It irks me that Hooten’s sign off says PR and Excelcium not former National Party staffer etc etc.
He may be miffed that this latest revelation makes him look a little foolish.
To sugest that Clark and Wall not knowing equates to every Nat Health Minister and DHB Chair not knowing since 2010 is disingenous at best.
Of course the hospital is still operating. How could it not? It serves the largest population catchment in Auckland and that catchment contains many over representated in illness stats.
Were they supposed to close and send the patients to Colemans new employers private hospitals? At private rates paid for by the taxpayer?
Does the cost to fix include the cost of relocating the services within the building being repaired?
Speaking of former NActs, the greatest skill of Tony Ryall (Simpson Grierson’s head of pubic policy, Minister of Health 2008-2014) was putting in place health the targets and budget stretching that bedevil the public health services today, and walking away before the sh-ortages hit the fan.
Tony Ryall – I remember a political commentator saying that he had been adept at keeping health on low profile while he was Minister. Managing down, austerity reigns, that will get you a good outcome when you step down as a pollie.
This illustrates the awful moral hazard that faces the citizens with business reigning over us. There is no desire for government to see that anything is done well or goes well for the mass of the citizens, because there is a private company that can profit from undertaking the remedial work. It’s a factory chain of robotic ‘wealth creators’ (euphemism), and we are being passed from one work station to another.
But the work done for and on us does not have to conform to any excellence except what shows on the surface. There are no solid regulations that are practical and have teeth and are monitored and activated.
Every breath you take I’ll be watching you.
Every move you make ” ” ” ”
Oh can’t you see
You belong to me…………
No, or few regulations on business, but yes for citizens. Every step and breath that citizens take is being regulated by business through their servant entity, government. So sneer at the promise of a brave new world of neoliberalism, freemarketing and freebooting (now add freebotting).
The rights and opportunities we had achieved for us all have been given away and we are left with nothing positive just being exploited! We have swopped our magic beans for a cow! Go climb that beanstalk Jacky and steal back our golden future from the giant, and good luck to you pilgrim.
No, or few regulations on business, but yes for citizens. Every step and breath that citizens take is being regulated by business through their servant entity, government. So sneer at the promise of a brave new world of neoliberalism, freemarketing and freebooting (now add freebotting).
QFT
I’ll add this bit from Why we can’t afford the rich:
Though it never admits it, neoliberalism is a political-economic movement that seeks to legitimise widening economic inequalities and defend rentier interests above all others. Rentiers can live off others regardless of their gender, race, sexuality and so on.
The majority of us are slaves to keeping the rich wealthy. That’s how capitalism is designed.
I love a good rant grey, especially when it’s so much better than I could have done. An excellent point on our regulatory environment and the differences in it for businesses and citizens.
And some people still think politics doesn’t affect them. Only when enough citizens pay attention, will the politicians change that neo-liberal regulatory environment instead of just stitching up the fraying edges.
miravox
There was some point before one of the elections that Key denied the seriousness of some criticism saying that the naysayers were making politics out of it whatever it was. We are so green that we are like spirulina if we don’t understand that everything done and said is political and has effects on all the citizens – Politics’R US!
Wikipedia
political
adjective: political
1.
relating to the government or public affairs of a country.
“a period of political and economic stability”
Way to go – Participatory democracy – Everyone start studying politics as it is taught, so you are knowledgable when the time for making good future decisions comes.
Hooten is probably right. DHB heads might be compelled by the Nat Govt to hide that sort of information from the media but they can’t keep it out of the books. Building depreciation and deferred maintenance is financial information with an absolute requirement it be reported in the annual accounts.
The Audit Office signed off the annual report of CMDHB, if anything was deliberately missed out I’d expect to see the Audit Office descend on that DHB like a plague of locusts. Politicians might get away with bullshitting about financial matters but accountants and senior managers sure can’t (not when they’re discovered anyway).
It still surprises me that so many people can report on an issue like this without any of them even bothering to take the time to read the annual reports of the party in question. It should be the first thing interested people do, the annual accounts of all Govt departments are a free download for anyone to peruse.
No that was what I saw as the initial brouha tracey; that the Nat Govt was (allegedly) pressuring DHB heads to defer maintenance and keep quiet about it in order to make their own books look better.
The claims that have been made about costs should be in the annual report. I scanned through a few of them and saw few surprises there. The possible existence of asbestos in old buildings, for example, has been acknowledged for years in their books. They just state they’ won’t make provision for it as a liability until if/when it’s discovered and needs addressing. That’s fair enough.
The annual reports are worth reading IMO. They can contain a lot of fluff in the intro but the financial statements contained within the reports are a serious business, they make a statutory declaration on the truthfulness of those.
All of these issues result from one aspect of our society: Our desire to do everything on the cheap.
It’s why we have shoddy infrastructure, why our economic development has slowed and why farming is still a major industry.
Things is, it will cost us far more in the long run. More environmental damage by the farms and more for repairs on substandard houses and infrastructure.
But it does allow the RWNJs to cut taxes for the rich.
Audrey Young showed her true blue colours yesterday when she attacked those using the term Dirty Politics to describe the behaviour of right wing scum trolls who have attacked Clarke Gayford.
She is either an incompetent journalist or a dishonest one.
Audrey’s an enabler like the hosk etc. Shes attacking the rhetoric rather then the issue of deliberately placed malicious content for political advantage, who and why ?
That’s not even journalism of any sort that’s pushing an agenda…..removal of the term from the narrative that’s interwoven in many minds with the national party.
They really don’t like the truth or it being played out in public as that’s going to hurt further at the polls.
DP operates at two levels. At the sinister level it aims to drag all politics down to gutter politics with associated gutter ‘journalism’ and similar (and worse) shit in MSM and social media, respectively. You cannot fight it easily without falling in this trap, which is why DP is so insidious and effective! Lefties have particular difficulty with tackling DP and are very prone to becoming victims of it because they like to take and come (down) from the ‘moral high ground’. Of course, this makes the Left the ideal target of DP, in fact the only one; the Left cannot turn the tables despite RWNJs arguing otherwise.
Young suggested that when Ardern used the phrase ‘dirty politics’, Ardern was deliberately sending a dog whistle to conspiracy theorists on the left (like you) to assume it was the Nats who were responsible for the Gayford rumours and to put the boot in.
It worked a treat; just about every man and his dog (after being whistled) on this site yesterday did just that.
You were played Ed. You ended up no better than the original rumour mongers. But you served Jacinda’s purpose.
It has been a meme being pushed. Probably the most notable proponent (and probable originator – it has his style) was Hooten.
But it has been interesting watching the attempts to push the “reverse black ops” meme all over the place. Entirely done in those hushed “I have a little secret” tone that the alt-ridiculous seem to love.
Oh well I guess it makes them feel like they are in the know. And makes the suckers feel bigger than they really are
Riiiiiight grantoc, better she said nothing and just let the rumour die… oh wait is wasnt dying it was spreading, like all the dirty little rumours that swirled during Clark’s leadership.
Past behaviour is a good predictor of future etc etc
Nats and their arms lengthers have form. You are the one spinning.
What do you mean Clarke attackers? Who are you talking about?
Actual ” take the moral high ground” is something of the same strategy of these DP ers… first they swirl the rumour and watch it grow, then when someone responds, they join the chorus of vouces saying “turn the other cheek”, cos they know they win twice cos the rumour keeps swirling into more and more ears.
Scum is something that floats to the top, is mostly unpleasant in nature and if not removed spoils the flavour of the wholesome stuff underneath. As a metaphor I’m not sure it’s so badly chosen. It is somewhat inflammatory though…
Tracy Watkins opines on the dirty politics claim. She notes Clark was subject the relentless rumours while in office and Key to rumours when he left. Ardern subject in office… via her partner. Despite the pattern being
Labour rumours in office
National rumours post resignation
She concludes it isnt a strategy by a political party…
She tried to write a balanced article but that last sentence or so…
We know Nats rarely dish the dirt themselves and have a history of using arms length folk to do it. And yes it is proven james
The defining characteristics about the aging dinosaur media like Soper, Young, and O’Sullivan is chronological decrepitude, intellectual morbidity and a resulting torpid professional lassitude.
The chronological and intellectual decadence of that generation of journalists means they are much more inclined to treat dirty politics as a useful source of reliably controversial copy that relieves their aging brains of the need to think or investigate, and they can rationalise their complicity with a world weary cynicism that masquerades as sophistication for so many of our not half as clever as they think they are aging senior journalists.
I’ve thought recently that one of the more interesting pieces of meta data of a “youth-adjacent” Jacinda’s elevation to power is the sudden revelation of the creeping atmosphere of defeatism and nihilism that comes with a population that is losing it’s virility as it ages. I remember a particular conversation in the media when the previous government was asked if we could take the Manus Island refugees. The boomer minister responded with a bewildering list of reasons for why it was all just so hard and complex. Next up on the radio was Golriz Ghahraman, who immediately launched into a back of the envelope planning session on how you could squeeze the refugees into the various centres around the country. For her, the question wasn’t if we could take them, it was how we could manage them when they got here.
The difference between age and youth has seldom been so starkly illustrated. Much the same issue infests our establishment media. Far, far to many journalists are out of place and out of another time yet cling to senior jobs like shipwrecked sailors to a mast in a storm tossed sea whose movements they no longer understand or anticipate.
The real trick to getting old gracefully is knowing when to hand the reins over to the youngsters, and be relaxed and confident that the future is in safe hands when you do so.
Clearly none of our ancient brigade of senior journalists possess this skill.
Great piece Sanctuary… add in Armstrong and Roughan, the increased use of former politicians and former party hacks to write pieces. I see Hooten described a trained journalist at the herald as his colleague. Not really Sir.
The Nats are enacting their 2005 template. DP has started. Leader is saying he doesnt approve. We are on a John Key loop
By thunder Sanctuary – you really spell it out well when you get going – as here.
The defining characteristics about the aging dinosaur media like Soper, Young, and O’Sullivan is chronological decrepitude, intellectual morbidity and a resulting torpid professional lassitude.
The real crime (to me) was installing a President by fraudulent means. The fix should at least start with all involved going to court.
Shutting down the company seems necessary but impotent. There are people involved in every bit of corporate shenanigans, somehow the ‘company’ gets told off, scapegoats are fired, but no one responsible really seems culpable? The social damage (wealth shift now to the corporate/wealthy via a fraudulently elected leader = massive theft) will be enormous, let alone the psychological damage of undermining the safety and rights of women and minorities, and encouragement of various dictatorial styled leaders…
Zuckerberg’s still a billionaire with obscene power. Three steps removed mate. Corporate trickery again.
Cambridge Analytica is shutting down. Shine a light into a dark place and the rats gathered there scatter. I hope people are tracking where they’re scuttling off to.
“According to current police data analysed by the Herald, as of 2016 up to 80 per cent of reported aggravated sexual assaults go unresolved. For the crime “male rapes female 16 and over”, that number is even higher, at 85 per cent. Rape cases are four times less likely to go to court in comparison with other types of physical assault, where only 24 per cent of offences are unresolved.”
This is a feature article and deserves more than a passing acknowledgement of the headlines.
“According to current police data analysed by the Herald, as of 2016 up to 80 per cent of reported aggravated sexual assaults go unresolved. For the crime “male rapes female 16 and over”, that number is even higher, at 85 per cent. Rape cases are four times less likely to go to court in comparison with other types of physical assault, where only 24 per cent of offences are unresolved.”
This is a feature article and deserves more than a passing acknowledgement of the headline.
The know-all Hosking is now pontificating on how Jacinta and Clarke wrongly handled the distressing rumour mill situation yesterday. It is astounding that he thinks he is so fabulously smart and right on every aspect of life and every other mere mortal simply has no idea. What are his qualifications to have these opinions, apart from giant sized ego and arrogance. Ugh.
The police made it clear they issued their statement without the knowledge of Ardern or Clarke. Typical of the Hosking twat… blame them even when it had nothing to do with them.
