they’ll talk up a ...6 days ago
By Simon Bridges. The following is a press release from the office of Simon Bridges, leader of The National Party. Key ora, New Zealand. Happy Maori Language Week. Look, I’m writing to you today because I want to clear something up. There’s been a lot of kerfuffle around some things ...6 days ago
Dr. Christopher Labos and Jonathan Jarry discuss the recent Canadian fluoride/IQ research. They provide an expert analysis of the paper and its problems. Click on image to go to podcast. The critical debate about the recent ... 6 days ago
An ambitious plan to fly to Los Angeles petered out into a brief sight-seeing trip and a desire to return home and get some sleep before work tomorrow. Air New Zealand has confirmed a flight to Los Angeles last night was turned back about a quarter of the way into ...7 days ago
There appears to be consensus – by omission – that the concept of indigenous futures should be accepted at face value. So I scavenged the internet to see if I could locate an academic descriptor or a framework around how we think about it as a concept, and whether it ...1 week ago
Here’s another novelty chocolate to shove in your gob, New Zealand Cadbury could be seeking to make itself great again with a rumoured new release: Pineapple Trumps, a spin on its classic chocolate-encased pineapple treat and do-it-yourself tooth remover. The global confectionery manufacturer and bumbling “before” character in an infomercial, ...1 week ago
During my time in the Pentagon I had the privilege of sitting down with military leaders and defence and security officials from a variety of Latin American nations. Sometimes I was present as a subordinate assistant to a senior US defence department official, sometimes as part of a delegation that ...1 week ago
Kia ora, Aotearoa. It’s that magical time of year. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. In English, the week that frightens talk radio. As you probably know by now, all your favourite media outlets are participating, some more successfully than others. Stuff has changed its name to Puna for the ...1 week ago
Lost In Political Space: The most important takeaway from this latest Labour sexual assault scandal, which (if I may paraphrase Nixon’s White House counsel’s, John Dean’s, infamous description of Watergate) is “growing like a cancer” on the premiership, is the Labour Party organisation’s extraordinary professional paralysis in the face of ...1 week ago
Hi there, just call me Tim.We face tough problems, and I’d like to help, because there are solutions.An Auckand District Health Board member has nominated me for as a candidate for the ADHB, because her MS-related pain and fatigue is reduced with hemp products from Rotorua. Nothing else helped her. If I ...1 week ago
Bewhiskered Cassandra? Professor Hugh White’s chilling suggestion, advanced to select collections of academic, military and diplomatic Kiwi experts over the course of the past week, is that the assumptions upon which Australia and New Zealand have built their foreign affairs and defence policies for practically their entire histories – are ...1 week ago
Air New Zealand couldn’t believe its luck that this seemingly ideal piece of real estate had so far gone entirely unnoticed. Air New Zealand’s search for a site to build a second Auckland Airport may have made a breakthrough this afternoon, after employees scanning Google satellite imagery spotted a huge, ...2 weeks ago
Gayford, pictured here on The Project, before things got wildly out of control. A bold public relations move by the Government to encourage parents to vaccinate their children has gone horribly wrong. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appeared on tonight’s episode of Three’s The Project, where the plan was for her ...2 weeks ago
Mr. Whippy’s business model has driven it down a dark road of intimidation. Residents in major centres around the country are becoming disgruntled by the increasingly aggressive actions of purported ice cream company Mr. Whippy, who have taken to parking on people’s front lawns and doorsteps in a desperate attempt ...2 weeks ago
Anti-fluoride activists have some wealthy backers – they are erecting billboards misrepresenting the Canadian study on many New Zealand cities – and local authorities are ordering their removal because of their scaremongering. Many New Zealanders ... 2 weeks ago
Following publication of this article, the Ministry has requested it to be noted that this supplied image is not necessarily representative of what the final house will look like, and it “probably won’t be that nice.” As part of today’s long-anticipated reset of the Government’s flagship KiwiBuild policy, Housing Minister ...2 weeks ago
NZUS Council executive director Jordan Small welcomes the news New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will meet with US President Donald Trump in New York next week. ...2 hours ago
A former member of the Philippines strongman's Cabinet explains why she joined - and why the world must hold him to account. ...58 mins ago
It was another wild week in our favourite island paradise, as our remaining celebrities continued their quest to win cash for charity. Tara Ward power ranks. The bells of change have rung on Celebrity Treasure Island, and we’re now knee deep in an individual game of trickery, ping-pongery, and Tim-Tammery. The two ...1 hour ago
The Auditor General will be investigating the effectiveness of the firearm buy-back scheme. ...1 hour ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Arthur Sinodinos will soon leave the Senate, and early next year take up the position of Australian ambassador in Washington. A former staffer and one-time public servant as well as a former minister, in this ...2 hours ago
A national conversation about population planning is not easy, but it's one we need to have, writes Laura Walters. ...4 hours ago
Two years ago, the Prime Minister says climate action was barely discussed at international summits - now, it's top of the agenda. ...4 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melanie Walters, PhD candidate in music, University of Adelaide Review: XXX Neon Sign, composed by Dan Thorpe, Rumpus Theatre More than perhaps any other instrument, the grand piano symbolises the classical music canon and its rigid traditions. Placing such an instrument centre-stage ...4 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sebastian Leuzinger, Associate Professor, Auckland University of Technology CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to ...5 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Conway, Senior Lecturer – Games and Interactivity, Swinburne University of Technology Two of the biggest tech companies in the world, Apple and Google, are launching cloud-based gaming services this year. Apple Arcade, due for release in two days, will ultimately go ...5 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona Charlson, Conjoint NHMRC Early Career Fellow, The University of Queensland This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) recently declared ...7 hours ago
