web analytics

Open mike 04/03/2019

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 4th, 2019 - 177 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

177 comments on “Open mike 04/03/2019”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. James 1
    4 March 2019 at 7:32 am

    Hosking starts the day off well regarding the hypocrisy of James “air miles” Shaw

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12209121

    • Incognito 1.1
      4 March 2019 at 7:38 am

      I agree, Green MPs should only be allowed to travel by lime scooter or not at all.

      • AB 1.1.1
        4 March 2019 at 8:36 am

        There is nothing people like Hosking would like more than for Green MPs to be hobbled and ineffective in order to avoid bogus and shabby accusations of hypocrisy.

    • Bazza64 1.2
      4 March 2019 at 7:41 am

      Couldn’t agree more with Mike on this one. I’m sure when Lucy Lawless protested against Shell in New Plymouth she burnt up a fair bit of fuel driving there. Or did she ride her bike ?

      • Incognito 1.2.1
        4 March 2019 at 7:44 am

        What do you call a Green who’s not hugging a tree at that very moment? A hypocritical eco-socialist.

        • James 1.2.1.1
          4 March 2019 at 7:47 am

          They only hug trees when there is a TV camera there.

          • Incognito 1.2.1.1.1
            4 March 2019 at 7:59 am

            Zen. When a Green hugs a tree and there’s no camera to bear witness to it, does it make a sound?

          • Stuart Munro 1.2.1.1.2
            4 March 2019 at 11:28 am

            I don’t think that’s true – I can think of a Green transport spokesperson who goes out of their way to minimize their carbon footprint.

      • left_forward 1.2.2
        4 March 2019 at 8:09 am

        I wonder how the new ‘stainable party’s gonna cope with this one Baz?

        • cleangreen 1.2.2.1
          4 March 2019 at 9:02 am

          left forward;

          The Sustainable New Zealand Party was on the AM show today saying we need sustainable policies.

          But Vernon Tava of ‘sustainable NZ never spoke a word about sustainable transport?????

          Why didn’t he talk about rail as being the best ‘low emissions’ transport for slowing climate change??

          Does he only support the trucking of freight around NZ, and does this represent “sustainable” policy?????

          The Koch Brothers and big oil will love him for this.

          Rail uses five to eight times LESS oil than trucks USE, to move each tonne each kilometre.

          Now that would be a sustainable policy = to use rail.

          Wake up ‘ex Green Party member’ – Vernon Tava of ‘sustainable NZ’ !!!!!

          Green party is strong on rail, so why aren’t you also Vernon?

          I am a NZ First voter and they have the best rail policy now.

          Funny how political Parties change ‘hats’ isn’t it?i

          • James 1.2.2.1.1
            4 March 2019 at 9:27 am

            Because he had other topics to cover other than your obsession on trains.

            • greywarshark 1.2.2.1.1.1
              4 March 2019 at 10:37 am

              What’s your obsession James? It seems to be to disagree and sneer at any change a leftie may wish to discuss.

          • Sacha 1.2.2.1.2
            4 March 2019 at 1:05 pm

            “The Sustainable New Zealand Party”

            is not even registered yet.

      • Gabby 1.2.3
        4 March 2019 at 8:49 am

        You and Horeskin on the same page on this are you Boozza? Reading from the same script? On message?

        • Bazza64 1.2.3.1
          4 March 2019 at 10:37 am

          Good point, maybe I should change my name, I have been on the piss since 7.00 am this morning

      • Gabby 1.2.4
        4 March 2019 at 9:15 am

        But that’s Shell’s doing Boozza. No Shell, no protest.

      • alwyn 1.2.5
        4 March 2019 at 11:31 am

        Broomstick, actually.

    • Sanctuary 1.3
      4 March 2019 at 7:46 am

      “…Hosking starts the day off well…”

      Oxymoron from a moron.

      An Oxymoronmoron may well be a new word to describe trolls like James.

      • James 1.3.1
        4 March 2019 at 7:49 am

        Ahh first insult of the day from the caring left.

        The petty bullying is pathetic.

        Hosking has a good point here.

        • Incognito 1.3.1.1
          4 March 2019 at 7:59 am

          I agree, again, James. You started OM so well today.

        • Sanctuary 1.3.1.2
          4 March 2019 at 8:01 am

          Wah wah wah! Quick, someone call James a wambulance, someone insulted him and his hero the Hosk, and he ain’t standing for it!

          • James 1.3.1.2.1
            4 March 2019 at 8:07 am

            Just pointing out your behaviour this morning. Own it.

            But I notice you do this when you are unable to discuss a point.

            • left_forward 1.3.1.2.1.1
              4 March 2019 at 8:26 am

              Zen. What is the sound of James discussing a point?
              Oxymoron. James discussing a point.
              Moron. James.

              • Drowsy M. Kram …
                4 March 2019 at 6:23 pm

                Try not to overuse ‘moron’ when replying to James – he owns that word.

            • arkie 1.3.1.2.1.2
              4 March 2019 at 8:29 am

              Be James.
              Get up bright and early and read Hoskings column.
              Think to yourself, those lefties on the Standard will be interested to hear this!
              Post up the link (First!) and wait for the excited responses.
              What’s this? These lefties don’t like this rightwing opinion?! And then someone insults you? This really is the living end! Who could have guessed such terrible behaviour would come from the caring left.
              You let them know you see it and that it obviously this means they can’t discuss a point. The point you posted.
              Did you do it to get this reaction?
              Who cares, you pwned them.
              You smile knowing that you’ve started your day off well.

        • KJT 1.3.1.3
          4 March 2019 at 8:36 am

          Hosking is a right wing parrot.

          Who had an original thought, once, maybe in his life.

          See the similarity, James?

          Note: to self, exercise restraint and don’t call him a lying ignorant arsehole.

        • cleangreen 1.3.1.4
          4 March 2019 at 9:05 am

          Ahh – First insult of the day from the non-caring Natz.