He might as well add that it’s all their fault for existing.
Fair point – no – you are correct I have nothing to back it up or any proof.
It would be strange if they did it off their own backs and never mention it to anybody or sought any approval – but you are correct they very well may have done just that.
“The police made it clear they issued their statement without the knowledge of Ardern or Clarke”.
Do you, or anyone else have a link to the Police Commissioner’s statement?
I can’t seem to find the actual statement anywhere.
I’d like to see exactly what he did say.
@ Alwyn,
I can’t find it anywhere now but it was definitely on one of the online news sites late yesterday. I don’t recollect it being in the actual statement, but from memory Commissioner Bush was responding to a journalist’s question and he said something to the effect:
No, I did not seek permission from the PM or her partner, Clarke Gayford about issuing the statement.
I took that to mean the police made the decision to issue the statement independently of anyone outside of the Force.
Thank you.
That is what I thought I had heard on the radio yesterday or the day before. I would be surprised if the PMs office wasn’t given a heads-up at the minimum, even if they hadn’t asked for the statement.
I think they would have a no surprises policy in place.
media are milking it flat out for clicks/views/listeners, dirty old whale blubber is about to be on radiolive, spinning his own brand of shite on said subject.
Dirty politics enabling media revenue what a freaking surprise.
James, Hosking is a radio ranter and former tv tugger of cuffs. That is all., which does not qualify him as a respected and wise person to look up to, or on a par with the the role of Prime Minister.
What are everyone’s thoughts about the pamphlets given to high school seniors containing info about drugs etc?
Personally, I think it’s brilliant.
I often reflect if part of the drinking culture is due to a lack of information being given to teens, my generation was never schooled on responsible drinking, my parents didn’t talk about it, so as a teen when I tried alcohol I had no idea and ended up in some awful situations as a result.
Not informing and educating people especially youth on drugs and alcohol hasn’t been working, this approach is fantastic, well done to Massey High and any other high schools involved.
I am mostly in favour with a little bit of niggling reservation (but still trying to figure out why specifically).
Did you hear the interview this morning on Morning Report with the Executive Director of the Drug Foundation Ross Bell? Well worth the five minutes imo. Here is the article with the link to the recording.
There’s probably going to be a fair bit of pearl clutching going on, but so far I’m in agreement with Mr Bell.
I’m also pretty bloody sure most people don’t actually understand the extent of the problem.
“…my generation was never schooled on responsible drinking, my parents didn’t talk about it, so as a teen when I tried alcohol I had no idea and ended up in some awful situations as a result.”
Hard to discuss when its not clear which generation you’re from.
I’m edging fast towards 60 and my oldest child is in their 30s.
I learned about the potentially devastating effects of drug and alcohol use first hand from parents who blighted their children’s lives with their substance abuse.
Although we almost never talked about it.
Without the drug and alcohol abuse, at least one of my parents would have made a better fist of keeping us safe.
Even today, discussions around child protection issues fail to put the substance abuse of the parents at the top of the list of risk factors leading to child abuse, neglect and parental failure.
And it seems to me that ‘information’ such as the one in question fails as it seems to imply that there is a ‘safe’ and ‘responsible’ way of using meth.
From the people I have met whose lives,and more importantly those of their children, have been devastated by this singularly hideous drug there is no ‘safe’ way of using. Odds are it will get you (and your loved ones) sooner or later.
And it seems to me that ‘information’ such as the one in question fails as it seems to imply that there is a ‘safe’ and ‘responsible’ way of using meth.
The article isn’t reporting the full context that the material is used in which is a health course about how to take care of yourself which includes all the negative effects of drug use.
Exactly. Read some comments of students doing the clurse. They also learn how destructive drug use is. To the user their friends and families. The pamphlet has a context. By taking it out of context the “no sex ed in schools brigade” can shut this discourse too and leave our kids to the woolves
I’m in my mid forties Rosemary 🙂 sorry should have added that,
Generation X.
Adults always drunk at bbq’s and family gatherings, never any violence or abuse (that I saw), a few ‘pearler’ moments when the adults were extra silly.
So alcohol to me equated to fun and good times was never told or shown the contrary.
If there’s article on the news about drunk teens, with footage of drunk chicks in skimpy clothing vomiting, falling over etc; I now make a point of showing the girls, so they begin to understand what ‘drunk’ looks like.
Oh God! Some of my best friends (etc etc) dreaded that ‘cops on the beat’ reality tv program in case it was their offspring featured sprawled vomiting in the gutter.
Fortunately the kids made it to their mid twenties relatively un famous. 😉 🙂
I think it is the product of getting access to resources to use in this situation without putting it into context.
The pamphlet is very appropriate for working with heavy users trying to manage the damage their drug use is causing in their lives, with a intent to reduce or eliminate drug use.
As an information source for non-users it is both inefficient and ineffective at providing the information they need in order to make good choices when the situations they will face offers them the opportunity to indulge.
Because the pamphlet was intended for drug users, the reasonable assumption was that those reading are already users – and gives information on how to accommodate that use into their lives. The damage of using, by those we would expect would participate in rehabilitation programmes would already have been experienced by those participants, and would in all their varied forms and effects would not have to be described. Their lived experience and involvement in rehab means the “conversation” about drugs, is picked up way down the line – at the management stage.
For high-school students not familiar with drugs, or users – this pamphlet drops them into the drugs conversation without context or preamble, and seemingly gives legitimacy to experimentation and drug use. Not every student will have the maturity to discuss this academically, and not every student will have the environment around them to understand the difference.
Having had a brief look at the website, I think the pamphlet was inappropriate for use for information sessions about drugs, a result of not aligning information with audience.
In terms of working with heavy drug users and addiction problems, the information and advice provided is required to reduce and minimise further harm, and is appropriate for that use.
Would be good if students had a variety of speakers who are recovering substance abusers to talk to the kids as well as handing out reading material, to add more weight and context to it all.
They used to be an alcohol-free 3 day dance party, annually I would go to in my 20’s, along with your ticket there was a plethora of safe drug taking information etc etc included.
Personally, I thought it was brilliant because it included much info about what could go wrong,
I suspect it could have put some off about taking substances.
It also allowed others to know what to do if something went wrong for themselves or another person.
Loved going to that event, attended it for 5 yrs running, no sexual abuse or getting hit on by drunk guys, no booze, no worries, it was magic.
Discussion about drugs at this time is important, and as you mention, the involvement of former addicts would add personal impact to the message they share.
However, if the discussion is around the use of the pamphlet, I think it was a resource fail in terms of not providing the right information for the right audience. Not a big deal, but a failure that should be recognised and acknowledged so that it is not replicated.
My first job while at school was in the hospitality industry, and the dry academic language used at the time regarding drug use, had absolutely no relevance to me when I was in an environment where drugs (including alcohol) was readily available. There has been much improvement since then at secondary school level.
Mike Hosking was busy explaining on that funny ZB station how he had rumours spread about him. Because he was a great celebrity. And how a marriage went pear shaped – yuk.
Unusual for him he only made two mistakes. He appears to think he has the status of the PM and her Partner.
Secondly he thinks the Police Stink. Because they had no negative information whatever on Clarke Gayford.
What a pretty little citizen he is. If I were Mike, I would walk carefully because the thinking public have had enough of political maleficence. And ZB might find itself in a dispute with ordinary people who do not have the status of one named Michael Hosking. The same people who do not think the Police stink.
@ Mike H darling. I don’t think it was because of rumours spread that a marriage went pear shaped – do you?
Maybe it was that perm? No? Darling, I do understand though your need to clutch at anything that will portray you as the perfect specimen. Maybe darling, just be thankful you now have such a loyal and dedicated family support mechanism
Mike H. Is a voice in the wilderness. He’s old. He’s old hat. He doesn’t need to write his little missives anymore. Any of us could do that for him. He is THE most predictable hack there is. Oh. I forgot to say boring. So he’s out in the wilderness. If he utters a word in the wilderness does he make a sound?
the digital info gave it away – 750k users, 3millon hours a month. Looks impressive.
So a few thousand regular users nationally and a pile of barely-actives, otherwise every “listener” is dialing up for only a few hours every month. Maybe once a week if that, lol. And how many of them really want to hear hosking as opposed to background noise? 3 million listers hanging on his every word, my arse.
I recall years ago an advertiser telling me that the half page ads in a student magazine were more expensive than a full page ad in a nationally-distributed publication. And worth it, because an outlet where you can be something to a few thousand is better than an outlet where you can be irrelevent to ten or twenty times that number.
“..with listeners now hitting 3.39 million,..”
Doesn’t make sense to me especially since National Radio has the biggest audience around 500,000 I seem to remember. But the Herald has to boost their ratings with a disregard for reality in a Donald Trump sort of way.
That’s across all their radio stations. And if it’s picked by a survey going “which stations have you listened to in the past month?”, someone who owns half a dozen stations in the list is going to do well out of name rec alone lol.
Northland’s sand dune lakes and peaty wetlands are a rare and special habitat. But valuable wetlands are being destroyed by swamp kauri mining, leading to polluted waterways and habitats laid to waste.
Timber millers are currently exploiting a loophole by claiming wet slabs of wood are finished table tops. Miners are plundering native wetland ecosystems to make quick and dirty money.
Northland Environmental Protection Society is going to the Supreme Court over the level of protection provided to swamp kauri. They are standing up for nature. It’s amazing what they are doing to fight for nature in Northland.
90% of our wetlands have already been destroyed in New Zealand. Our nature has been up for grabs for too long. Northland Environmental Protection Society is working to protect their wetlands.
(P.S. wasn’t swamp Kauri mining what caused one of the big outages of power leading up to the election… when a digger cut through the cable, not really talked about of course, because people like Judith Collins are all for profiting from this loophole of Kauri mining.)
But….but….iwi interests, AND Shane Jones….who also happens to be from that iwi…. AND Minister for Getting the Nephews in the Regions off their arses and into work…
There are two, maybe three distinct things going on here….
Firstly, the extraction of swamp kauri logs which Fiona and team have been battling not only the damage done in the digging and extracting to the environment and the waterways, but also the illegal selling of unprocessed timber overseas.
And thirdly, the rather alarming expansion of the avocado industry in the Far Far North. I was privileged to sit in on the consent hearing in Kaiatia weeks ago…some extraordinarily knowledgeable and dedicated locals committed to finding out the truth, the facts and educating those with poor understanding of the issues.
Linking all three of these things is the Kaimaumau Wetland….the second most significant remaining wetland in the country. DOC put up good arguments against the water extraction based on their studies and concerns about the Kaimaumau Wetland…but appeared to be backing away after a break in proceedings.
Strongest impression of the hearings was how awfully less than honest, open and transparent were the applicants. Thought the locals were all thick hillbillies and wouldn’t see through their BS. Much less investigate, gather their local experts and shout it from the rooftops…(or the street corner, as the case may be.)
Years ago my father was involved with a hapu business in Northland digging clay. They wanted to utilise it, and used the profits for personal objectives like having an overseas trip, not a bad thing, but did not service their trucks and keep things in working order, thus running down the business. In the end I think they leased the business to someone else.
It is easy for an iwi leader to say that they want business and to create jobs because that is what all developers say. How many jobs, for how long, what skills will be learned and is the business entity going to be a Maori trust with everyone taught business and development principles so the people understand the short and long term plans and can make informed opinions?
Mike has been used to snugging up against the behind of John Key – a truly magic man – sent down on earth to please and appease ZB inhabitants. Hosking, Soper et al.
Yes, John Key – The magic man – also a fetish man – and a money man – and cafe maid bully man – and a Golf man – and an Obama man – with a fondness for very young blonde pigtails – is difficult to keep up with John Key. Poor Hosking.
Especially with the mighty Farrar out the back of Kiwi Blog raving on about “Dykes” with a capital “D”.