Life insurance companies have been taken to task for being too slow to improve their culture and conduct by regulators, which appears set to lead to tougher regulation. ...7 hours ago
The New Zealand dollar remains the 10th most traded currency globally, according to a new survey. ...7 hours ago
In this extract from a chapter called ‘Deep Time’ in Rebecca Priestley’s new memoir, Fifteen Million Years in Antarctica, Rebecca remembers her peculiar, legume-heavy, art-saturated childhood in Wellington. (And a note from the author: if anyone has a painting from Ruth Priestley’s Antarctic Dream series, Rebecca would love to hear from ...8 hours ago
After nine months and much consultation, the Government has unveiled its overhauled migrant worker scheme, to much industry acclaim. ...8 hours ago
The Spinoff’s cartoonist Toby Morris chats and draws with New Zealand’s doodlers in the webseries Two Sketches. In the fifth episode, Toby sits down with comic artist Ben Stenbeck. Two Sketches returns with another leisurely draw and a chat hosted by award-winning illustrator Toby Morris. In this episode, Toby chats with ...8 hours ago
Surprise, surprise. The waving of a wet bus ticket did little to encourage New Zealand's life insurers to behave better. ...9 hours ago
The government's proposed clean up of waterways will not harm New Zealand's overall economy, a report by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) has suggested. ...9 hours ago
New Netflix movie The Tall Girl was roundly mocked before it even came out. Josie Adams, a tall girl herself, reviews it.“You know that really, really, really tall girl you go to school with? The one that people call LeBron, Skyscraper, Patty long legs?”That’s Jodi, the 6-foot-1 protagonist of The ...9 hours ago
A spate of court cases around the world has highlighted a new kind of risk for carbon emitters, and the big investors that support them - expensive litigation. ...9 hours ago
Performance poet Ben Fagan continues his investigation into just what exactly the term Pākehā means in contemporary New Zealand life. ...10 hours ago
Children, pregnant women and the elderly are the most at risk from extreme weather and heat – but the impact is already felt across every specialty of medicine. ...10 hours ago
Most KiwiSaver funds are managed by one of the big Australian banks, which create returns through investments in fossil fuels, human rights violations, tobacco and weaponry. With attitudes shifting towards sustainability, what can ordinary investors do?This month 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg completed a journey across the Atlantic in a ...10 hours ago
A swathe of gloomy global headlines appear to have further dampened consumers' outlook about the economy but they are feeling more upbeat about their own personal finances. ...10 hours ago
The head of the Marsden Point oil refinery operator has resigned to lead the country's biggest energy company. ...11 hours ago
Covering Climate Now: From CFCs to nuclear weapons, history has shown that the first step to eliminating a threat is to ban it, argues Thomas Nash.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to the contributions of Spinoff Members. Join The Spinoff Members to help us do ...11 hours ago
By RNZ Pacific Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has said she “regrets and strongly condemns” the Solomon Islands’ decision to establish diplomatic relations with China. The Solomons cabinet made the decision yesterday after which Taiwan terminated its 36-year relationship with the Pacific country. Tsai said China’s promises of financial assistance ...12 hours ago
The value of New Zealand's primary industry exports is expected to dip fractionally next year. ...12 hours ago
The Commerce Commission has been accused of miscalculating how much money the country's biggest fuel retailer Z Energy is making, in its initial report on competition in the sector. ...12 hours ago
A Canterbury startup is exposing medical equipment manufacturers’ deliberate one-use design tricks and proving that hospitals can reuse and recycle. There has been a lot of hype about the phasing out of plastic bags at supermarkets. But what about far more expensive items which only ever get used once and are ...13 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Wilkes, Senior Research Geophysicist, CSIRO At some point in recent weeks, a once-in-a-lifetime event happened for people at Greenwich in the United Kingdom. Magnetic compasses at the historic London area, known as the home of the Prime Meridian, were said to ...13 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe University Australia’s attempts to secure the release of an Australian national and two with joint UK-Australian citizenship from an Iranian prison have become vastly more complicated following the brazen attacks on Saudi oil ...13 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison McEwen, Head of Discipline of Genetic Counselling, Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au. Why are some twins identical and some not? – Chloe, ...13 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Flannery, Professorial fellow, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne In this age of rapidly melting glaciers, terrifying megafires and ever more puissant hurricanes, of acidifying and rising oceans, it is hard to believe that any further prod to climate action ...13 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marc Hudson, Researcher, University of Manchester Paddy Manning’s excellent account of the Australian Greens will not be the last word on Australia’s most successful third party, but will doubtless remain important and influential for many years to come. Manning’s exhaustive (but never ...13 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Abby Mellick Lopes, Senior Lecturer in Design, Western Sydney University This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. A recent report by the Greater Sydney Commission ...13 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eve Vincent, Senior Lecturer, Macquarie University “This is a bit controversial, we know that,” deputy prime minister Michael McCormick told the National Party’s federal council, which on the weekend voted for a national roll-out of cashless debit cards for anyone younger than ...13 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sasha Grishin, Adjunct Professor of Art History, Australian National University In 1955, an enormous photographic exhibition, The Family of Man, challenged the world as to what it meant to be human. The curator, Edward Steichen, assembled 503 photographs by 273 photographers from ...13 hours ago
Looking forward to seeing the results of Fonterra being taken to the Financial Markets Authority. Would have been better if Landcorp had done it, but at least someone has the heft to hold them to account.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12263812
Big companies can have big problems…whats so new about that.