    • left_forward 1.4
      4 March 2019 at 8:17 am

      ‘Except, of course, it isn’t, hasn’t and most likely probably won’t be.’
      Hosk wisdom on global warming.

      • Wensleydale 1.4.1
        4 March 2019 at 9:03 am

        I’m fairly sure Hosking won’t acknowledge global warming until his fabulous house is on fire and his face resembles a melted candle. Actually, with all the hair product he uses, it’ll probably just explode showering anyone nearby in blood and bone fragments.

    • mauī 1.5
      4 March 2019 at 8:28 am

      Yes, a real green party like Sustainable New Zealand would bundle up all their emissions and put them on a rocket to mars. Only if the business case stacked up of course.

    • Gabby 1.6
      4 March 2019 at 8:53 am

      I’m sure the Good James will leap on board the first available solar powered airliner with alacrity jimbo.

    • WeTheBleeple 1.7
      4 March 2019 at 9:12 am

      Hosking is an unmitigated **** for cash.

      To follow his views makes you a puppet of a muppet.

      And truth be told, he doesn’t give a shit what he’s saying he just lubes up on whale oil and delivers his daily bukkake theatre to the masses. No kissing, takes the money from the bedside and leaves.

      [Edited for sweariness. TRP]

    • Sabine 1.8
      4 March 2019 at 10:53 am

      Oh is Hoskins getting his marching orders from the US?

      Cause there they just attached AOC for ‘traveling by UBer’! Gasp, shock, clutches pearls, faints!

      I can’t think of a more sad, disheveled person then Mike Hoskins to whinge about other peoples travel. This man, who essentially still lives in the late 90.s the last time he was young (if ever he was ) , who travels by maserati in a country with notoriously bad roads, and a 100 km speed limit is not fit to read the morals to anyone.
      Not on marriage, not on child raising, not on affording children and certainly not on environmentally friendly travel.

      He is slowly but surely turning into that old coot that shakes his limp fist at the sky and yells at kids to stay of the lawn.

      Just goes to show that you can have a good live and still be the most miserable fuck there is.

      • Bruce 1.8.1
        4 March 2019 at 2:08 pm

        i just cant understand why he puts so much effort into emulating the people he despises. holey jeans was grunge last century i think . Maybe he thinks will make him hip.

    • Jimmy 1.9
      4 March 2019 at 11:31 am

      Does it really matter what James Shaw says or does? He is so irrelevant…needs a woman to tell him what to say or do. Openly supports benefit fraud and use of the “C” word in front of children. He lost all credibility a long time ago. Needs to step aside and let Chloe take over as sole leader.
      Mind you …..I think Winston likes toying with him so he probably likes having him there.

  2. Jinx 2
    4 March 2019 at 8:04 am

    Espiner had Bridges on the ropes..

    • Wensleydale 2.1
      4 March 2019 at 9:05 am

      Bridges is on the ropes so often these days, he may as well just stay there and try to make it look as nonchalant as possible.

      • patricia bremner 2.1.1
        4 March 2019 at 9:21 am

        Wensleydale, lol lol ha ha!! Good one.. Simon, slightly punch drunk… in the wrong division??

      • mac1 2.1.2
        4 March 2019 at 9:29 am

        I believe Simon Bridges is learning from Muhammed Ali with his ‘rope a dope’ ploy. It is defined as “a strategy to appear weak to convince an opponent to attack and fall into a trap.”

        Well, he’s succeeding with the first part of the strategy.

  3. Rosemary McDonald 3
    4 March 2019 at 8:38 am

    Well, sheesh. I cruised past TS on my usual am perambulation and thought whoah!!! All those comment so early…must be something really, really earthshatteringly important.

    Meanwhile…seriously dodgy shit going on up at Richpricksville.

    Boundary pegs???? Hah! We scoff at such restrictions…

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/110998405/us-billionaire-ric-kayne-builds-fence-on-mangawhai-wildlife-reserve

    SSDD

    • Jinx 3.1
      4 March 2019 at 9:14 am

      Sadly the UK Labour Party has been hi jacked by Tom Watson and his motley crew.
      Another motley crew derails the Standard daily.
      I miss Bill and Ed.

      Instead we have rwnjs dictating the tenor of this blog.

      • te reo putake 3.1.1
        4 March 2019 at 9:17 am

        Er, you are Ed, Jinx. Did you forget which sockpuppet you were using this morning?

      • mauī 3.1.2
        4 March 2019 at 9:31 am

        Thank you Jinx, another fine commentator has joined this blog.

        And yes we all miss Ed.

        • Ad 3.1.2.1
          4 March 2019 at 9:34 am

          We really don’t.

          • cleangreen 3.1.2.1.1
            4 March 2019 at 10:13 am

            Ad you may not!!!!- but do miss Ed.

            Please don’t use ‘we’ !!!!

            As that assumes I am part of your ‘we and I am not..

          • adam 3.1.2.1.2
            4 March 2019 at 12:15 pm

            Another royal ‘we’ from Ad.

        • WeTheBleeple 3.1.2.2
          4 March 2019 at 10:47 am

          I miss Bill where is the cantankerous old Scot? Is he OK?

          • greywarshark 3.1.2.2.1
            4 March 2019 at 9:25 pm

            I miss felix. And thank r0b for dropping by now and then.

            But Rosemary’s story about the millionaire and the commons is educational. How to appear to be concerned about the rules, but watch that they don’t get the inkling of implicit agreement to the plans of the squatter when you think you are making a small concession. Note the comment from the Environment Court Judge. I think we need the process tightened up. These wealthy types are running rings around us.

            “To protect that native planting from users of the Wildlife Refuge, including those employing motorised vehicles, a standard rural post and batten fence was installed. This was agreed with and supported by DOC. That standard farm fence sits within the edge of the planting and is now largely hidden within it.”

            HOW THE FENCE GOT THERE

            Among the many resource consents the developers applied for was for the earthworks and water required to turn a sandy pine forest into a grassed golf course.

            Environment Court Judge Jeff Smith noted in his ruling several resource consent applications had been made: “The piecemeal approach of the applicant seems to be designed to avoid making an application which requires notification, and therefore the prospect of the entire consent being subject to scrutiny.”