Our National Brethren are so fortunate to have many twisted – I almost said “bent” – personnel guiding the greedy of Aotearoa – and at the same time young Simon. Simon has to achieve only but one thing. Namely: Line his pockets. Like his beloved Colleagues.
Even if he does have to take humiliating lessons from ChinaDoll Collins.
It will be a Century before National ever appoints a straight “non pocket lining” MP.
Hosking. The king of ZB blue radio. Where closed minded old farts love to moan and closed minded listeners believe everything they hear, because they struggle to think for themselves.
I’ve met Hosking on many occasions through bussiness. He’s the most arrogant, self absorbed rude prick I’ve ever met.
James must be of similar character, otherwise he wouldn’t have bothered linking to the story. James loves to shit stir, just because he can. He probably has nothing more constuctive to do with his time.
If he gets really good he’ll get closer to RNZ’s listening audience!
He’s king of talkback? How many in an average morning are on his show in a ‘talkback’ situation? I don’t listen to him but he used to be on air from 6-8.30 am. There was a spell of about 10-11 minutes around the hour with ads and news there used to be quite a few other ads. Somewhere along the line he does some sort of monologue. Just wondering.
Middlemore problems highlighted in 2010 report
Radio New Zealand Thursday, 3 May 2018, 3:47 pm
Article: RNZ
The Counties Manukau DHB has said it was first alerted to leaking buildings in 2012 but, in fact, it was warned in early 2010.
“The cladding system to the lower levels of the building appears to be failing,” the February 2010 report by surveyors Dalton said, after it took off cladding at five spots on the south wall of the Scott building, which also houses cardiac care.
It photographed advanced brown rot and light rot in wood frames it rated as “un-sound” and described “widespread incipient decay” caused by leaking.
“The use of untreated timber and established decay at corners and sheet edges demonstrates that the [three] lower level storeys are at risk of real future failure.”
Counties Manukau DHB acting chief executive Dr Gloria Johnson said that when she told the public in March this year that they were first alerted to the leaks in 2012, she was not aware of the 2010 report.
The Dalton report includes a photo of a fece-stained first-floor sewage pipe, where leaking caused “serious damage” to framing. Board’s chair Rabin Rabindran, a board member Mark Darrow and the DHB itself have all said media reports of sewage leaks were overplayed. It’s now known there were at least four such leaks of raw sewage.
(Labour introduced dodgy spray on protection for interior timbers and continued after leaky homes.) http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0507/S00239.htm
Labour fails homeowners in timber treatment scam
Monday, 11 July 2005, 5:13 pm
Press Release: New Zealand National Party
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10328966
Battle over blame in leaky homes
4 Jun, 2005 12:56pm
…National MPs Nick Smith and Richard Worth are barking at the Government’s indifference in the absence of incoming Building Minister Chris Carter. It’s the first meeting of the Leaky Homes Action Group and a chance to score pre-election points – but everyone knows the rot started under National’s watch.
Is this one of those cases when it’s a low-regulation neo-liberal government cock-up and Labour has fallen for it on this occasion though it could have happened to National if they had been in power at this period? And is Middlemore the putrid off-colour meat in the sandwich?
Look I hate to tell James and sad sack Hosking – and tongue tied Simon – that Capitalism has failed.
The tag along Audreys and money chasers – Capitalism has failed.
You lot have dredged the money from the ordinary honest people, and stuffed it into your own piles – often in hidden accounts. You have condoned every dirty thing Key and English did.
The ordinary citizen has no hope of owning a house . Nor much hope of paying your exorbitant Rents. You are theives. That’s what you Capitalists are.
Your jacked up Panels; Your Corins; Your so called “Professionals”; Your Hootons are just shallow shaggers. Your Fletchers. Your Fonterras.
Capitalism is Crime in action. The Banks you support are based in Australia. Criminals in Action. Yet you attack the ordinary struggling man and his family.
It was a late milking drying cows off so I missed my morning Am show post it a beautiful day in Putaruru bit of a frost I will put up more post later today Ka kite ano P.S. its taken 7 years to get bee killing pesticides banned from use in Europe thanks to the Avaazers movement
Good evening Newshub I’m a bit late tonight we were watching the Mokopunas playing netball. That’s a shame that the people of Vanuatu have to leave their Island ECO MAORI gives all the best wishes for there move to another Island.
Many thanks to our Labour lead coalition Government for helping all the homeless people. This is a problem cause by the previous Government.
Many thanks to France and all there good people for there monument that houners the young men who fought for OUR freedom. Ka pai I have seen some of the French cultures and the way they run there society ECO MAORI is quite impressed Ka kite ano
The Crowd Goes Wild good evening Makere weres WAI.?
The Chief playing the Jaguar in Rotorua I’m on the farm at the minute is that were WAI is a watching the game it will be a good game I wish I was there ECO MAORI mite steal all the lime light lol yea right.
Josh the wave breaks in Raglan are world renowned to a lot of surfers there is a awesome wave breaks At WAI piro Bay Te tairawhiti.
Ka kite ano
. . April 4: Day 10 of living in lock-down… I wake up to a fine Saturday morning which normally would be like an early Christmas. But it’s Day 10 of Level 4 Lock Down. What will my fellow New Zealanders be doing on a day like this – staying ...
Some time during the night we went over the 850,000 views mark. We might have had our millionth view by the end of this year – certainly by early next year. Most of the people involved in Redline spent years and years producing various small left-wing papers and selling them ...
Comfortably, in the very first round, with an impressive 56% of the votes.I wonder, did members of the Shadow Cabinet start tweeting their resignations during Starmer's victory speech, or is that only a trick the right pull?It is odd how all the talk of how the next leader "needs to ...
One of the key voices in this extraordinary time in which we live is that of University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker. Philip Matthews did an an excellent job this weekend of capturing the way he became the man for this moment in a profile for The Press.But one ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...
Redline received this article from the KOE a Marxist party in Greece Our friends in the KOE describe here the mounting crisis in Greece and tensions on the Turkish border. As desperate people flee from their homelands which have been ruined after decades of imperialist wars and interventions the people ...
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messagesfrom different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...
. . April 3: Day 9 of living in lock-down… Another late-start to my work day. Everything is temporarily upended as clients are shuffled around so we can minimise our “bubble” by reducing the number of people we help. One of my colleagues has been removed from his clients; his ...
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of a pretty flower, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a cute animal video. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 2: Day eight of living in lock-down… Today, my work day starts late. Our rosters and clients have been dramatically changed, lessening (theoretically) the number of people in our work “bubble”. If just one of us catches covid19 the impact could be considerable as Grey Base Hospital ...
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Lenin Don’t we all know that feeling now.
Prospect Magazine alerted me to this particularly apt quote. It is a much more evocative quote than Hemingway’s “gradually then suddenly” which is also doing ...
Yesterday was the day the consequences of the lockdown suddenly got very real for many. Firms have been closing and laying people off since the outset of the quarantine but this has mostly been happening out of the public eye. The mass closure of a number of iconic New Zealand ...
Brian Williamson1, Prof Nick Wilson2 (1Economic consultant, UK; 2University of Otago Wellington)In this blog, we outline how a win-win social contract could be forged to address the major dimensions of response to the COVID-19 pandemic when using a mitigation strategy: the particular need to protect older people from high ...
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...
No Free Society Without A Free And Functioning News Media: If we are to surrender our civil rights to the broader cause of defeating Covid-19, then foreign corporations must, likewise, surrender their right to inflict immense economic and cultural harm on New Zealanders simply because it improves their bottom line.I’M ...
by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...
The swan politicians may be gliding on the water, occasionally snapping at one another. Meanwhile, as the Covid19 crisis illustrates, the officials are desperately paddling below providing the real locomotion. One of the most fatuous recent grandstanding comments (of about a week ago), adding to the public’s anxieties, was ...
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...
Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...
With normal democratic procedures in abeyance, there were two ways to go. First, it was open for the government to dissolve itself and invite the National Party to join a ministry of national salvation. That would have lessened the democratic deficit of the times by having a team of rivals without ...
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...
Hungary has been a virtual dictatorship for a decade now, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually eroded its democracy. But now, its official, with the passage of an indefinite emergency law allowing rule by decree:Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for ...
While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in. They're planning a lot of infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, and have asked for proposals which can start the moment ...
It's my distraction, setting up tiny scenes to photograph. I've got stuck on the Babushka dolls for now. Something about their bubble shape. Something about their never changing, smiling features, suggesting persistent equanimity. Can we get through everything that is being thrown at us and keep at least a tiny ...
. . March 31: Day six of living in lock-down… This time I managed to sleep a little longer and the alarm woke me at the pre-set time: 6.55am. Then remembered I was working a later shift and could’ve slept in. Oh well, there are things to do at home. ...
Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local. The reason we are doing this is ...
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...
In the absence of a vaccine or a cure for a deadly disease, staying home in your bubble is what you do, the concept is not new. To the best of my knowledge last time we did this in NZ was for polio, in the years before a vaccine came ...
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...
This has been a terrible summer for Hector’s dolphins. The first indication was very low numbers of dolphin sightings during late spring and early summer. The Otago University Marine Mammal Research Team has carried out routine dolphin surveys at Banks Peninsula for more than 30 years. In all that time, ...
On March 17, Finance Minister Grant Robertson was quick out of the blocks with an economic rescue package to help businesses through the inevitable recession resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Robertson had pulled together a scheme in short order that so far seems to have saved many jobs. In his ...
The purpose of the lockdown is to save lives, by reducing the spread of covid-19. We won't know if its really working for another week, but given the devastation that will result if it doesn't - 14,000 dead is the optimistic scenario - its definitely worth trying. But pausing the ...
. . March 30: Day five of living in lock-down… Woke up still in darkness. Alarm hadn’t gone off. Turn to radio clock; it’s a few minutes after 6am… I lie there in the dark, waiting to drift off to sleep… but it ain’t happening. Clock ticks over to 6.55 ...
The story of Les Gray, the public sector psychologist who told the truth about his use of cannabis and set off a storm, has a special place in the lore of cannabis reform in New Zealand.When Paul Shannon interviewed Gray for the 'Dope and Hope' issue of Planet magazine in ...
by Phil Duncan For Marxists, a key concern about social trends is their context – not just their causes, but why they happen when they do. Events and phenomena have causes, but they also are time or period-specific. While much of the left have capitulated recently to postmodernism, most notably ...
Since the lockdown began, we've all suddenly been reminded who the actually essential workers in our society are: not the people at the top who pay themselves the big bucks and rort the perks, but the people at the bottom they screw over and squeeze: cleaners, warehouse staff, truck drivers ...
Kia ora! As I've watched nearly all my remaining work vanish over the past couple of days, it has occured to me that one good way to keep me away from arguing with fools on Twitter all the time (in the knowledge that all we're really doing is processing our ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to trying to extirpate the virus that causes COVID-19 from its shores. To do that, as a society we’ve moved to “Level 4”. That means adapting to unprecedented restrictions on our personal freedoms, particularly to our rights to move freely and associate with friends and ...
When the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency last week, she handed the police powers to enforce it. And almost immediately, we started hearing about heavy-handed, arbitrary "enforcement" by police who (at best) cared more about order than law, or (more likely) had no idea what the rules were ...
. . Lock Down: Day 4 – A photo essay with observations . March 29: Usual wake up routine as RNZ snaps on my radio-clock. Jim Mora’s voice slowly enters my conciousness; there’s talk of a second wave of covid19 taking hold in South Korea; the week in Parliament – ...
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... ‘Misinformation kills’: The link between coronavirus conspiracies and climate denialGrist / Rob Kim / Stringer / CSA Images Scientific ...
The kids did surprisingly well today – meltdown count was about 3, and mostly fairly short ones. (And a fourth while I was writing.) Game-wise I had a go at Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. It’s a fairly standard RPG with turn-based combat and what they call a “mature storyline” (it ...
by Don Franks Hi David, Nice hearing from you, I’m glad to hear you’re getting by okay in these grim times. You asked how’s it going for us back here in New Zealand. You would have heard that the whole country is locked down and with breaks for exercise and ...