Its a cooperative which HAS to take the milk …every day whether it wants it or not. It cant say during peak season, we are cutting volumes by 5% this month as the market for milk powder is weak or the cheese factory is past its production limit. No siree.
Ask sheep and beef farmers about the joys of not having a guaranteed buyer at the same price all year, and you have to pay to deliver to the works.
Why anyone would invest in these non-transacting Fonterra shares escapes me.
You're not a transacting shareholder, so have very limited rights and say over how the company is run, and you're giving your money to farmers, and Theo Spierings, to play with. They may pay you a dividend, in a good year, maybe. And your shares may hold their value, on a rising market with a string of good years.
Otherwise bend over and look like you're enjoying it.
This could become a telling commentary on New Zealand corporate and investor culture. Not holding my breath though.
Sterling work from Kirsty Johnston and Chris Knox behind the Herald paywall.
While the 'experts' have been rabidly and wrongly apportioning blame for the measles outbreak to the 'anti-vax' movement the real reasons for the declining immunisation rates have been largely ignored.
Those of us who have tried to point out that blaming so called anti vaxxers has simply made the situation worse have been dismissed…or worse.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight/audio/2018686731/nz-s-heart-breaker-rheumatic-fever-rates-on-the-rise
"Vaccination rates are dropping across the country as fewer families immunise their babies.
Now, in the midst of a measles epidemic, a Herald analysis of immunisation data finds just 77 per cent of six-month-olds are now getting their vaccines on time.
While the debate has been centred around the impact of the anti-vaxx movement, the numbers paint a different picture.
Plummeting vaccination rates are being driven largely by the failure to immunise babies born into poor or Māori families – not by parents deliberately opting out. "
Oh dear Rosemary … so you are an anti-vaxxer
[don’t start – weka]
Oh dear Rosemary … so you are an anti-vaxxer
Err…how do you arrive at that conclusion?
from the wording you use
'While the 'experts' have been rabidly and wrongly apportioning blame for the measles outbreak to the 'anti-vax' movement.
But of course thats my opinion on your wording . Can you correct my mistaken view?
People decline medical treatment or interventions all the time, thats OK.
What is a plague is those people who actively campaign to get others not to immunize, those are generally called anti -vaxxers
As I found further down about the 1990s massive epidemics , low immunization rates – the aim of the anti vaxxers- make epidemics spread.
Or to put it another way,
A 5 percent drop in childhood measles vaccination levels would cause annual measles cases to triple,
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2017/07/small-drop-in-measles-vaccinations-would-have-outsized-effect.html
Stuff has a detailed series of articles issued today with some very good reporting,finding that it is the antivax movement ,and detailing the effects of the perpetrators .
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/114545019/antivaxxers-target-new-parents-while-others-nurse-their-critically-ill-kids
https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2019/09/parent-trap-vaccination-measles-immunisation/
The question arises that should NZ call a measles emergency? Invocation of the Civil defence act emergency powers would enable suppression of the transfer of false information during an epidemic.The censor would be required to review any information imparted etc.
It's a mix of both Rosemary and you know it. Trying to hide behind the well known fact that poverty stricken families are also failing to have their children immunised does you no favour. This has long been the case and until these families are better educated and better informed it will always be the case.
Anti-vaxxers have a great deal to answer for, and I think it is about time the government rolled out a campaign to counter the pseudo scientific crap being spread across the internet. It might look impressive to the gullible of mind but it is still crap.
Babies and toddlers in particular are going to die due to this latest epidemic, and those peddling the anti-vax myths have to take their fair portion of the blame.
Anti-vaxxers have a great deal to answer for,
You're going to have to provide some evidence to back that up Anne. It is simply too easy to blame 'anti-vaxxers' for declining immunisation rates.
And are you assuming that these 'anti-vaxxers' are part of some organised group whose major mission is to convince parents that all vaccines are bad?
It is just as likely that the individuals who make up the 1300 claims of significant vaccine injury accepted by ACC since 2006 have whanau and friends who have been influenced by these events.
Seeing a previously 'normal' child now in a wheelchair being peg fed and having to be suctioned to clear secretions because of the vaccine induced brain damage sends a powerful message. Having our health authorities deny/dismiss that these adverse events happen….or worse…not warn parents that a very high fever and resulting seizures after a vaccination is not normal…is negligent.
Trouble is… with suppressing discussion about vaccine adverse events and casting all who have concerns about possible side-effects from vaccines into a pseudo criminal group who are personally responsible for every single case of measles that ends up in hospital you're simply going to drive the discussion underground.
Surely it would be better to be able to have open and transparent discussions…instead of resorting to name calling?
might do a post on this. Have you written about this Rosemary? I'll pull up our previous conversation, but was wondering if you'd published on this.
I got a copy of the Herald article, it's pretty clear where the issues lie.
compare it with the stuff articles.
https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2019/09/parent-trap-vaccination-measles-immunisation/
Okay…so we have a bunch of trendy 'yummy mummy' midwives catering to the well heeled of Auckland. These are the folk with spare $$$ to be 'educated' about vaccines and immunisation.
How many of the un-vaccinated measles sufferers parents attended such a course?
Not many. If any.
From that Stuff article:
Herne Bay, one of the wealthiest places in the country has seen rates for all milestone ages fall from 93 to 84 per cent in two years.
A few kilometres across the city to the east in Glen Innes – among the bottom quarter of most deprived suburbs in the country in 2013 – rates rose about three percentage points in the same time.