            Among the conditions in the decision was requirement, subject to agreement with DoC, for a fence to be placed on the northern boundary of the property and for a 60m-wide strip of planting to be a corridor between a wetland and the beach.
            The ruling said the planting could take place on either side of the boundary.

            Initially the discussion between Tara Iti Holdings and a community liaison group discussed whether a fence could be used to control predators, said Rogan. As a representative of the Fairy Tern Charitable Trust, she was keen the endangered fairy tern in the reserve would get as much protection as possible.

            “The plan we jointly agreed with the developers was for an ordinary fence, but the lower parts of it would have a kind of a mesh that would corral predators to certain places where you put traps and would stop them getting to the wildlife refuge.”
            The fence built to stop people walking over planted and weeded areas. There are no signs on the fence indicating it’s not a boundary, or suggesting people don’t walk in the area.
            Photo:
            The fence built to stop people walking over planted and weeded areas. There are no signs on the fence indicating it’s not a boundary, or suggesting people don’t walk in the area.

            According to Rogan and others at the meeting there was talk about the placement of the fence, and the possibility of the fence deviating from the actual boundary line due to topography. Its final placement came as a shock.

            “If it was just a little bit of a wave here and there, sure. You would obviously put a fence in the best position but it’s quite a long way inside the wildlife refuge.”

            Rogan is also disappointed at the lack of the predator mesh on the bottom half of the fence.

            The chap should have to take the fence down, now.

        • Jinx 3.1.2.3
          4 March 2019 at 2:31 pm

          The radical socialist left and ecological activists are being silenced on this site.

        • solkta 3.1.2.4
          4 March 2019 at 3:03 pm

          And yes we all miss Ed.

          I guess like in the sense that i “miss” the wart i had on my thumb when a child.

          • Drowsy M. Kram 3.1.2.4.1
            4 March 2019 at 6:42 pm

            Was Ed any more of a ‘loss leader’ than James @1 ?

            Many of Ed’s viewpoints seemed progressive (to me), and they posted links of interest (to me.)

            In time, perhaps I’ll come to recognise James’ redeeming features, although tbh there’s probably about as much chance of that as there is that I’ll understand why Ed attracted so much ridicule left and right.

            • Sacha 3.1.2.4.1.1
              4 March 2019 at 6:58 pm

              Never much love for sockpuppeteers (save for some mutual admiration prehaps).

              • Drowsy M. Kram …
                4 March 2019 at 7:49 pm

                Prehaps, prehaps (sic)…

                Thanks Sacha, I had to Google ‘sockpuppet'(eers). Assumed that it was a simple term of abuse used by the usual suspects, so had never bothered to pursue it further, but now I see I was wrong. Would love to know the back story, but maybe too much like “washing your dirty linen in public”?

            • solkta 3.1.2.4.1.2
              4 March 2019 at 7:59 pm

              Wanting to have people sent to labour camps because they deny climate change is not progressive.

              • Drowsy M. Kram …
                4 March 2019 at 9:45 pm

                Fair enough – my impression was that often Ed’s heart was in the right place (not sure the same can be said for James, who seems mostly to be out to cause as much ‘damage’ as possible).

                Sometimes Ed presented views on climate change and other topics they were ‘passionate’ about in stark terms, more starkly for sure than climate change being (in Ardern’s words) “my generation’s nuclear-free moment“.

                Maybe Ed’s extreme points of view do more harm than good in the cause to slow the global warming juggernaut. With any luck history will be the judge of that.

                • Milly …
                  4 March 2019 at 9:48 pm

                  I think we should be very concerned about climate change.
                  Scientists are now telling us we’ve 12 years left.
                  Shouldn’t we all be passionate about that?
                  Indeed, is there an issue more important?

                • solkta …
                  4 March 2019 at 10:03 pm

                  Ed is an authoritarian pure and simple. It was not just CC that he held such views about. That doesn’t put his heart in the right place, it makes him an arsehole.

                  • Drowsy M. Kram …
                    4 March 2019 at 10:24 pm

                    Strongly support your view that authoritarians are (generally) arseholes. But (for your own safety) softly softly, aye – there may be some closet authoritarians reading.

                • greywarshark …
                  4 March 2019 at 10:18 pm

                  Ed regularly swamped post with his pronouncements. It’s not his soapbox. But he tended to want to dominate it. And put up short sharp comments too often, when it is meant to be a place of discussion. And was pushing out NZ stuff with foreign muck. I treasure TS for a place to discuss mostly, NZ muck and pass on some high points that are positive when I see them. I don’t want somebody taking over the whole discussion and filling up people’s brains and time with what he has decided will rule. It ain’t democratic. You just get left with a tic. I am surprised other people haven’t noticed his pushy ways.

              • mauī …
                4 March 2019 at 10:52 pm

                “Wanting to have people sent to labour camps because they deny climate change is not progressive.”

                It’s ironic how easy the centre-left labels anyone they don’t like hearing from as a “fascist” and then do their utmost to make sure those people are silenced.

                • solkta …
                  4 March 2019 at 11:06 pm

                  I haven’t labelled him fascist. I’ve just said what he said.

                  So ironic you saying this given how many times Ed called me a Neoliberal.

        • Milly 3.1.2.5
          4 March 2019 at 8:05 pm

          At least you continue to connect us to George Galloway and other brave, independent spokespeople from the left.
          Thanks Maui.

          • greywarshark 3.1.2.5.1
            4 March 2019 at 9:06 pm

            Can you not access George Galloway yourself Milly? It doesn’t pay to be too dependent on others – the spirit of enquiry can take a person away into that place where you don’t know what you don’t know. There are more bits of info than there are galaxies in space. Fascinating, have a dig and pass on the link and tell us about it.

          • Bewildered 3.1.2.5.2
            4 March 2019 at 9:12 pm

            Also as a cat loving country Ed also introduces us to other cat lovers in the Uk

        • Incognito 3.1.2.6
          4 March 2019 at 9:14 pm

          We all miss us. The missus misses us. We are miserable missing the missus missing us. It gives us misty eyes and near misses.