. . Lock Down: Day 3 – A photo essay with observations . March 28: First day of the first weekend in Lock Down. It feels like it’s been weeks since only Level 3 was declared last Tuesday, only four days ago. Woke up this morning to RNZ; coffee; toast, ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 22, 2020 through Sat, Mar 28, 2020Articles Linked to on FacebookSun, Mar 22, 2020In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters by Chelsea Harvey, ...
I’m here in lockdown with my flatmate and her two girls (6 and 2) and it. is. a time. They’re usually really active so to start with the only boardgame in the house is the copy of Guess Who that the 6 year old got for her birthday. Flatmate commented ...
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...
. . Lock Down: Day 2 – A photo essay with observations . March 27 – Day 2 of our Strange New World. The Park and Ride near my suburb, usually filled with hundreds of vehicles, had just… four; . . Another drive into Wellington City on a highway nearly ...
Fortune's Children: Under extraordinary pressure, the leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition will each show us what they are made of. Have they been blessed with intelligence, grace, wit, poise, toughness, empathy and humour – and in what measure? More importantly, to what extent have they ...
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having to rent a property on the open market in New Zealand, which is one of the most expensive in the entire world, you’ll likely be keenly aware of just how arrogant and entitled landlords and their real estate agents can be.Unfortunately for ...
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights:In this legal blog we outline some ...
by Equipo Jurídico Pueblos and Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (25/03/2020) An escape plan in question On the night of March 21st and the early morning of the 22nd, the forces of the Colombian state stormed into the Modelo prison in Bogotá, murdering 23 prisoners and injuring 83, in response to the ...
When the government banned semi-automatic weapons in response to a terrorist atrocity, gun-nuts were outraged. Mired in toxic American gun culture, they thought owning weapons whose sole purpose was killing people was some sort of "constitutional right", a necessity for "defending themselves" against the government. Now, the Court of Appeal ...
Just before midnight on Wednesday March 25, Aotearoa New Zealand entered a countrywide alert level four lockdown. For at least the next four weeks, everyone who isn’t an essential worker is confined to their bubble. We are doing this to stop the explosive growth in people contracting and dying from ...
. . Lock Down: Day 1 – A photo essay with observations . Day one of the Level 4 nationwide lock-down (or, DefCon 4 as I sometimes cheekily call it) started at 11.59PM on 25 March. For a moment, most of the nation held it’s collective breath. In that brief ...
Broad, Sunlit Uplands: How those words fired my young imagination! Or, perhaps, it is more accurate to say: how those words fused, in my young mind, with the image printed on every packet of Fielder’s Cornflour. Always fascinated by history, especially modern history, I cannot hear Churchill’s wonderfully evocative words, even ...
. . 24 March 2020 9.46AM Number of covid19 cases in Aotearoa New Zealand: 102 . As of 11.59 on Thursday, most of New Zealand will go into “lock down”. People will be expected not to travel to work; not to socialise; and to stay home. I will not be ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections A respected research group, Project Drawdown, finds that deploying solutions consistent with meeting the Paris climate targets would cost tens of trillions of dollars globally. But crucially, those outlays would also yield long-term savings many times larger than the up-front costs. The new 2020 Drawdown ...
It will pass. What happens next? Not immediately, but longer term. There are many opinions, fewer certainties. Will it “change everything!” as many confidently, and contradictorily predict? In this post I look at how foresight can help bound some of the uncertainties so you can more objectively consider the future. ...
We’ve been meaning t write something on Cuba and the coronavirus but have just discovered a very good article on the subject in the US left publication Jacobin. The article looks at how Cuba, a poor country but one where capitalism has been done away with, is leading the way ...
In 2018, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey - two British citizens who had purportedly been stripped of their citizenship by the British government - were captured while fighting for Isis in Syria. The British government then conspired to hand them over to the US, and agreed to provide evidence ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world".Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...
The domestic travel ban has been lifted for stranded foreign tourists trying to get to international airports to fly home, after the Coalition Government announced a plan to help the tens of thousands of foreigners stranded here. Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters spoke with RNZ's Susie Ferguson said foreign ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters believes the country is rediscovering its resilience and self-reliance through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.He says he is heartened that the mass majority of New Zealanders are following lockdown rules and that the government looking at the future, including paying to keep much ...
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
Ground-breaking law has passed that will decriminalise abortion and ensure women and pregnant people seeking abortions have compassionate healthcare. ...
The Green Party says that the measures announced by the Government today will help families and businesses to prioritise our collective health and wellbeing in the response to COVID-19. ...
As New Zealanders brace for a global downturn due to Covid-19, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says his Coalition Government’s rescue package "more significant" than any other he's seen around the world. The Coalition is to reveal a multi-billion-dollar stimulus plan on Tuesday afternoon designed to cushion the economic blow ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
“The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
From tomorrow, Government support for farmers and growers affected by drought will be expanded and extended across the country, with access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPS) available throughout the North Island, parts of the South Island and the Chatham Islands, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced. “These challenging conditions have ...
Parliament has passed amendments to legislation that give the Secretary of Education stronger powers to act in the fight to limit the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “They are part of a suite of changes passed under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Bill,” Chris ...
Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar have joined forces with New Zealand and Singapore by committing to keep supply chains open and remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker today welcomed ...
Immediate freeze on rent increases Tenancies will not be terminated during the lock-down period, unless the parties agree, or in limited circumstances Tenants who had previously given notice can stay in their if they need to stay in the tenancy during the lock-down period Tenants will still be able to ...
As New Zealand unites to lock-down in the fight against COVID-19, the Finance Minister is urging all businesses and workers to stay connected over the next four weeks. “We understand the extreme pressure many businesses are under right now. I know most business owners think of their workers as family ...
A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country as the Government pulls out all the stops to curtail the spread of COVID-19. “Today we put in place our country’s second ever State of National Emergency as we fight a global pandemic, save New Zealanders’ lives and prevent ...
Mr Speaker I wish to make a Ministerial Statement under Standing Order 347 in relation to the recent declaration of a State of National Emergency. Having considered the advice of the Director Civil Defence Emergency Management, the Minister of Civil Defence declared a State of National Emergency for the whole of ...
People needing to travel on domestic flights, trains and Cook Strait ferries to get home before the country moves into level 4 lock-down tomorrow night will be able to continue using the passenger services until midnight on Friday, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Domestic passenger services, particularly ferries, have ...
The Government, retail banks and the Reserve Bank are today announcing a major financial support package for home owners and businesses affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. The package will include a six month principal and interest payment holiday for mortgage holders and SME customers whose incomes have been ...
By RNZ Pacific The number of people with Covid-19 in the Pacific continues to climb with French Polynesia hitting 40 cases, Guam now over 90 and the US state of Hawai’i suffering its third coronavirus death. In the past day, another person tested positive for Covid-19 in French Polynesia. ...
We needed a reasonable period of time to allow the recent surging wave of highly geared first home buyers to get financially comfortable. We didn’t get it, writes David Hargreaves of interest.co.nz.You know, I was really beginning to think (as well as hope) that we might just get away with it.By ‘it’ ...
Being stuck inside all day might be wearing you and your kids down, but there’s never been a better time to encourage them to pick up their musical instrument and get stuck into writing songs. Mike Chunn from Play It Strange explains how. Mums and dads and households with teenage children. ...
Siouxsie Wiles on the vitriolic correspondence she’s received since the Covid-19 outbreak struck, and the realities of communicating evidence.I recently received an email and text from someone telling me they are planning to email my boss, the University of Auckland vice chancellor. They are going to ask for me to ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, five of New Zealand’s best writers chronicle the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, Fiona Farrell.There’s a sign sticky-taped to the bakery window. Closed Until Further Notice. Stay Safe NZ and Be Kind. We will get through this!We all know where the words ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
With no Covid-19 cases and its economy desperate to restart, the Chathams is keen to go fishing again, writes Jim Kayes.It shouldn’t really be a surprise. They are, after all, ahead of New Zealand by 45 minutes.And though they are part of Wellington’s Rongotai electorate, the fiercely ...
Covid-19 is a real threat to older people, but these Central Otago seniors are embracing technology, experiencing no FOMO, and finding new ways to connect and share, finds Jill Herron When the full lockdown began on March 25 it meant the end of going for a swim, spa or to ...
Former editor of the Woman's Weekly, Nicky Pellegrino, bids farewell to the magazine that brought information and fun to generations of New Zealand women. All those stories. Gone. Stories about our politics, our health, our education, our aspirations. Stories about the houses we lived in and the gardens we grew, ...
As small businesses fight for their survival in the Covid-19 lockdown, it seems one of the country’s biggest retail landlords is not keen to share the pain. On the one side, you have Jonathan*. Jonathan runs a small business out of South Auckland’s Sylvia Park - New Zealand’s biggest mall. ...
On Friday night, the government quietly laid down some lockdown rules via a legal order under the Health Act. Law professor Andrew Geddis explains what it means for all of us (including David Clark). As the first week of level four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was ...
The health and wellbeing of people working and being held inside our prisons needs to be a priority, writes JustSpeak director Tania Sawicki Mead. Kelvin Davis’s interview on The Hui last weekend made it clear that precautions taken by Corrections to stop the spread of Covid-19 will create an unprecedented restriction ...
Like countless New Zealanders stranded overseas, Wellingtonian Rosie O’Hagan will be braving authorities, airlines, airports and uncertainty to make it back from the other side of the world, writes Jim Kayes.Rosie O’Hagan hadn’t stepped outside for three weeks.When she finally did – around midnight on Friday ...
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY:By David Robie A rather beautiful Guåhan legend is rather poignant in these stressed pandemic times. It is one about survival and cooperation. In ancient times, goes the story, a giant fish was eating great chunks out of this western Pacific island. The men used muscle ...
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...
Alex Casey speaks to a dream expert about why so many people are suddenly remembering their vivid and often horrible dreams. As the days begin to blur together and the only thing we get between sleeps is unimaginably horrible news and an embarrassing tootle around the block, it’s no surprise ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...
Medical centres across the country are condensing services, moving online, and ushering in pandemic plans. Josie Adams assesses what it’s like to access and provide essential medical care under alert level four.On Monday, Sandra Russell woke up before dawn and drove to Milford to get her blood tested. She has ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, writer and doctor Glenn Colquhoun, with the second of his Letters to Hone Tūwhare and his Travelling Band of Constant Companions. ...
ANALYSIS:By Haiqing Yu of RMIT University and Michael Keane of Curtin University China has gradually emerged out of its shadow of despair as the epicentre where the coronavirus pandemic started. Now, there is face saving required – as well as agenda-setting in the global power play. China played ...
Tech giant Google has released a giant global data set which shows how different countries are locking down, and which NZ regions are most compliant with its lockdown.A giant set of reports released by Google, created using its anonymised cellphone location data reveals the scale of human behaviour change the ...
Comedian Penny Ashton writes on the necessity of the arts, especially during lockdown.On March 22, everyone’s favourite fiscal bloodhounds, the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union, sent out a tweet in response to Creative New Zealand’s announcement that it will dedicate an emergency response package to helping New Zealand’s artists, in the ...
Wellington writer Philippa Swan’s new novel TheNight of All Souls is an homage to Pulitzer-winning and all-round fabulous American writer Edith Wharton. Wharton died in 1937 but, Swan writes, she’s very much of the moment. Nobody does social distancing like Wharton did. While Wharton was still comparatively young, she created the ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford.I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...
How do you hold a funeral service with the country in lockdown? Where there’s a will – and a tech-savvy uncle – there’s a way, Erin Kavanagh-Hall discovered.I was floating somewhere in the Cook Strait when I heard my grandfather’s funeral had been cancelled.I should elaborate. It was a Monday, ...