We've had a decade of social-media-spread fear-mongering about vaccinations, and this data is backing it up – falling vaccination rates doesn't map to areas of social deprivation.
The reasons for not vaccinating vary, and in the most vulnerable populations access remains the core issue, not anti-vax material. Afaik this has been the position of the MoH for a long time.
This doesn't mean anti-vax material isn't also an issue, but railing against social media use while we could instead be urging the govt to increase access seems stupid.
ta. Interesting counterpoint, their graphs are hard going though.
5% decline rate @ 8 months.
Surely the lowest-hanging fruit – and possibly the difference between herd immunity and a nationwide outbreak.
Epidemic outbreaks spread throughout the population geometrically,not only those not vaccinated but the immune deficient.
Yeah, but the unvaccinated are the ones we can do something about.
1300 claims accepted since 2006 vs 759 cases in 6 months.
Climaction. I am almost at the point of begging here. Ffs can someone please find the New Zealand data that records the number of cases of measles and the number of deaths from measles each year since 1940…like this…https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-deaths-by-age-group-from-1980-to-2013-ons-data/measles-notifications-and-deaths-in-england-and-wales-1940-to-2013
Then, perhaps, we can have the conversation as to whether or not it is acceptable to dismiss and diminish those who have suffered significant injuries due to vaccinations at a rate of over 100 per year.
Bearing in mind that the majority of cases of measles resolve with no lasting effects.
Have you considered asking statsnz or the ministry of health?
The very best I've found is this…https://surv.esr.cri.nz/PDF_surveillance/AnnualRpt/AnnualSurv/2017/2017AnnualNDReport_FINAL.pdf
….which thwarts my bid to gain stats back to 1940 because,
" Measles immunisation was introduced in 1969 [18]and measles has been a notifiable disease since June 1996. " Wtf? Not a notifiable disease until 1996? For the supposed Death Plague?
Grrr….the frustrating thing is that it is difficult to assess what has not been accurately measured. One has to wonder why the data has not been collected or collated into one document like the UK stats. No wonder we're left with readily discredited anecdata.
Calling Hanlon.
It's not the "death plague". It is, however, an infectious disease that kills a larger proportion of the people who get it than the vaccine that prevents it.
But no, I meant literally email or call the ministry of health or similar.
For deaths, try trawling the NZ yearbooks – they stop reporting measles deaths separately apparently in the early 1980s, though before then measles deaths are reported. Went to listing major causes of death.
Who's Hanlon?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
I find stats pretty good to deal with. Not sure MoH is worth the hassle unless you know exactly who to ask.
It is, however, an infectious disease that kills a larger proportion of the people who get it than the vaccine that prevents it.
Ah. The Greater Good Argument. Small comfort for the child who loses The Lottery .
There should at least be acknowledgement of these injuries and proper compensation. In recognition of the sacrifice.
Compensation like ACC?
Better comfort than losing a "die from measles" lottery.
The greater good argument would be more sound if it did take into account people damaged by vaccines. At the moment there's a taboo on speaking their names. That's just shitty. Maybe the next greater good argument is that we can hide those people because it helps a better vaccine engagement. Meanwhile, we run a shitty neoliberal economy that sacrifices large numbers of people all the time, and the public debate around measles is hating on anti-vaxxers instead of expecting the MoH to do it's job better and make access to the MMR vaccine much easier.
Sometimes vaccine harm is emphasised while minimising e.g. measles harm. Not just deaths, but longer term conditions as well. And I doubt they'd get ACC coverage.
yeah ACC is a pretty discriminatory system.
The polarisation of the debate makes it hard to see all those people.
@McFlock re vaccine harm vs long term disability from measles.
1300plus accepted vaccine injury claims by ACC since 2006.
Rightfully treated as a Treatment Injury by ACC and a fluctuating (depending on the flag over the Beehive) rate of acceptance.
(If there as a way of posting the OIA reply here I would.)
If one could prove there were errors or omissions by medical personnel in treating a case of measles that led to a death or impairment then I guess give an ACC claim a shot. Nothing ventured.
Let's not start a side discussion on the inequities between ACC and MOH for supports for long term impairments.
1: all vaccines vs measles is not a reasonable comparison of harm – what's the ACC rate for the MMR vaccine specifically?
2: harm from vaccine preventable diseases in a vaccinated population will be significantly smaller than the harm from those diseases in an unvaccinated population. To judge the value of vaccines, it would be more logical to compare vaccine harm against disease harm in an unvaccinated population, no?
is anyone here arguing for an unvaccinated population?
Another variable is standard of living. Also access to health care if one gets sick.
Vaccine vs unvaxxed population seems to be at least reasonably doable, as opposed to guessing the disease prevalence at some sort of equilibrium level of vaccination where the number of opt-outers or delayers is balanced by the selfish who only vaccinate when there is a threat level they can understand, incorporating any other shortcomings in health literacy or systemic alienation that might be a barrier to primary healthcare.
I suspect such math would be more in line with economics than the real world, and with similar reliability.
Rosemary, you or someone else could try this link and then have a chat to Stats NZ to ask for the measles stats using the offer of help in the pop-up on the lower right hand side of the page Sorry, I am not available to do this as while I sometimes still read TS, I am rarely interested in commenting here these days.
<a href="https://www.stats.govt.nz/topics/births-and-deaths?
Thanks vw. I just might send them an email…or…make an OIA to the Misery of Health. It disturbs me greatly that this guy Rainger/Ranger is saying..