          Nailed it?

      • alwyn 3.1.3
        4 March 2019 at 11:43 am

        The commentator I miss most from those of the past is Lanthanide. His comments were always worth reading and you could always hold a civil debate with him.
        Did he just give up in the end as the debate became ever more polarized or was he banned?

        • te reo putake 3.1.3.1
          4 March 2019 at 12:41 pm

          No ban that I’m aware of. People do come and go (you wanna see the authors list!).

        • Andre 3.1.3.2
          4 March 2019 at 12:42 pm

          Lanthanide never came back after getting a one week ban that I thought was OTT. It was in the midst of a mod-fight and the temperature was pretty raised…

    • WeTheBleeple 3.2
      4 March 2019 at 9:15 am

      We can hope for tidal inundation in some cases…

      • Rosemary McDonald 3.2.1
        4 March 2019 at 9:53 am

        Thank you WTB.

        For addressing the content of my post, and offering a perfectly acceptable potential solution ….in the absence of any action from local or central government.

        SSDD

        • adam 3.2.1.1
          4 March 2019 at 12:13 pm

          We could just eat Kayne, although I’m sure he would taste smug – which would leave your tongue with that furry feeling.

    • KJT 3.3
      4 March 2019 at 9:45 am

      Shades of Mr pulp and paper repaying all our tax payer subsidies, by out lawyering the Waiheke council, over access to a public road.

    • cleangreen 3.4
      4 March 2019 at 10:33 am

      Rosemary,

      Typical that these rich foreign pricks are still coming in in droves’ to tread all over our “natural environment’ as I in 1993 saw the same thing from Atlantic beach in Virginia to the Florida cost line as i drove south.

      The whole coastline has virtually been fenced to keep others out now!!!!!

      So Tangata whenua; – you had better guard the coastline here, as the yanks are coming with their roughshod rules on taking over sensitive coastal areas. .

      • KJT 3.4.1
        4 March 2019 at 12:33 pm

        I’ve had personal experience of that.

        Never been stopped from going on Maori land, you just have to ask.
        Same with most Kiwi farmers.

        However I’ve had dogs set on us, using a public beach below the HWL, by the German owner.

        And had an officious representative of a rich yank trying to tell me i couldn’t land on their beach. Despite there being a public ROW, to said beach.

      • Herodotus 3.4.2
        4 March 2019 at 12:52 pm

        Interesting the timing of your post and this today, with public land being lost to protect the privacy of Ric Kayne, an American Billionaires house.
        “Go for a stroll in the reserve and it’s unlikely you’ll realise you could get within eyeballing distance of a bathing billionaire. A sturdy, eight-string fence built by Tara Iti Holdings, extends – in places – up to 90m into the public reserve.”
        Also the ability of planners to circumnavigate “the system”
        “Environment Court Judge Jeff Smith noted in his ruling several resource consent applications had been made: “The piecemeal approach of the applicant seems to be designed to avoid making an application which requires notification, and therefore the prospect of the entire consent being subject to scrutiny.”
        https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/110998405/us-billionaire-ric-kayne-builds-fence-on-mangawhai-wildlife-reserve

        • patricia bremner 3.4.2.1
          4 March 2019 at 4:22 pm

          He sure didn’t sneak it past you Rosemary. Thank you for that. Do we comment to the Mangawhai Council/ Eugene/ others??

        • greywarshark 3.4.2.2
          4 March 2019 at 10:24 pm

          Rosemary put that link up at 3 before we wandered off about Ed, and I replied up there so have put the same thing you have done Herodotus. I didn’t know you were down here.

  4. Robert Guyton 4
    4 March 2019 at 9:08 am

    Nandor Tanzcos wrote about climate change and the political response from Whakatane.
    https://nandor.net.nz/2019/03/03/responding-to-climate-change-in-whakatane/

    • WeTheBleeple 4.1
      4 March 2019 at 9:23 am

      Outstanding to see such comprehensive thought entertained by (local) government bodies.

      It annoys that all the community groups are based in facebook. A lot of people wont go to them including me. It is a lazy cheap ass way to make a website and feeds into a highly corrupt tax-dodging business.

      • KJT 4.1.1
        4 March 2019 at 9:47 am

        Unfortunately, they have to be on Facebook to reach people.

        Not all community groups can afford a website, advertising it, and hosting fees.

        • WeTheBleeple 4.1.1.1
          4 March 2019 at 10:12 am

          Yeah. FB is like oil to me in some regards: we’ve become dependant on a thing that is bad for us. The attraction of both is not lost on me. The problems with both clearly apparent.

          Like oil, we need to wean ourselves off FB. An artificial social construct posing as (and replacing) real community. It’s not the model so much as the management. TS works, FB is corporate, not community, it is a poser. Divide into groups, polarise, manipulate, sell…. what a shitty place to hold a community meeting, or any meeting really.

          The insidious nature of it made my skin crawl. talk about a thing in a pm, get a targeted ad or political meme… arrrrgh!

          Not a fan, one might say.

          • Sabine 4.1.1.1.1
            4 March 2019 at 11:01 am

            This bullshit aobut facebook seriously ist getting tired.

            You can use facebook, you can put up as much or as little information you want, you can give as much or as little informaiton you want, and that is that.

            It is a tool. If you use a W. T. Bleeple as your name it will be accepted, if you give no information i.e. birth day, town etc it will be accepted, yo udon’t have to read stuff you don’t like, you don’t have to like stuff you dont’ like . Etc etc etc.

            essentially it is a tool. Use it for your purposes and ignore the rest.

            • WeTheBleeple 4.1.1.1.1.1
              4 March 2019 at 11:54 am

              Thanks for the confirmation FB is a tool. A tool of corporate design.

              Congressional hearings… nothing to see here.

              FB had nothing to do with Trump, and besides, hasn’t he improved the world anyway.