‘Stay in your bubble’ didn’t exist 100 years ago, but our ancestors would want us to know how essential it is to do so, says Jai Breitnauer.It was a warm but slightly grey January day in 2019 when I pulled the car over to the side of SH1, just south ...
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...
Every day at 1pm New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announces precise figures on the number of confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in the country. He is working on the best information available, and during this week the level of community transmission was put at around ...
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Deery, Lecturer in Early Childhood Education, University of Melbourne “Stupid coronavirus!” I heard my six-year-old mumble while talking in her sleep. Earlier that day her swimming and basketball lessons were cancelled, a birthday party postponed, and she had to race with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University “Zoombombing” in case you haven’t heard, is the unsavoury practice of posting distressing comments, pictures or videos after gatecrashing virtual meetings hosted by the videoconferencing app Zoom. With hundreds of millions ...
Analysis - A leading epidemiologist says health authorities 'really have no idea' of the extent of community spread, Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee gets its teeth into what's going on during the lockdown and the horrendous economic imp ...
The fifth in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall, covering the Covid-19 epidemic within New Zealand. We’ll publish the latest set each day on The Spinoff.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersInformation about confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 ...
The Finance Minister says struggling companies will be able to put some debt into hibernation, under new legislation unveiled today. Watch the latest government update here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Lund, Commissioning Editor, The Conversation Editor’s note: The following is current as at April 3, 2020. Things are changing quickly so best to keep an eye on the latest information from WA Health, as well as the federal government.This article ...
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling What does the COVID-19 pandemic sound like? For this episode, Dallas Rogers – a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney – asked academic colleagues from all over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sven Gallasch, Lecturer in Law, Swinburne University of Technology “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion,” wrote Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (published in 1776), “but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the ...
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Of the larger European countries, Italy is now in third place for known cases per person in the population. Spain has overtaken Switzerland for ...
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui and Te Kaahui o Rauru are celebrating the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South Taranaki Bight. The Court of Appeal found that there ...
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...
Political commentators from the left and right sides of the political divide are questioning the powers being exercised by police during the nation-wide “lockdown”. The Asian Invasion 2019 blog draws attention to the warning sounded by former UK Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Sumption when he challenged Covid-19 actions by British ...
Pacific Media Watch The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) has strongly condemned the shoot-to-kill order by President Rodrigo Duterte this week as a ‘dangerous’ opening to target and kill anyone in a public space. “We are raising the alarm in the international community on President ...
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...
Four PhD students engaged a clinical psychologist to help them navigate an uncertain time in their studies. They share their findings here.As four PhD students from Massey University’s Joint Centre for Disaster Research we, like many others, can’t stop reading and talking about the unfolding events that have gripped our ...
The SpinoffBy Ashleigh Rushton, Lisa McLaren, Marion Tan & Sara Harrison
Covid-19 testing of the wider population is on the cards as World Health Organisation research shows people are most contagious within their first few days of being infected Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says Covid-19 carriers are highly infectious when they show few signs of carrying the virus. People were ...
Z Energy is the latest company to cut its dividend payout and start talking to its banks about strengthening its finances. Chief executive Mike Bennetts said the company, the largest fuel retailer in the country, had been battered by a range of issues over the past 18 months, and was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Kang, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney Young people in Australia are among the fastest-growing group to contract COVID19. According to the Department of Health, there are now more cases in Australia among people aged 20 – 29 years than any ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Pattinson, Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Getting a good night’s sleep can be difficult at the best of times. But it can be even harder when you’re anxious or have something on your mind – a global pandemic, for example. ...
Journalist and Great Barrier Island resident Lindsay Wright reflects on outer gulf pandemic preparedness. Hardy locals can tough it out but Auckland bach owners and boaties should keep their distance. Aotea Great Barrier, the easternmost island in the Hauraki Gulf, are undergoing a Covid-19-inspired population flood. Great Barrier has scenery that makes ...
The Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand is delighted that the government has moved quickly to provide an initial financial support package for pharmacy. The $15 million package was paid this week to pharmacy contract holders. Pharmaceutical Society president ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference and are "as of 9am" of the day. There were 71 new cases of Covid-19 in ...
A new poem by Wellington poet and bookseller Ash Davida Jane. washed up! it gets tiring pushing the fire alarm every nightbut things keep catching on fireor sometimes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Welcome to the second edition of our lockdown Top 10s. A reminder that this chart has nothing to do with sales or launches or the publishing cycle; these are just books the Unity team love – and this week it’s westerns, full of big skies and long rides and showdowns.AUCKLANDAll ...
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster’s plan to cover revenue shortfalls through borrowing without cutting low priority spending is immoral, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . “Businesses and households across the country are meeting financial challenges ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin John Brophy, Emeritus Professor of Creative writing, University of Melbourne “Katrina, I had in mind a prayer, but only this came,” Bruce Dawe wrote to his infant daughter, new-born, in intensive care, her life in the balance, declaring as poets must ...
The shock closure of Bauer NZ – and with it all of the country’s current affairs magazines – is a stark reminder of the fragile state of local media, writes Mel Bunce, the author of a book on the subject.It is a dark week for journalism in New Zealand, with ...
Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy.Rāmere/FridayWe made it to the end of week one e te whānau. It wasn’t that hard! In fact it was… Māori made easy.To end our week of pronunciation practice we’re going to revisit everything we ...
India faces more challenges battling Covid-19 than any other country in the world. With 1.3 billion inhabitants, hundreds of different languages spoken, and an estimated 80% of the workforce daily wage earners currently without jobs, it could be a recipe for disaster.I’ve been living in India for more than three ...
By Sri Krishnamurthi of Pacific Media Watch The Vanuatu government is using the Covid-19 to impose draconian measures and authoritarian rule by end of last month. Wholesale censorship of all Covid-19 related content has been instituted. Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) took the extraordinary step to ...
Open Mike 03/05/2018 
. . April 4: Day 10 of living in lock-down… I wake up to a fine Saturday morning which normally would be like an early Christmas. But it’s Day 10 of Level 4 Lock Down. What will my fellow New Zealanders be doing on a day like this – staying ...1 hour ago
Some time during the night we went over the 850,000 views mark. We might have had our millionth view by the end of this year – certainly by early next year. Most of the people involved in Redline spent years and years producing various small left-wing papers and selling them ...1 hour ago
Comfortably, in the very first round, with an impressive 56% of the votes.I wonder, did members of the Shadow Cabinet start tweeting their resignations during Starmer's victory speech, or is that only a trick the right pull?It is odd how all the talk of how the next leader "needs to ...2 hours ago
One of the key voices in this extraordinary time in which we live is that of University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker. Philip Matthews did an an excellent job this weekend of capturing the way he became the man for this moment in a profile for The Press.But one ...3 hours ago
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...18 hours ago
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messages from different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...23 hours ago
We must root out the traitors among us! ...2 days ago
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...2 days ago
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...2 days ago
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...2 days ago
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...3 days ago
46 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Global response of evapotranspiration ratio to climate conditions and watershed characteristics in a changing environment Greenhouse effect: the relative contributions of emission height and total absorption Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Climate change induced a ...4 days ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 4 days ago
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...4 days ago
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...5 days ago
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...6 days ago
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...1 week ago
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...1 week ago
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights: In this legal blog we outline some ...1 week ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world". Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...2 days ago
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...1 week ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...2 weeks ago
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...2 days ago
By RNZ Pacific The number of people with Covid-19 in the Pacific continues to climb with French Polynesia hitting 40 cases, Guam now over 90 and the US state of Hawai’i suffering its third coronavirus death. In the past day, another person tested positive for Covid-19 in French Polynesia. ...45 mins ago
We needed a reasonable period of time to allow the recent surging wave of highly geared first home buyers to get financially comfortable. We didn’t get it, writes David Hargreaves of interest.co.nz.You know, I was really beginning to think (as well as hope) that we might just get away with it.By ‘it’ ...50 mins ago
With no Covid-19 cases and its economy desperate to restart, the Chathams is keen to go fishing again, writes Jim Kayes. It shouldn’t really be a surprise. They are, after all, ahead of New Zealand by 45 minutes. And though they are part of Wellington’s Rongotai electorate, the fiercely ...7 hours ago
Covid-19 is a real threat to older people, but these Central Otago seniors are embracing technology, experiencing no FOMO, and finding new ways to connect and share, finds Jill Herron When the full lockdown began on March 25 it meant the end of going for a swim, spa or to ...7 hours ago
Former editor of the Woman's Weekly, Nicky Pellegrino, bids farewell to the magazine that brought information and fun to generations of New Zealand women. All those stories. Gone. Stories about our politics, our health, our education, our aspirations. Stories about the houses we lived in and the gardens we grew, ...7 hours ago
As small businesses fight for their survival in the Covid-19 lockdown, it seems one of the country’s biggest retail landlords is not keen to share the pain. On the one side, you have Jonathan*. Jonathan runs a small business out of South Auckland’s Sylvia Park - New Zealand’s biggest mall. ...7 hours ago
Like countless New Zealanders stranded overseas, Wellingtonian Rosie O’Hagan will be braving authorities, airlines, airports and uncertainty to make it back from the other side of the world, writes Jim Kayes. Rosie O’Hagan hadn’t stepped outside for three weeks. When she finally did – around midnight on Friday ...21 hours ago
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...22 hours ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...1 day ago
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...1 day ago
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...1 day ago
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...1 day ago
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford. I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...1 day ago
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...1 day ago
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...1 day ago
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...2 days ago
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...2 days ago
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...2 days ago
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...2 days ago
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...2 days ago
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...2 days ago
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...2 days ago
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...2 days ago
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Well, well. Ignored 2010 DHB report includes photo of shit leaking inside hospital building: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/356501/middlemore-problems-highlighted-in-2010-report
Which is odd when the recently dismissed board member said the feces was one incident in 2014…
Someone tell Matthew Hooton. He thinks it is all a big political beat up
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12031349
It irks me that Hooten’s sign off says PR and Excelcium not former National Party staffer etc etc.
He may be miffed that this latest revelation makes him look a little foolish.
To sugest that Clark and Wall not knowing equates to every Nat Health Minister and DHB Chair not knowing since 2010 is disingenous at best.
Of course the hospital is still operating. How could it not? It serves the largest population catchment in Auckland and that catchment contains many over representated in illness stats.
Were they supposed to close and send the patients to Colemans new employers private hospitals? At private rates paid for by the taxpayer?
Does the cost to fix include the cost of relocating the services within the building being repaired?
“Were they supposed to close and send the patients to Colemans new employers private hospitals? At private rates paid for by the taxpayer?”
Of course.
(Although they might be a tad on the busy side with the potential of thousands of Ngati Whatua privately funded patients joining the queue…https://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/article/undoctored/ngati-whatua-orakei-announces-free-private-health-insurance-hapu-members )
Don’t you love it when a plan comes together?
GREAT initiative indeed
Speaking of former NActs, the greatest skill of Tony Ryall (Simpson Grierson’s head of pubic policy, Minister of Health 2008-2014) was putting in place health the targets and budget stretching that bedevil the public health services today, and walking away before the sh-ortages hit the fan.
Tony Ryall – I remember a political commentator saying that he had been adept at keeping health on low profile while he was Minister. Managing down, austerity reigns, that will get you a good outcome when you step down as a pollie.
This illustrates the awful moral hazard that faces the citizens with business reigning over us. There is no desire for government to see that anything is done well or goes well for the mass of the citizens, because there is a private company that can profit from undertaking the remedial work. It’s a factory chain of robotic ‘wealth creators’ (euphemism), and we are being passed from one work station to another.
But the work done for and on us does not have to conform to any excellence except what shows on the surface. There are no solid regulations that are practical and have teeth and are monitored and activated.
Every breath you take I’ll be watching you.
Every move you make ” ” ” ”
Oh can’t you see
You belong to me…………
No, or few regulations on business, but yes for citizens. Every step and breath that citizens take is being regulated by business through their servant entity, government. So sneer at the promise of a brave new world of neoliberalism, freemarketing and freebooting (now add freebotting).