" The fatality rate for measles was one in 1000, Rainger said, and as the numbers rose the likelihood of a fatality did too. "
…when, unlike the data from the UK showing the number of deaths per 1000 cases to be many times lower, there is no readily available pool of NZ stats to support such a claim.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/115469156/auckland-measles-outbreak-arphs-criticises-misinformed-antivaxxers-as-number-of-cases-passes-800
I've suggested this previously, but IMHO when the annual death rate from measles cases is low (maybe not comparatively low, but low in an absolute sense – 1 in 1000 is a low rate in absolute terms), off a historically low annual number of cases (due to vaccination programmes), then that annual death rate it will bounce around a bit.
For the last 28 years, NZ's annual death rate from measles has been VERY low (zero; not bouncing around at all), so for the last 28 years NZ's annual death rate from measles has been the same or lower than that in the UK, because for some of those years the UK has also had no deaths from measles, while in other years it has had a few deaths, including in 1999 when the UK's rate of death from cases of measles (3 deaths from ~2400 cases) was higher than NZ's annual death rate during our biggest 'recent' measles epidemic (in 1991), and much higher than in NZ during every year since 1991.
To begin to understand why there was roughly 1 death for every 1000 cases of measles in NZ in 1991, the first port of call might be health workers/administrators/managers in the thick of it – there must quite a few still around. There was probably a health review commissioned, possibly some academic analysis too. But the reasons could include, or even be largely due to, chance, just as it was probably chance that the UK had a higher annual death rate from measles in 1999 than NZ has had for a very long time.
There may be some risk to patient safety, in terms of health sector/worker preparedness/familiarity in treating serious (life-threatening) cases of measles associated with this year's outbreak, given that there hasn't been a major outbreak for 28 years. But, hopefully, some will remember.
After all, "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it "
Tbh, I wouldn't try to attach too much significance to year-to-year differences in annual rates of death from measles in or between developed countries. There will have been an enormous amount of medical/academic research on this by 1000s of health professionals and researchers, and I doubt that they have missed something I'm likely to spot, and/or are trying to cover up some glaring statistical anomaly.
This is an informative brief presentation by a medical doctor who thinks the death rate from measles is 3-4 per thousand, which seems very high (hence ‘don’t attach too much significance’, etc.) There's also a nice (Australian) comparison of the risks associated with contracting measles and the risks associated with being vaccinated for measles – very helpful.
http://www.ncirs.org.au/mmr-vaccine-decision-aid/comparing-risks-measles
How many of the damaged are from the measles vaccine? 1% of the damaged a year? 5%?
Think we need some perspective on this stat you are throwing round
See here…/open-mike-02-09-2019/#comment-1651769
Thanks Rosemary. I was hoping the MSM would address this. Pity it's behind a paywall. This has long been the issue, that the lowering numbers of vaccination in NZ are in part due to poor access to healthcare. The people who choose intentionally to not vaccinate are still afaik a small % of the population. I'd like to see some research done on that.
Thanks weka.
This is the sole reason I coughed up the $$$ to read work like this from a journalist I respect.
I have linked on more than one occasion here on TS to the same databases the writers use. The data tells a different story to the one promulgated by the angry ranty DHBs who were embarrassed by their falling vaccination rates.
It was back in March that Dr Nikki Turner attempted to counter the 'its all the fault of the anti vaxxers!!!' framing that these DHB numpties were promoting at the Select Committee…https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/384112/hospital-bosses-want-anti-anti-vax-campaign
Sigh.
There are two major issues that I see here…the most significant is deprivation and difficulty accessing reliable health care in some communities. Only true transformational governance will ease this. It might alsoaddress that true indicator of our third world health status….rheumatic ever and the two hundred deaths per year from preventable heart damage.
The other issue is the fact that some New Zealand children have been injured by vaccines. Not many, but a significant enough number to be relevant to any discussion about vaccine efficacy and safety. We are not allowed to discuss these incidents without a barrage of abuse and accusations of being anti- vax and hence pro-plague.
I suggest that folk go out of doors into their communities and speak with the parents of these vaccine damaged children.
(And I'm not talking about bloody autism.)
I see it similarly. Also, the people choosing not to access from informed consent (so not necessarily the anti-vaxers, although overlaps), often have a good enough standard of living so that if their child gets the measles or whooping cough they're more able to provide optimal care for that child (thus decreasing the chances of complications). I'd love to see some research on that too, but it's another of the taboo subjects.
"speak with the parents of these vaccine damaged children."
Oh dear. I cant see how campaigning against vaccination is allowed on this site. Personal choice is fine as for all medical interventions
The facts are
"The death rate for measles is about one-to-three people in every thousand. An estimated 10 per cent of cases require hospital treatment, and up to 30 per cent of people will develop complications, including pneumonia, diarrhoea and ear infections."
Thats only one of the diseases we vaccinate for as measles is covered by MMR Measles , Mumps,
Rubella is particularly nasty for unborn children leading to severe abnormalities
No surprise here: "The number of rubella cases has fallen dramatically since the vaccine became available in 1969. "
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/111238229/people-have-forgotten–past-measles-epidemics-killed-hospitalised-hundreds
https://www.immune.org.nz/diseases/rubella
[perhaps you need some time out to reread the Policy. You were warned by me as a mod, and Rosemary asked you why you were calling her an anti-vaxxer, and you’ve ignored both of those and just carried on with misrepresenting her position. I don’t want to have to spend moderator time today reading your comments to see if you’re still passive-aggressive flaming. 2 day ban – weka]
I cant see how campaigning against vaccination is allowed on this site.