              This BS where people wont support huge corporations all because they’re inhuman assholes is getting tired. Especially picking on poor tax dodging billionaire sack of shit corporations.

              Fuck FB and everything they stand for.

              Shill.

              • Sabine …
                4 March 2019 at 12:20 pm

                Shill? seriously?
                A hammer is always only a hammer. No matter if you use it for a nail or to bash someones head in. The tool is simply that a tool.

                Facebook is a tool. For people to connect. For people like me that have a lof of friends oversees to chat. For people with small businesses to sell their wares. For people who live away from family to easily update etc.

                It is a tool for these guys here, Community Fruit Harvesting – a local non profit that collects surplus fruit and makes it into Jams, Cordial, Fruit leather etc that then gets distributed among NZ Food banks, schools, old folks homes etc. It is a tool for Community Fruit n Vegetable stands -local stands on private grounds for people to drop of surplus from their gardens and jams/chutneys, seedlings, tins of food for those that don’t have enough – Motto, leave what you can, take what you need.
                It is a tool for gardeners to meet, discuss growing of produce, advice new comers, swap seeds, share recipes etc – NZ Veggie Growers.
                I know, nefarious businesses all of them and I am happily shilling for these guys, each and everyone of them.

                Short it is a tool, and it is up to you as to how much you use it, how you use it, how much information you give or not, it is not the demon personified, no more then is Apply, Samsung, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and the likes.

                I mean, personally i prefer Carrier Pigeons, i am however being told that it was not a viable way of connecting in our days.

                • greywarshark …
                  4 March 2019 at 10:33 pm

                  Actually Facebook is apparently all you say Sabine and when I get it
                  sorted and know how to work it well I am sure I will find it useful.
                  But it keeps wanting to get my photo, my details etc. very annoying. And in the absence of getting information it puts up things picked up from my family. Most of the profile is false but I didn’t put that up. Don’t believe everything you read on Fbook. But because it is up and in public if people like one’s employer saw stuff on it they might think it had been put up deliberately to deceive.

                  Don’t diss carrier pigeons will you. They may be the in thing at the end of the day.

        • Molly 4.1.1.2
          4 March 2019 at 10:57 am

          There are plenty of free online tools that allow you to communicate with others, including blogging sites that can be customised with a fairly cheap domain name.

          The problem is not the availability of alternatives, it is just that many are familiar with Facebook and go with the tool they know.

  5. Gabby 5
    4 March 2019 at 9:18 am

    Pretty mean of Frontbum Tamihere to accuse Gfoffoloffle of only just discovering he’d like to be mayor. Is he willing to sell his soul for the job?

  6. Sanctuary 6
    4 March 2019 at 9:24 am

    Question. Why does John Tamihere have to be such a dick?

  7. Peter 7
    4 March 2019 at 9:25 am

    Some of the comments about Mike Hosking are a tad unfair. I saw his headline which said “full of hot air.”

    It’s clearly his field of expertise, for goodness sake, leave the man alone!

    • ankerawshark 7.1
      4 March 2019 at 12:19 pm

      Ha, ha ha Peter.

      I loved that Jacinda said she wanted to hear from people about the tax payers working group who weren’t Herald columnists…………………….Yes, yes yes. We’ve heard from Barry, Heather and Mikey to name but a few. Why their opinions are elevated to being worthy of publication is beyond me.

  8. Kat 8
    4 March 2019 at 9:26 am

    The fish wraps front page with two articles one on Bennett with a photo that looks like it was taken at a Tupperware party being “happy, healthy and proud” the other on Bridges being a “dirty little street fighter” posing with his family. Then an attack on the Greens co leader by the Hosk. No wonder Nationals little poodles get exited.

  9. KJT 9
    4 March 2019 at 9:29 am

    While we are being nice to each other, i think it will be useful, to remind everyone about dishonest debating tactics.

    Usually used by those whose argument is weak.

    Like Hosking quoted above.
    Needling. Repetition and False equivalence, spring to mind

    http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/skeptic/arguments.html

  10. cleangreen 10
    4 March 2019 at 9:30 am

    Robert – Thanks for the link to Nandor’s blogspot.

    I may contribute to it now also. It has a “old green Party feel” of ‘common sense’ about it as NZ First has.

    So Nandor may do well here.

  11. cleangreen 11
    4 March 2019 at 9:36 am

    KJT.

    Hoskings is an agent of the elitists; – nothing more.

    • Gosman 11.1
      4 March 2019 at 9:54 am

      Except he probably has more support from “mainstream” NZers than many Politicians claiming to speak for them.

      • KJT 11.1.1
        4 March 2019 at 9:58 am

        No. We think he is an arse.

        • cleangreen 11.1.1.1
          4 March 2019 at 10:15 am

          KJT Ageed 100%.

          • alwyn 11.1.1.1.1
            4 March 2019 at 11:53 am

            I suppose I should simply quote back to you your own reply to Ad at 3.1.2.1.

            “‘KJT’ you may not!!!!- but do miss ‘Hoskings’
            Please don’t use ‘we’ !!!!
            As that assumes I am part of your ‘we and I am not..

            Or is it different when everybody is assumed to agree with you?

            • KJT 11.1.1.1.1.1
              4 March 2019 at 12:15 pm

              Congratulations.

              I should have added quotes around the “we” to make it even clearer what Gosman was doing.

              However, many people, i talk to, think Hoskings is an arse. Even the ones that often agree with him.

              • alwyn …
                4 March 2019 at 12:28 pm

                I really wasn’t complaining about you by the way.
                It was Cleangreen being inconsistent in his complaining.
                Personally I think that people get far to precious about the word. It doesn’t imply complete inclusion of the whole population.

      • patricia bremner 11.1.2
        4 March 2019 at 4:36 pm

        The 25000 who signed the petition did not like Mike H at all.