The rights and opportunities we had achieved for us all have been given away and we are left with nothing positive just being exploited! We have swopped our magic beans for a cow! Go climb that beanstalk Jacky and steal back our golden future from the giant, and good luck to you pilgrim.
QFT
I’ll add this bit from Why we can’t afford the rich:
The majority of us are slaves to keeping the rich wealthy. That’s how capitalism is designed.
No wonder Bridges skipped ANZAC Day… they have eroded so many things those folks died for
I love a good rant grey, especially when it’s so much better than I could have done. An excellent point on our regulatory environment and the differences in it for businesses and citizens.
And some people still think politics doesn’t affect them. Only when enough citizens pay attention, will the politicians change that neo-liberal regulatory environment instead of just stitching up the fraying edges.
miravox
There was some point before one of the elections that Key denied the seriousness of some criticism saying that the naysayers were making politics out of it whatever it was. We are so green that we are like spirulina if we don’t understand that everything done and said is political and has effects on all the citizens – Politics’R US!
Wikipedia
political
adjective: political
1.
relating to the government or public affairs of a country.
“a period of political and economic stability”
Way to go – Participatory democracy – Everyone start studying politics as it is taught, so you are knowledgable when the time for making good future decisions comes.
Hooten is probably right. DHB heads might be compelled by the Nat Govt to hide that sort of information from the media but they can’t keep it out of the books. Building depreciation and deferred maintenance is financial information with an absolute requirement it be reported in the annual accounts.
The Audit Office signed off the annual report of CMDHB, if anything was deliberately missed out I’d expect to see the Audit Office descend on that DHB like a plague of locusts. Politicians might get away with bullshitting about financial matters but accountants and senior managers sure can’t (not when they’re discovered anyway).
It still surprises me that so many people can report on an issue like this without any of them even bothering to take the time to read the annual reports of the party in question. It should be the first thing interested people do, the annual accounts of all Govt departments are a free download for anyone to peruse.
Did Hooten say the Nats forced the DHB Heads to hide stuff?
No that was what I saw as the initial brouha tracey; that the Nat Govt was (allegedly) pressuring DHB heads to defer maintenance and keep quiet about it in order to make their own books look better.
The claims that have been made about costs should be in the annual report. I scanned through a few of them and saw few surprises there. The possible existence of asbestos in old buildings, for example, has been acknowledged for years in their books. They just state they’ won’t make provision for it as a liability until if/when it’s discovered and needs addressing. That’s fair enough.
The annual reports are worth reading IMO. They can contain a lot of fluff in the intro but the financial statements contained within the reports are a serious business, they make a statutory declaration on the truthfulness of those.
All of these issues result from one aspect of our society: Our desire to do everything on the cheap.
It’s why we have shoddy infrastructure, why our economic development has slowed and why farming is still a major industry.
Things is, it will cost us far more in the long run. More environmental damage by the farms and more for repairs on substandard houses and infrastructure.
But it does allow the RWNJs to cut taxes for the rich.
Audrey Young showed her true blue colours yesterday when she attacked those using the term Dirty Politics to describe the behaviour of right wing scum trolls who have attacked Clarke Gayford.
She is either an incompetent journalist or a dishonest one.
Audrey’s an enabler like the hosk etc. Shes attacking the rhetoric rather then the issue of deliberately placed malicious content for political advantage, who and why ?
That’s not even journalism of any sort that’s pushing an agenda…..removal of the term from the narrative that’s interwoven in many minds with the national party.
They really don’t like the truth or it being played out in public as that’s going to hurt further at the polls.
Didn’t take you long to fall off the wagon.
Ed doesn’t need your snarkiness, thanks very much.
Really, I thought he was running a bit low ?
Thanks Maui.
Is dirty politics Dirty Politics or not?
Stunned
I did not read the Herald.
I heard about Young’s comments on this site.
You will notice I have not linked .
By the way, as a right wing troll, were you part of the rumour mill about Clarke?
I thought you were ignoring my comments Ed – that’s a double fall off the wagon. What are the rumors about Gayford ?
At Ed.Yep! Incompetent and dishonest.
She reminds me of the MSM’s stern old Ward Matron of yesteryear who is always right and has her pet patient.
DP operates at two levels. At the sinister level it aims to drag all politics down to gutter politics with associated gutter ‘journalism’ and similar (and worse) shit in MSM and social media, respectively. You cannot fight it easily without falling in this trap, which is why DP is so insidious and effective! Lefties have particular difficulty with tackling DP and are very prone to becoming victims of it because they like to take and come (down) from the ‘moral high ground’. Of course, this makes the Left the ideal target of DP, in fact the only one; the Left cannot turn the tables despite RWNJs arguing otherwise.
… and money. Arms length Nat elves seem to have more money to help keep sources protected
You’re spinning it Ed.
Young suggested that when Ardern used the phrase ‘dirty politics’, Ardern was deliberately sending a dog whistle to conspiracy theorists on the left (like you) to assume it was the Nats who were responsible for the Gayford rumours and to put the boot in.
It worked a treat; just about every man and his dog (after being whistled) on this site yesterday did just that.
You were played Ed. You ended up no better than the original rumour mongers. But you served Jacinda’s purpose.
“no better than the original rumour mongers”
Nice false equivalence you have there. Where did you read it?
It has been a meme being pushed. Probably the most notable proponent (and probable originator – it has his style) was Hooten.
But it has been interesting watching the attempts to push the “reverse black ops” meme all over the place. Entirely done in those hushed “I have a little secret” tone that the alt-ridiculous seem to love.
Oh well I guess it makes them feel like they are in the know. And makes the suckers feel bigger than they really are
And allows them to excuse their part in sharing the rumour with friends and family
Riiiiiight grantoc, better she said nothing and just let the rumour die… oh wait is wasnt dying it was spreading, like all the dirty little rumours that swirled during Clark’s leadership.
Past behaviour is a good predictor of future etc etc
Nats and their arms lengthers have form. You are the one spinning.
Paracetamol for grantoc please.
Scum is dehumanising word that adds nothing to a discussion or arguenrnt left or right, using it simply lowers you to level of Clarke attackers
What do you mean Clarke attackers? Who are you talking about?
Actual ” take the moral high ground” is something of the same strategy of these DP ers… first they swirl the rumour and watch it grow, then when someone responds, they join the chorus of vouces saying “turn the other cheek”, cos they know they win twice cos the rumour keeps swirling into more and more ears.
Accurately describing people helps understanding.
Failing to do so doesn’t.
Scum is something that floats to the top, is mostly unpleasant in nature and if not removed spoils the flavour of the wholesome stuff underneath. As a metaphor I’m not sure it’s so badly chosen. It is somewhat inflammatory though…
Is ‘lying sacks of shit’ more or less dehumanising than ‘scum’ beewee?
Tracy Watkins opines on the dirty politics claim. She notes Clark was subject the relentless rumours while in office and Key to rumours when he left. Ardern subject in office… via her partner. Despite the pattern being
Labour rumours in office
National rumours post resignation
She concludes it isnt a strategy by a political party…
She tried to write a balanced article but that last sentence or so…
We know Nats rarely dish the dirt themselves and have a history of using arms length folk to do it. And yes it is proven james
She knows the pattern.
But it’s her job to speak do the bidding of international finance.’
Must be hard to sleep at night.
The defining characteristics about the aging dinosaur media like Soper, Young, and O’Sullivan is chronological decrepitude, intellectual morbidity and a resulting torpid professional lassitude.
The chronological and intellectual decadence of that generation of journalists means they are much more inclined to treat dirty politics as a useful source of reliably controversial copy that relieves their aging brains of the need to think or investigate, and they can rationalise their complicity with a world weary cynicism that masquerades as sophistication for so many of our not half as clever as they think they are aging senior journalists.
I’ve thought recently that one of the more interesting pieces of meta data of a “youth-adjacent” Jacinda’s elevation to power is the sudden revelation of the creeping atmosphere of defeatism and nihilism that comes with a population that is losing it’s virility as it ages. I remember a particular conversation in the media when the previous government was asked if we could take the Manus Island refugees. The boomer minister responded with a bewildering list of reasons for why it was all just so hard and complex. Next up on the radio was Golriz Ghahraman, who immediately launched into a back of the envelope planning session on how you could squeeze the refugees into the various centres around the country. For her, the question wasn’t if we could take them, it was how we could manage them when they got here.
The difference between age and youth has seldom been so starkly illustrated. Much the same issue infests our establishment media. Far, far to many journalists are out of place and out of another time yet cling to senior jobs like shipwrecked sailors to a mast in a storm tossed sea whose movements they no longer understand or anticipate.
The real trick to getting old gracefully is knowing when to hand the reins over to the youngsters, and be relaxed and confident that the future is in safe hands when you do so.
Clearly none of our ancient brigade of senior journalists possess this skill.
Great piece Sanctuary… add in Armstrong and Roughan, the increased use of former politicians and former party hacks to write pieces. I see Hooten described a trained journalist at the herald as his colleague. Not really Sir.
The Nats are enacting their 2005 template. DP has started. Leader is saying he doesnt approve. We are on a John Key loop
By thunder Sanctuary – you really spell it out well when you get going – as here.
The defeatism is just a mask for antipathy sanky. It wouldn’t do to come out and say we don’t want them here.
Wonderful piece, and so true – thank you, Sanctuary.
Exactery! Some of the old hacks would be funny if they weren’t so bloody dull
OnceWasTim, “Would be funny if they weren’t so dull….. no no .. dangerous.!!”
They confirm memes and attitudes. Soper and Duplicity Allan particularly.
Audrey is nasty and her body language when she “interviewed’ Jacinda ahead of the election was “disbelief she could be PM.”
When anyone on the Left queries their writings, they are accused of “over reacting,”
I have said several times that “memes were being repeated and the writing was unbalanced”. Micky proved that!!
I also felt the appearance of key phrases showed collusion of some type, or an echo chamber follow the leader team tag.
They are dangerous because they poison discussions and create traps.
Cambridge Analytica to shut down.
Not sure if I’ve got this?
The real crime (to me) was installing a President by fraudulent means. The fix should at least start with all involved going to court.
Shutting down the company seems necessary but impotent. There are people involved in every bit of corporate shenanigans, somehow the ‘company’ gets told off, scapegoats are fired, but no one responsible really seems culpable? The social damage (wealth shift now to the corporate/wealthy via a fraudulently elected leader = massive theft) will be enormous, let alone the psychological damage of undermining the safety and rights of women and minorities, and encouragement of various dictatorial styled leaders…
Zuckerberg’s still a billionaire with obscene power. Three steps removed mate. Corporate trickery again.
And… Facebook is a dating agency now:
Obscenity, meet shame.
That is how capitalism is designed. It protects the guilty from the consequences of their immoral actions – if they’re rich.
DTB
You could add that capitalism finds ways to make profit from all popular movements of whatever kind. Politics, religion and so it goes.
Cambridge Analytica is shutting down. Shine a light into a dark place and the rats gathered there scatter. I hope people are tracking where they’re scuttling off to.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/02/politics/cambridge-analytica-closure/index.html
I think you mean closing the company, rebranding, renaming and starting a new company 😉
Yes. And possibly also a way to avoid the cost of legal action.
That too
True AB, after all, builders in Auckland and elsewhere have been doing that for years.
+1
They’ll be at it again in a couple of months at most just with a different brand.
Exactly that
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12044361
As noted above by prickles, you called it exactly right. Your award is…
https://uncexchanges.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/chocolate-fish.jpg
Israel is ramping up its involvement in the Syrian conflict
Netanyahu is given the power start conflicts without the okay from the Israeli parliamement
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/netanyahu-granted-greater-war-powers-israeli-parliament-1557931233
Another worthy effort from Kirsty Johnston and Chris Knox in the Herald this morning. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12042963
“According to current police data analysed by the Herald, as of 2016 up to 80 per cent of reported aggravated sexual assaults go unresolved. For the crime “male rapes female 16 and over”, that number is even higher, at 85 per cent. Rape cases are four times less likely to go to court in comparison with other types of physical assault, where only 24 per cent of offences are unresolved.”