Are you accusing me of campaigning against vaccinations because I suggest folk go and speak with the families of those 1300 plus people who have been vaccine injured in the past 13 years in NZ?
Really???
"The death rate for measles is about one-to-three people in every thousand.
Errr….https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-deaths-by-age-group-from-1980-to-2013-ons-data/measles-notifications-and-deaths-in-england-and-wales-1940-to-2013
Clearly shows much lower death rate in the UK.
Perhaps we should be asking ourselves why a supposedly first world country like NZ anticipates such a high death rate from what used to be a nasty but usually survivable childhood illness.
Perhaps we should also talk about our shameful rates of other third world diseases.
Maybe death rates are sometimes higher during measles epidemics because public health services are stretched thinner. That may have contributed to the comparatively high rate of death (1 death in 1000 cases) during NZ's 1991 measles epidemic (7000 cases).
In NZ, no deaths have been attributed to measles since 1991, so a big shout out to GPs and other health workers (and of course to parents who took advantage of free vaccinations for their children) for that excellent result.
If the current measles outbreak is restricted to one or two thousand NZers then maybe the health service will be able to prevent any measles-related deaths, but I'm guessing that health spokespersons don't want to appear too confident about that, for fear of vaccination rates falling still further.
In NZ, no deaths have been attributed to measles since 1991, so a big shout out to GPs and other health workers (and of course to parents who took advantage of free vaccinations for their children) for that excellent result.
For the life of me I cannot find similar data for NZ…ie…number of cases of measles and number of deaths from measles per year.
A pity, or we could have made a true comparison.
Of course the parents of fully vaccinated children cannot claim credit for there having been no deaths due to measles because their children, being vaccinated, will not have got measles. The UK data refers to deaths from actual measles.
I still don't understand why here in NZ there were a reported 7 deaths from around 7000 notified cases of measles while in the UK in the same year (1991) there was 1 death from 9680 notified cases.
There is something seriously wrong with our health system.
higher mortality among Māori and Pacifica people?
I would guess there is a big variation over time though, so your idea about getting all stats over decades makes sense.
Because it's smallish numbers.
Pretty good confidence interval generator here.
Which statistical test to go by for these numbers is an esoteric discussion of which I know nothing. The point is that the lower confidence bound for the 7/7000 death rate for any given test is slightly lower than the upper bound for the 1/9680 rate (bear in mind the comparison numbers are in different magnitudes).
Does this mean there isn't some systemic difference? No. Just that we can't say for sure that either system is better than another, based on the samples we have to work with.
The rate ratios indicate there might me some difference using Byars, but it's not a binary "no difference/significant difference" situation. The intervals are pretty wide, and the gap is pretty narrow.
I freely admit to a superficial understanding of statistics, and the deep stuff you're directing me towards has given me a headache.
I will consult my stats and data advisor later.
I didn't follow that either. Do you mean that in any year there can be a wide variation because of the small numbers?
Basically, yeah.
I'm not a stats engineer (more a data tradie lol) but the gist is that we're looking at whether the difference is actually a difference in the ability of each system, or is it just broadly what we'd expect from identical systems with reasonable variation in outcomes. E.g. if the car accident rate lowered from year to year, is this just random noise in the system or have things actually improved?
So the statisticians created probability tests for different circumstances. Some are p-values, personally I prefer CIs. p-values hurt my brain, and people love to view their significance as binary "care or do not care about result", whereas things are more subtle than that.
So using Byars, our 7/7000 equals a rate of 1 per 1000 with a lower bound of 0.4/1000 and upper of 2/1000.
1/9680 gives a rate of 0.1/1000, with a CI range of 0.001/1000 to 0.57/1000. Obviously one rate is ten times the other as observed, but because the CIs overlap we can't be reasonably sure that the results won't be swapped the next time each health service faces an outbreak.
Now, they only just overlap so there might be something there if we look more closely with larger samples, but at this stage it's not a given either way.
A chart example of NZ child assault deaths is here. The numbers bounce about, the rates bounce about, but because the confidence intervals are so wide there probably isn't any real difference between them all. Even the lowest rate might just be an outlier, because we have so many datapoints so that might just be the way 95% CI (or 1:20 odds) rolled that time.
edit:
BTW, my math tends to fold in on itself and deliver garbage, so if anyone wants to check it please do. If I’m in a hurry or multitasking, I still find my code screws up because the alligator teeth point the wrong direction when looking for high-low pass filters lol
you know my eyes started glazing over when you said p values right?
I'm assuming (loosely) that it's probably both the maths and there are factors affecting actual rates (NZ being different from the UK). Having the long term yearly rates would be useful.
If it's any consolation, I spent 20 minutes trying to make sure my conversion of rates per ten thousand to rates per thousand went the right direction 🙂
I got Matt to check my maths recently for a post where I was working with millions and tens of thousands. I was only out by a factor of 10. That would still have been fairly embarrassing, lol.
mod note above.
When we were trying to have an inclusive nation and counting people as citizens not human resources, there were very strong moves against TB, and there were health buses that would travel to areas where you could go for vaccination against polio. These two diseases are not totally beaten but we need now the same sort of initiative to get measles down and under control again. Capice?
It is wrong for government and the Dept of Health to do the contract thing and lay the problem at overworked DHBs feet. The policies of the government have resulted in numbers of incoming people bringing more disease and health problems with them. Since the welfare budget was severely cut in 1991 it has never been adequate for families wellbeing, and without that income, and with fewer state houses for lower-income people we have a rolling, rising problem.