  12. soddenleaf 12
    4 March 2019 at 10:01 am

    q. Employers cry out for more staff. Why? It’s the market, the employees would rather work in oz than here. Why? Well neolibs are lazy and stupid, coz they won’t stop big govt interference in the market. Seems your average employee would rather get paid more, also pay less income taxand pay a CGT in OZ. Seems the media can’t explain that to kiwis, that the reasons for high OZ Bank profits out of NZ, the risk premium on interest, the low productivity, the sad selling of companies early so we don’t grow more medium to big companies that shrinks the stock market offerings… …the list is extensive. 0% CGT means kiwi employees pay higher income taxes to fund employer CGT contrabutions, whereas Oz employers do. So kiwi employers are advantaged against their competitors and are carried by their employees. Now you’d think that given how many employees their are compared to owners, you’d expect the masses to be kick up holy dirt, but no.

    Yet strangely there is a way to rectify matters, employers could offer employees a share in the business. In fact, govt should legally force all business to provide 10% of their company shareholding to their employees. No need for a CGT. Balance the books.

  13. greywarshark 13
    4 March 2019 at 11:18 am

    Repetitive trolling by James. Predictable. If change can’t happen to assist the flow of intelligent, probing, quality discussion on this blog, then its value to thinking and preparedness for our future is compromised. At present change is happening fast outside in the world and keeping up with it difficult.

    The tenets that TS was set up on seem to allow and even enable timewasters like James to come here. It results in that people argue on behalf of their presence them because they are amusing, they put up something worthwhile, they try to argue their points; these attitudes are so laid-back last century stuff.

    Spare a fellow feeling for sloths – like all of us they are under threat from change and depredation. In NZ we should be able to understand them, our traits being so close to theirs. But we don’t want to look at us, rather the US, Venezuela; or the menu showing the troubled Country du Jour gets wise opinionated know-alls on their case. It is so sad that wise people are wasting away here when international calls should be made begging them to come and bring their Dr Strangelove superior intellects to assist.

    Here, an opinionated person on NZ from past Labour is Phil Quin. I can’t work out whether he is mired in past century thinking and trying to roast Labour for where they have failed, or is looking at the NZ situation objectively and just stating the facts. His latest piece points out that local government can’t keep up with infrastructure from growth, and rates are rising fast. Who ya gonna call, ghostbusters? Or call out the Labour Coalition?

    In the absence of bold reforms that empower communities and overcome this financial crunch, councils will be forced to pursue yet more cost-cutting and corporatisation – as we’re seeing with water reforms.
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-body-elections/110954401/undemocratic-and-uneconomic-local-government-is-in-a-bind

    He goes on to quote Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta fom a recent Cabinet paper, that rates are rising faster than inflation with the greatest likely to occur in the next three years. The Minister refers to “optimal services and achieving good outcomes”. But isn’t that BAU for NZ at present, no surprise. He sounds as if he is waiting for the Financial Tooth Fairy to collect its austerity teeth and leave a gold coin under our pillow. The Labour Coalition as a magical be-ing.

    This is a piece he wrote at the time of the last elections. Is he pro-Labour or contra? Is he objective, or inclined to put his boot in if National would like that?
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/97185921/phil-quinn-inside-the-nationallabour-chasm

  14. indiana 14
    4 March 2019 at 11:18 am

    “For former prisoner Awatea Mita, the Electoral Strengthening Democracy member’s bill is a welcome addition to the political debate, and any change can not come soon enough.

    Not being able to participate in shaping a better future for herself and her family was humiliating and dehumanising, she said.”

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/110934374/greens-want-prisoners-voting-ban-overturned-to-strengthen-democracy

    How was it not dehumanising and humiliating for being convicted and sentanced for committing a crime? Was the future better shaped for herself and family by conducting the act of committing a crime?

    • Gabby 14.1
      4 March 2019 at 12:01 pm

      indinana do prisoners still pay taxes?

      • greywarshark 14.1.1
        4 March 2019 at 12:18 pm

        She is a former prisoner. The object should be to include all people in a society that acts in a fair way from cradle to grave. We don’t have that and some people have to make tremendous adjustments trying to cope in this situation.
        There are people in prison who would be better dealt with in other ways, there are people outside prison who should be in there even for short periods, and there are people outside who haven’t been caught yet who deserve a good prison sentence. So life isn’t black and white as your simple-minded questions imply
        indi-anna.

      • Naki man 14.1.2
        4 March 2019 at 12:33 pm

        That would be no Gobby. They cost 100k per year to keep the bastards.
        It’s funny how these poor wee petals feel hurt but don’t give a fat rats arse about their victims.

        • Gabby 14.1.2.1
          4 March 2019 at 1:17 pm

          You mean they don’t buy stuff Nastiman? How about the ones on parole? Are they exempt from income tax if they’re working?

          • Naki man 14.1.2.1.1
            4 March 2019 at 1:37 pm

            I assumed that you meant people who are locked up when you said prisoners,
            not the few that are working just before being released.

        • greywarshark 14.1.2.2
          4 March 2019 at 1:47 pm

          Naki man
          What do you do for the victims? And what do you do for the criminals to help turn their ideas and get a moral outlook on life so they feel empathy for others in society. Oh they are all just bastards says thoughtful Naki man.

    • KJT 14.2
      4 March 2019 at 12:12 pm

      If you look at the background of the majority of prisoners, it is society that failed them. In the first instance.

    • bwaghorn 14.3
      4 March 2019 at 12:13 pm

      My guess is most people in prison never voted prior to going to prison .
      So one would think that getting them enrolled and voting and teaching them about their civic duty would be part of the rehabilitation.
      Making them feel they have a voice might just help .
      But na your type would rather just hate and punish a??

  15. adam 15
    4 March 2019 at 12:08 pm

    God Bless Jackie Walker

    • greywarshark 15.1
      4 March 2019 at 12:25 pm

      Looked up Jackie Walker – might be a large part of the constant cry of anti-semitism around Corbyn.

      Here’s something about it.
      https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/labour-expulsion-hearing-set-anti-zionist-jackie-walker
      “I’m so pleased to have a date for my hearing,” Walker told The Electronic Intifada.
      “Whatever the outcome, it’s been amazing to be part of an anti-racist, anti-Zionist left that has refused to be silenced by what has been the worst political witch hunt of our generation.”