This is a feature article and deserves more than a passing acknowledgement of the headlines.
Another worthy effort from Kirsty Johnston and Chris Knox in the Herald this morning. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12042963
“According to current police data analysed by the Herald, as of 2016 up to 80 per cent of reported aggravated sexual assaults go unresolved. For the crime “male rapes female 16 and over”, that number is even higher, at 85 per cent. Rape cases are four times less likely to go to court in comparison with other types of physical assault, where only 24 per cent of offences are unresolved.”
This is a feature article and deserves more than a passing acknowledgement of the headline.
Sigh
This is an article that tells it how it is. The system must change.
Cambridge analytical word for word used exactly the same rebuttal as Trump.
Link?
The know-all Hosking is now pontificating on how Jacinta and Clarke wrongly handled the distressing rumour mill situation yesterday. It is astounding that he thinks he is so fabulously smart and right on every aspect of life and every other mere mortal simply has no idea. What are his qualifications to have these opinions, apart from giant sized ego and arrogance. Ugh.
When God handed those tablets down to Moses did anyone ask “Who the hell are you? What’re your bloody qualifications?”
Hosking just Is.
What the Prime Minister’s name is, her partner’s, and good underwater image.
JACINDA ARDERN AND CLARKE GAYFORD
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/102115903/jacinda-arderns-partner-clarke-gayford-pinned-against-boat-by-shark
The police made it clear they issued their statement without the knowledge of Ardern or Clarke. Typical of the Hosking twat… blame them even when it had nothing to do with them.
He might as well add that it’s all their fault for existing.
Someone, somewhere must have given an ok – else the police would. E breaking all sorts of rules – privacy for one.
Hold on there james! Got proof to back that statement? Didnt think so.
Did you miss the last 9 years? Privacy is so overrated and passe.
Fair point – no – you are correct I have nothing to back it up or any proof.
It would be strange if they did it off their own backs and never mention it to anybody or sought any approval – but you are correct they very well may have done just that.
Such a backlog of privacy complaints about police actions. Maybe intentional?
Wasn’t it authorised by the commissioner?
that gets around most of the rules. I’m sure the people involved can complain about the privacy breach is he wants, lol
Can’t see there is any privacy breach in saying that they are not nor have they investigated the guy.
Well, if he was a rapper they might have ruined his street cred when they said he hadn’t been charged with anything, ever lol
edit: his handle was MC Newspaper… because he’s a fish rapper 👿
“The police made it clear they issued their statement without the knowledge of Ardern or Clarke”.
Do you, or anyone else have a link to the Police Commissioner’s statement?
I can’t seem to find the actual statement anywhere.
I’d like to see exactly what he did say.
@ Alwyn,
I can’t find it anywhere now but it was definitely on one of the online news sites late yesterday. I don’t recollect it being in the actual statement, but from memory Commissioner Bush was responding to a journalist’s question and he said something to the effect:
No, I did not seek permission from the PM or her partner, Clarke Gayford about issuing the statement.
I took that to mean the police made the decision to issue the statement independently of anyone outside of the Force.
I’ve found this Alwyn but it only mentions Gayford not Ardern. Don’t know if its the same one I saw yesterday.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/05/police-did-not-ask-clarke-gayford-s-permission-to-quash-rumour.html
Thank you.
That is what I thought I had heard on the radio yesterday or the day before. I would be surprised if the PMs office wasn’t given a heads-up at the minimum, even if they hadn’t asked for the statement.
I think they would have a no surprises policy in place.
Agreed.
media are milking it flat out for clicks/views/listeners, dirty old whale blubber is about to be on radiolive, spinning his own brand of shite on said subject.
Dirty politics enabling media revenue what a freaking surprise.
If CS is being asked for comment, nothing has changed since DP was published
For sures.
“ What are his qualifications to have these opinions, apart from giant sized ego and arrogance.“
If you listened to the comment you would know. He was very clear about it and his personal experience being on the receiving end.
You need a tshirt
“Still loving Mike
Since Forever”
and you need one that says
“Ideologically blinded by hatred of mike”
Why are you so determined to protect Dirty Politics?
James, Hosking is a radio ranter and former tv tugger of cuffs. That is all., which does not qualify him as a respected and wise person to look up to, or on a par with the the role of Prime Minister.
never said he was wise or on a par with the job – but the point he made is completely valid.
What are everyone’s thoughts about the pamphlets given to high school seniors containing info about drugs etc?
Personally, I think it’s brilliant.
I often reflect if part of the drinking culture is due to a lack of information being given to teens, my generation was never schooled on responsible drinking, my parents didn’t talk about it, so as a teen when I tried alcohol I had no idea and ended up in some awful situations as a result.
Not informing and educating people especially youth on drugs and alcohol hasn’t been working, this approach is fantastic, well done to Massey High and any other high schools involved.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/103554805/parent-outraged-after-methuse-guide-distributed-to-school-students?rm=m
I am mostly in favour with a little bit of niggling reservation (but still trying to figure out why specifically).
Did you hear the interview this morning on Morning Report with the Executive Director of the Drug Foundation Ross Bell? Well worth the five minutes imo. Here is the article with the link to the recording.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018643262/meth-use-advice-at-massey-school-drug-foundation-responds
PS – thanks for your support re the loss of my little troublemaker with a big T. He’s left a big hole but lots of wonderful memories.
There’s probably going to be a fair bit of pearl clutching going on, but so far I’m in agreement with Mr Bell.
I’m also pretty bloody sure most people don’t actually understand the extent of the problem.
Me too…
“…my generation was never schooled on responsible drinking, my parents didn’t talk about it, so as a teen when I tried alcohol I had no idea and ended up in some awful situations as a result.”
Hard to discuss when its not clear which generation you’re from.
I’m edging fast towards 60 and my oldest child is in their 30s.
I learned about the potentially devastating effects of drug and alcohol use first hand from parents who blighted their children’s lives with their substance abuse.
Although we almost never talked about it.
Without the drug and alcohol abuse, at least one of my parents would have made a better fist of keeping us safe.
Even today, discussions around child protection issues fail to put the substance abuse of the parents at the top of the list of risk factors leading to child abuse, neglect and parental failure.
And it seems to me that ‘information’ such as the one in question fails as it seems to imply that there is a ‘safe’ and ‘responsible’ way of using meth.
From the people I have met whose lives,and more importantly those of their children, have been devastated by this singularly hideous drug there is no ‘safe’ way of using. Odds are it will get you (and your loved ones) sooner or later.
So, no. The pamphlet, as it stands, is a fail.
The article isn’t reporting the full context that the material is used in which is a health course about how to take care of yourself which includes all the negative effects of drug use.
Exactly. Read some comments of students doing the clurse. They also learn how destructive drug use is. To the user their friends and families. The pamphlet has a context. By taking it out of context the “no sex ed in schools brigade” can shut this discourse too and leave our kids to the woolves
I’m in my mid forties Rosemary 🙂 sorry should have added that,
Generation X.
Adults always drunk at bbq’s and family gatherings, never any violence or abuse (that I saw), a few ‘pearler’ moments when the adults were extra silly.
So alcohol to me equated to fun and good times was never told or shown the contrary.
If there’s article on the news about drunk teens, with footage of drunk chicks in skimpy clothing vomiting, falling over etc; I now make a point of showing the girls, so they begin to understand what ‘drunk’ looks like.
Oh God! Some of my best friends (etc etc) dreaded that ‘cops on the beat’ reality tv program in case it was their offspring featured sprawled vomiting in the gutter.
Fortunately the kids made it to their mid twenties relatively un famous. 😉 🙂
Lmao !!! 🙂 I say to them…. “no one wants to be ‘that’ girl”
I think it is the product of getting access to resources to use in this situation without putting it into context.
The pamphlet is very appropriate for working with heavy users trying to manage the damage their drug use is causing in their lives, with a intent to reduce or eliminate drug use.
As an information source for non-users it is both inefficient and ineffective at providing the information they need in order to make good choices when the situations they will face offers them the opportunity to indulge.
Because the pamphlet was intended for drug users, the reasonable assumption was that those reading are already users – and gives information on how to accommodate that use into their lives. The damage of using, by those we would expect would participate in rehabilitation programmes would already have been experienced by those participants, and would in all their varied forms and effects would not have to be described. Their lived experience and involvement in rehab means the “conversation” about drugs, is picked up way down the line – at the management stage.
For high-school students not familiar with drugs, or users – this pamphlet drops them into the drugs conversation without context or preamble, and seemingly gives legitimacy to experimentation and drug use. Not every student will have the maturity to discuss this academically, and not every student will have the environment around them to understand the difference.
Having had a brief look at the website, I think the pamphlet was inappropriate for use for information sessions about drugs, a result of not aligning information with audience.
In terms of working with heavy drug users and addiction problems, the information and advice provided is required to reduce and minimise further harm, and is appropriate for that use.
Would be good if students had a variety of speakers who are recovering substance abusers to talk to the kids as well as handing out reading material, to add more weight and context to it all.
They used to be an alcohol-free 3 day dance party, annually I would go to in my 20’s, along with your ticket there was a plethora of safe drug taking information etc etc included.
Personally, I thought it was brilliant because it included much info about what could go wrong,
I suspect it could have put some off about taking substances.
It also allowed others to know what to do if something went wrong for themselves or another person.
Loved going to that event, attended it for 5 yrs running, no sexual abuse or getting hit on by drunk guys, no booze, no worries, it was magic.
Discussion about drugs at this time is important, and as you mention, the involvement of former addicts would add personal impact to the message they share.
However, if the discussion is around the use of the pamphlet, I think it was a resource fail in terms of not providing the right information for the right audience. Not a big deal, but a failure that should be recognised and acknowledged so that it is not replicated.
My first job while at school was in the hospitality industry, and the dry academic language used at the time regarding drug use, had absolutely no relevance to me when I was in an environment where drugs (including alcohol) was readily available. There has been much improvement since then at secondary school level.
NZ’s forgotten boy
Mike Hosking was busy explaining on that funny ZB station how he had rumours spread about him. Because he was a great celebrity. And how a marriage went pear shaped – yuk.
Unusual for him he only made two mistakes. He appears to think he has the status of the PM and her Partner.
Secondly he thinks the Police Stink. Because they had no negative information whatever on Clarke Gayford.
What a pretty little citizen he is. If I were Mike, I would walk carefully because the thinking public have had enough of political maleficence. And ZB might find itself in a dispute with ordinary people who do not have the status of one named Michael Hosking. The same people who do not think the Police stink.
@ Mike H darling. I don’t think it was because of rumours spread that a marriage went pear shaped – do you?
Maybe it was that perm? No? Darling, I do understand though your need to clutch at anything that will portray you as the perfect specimen. Maybe darling, just be thankful you now have such a loyal and dedicated family support mechanism
I dont recall his vitriol at the police over their illegal handling of the Hager raid
^^^ THIS ^^^
@ tracey (13.2) … or the Dotcom raid either.
And I bet the small minded Hosking would have certainly supported police intervention over the ridiculous tea pot tapes BS!
Hosking is a first class no nothing, full of pissing importance twit of the highest order.
Mike H. Is a voice in the wilderness. He’s old. He’s old hat. He doesn’t need to write his little missives anymore. Any of us could do that for him. He is THE most predictable hack there is. Oh. I forgot to say boring. So he’s out in the wilderness. If he utters a word in the wilderness does he make a sound?
LOL
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12044263
Facts would prove you wrong.
lol
the digital info gave it away – 750k users, 3millon hours a month. Looks impressive.
So a few thousand regular users nationally and a pile of barely-actives, otherwise every “listener” is dialing up for only a few hours every month. Maybe once a week if that, lol. And how many of them really want to hear hosking as opposed to background noise? 3 million listers hanging on his every word, my arse.