The PM himself said he was planning on having a low-wage economy, it takes a boofhead not to see that we are not extending services to people whose needs have been neglected. And lack of quality welfare leads to lack of quality in a country's achievements and standards.
thats not correct. Waiheke, Herne bay and the coromandel are leading the trend down, and they aren’t poverty stricken.
the science is settled on immunisation. Defending the “right to choose” to vaccinate is akin to defending the right opt out of Climate change prevention measures because of the chance of personal adverse outcomes. Humanity is at stake hear. Vaccine damage occurs at an infinitesimal rate compared to the occurrence of infectious diseases during an outbreak.
Herd immunity needs around 90% vaccinated rate (according to science). No reason why the 5% or so of the population that choose to not vaccinate shouldn't be allowed to.
Writing off the people who have been damaged doesn’t help convince anti-vaxxers btw, it makes things worse.
so when vaccinations are at 88% of the population, that 88% should be imperilled because of the poor choices of, at that point, a critical 5%?
Good to know that 5% of the population should be allowed to make choices that can adversely affect the other 95%, and shouldn’t be made to feel bad about it either
Climaction. Defending the “right to choose” to vaccinate is akin to defending the right opt out of Climate change prevention measures because of the chance of personal adverse outcomes.
Weird conflation…but nevermind…it is to be expected from certain groups who have an almost religious zeal when presenting their particular views.
So, and correct me if I'm wrong, those individuals who choose not to vaccinate because of well founded concerns over adverse effects are to blame for 'imperilling' the 88% who are vaccinated.
Excuse me…but if the vaccine is effective (as well as safe) how can the unvaccinated possibly imperil the fully vaccinated?
And how dare you dismiss the experiences of those who have been significantly adversely affected by a vaccine.
How dare I not subscribe to your views that your hurt is of greater meaning than the families of those poor defenceless children suffering from preventable disease they are too young to be immunised against? Interesting value pyramid you live within.
Vaccines are effective and safe. How many of the “vaccine damaged” 1300 since 2006 were from the measles vaccine? A critical part of your stat missing there when denying that not vaccinating kids by choice has no bearing on a measle outbreak
Vaccines are effective and safe. How many of the “vaccine damaged” 1300 since 2006 were from the measles vaccine?
Bear with me a minute. This is very difficult to ascertain as this report…
https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/topic_sheets/adverse-event-summary.pdf …is at odds with the ACC data I obtained through an OIA. The above document states that between 2005 and 2009 that " Of the 4,757 reports, 174 (3.6%) meet the criteria of a serious report." Peculiar as ACC data shows 299 accepted claims for vaccine injury during the same period.
There is a wee chart in the Adverse Events Summary that does indicate which particular vaccine is being 'blamed' for the adverse event. MMR accounts for 25 of the 174 of the total 'serious' reports.
25/174 over a 5 year period. Or 5 a year. Out of how many vaccines delivered? 57000, assuming a 7% redux on births in 2016.
One in every 11500 could cause a severe reaction. Almost as unlucky as getting struck by lightning at 1 in 12000.
But lightning isn’t contagious and there is an actual choice about being outside. There isn’t a choice if you are too young to be immunised.
The discrepancy in numbers between the two might be an administrative lag between date of vaccination, onset of adverse event, reporting date, and the date that ACC made its decision.
Additionally, there might be some differences in criteria – adverse events are any event within X period of the vaccination, while ACC might have different causal threshold.
As for 25 serious reports, "serious" includes "hospitalisations", so I suggest the number of MMR-correlated incidents in that five year period has been thoroughly outstripped by hospitalisations in the current outbreak. Probably several times over by now.
A far cry from 1300 being a meaningful figure in relation the number involved in this outbreak
Australia has 99 % vacination rate. No vacination,no playgroup,kindy or school.How simple is THAT.This is a major failure of Government public health policy.
Spot on Rosemary, the consequences of regional differences in vaccination rates in NZ, due to socioeconomic, cultural and other factors, seem to mirror trends seen in Europe.
Measles in Europe: record number of both sick and immunized (lessons for NZ?)
“This means that gaps at local level still offer an open door to the virus,” says Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab. “We cannot achieve healthier populations globally, as promised in WHO’s vision for the coming five years, if we do not work locally.”
1990s epidemics were greater , many thousands caught the disease. What happened then.. really dont think there was some sort of national emergency proclaimed
"
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, Jim Bolger was prime minister, and New Zealand was sick with measles.
Vaccination coverage was low and the highly infectious disease was ripping through the population. Estimates vary, but as many as 40,000 to 60,000 people likely got sick, according to a previous version of the immunisation handbook, put out by the Ministry of Health.
Seven people died, including four unimmunised children. Six years later, in 1997, a second, smaller epidemic struck. There were 2169 cases around the country. About 950 people were hospitalised across both events, according to the 2011 handbook.
"People have forgotten what used to happen when we didn't have such high vaccination rates," said Dr Jill Sherwood, a public health medicine specialist at ESR, a Crown Research Institute."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/111238229/people-have-forgotten–past-measles-epidemics-killed-hospitalised-hundreds
Seems as though the reseachers say without immunisation the cases reach into the tens of thousands.
Because there's absolutely nothing else threatening the wellbeing of the country right now, the most tech-literate Government ever!1 has decided that it's a good time to do some pearl-clutching about adult content on the Internet.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/08/porn-crackdown-the-government-s-moves-to-stop-kids-accessing-adult-material.html
are you objecting to the way they are doing this, or that they are doing it at all?