      Since Jeremy Corbyn first ran for the Labour leadership in the summer of 2015, the party has faced an unrelenting witch hunt targeting the left and Palestine solidarity activists.

      The NCC* functions as the party’s internal trial court, sending accused members charge sheets and legalistic bundles of documents. But it is a highly politicized body.
      Up until September, it was still controlled by Maggie Cosin, a member of Labour’s right wing once described as the party’s “witchfinder general.”

      The new chair, Anna Dyer, has promised to bring change, after a pro-Corbyn majority was elected to the NCC at the Labour Party conference in September.
      * National Constitutional Committee, or NCC, Labour’s disciplinary body.

      I looked further on the site and came up weith this interesting summary of an apparently implacable Corbyn hater, Joan Ryan. This from 20 February 2019.
      Lawmaker Joan Ryan quit Labour on Tuesday, citing party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s supposed “demonization and delegitimization” of Israel.

      Ryan is the leading member of Parliament in Labour Friends of Israel – an Israeli embassy front group.

      She notoriously fabricated a charge of anti-Semitism against Labour member Jean Fitzpatrick at the UK opposition party’s 2016 annual conference.

      Labour Friends of Israel was defiant on Tuesday night, insisting that Ryan would “remain in her position as our parliamentary chair” despite her departure from the Labour Party.

      In her resignation statement, Ryan claimed Corbyn is responsible for a “culture of anti-Jewish racism and hatred for Israel” and a government led by him “would be an existential threat” to the Jewish community.

      Ryan has been a leading voice in the manufactured “Labour anti-Semitism” smear campaign over the last few years.
      https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/joan-ryan-mp-who-fabricated-anti-semitism-quits-labour

      With friends like this in the same Party, who needs enemies? Incidentally I think I saw that the Friends of Israel are getting behind the Independents from Brexit.
      On the same blog.

  16. WeTheBleeple 16
    4 March 2019 at 1:38 pm

    I have talked about water a bit. How to drought and flood proof landscapes using earthworks and swale systems. I have presented evidence for the drought proofing ability of such systems but until now have not seen a ‘100 year flood’ hit one.

    Sweet as.

    • greywarshark 16.1
      4 March 2019 at 3:22 pm

      Great WtB. That Geoff Lawton is good.

      And if you watch the one about Greening the Desert – it’s not just about trees.
      This is providing humans with gardens in the driest conditions, and it shows how we all could utilise this clever management. Water is for conserving, not for giving away to $-balls for them to get money from so they can afford a seat on a rocket to space or a harem of poor young women for pleasure.

      Too much money is bad for us apparently – it doesn’t turn us into comfortable, better, generous people. I’d settle for reliable enough with a bit extra for funsies.

  17. Andre 17
    4 March 2019 at 1:47 pm

    It appears there’s now 4 Repug senators ready to vote against Donny Diaper’s wall emergency tantrum.

    https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/03/senate-emergency-declaration-rand-paul.html?via=homepage_recirc_recent

    By itself, it won’t matter if the Senate votes that there’s no emergency. Because it needs the satsuma stubbyfingers to sign it, but he’ll just veto it. And there’s not enough votes in either the senate or the house for a veto over-ride.

    Where it will make a big difference is in the courts. The Constitution gives the power of the purse entirely to Congress. So if a majority of both the House and the Senate votes to say no to spending money on a wall, that should hold a lot of weight in any argument the prez is illegally violating the constitution by trying to spend on something that Congress has explicitly told him “no”.

    • Ad 17.1
      4 March 2019 at 3:03 pm

      Trump’s tactic of reallocating from a variety of DoD workstreams should protect him from Congress investigating Federal law budgetary breaches, so long as he doesnt cut too hard against the Antideficiency Act.

      Its his best funding shot.

      But then comes detailed design and procurement. Coupla years.

      • Andre 17.1.1
        4 March 2019 at 3:12 pm

        Big picture to keep in mind through all this is Don of the Deadbrains doesn’t actually care about a wall, he just wants to keep his wallnuts onside. A long drawn out fight is just as good for that as actually building anything. Maybe better.

        • Ad 17.1.1.1
          4 March 2019 at 3:24 pm

          Wallnut base will shrink as each commentator – like Coulter – sees through its gaming.

          2020 not even a wheelbarrow moving: I cant see base growth in that.

          He needs a fresh source of hate.

  18. Ad 18
    4 March 2019 at 1:56 pm

    I can see test Rugby going the way of test Cricket if the US broadcasters pick up on the growing superiority of the US Sevens Rugby team:

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12209181

    Only five years ago were mortified if we lost to Fiji in a Sevens final.

    Now we lose to the US in a semi-final, more often than not. We don’t even get to the finals as much, let alone win.

  19. joe90 19
    4 March 2019 at 2:01 pm

    Mark Taylor spent five years with IS.

    One of his regrets? Not being able to afford a Yazidi slave.

    https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/383879/new-zealand-jihadist-mark-taylor-captured-in-syria-and-jailed-in-kurdish-prison

    • Ad 19.1
      4 March 2019 at 2:43 pm

      I believe there are positions going to help clear rats from the Auckland Islands.

      He can enslave and behead as many rats as he likes, as well as doing good for New Zealand and the world.

    • Jimmy 19.2
      4 March 2019 at 5:07 pm

      I guess society failed him in the first instance too

      • greywarshark 19.2.1
        4 March 2019 at 10:43 pm

        Society failed you, they must have run out of empathy shots when you came along.

  20. WILD KATIPO 20
    4 March 2019 at 3:02 pm

    Big Read: Miners ready to re-enter Pike River mine to try … – NZ Herald
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12208132

  21. greywarshark 21
    4 March 2019 at 3:16 pm

    Any Red Dwarf fans out there.? And Timothy Spall? Found this wee clip. Good.
    (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qIkXfxyB-8

    Just throwing it into the mix for the fans.