I recall years ago an advertiser telling me that the half page ads in a student magazine were more expensive than a full page ad in a nationally-distributed publication. And worth it, because an outlet where you can be something to a few thousand is better than an outlet where you can be irrelevent to ten or twenty times that number.
“..with listeners now hitting 3.39 million,..”
Doesn’t make sense to me especially since National Radio has the biggest audience around 500,000 I seem to remember. But the Herald has to boost their ratings with a disregard for reality in a Donald Trump sort of way.
That’s across all their radio stations. And if it’s picked by a survey going “which stations have you listened to in the past month?”, someone who owns half a dozen stations in the list is going to do well out of name rec alone lol.
Facts in the hiddle jimbo? Novel.
Lmao… James, that should never ever happen, but it just did. Crack up.
From Forest and Bird
Northland’s sand dune lakes and peaty wetlands are a rare and special habitat. But valuable wetlands are being destroyed by swamp kauri mining, leading to polluted waterways and habitats laid to waste.
Timber millers are currently exploiting a loophole by claiming wet slabs of wood are finished table tops. Miners are plundering native wetland ecosystems to make quick and dirty money.
Northland Environmental Protection Society is going to the Supreme Court over the level of protection provided to swamp kauri. They are standing up for nature. It’s amazing what they are doing to fight for nature in Northland.
90% of our wetlands have already been destroyed in New Zealand. Our nature has been up for grabs for too long. Northland Environmental Protection Society is working to protect their wetlands.
https://www.facebook.com/NorthlandEPS/?fref=mentions
(P.S. wasn’t swamp Kauri mining what caused one of the big outages of power leading up to the election… when a digger cut through the cable, not really talked about of course, because people like Judith Collins are all for profiting from this loophole of Kauri mining.)
But… but… but MONEY
But….but….iwi interests, AND Shane Jones….who also happens to be from that iwi…. AND Minister for Getting the Nephews in the Regions off their arses and into work…
Activists will be pushing it uphill on this.
There are two, maybe three distinct things going on here….
Firstly, the extraction of swamp kauri logs which Fiona and team have been battling not only the damage done in the digging and extracting to the environment and the waterways, but also the illegal selling of unprocessed timber overseas.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/325665/bid-to-stop-swamp-kauri-exports-fails
Secondly, they are reviving the kauri gum mining industry….which according to locals left the land unusable for years…..
http://www2.nzherald.co.nz/the-country/news/article.cfm?c_id=16&objectid=12038405
And thirdly, the rather alarming expansion of the avocado industry in the Far Far North. I was privileged to sit in on the consent hearing in Kaiatia weeks ago…some extraordinarily knowledgeable and dedicated locals committed to finding out the truth, the facts and educating those with poor understanding of the issues.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/353022/avocado-growers-water-take-divides-northland-communities
Linking all three of these things is the Kaimaumau Wetland….the second most significant remaining wetland in the country. DOC put up good arguments against the water extraction based on their studies and concerns about the Kaimaumau Wetland…but appeared to be backing away after a break in proceedings.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/355644/iwi-in-peat-mining-venture-says-wetland-is-a-wasteland
Strongest impression of the hearings was how awfully less than honest, open and transparent were the applicants. Thought the locals were all thick hillbillies and wouldn’t see through their BS. Much less investigate, gather their local experts and shout it from the rooftops…(or the street corner, as the case may be.)
Long history of kauri in the far Far North…best told here…https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/swamp-kauri/
Years ago my father was involved with a hapu business in Northland digging clay. They wanted to utilise it, and used the profits for personal objectives like having an overseas trip, not a bad thing, but did not service their trucks and keep things in working order, thus running down the business. In the end I think they leased the business to someone else.
It is easy for an iwi leader to say that they want business and to create jobs because that is what all developers say. How many jobs, for how long, what skills will be learned and is the business entity going to be a Maori trust with everyone taught business and development principles so the people understand the short and long term plans and can make informed opinions?
Marriage problems at Kellogs Time
Mike has been used to snugging up against the behind of John Key – a truly magic man – sent down on earth to please and appease ZB inhabitants. Hosking, Soper et al.
Yes, John Key – The magic man – also a fetish man – and a money man – and cafe maid bully man – and a Golf man – and an Obama man – with a fondness for very young blonde pigtails – is difficult to keep up with John Key. Poor Hosking.
Especially with the mighty Farrar out the back of Kiwi Blog raving on about “Dykes” with a capital “D”.
Our National Brethren are so fortunate to have many twisted – I almost said “bent” – personnel guiding the greedy of Aotearoa – and at the same time young Simon. Simon has to achieve only but one thing. Namely: Line his pockets. Like his beloved Colleagues.
Even if he does have to take humiliating lessons from ChinaDoll Collins.
It will be a Century before National ever appoints a straight “non pocket lining” MP.
What is the elderly Soper waffling on about now? Labour has orchestrated the last 24 hours he says. Want to know but can’t bring myself to click on.
Don’t do it. You’ll likely suffer a rage induced aneurysm and hurl your laptop out of the window.
Been there almost done that.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12044263
Despite what some on here might think of him – Hoskings retains talkback crown for ninth straight year.
and why would that change what we think of him?
Just tells me there are other people worthy of derision. Mike is the king though of course.
And he’s rich, drives fancy cars and hates poor people – I am sure you are a fan James.
Hosking. The king of ZB blue radio. Where closed minded old farts love to moan and closed minded listeners believe everything they hear, because they struggle to think for themselves.
I’ve met Hosking on many occasions through bussiness. He’s the most arrogant, self absorbed rude prick I’ve ever met.
James must be of similar character, otherwise he wouldn’t have bothered linking to the story. James loves to shit stir, just because he can. He probably has nothing more constuctive to do with his time.
If he gets really good he’ll get closer to RNZ’s listening audience!
He’s king of talkback? How many in an average morning are on his show in a ‘talkback’ situation? I don’t listen to him but he used to be on air from 6-8.30 am. There was a spell of about 10-11 minutes around the hour with ads and news there used to be quite a few other ads. Somewhere along the line he does some sort of monologue. Just wondering.
Arhh talkback that doyenne of critical thought and intellectual pursuit.
Alternatively mike and talk back listeners….like attracting like. Being the king of talk back hardly anything to crow about
When does Simonmania begin ? I can’t wait.
It’s classified more as a Bridgephilia
Slimeon has yet to climb that mountain.
Middlemore problems highlighted in 2010 report
Radio New Zealand Thursday, 3 May 2018, 3:47 pm
Article: RNZ
The Counties Manukau DHB has said it was first alerted to leaking buildings in 2012 but, in fact, it was warned in early 2010.
“The cladding system to the lower levels of the building appears to be failing,” the February 2010 report by surveyors Dalton said, after it took off cladding at five spots on the south wall of the Scott building, which also houses cardiac care.
It photographed advanced brown rot and light rot in wood frames it rated as “un-sound” and described “widespread incipient decay” caused by leaking.
“The use of untreated timber and established decay at corners and sheet edges demonstrates that the [three] lower level storeys are at risk of real future failure.”
Counties Manukau DHB acting chief executive Dr Gloria Johnson said that when she told the public in March this year that they were first alerted to the leaks in 2012, she was not aware of the 2010 report.
The Dalton report includes a photo of a fece-stained first-floor sewage pipe, where leaking caused “serious damage” to framing. Board’s chair Rabin Rabindran, a board member Mark Darrow and the DHB itself have all said media reports of sewage leaks were overplayed. It’s now known there were at least four such leaks of raw sewage.
(Labour introduced dodgy spray on protection for interior timbers and continued after leaky homes.)
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0507/S00239.htm
Labour fails homeowners in timber treatment scam
Monday, 11 July 2005, 5:13 pm
Press Release: New Zealand National Party
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10328966
Battle over blame in leaky homes
4 Jun, 2005 12:56pm
…National MPs Nick Smith and Richard Worth are barking at the Government’s indifference in the absence of incoming Building Minister Chris Carter. It’s the first meeting of the Leaky Homes Action Group and a chance to score pre-election points – but everyone knows the rot started under National’s watch.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/48HansS_20060905_00001352/smith-nick-standards-and-conformance-bill-second-reading
5 September 2006 –
(Nick Smith lays out his argument and concern about the dangerously light treatment of framing timber, amounting to shoddy and dishonest.
Is this one of those cases when it’s a low-regulation neo-liberal government cock-up and Labour has fallen for it on this occasion though it could have happened to National if they had been in power at this period? And is Middlemore the putrid off-colour meat in the sandwich?
OnceWasTim, Somehow this has not attached as an answer… sorry.
“Would be funny if they weren’t so dull….. no no .. dangerous.!!”
They confirm memes and attitudes. Soper and Duplicity Allan particularly.
Audrey is nasty and her body language when she “interviewed’ Jacinda ahead of the election was “disbelief she could be PM.”
When anyone on the Left queries their writings, they are accused of “over reacting,”
I have said several times that “memes were being repeated and the writing was unbalanced”. Micky proved that!!
I also felt the appearance of key phrases showed collusion of some type, or an echo chamber follow the leader team tag.
They are dangerous because they poison discussions and create traps.
‘
A public talk by acclaimed US/Palestinian author Ramzy Baroud
Dr Ramzy Baroud’s NZ speaking tour itinerary – 18 to 24 May 2018. Hosted by the NZ Palestine Solidarity Network
https://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2018/05/01/ramzy-barouds-new-zealand-speaking-tour/
Out they Go
Look I hate to tell James and sad sack Hosking – and tongue tied Simon – that Capitalism has failed.
The tag along Audreys and money chasers – Capitalism has failed.
You lot have dredged the money from the ordinary honest people, and stuffed it into your own piles – often in hidden accounts. You have condoned every dirty thing Key and English did.
The ordinary citizen has no hope of owning a house . Nor much hope of paying your exorbitant Rents. You are theives. That’s what you Capitalists are.
Your jacked up Panels; Your Corins; Your so called “Professionals”; Your Hootons are just shallow shaggers. Your Fletchers. Your Fonterras.
Capitalism is Crime in action. The Banks you support are based in Australia. Criminals in Action. Yet you attack the ordinary struggling man and his family.
You Capitalist Bastards.
It was a late milking drying cows off so I missed my morning Am show post it a beautiful day in Putaruru bit of a frost I will put up more post later today Ka kite ano P.S. its taken 7 years to get bee killing pesticides banned from use in Europe thanks to the Avaazers movement
This is how men abuse the power they have bestowed on them using it to abuse people here’s the link.
Four brave women
OPINION: Allegations a trusted GP initiated sexual relationships with vulnerable patients bear all the hallmarks of a #metoo case.
Ka kite ano P.S image how much stuff is hidden at the sandflys lair
Here is another.
‘His DNA on toilet cam’
51 min ago
DNA found on an SD card links one of NZ’s former top naval officers to a camera in a bathroom, prosecution says.
This is the future of cargo ships Ka pai Ka kite ano
What will ships look like in 30 years? Yea
Good evening Newshub I’m a bit late tonight we were watching the Mokopunas playing netball. That’s a shame that the people of Vanuatu have to leave their Island ECO MAORI gives all the best wishes for there move to another Island.
Many thanks to our Labour lead coalition Government for helping all the homeless people. This is a problem cause by the previous Government.
Many thanks to France and all there good people for there monument that houners the young men who fought for OUR freedom. Ka pai I have seen some of the French cultures and the way they run there society ECO MAORI is quite impressed Ka kite ano
The Crowd Goes Wild good evening Makere weres WAI.?
The Chief playing the Jaguar in Rotorua I’m on the farm at the minute is that were WAI is a watching the game it will be a good game I wish I was there ECO MAORI mite steal all the lime light lol yea right.
Josh the wave breaks in Raglan are world renowned to a lot of surfers there is a awesome wave breaks At WAI piro Bay Te tairawhiti.
Ka kite ano