There's a measles epidemic, men and boys are killing themselves in greater numbers than ever before, people are sleeping in cars, carbon emissions are increasing, water quality is declining, so of course it's time for a bit of "won't someone think of the children" dead-cat distraction.
Here are some things that have my spidey sense tingling:
" Five draft laws have been proposed to the Minister by Family First "
–oh neat, Family First. Just who I need advice on matters of sexuality and freedom of expression.
" Directing the state department of education to take a direct role in educating parents of enrolled students on the harms of pornographic material. "
–telling parents what to think doesn't sound outside the department's purview AT ALL.
"Options being looked at include: R18 access to porn websites: Residents will have to provide age ID to have access "
–hands up who trusts the NZ government to secure an enormous digital collection of identity documentation?
Valid point about family first lobbying ministries, but the real question should be, with the large number of children regularly accessing hardcore pornagraphy, especially that which is degrading and exploitative of women, and the persistence of rape culture, misogyny and brutal disrespect to them in our society, can we afford not to impose restrictions on who gets to view it?
Those too are valid points. But in the real world we also have to acknowledge two things:
1. The NZ Government is technically illiterate. It wouldn't have the foggiest idea how to block some people's access to parts of the Internet without screwing other parts of the Internet up for everyone.
2. One person's perversion is another person's expression of identity. If the Government blocks (for example) trans or non-binary porn for people who are over the legal age of consent, it will be a disaster.
Perhaps you could characterise both points as parts of the same problem – it’s crazy to trust the imposition of morality on the Internet to wealthy, able-bodied, old, white, straight, cisgender technophobes.
Adult people can perve their hearts out for all I care, but the issue is children having free access and the damage it does not only to the viewer, but those who form relationships or encounter them in the present and future.
In the old days you found a mag on the common or under your dads bed, and that was your exposure to porn, but this digital media age has much worse content, viewed by many many more people.
I'm not a prude, nor do I have the solution, though I think for the safety and mental well being of our younglings, something should be done, whatever it is.
Not a sausage from the Kremlin admitting that it was a Soviet one, too.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier marked the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in Warsaw on Sunday by asking for forgiveness for "Germany's historical guilt."
"My country unleashed a horrific war that would cost more than 50 million people — among them millions of Polish citizens — their lives. This war was a German crime," the president said in a speech before Polish President Andrzej Duda, US Vice President Mike Pence, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, as well as representatives of 30 other countries.
https://www.dw.com/en/german-president-asks-for-polish-forgiveness-on-wwii-anniversary/a-50247207
very good point Joe90
The Russians' fond belief that they were hapless, peace-loving victims of WW2 is something Putin's trying to reinforce, so chances of an admission of guilt = 0.
I thought Soviet mass-murder of Poles was accepted as canon after Krushchev's "Secret Speech"?
These days, as far as Russia's concerned the war started on 22 June 1941. Quibbling about who did what before that is for bigoted, ant-Slavic westerners who want to undermine the heroic Soviet achievement because they're embarrassed at their own countries' dismal failure to contain the Nazi threat. It's going down a treat inside Russia – not so much in Poland, Finland, the Baltic Republics or Romania, mind…
Point.
Sudden stratospheric warming reaching stratospheric heights.
http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/clisys/STRAT/gif/pole10_sh.gif
Warming seems to have paused Ozone mass loss.
https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/meteorology/figures/merra/ozone/toms_omds_2019_omps+merra2.pdf
The response to the Bridges National Cancer "Plan" recently seemed to be heavily commented on in MSM.
An actual Cancer Plan published yesterday seemed to have a muted response, except for the expected rapid denigrating response from National. "Too little. Too late." Strange for a National Party after 9 long years?
Unless the government already had such a 'cancer plan' in the pipeline before National presented theirs, you have to wonder why they let National and the MSM set the agenda in the first place. Who said that that was the problem de jour, that everyone has to address this week? It's important, to be sure, but why not focus on your own legislative agenda?
David Simon has the wingnuts exercised.
Kia Ora Newshub.
Aotearoa is no Australia just because they like using the big stick userly it is used on the people who are down and out. Aotearoa can come up with a smart solution to the measles problem in Aotearoa.
The old health system was the best in the Papatuanuku in value for money and services. My experience with the health system is not good at all I seen the way that they discriminated against me and my mokopuna. I don't trust anyone in that system
Ma Te wa the Kiwi build is a good move by the Coalition government to fix the last lots Houseing short they were serving themselves rubbing there hands together reaping the capital gains cause by shonkys short.
Dorain is a powerful force from Tawhirimate and Papatuanuku we need to heed our scientists warning and drop carbon out of our lives as fast as possible.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Its great that our Prime Minister is taking to Ngāti Porou about our Awa Tangaroa and the state of the Fisheries on the East Coast to resolve the issues that were agreed appon in the 1980s
Ka pai Chris these loan sharks cost Maori and Pacific tangata heaps of money with their huge interest charged on their loans to people who can least afford to pay it back Eco Maori dislike these people .
Tangata whenua do value our ENVIRONMENT more than western society's do we know that we are part of all things in our environment be it whenua Tangaroa or Tawhirimate.
The Tangata Whenua O Australia are being discriminated against by the Australian Crown its a very sad situation that they are in WTF it that common Tangata whenua Australia its no who's in the hinaki its who hasn't been to jail what a waste of great talenteEd tangata. Shane Phillips Ka pai with your mahi
Ngāti Manawheno it's great to see our tamariki preforming it's better for Eco Maori to see all our Wahine stepping up to the hard mahi in Aotearoa.
Ka kite Ano.