  22. Cinny 22
    4 March 2019 at 4:57 pm

    BREAKING….
    Just heard via the wireless that ‘the ship’ is resigning from the board of the China Construction Bank.

    I think she should resign her title of dame as well.

  23. greywarshark 23
    4 March 2019 at 9:01 pm

    Scientists of NZ – stars for gazing at and learning from:

    On Innovation in NZ –
    http://www.press.auckland.ac.nz/en/browse-books/all-books/books-2013/Get-off-the-Grass-Kickstarting-New-Zealands-Innovation-Economy.html

    Sir Paul Callaghan and Professor Shaun Hendy 2013 (Sir Paul died in 2012)

    What we should be doing instead of low cost retailing (at least the Warehouse is NZ owned I think.)

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

  • Rāhui day 4
    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 ...
    The little pakehaBy chrismiller
    11 hours ago

  • Letter to a friend
    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 ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    12 hours ago

  • Life in Lock Down: Day 3
    . . 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, ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    20 hours ago

  • 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #13
    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, 2020 Articles Linked to on Facebook Sun, Mar 22, 2020 In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters by Chelsea Harvey, ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 day ago

  • Rāhui day 3
    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 little pakehaBy chrismiller
    1 day ago

  • A test of civil society.
    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 ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    2 days ago

  • Life in Lock Down: Day 2
    . . 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 ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    2 days ago

  • How Do You Feel? What Do You Think?
    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 ...
    Bowalley Road
    2 days ago

  • Landlords are NOT an essential service
    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 ...
    The Jackal
    2 days ago

  • A “new Society” post-COVID19 will definitely emerge. The question is: on what path?
    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 ...
    exhALANtBy exhalantblog
    2 days ago

  • Raise the Bar: Everything you need to know about the wage subsidy
    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 ...
    PosseBy chloeanneking
    3 days ago

  • The massacre of prisoners in Modelo jail, Bogota, March 21
    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 ...
    RedlineBy Admin
    3 days ago

  • We are not America
    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 ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago

  • When will we know the lockdown is working?
    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 ...
    SciBlogsBy Siouxsie Wiles
    3 days ago

  • Lock Down: Day 1
    . . 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 ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago

  • A Compelling Recollection.
    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 ...
    Bowalley Road
    3 days ago

  • The Warehouse – where everyone gets a virus
    . . 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 ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago

  • Aggressive action to address climate change could save the world $145 trillion
    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 ...
    Skeptical Science
    3 days ago

  • After the Pandemic
    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. ...
    SciBlogsBy Robert Hickson
    4 days ago

  • Coronavirus – Cuba shows the way
    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 ...
    RedlineBy Admin
    4 days ago

  • Using privacy law to prevent the death penalty
    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 ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago

  • It’s Time For Disaster Socialism.
    Transformers: The disaster of the Great Depression was transformed into a new and fairer society by the democratic socialism of the First Labour Government. The disaster of the Covid-19 Pandemic offers a similar transformative possibility to the Labour-NZ First-Green Government. Seize the time, Jacinda! You will never have a better ...
    Bowalley Road
    4 days ago

  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #12, 2020
    Tamper with The System? Well, we already are. But there's a difference between accidentally trickling sand into a precision gearbox versus formulating a plan to alter it on the fly with improvements in mind. One action is more or less innocently unscrupulous, the other amenable to earning an easy ...
    Skeptical Science
    4 days ago

  • Avoidable hospitalisations: Helping our health system get through COVID-19
    Associate Prof George Thomson, Louise Delany, Prof Nick Wilson While it is possible that New Zealand can use intense public health controls to eradicate COVID-19 from the country – we must also plan for other scenarios where thousands of New Zealanders are sick – including many urgently hospitalised.1 Better resilience ...
    SciBlogsBy Public Health Expert
    5 days ago

  • Raise the Bar: 10 questions to ask your employer proposing redundancy
    Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...
    PosseBy chloeanneking
    5 days ago

  • An equitable way to support business
    The Herald reports that the government is planning to lend billions of dollars to large businesses to keep them operating during the pandemic. As with mortgage relief, this is necessary: we need companies to stay in business, to reduce the economic damage and help things get restarted again when this ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • Hard News: Together Alone
    We're about to do something unprecedented as a nation. We hope that by taking this extraordinary action before a single life in New Zealand has been lost to the deadly novel virus we will save tens of thousands of lives. Our  lives. We'll do it together, in households, in isolation ...
    Public Address
    5 days ago

  • Why timing is everything: ‘A time to refrain from embracing’ starts today
    “There is a time for everything,    and a season for every activity under the heavens.”So writes the author of Ecclesiastes, a book in the Old Testament that’s counted as a ‘wisdom’ book and written as if by an unnamed king of Jerusalem. But who would have thought there would be a time ...
    PunditBy Tim Watkin
    5 days ago

  • Dealing with the Covid-19 Tsunami.
    I was surprised when the prime minister described the Economic Response to Covid-19 package as the ‘largest peacetime government spend in New Zealand's history’. Reflecting – checking through history – I realised that the term ‘spend’ was crucial and the package had no income tax cuts. Even so, it has ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    5 days ago

  • What about renters?
    The government today announced the latest part of its pandemic relief package: a six-month mortgage holiday for people whose incomes have been affected by the pandemic. Which is great, because these people are going to need help, and that's what the government should be doing. At the same time, it ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • Living within our means.
    Years ago the Argentine sociologist Carlos Weisman wrote a book titled “Living within our Means.” It was a critique of Argentine society that focused on the paradoxical question of why, in a land of plenty, there was so much economic instability, inequality, corruption and political turmoil. His conclusion was basically ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    6 days ago

  • Transparency and the pandemic
    Parliament will be leading by example and adjourning tomorrow after a special sitting to consider an epidemic notice and state of emergency. Day-to-day oversight of the government will be delegated to a select committee. But that's not the only overight mechanism. The OIA will still be law, and (so far) ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • ‘Overjoyed’: a leading health expert on New Zealand’s coronavirus shutdown, and the challengin...
    Michael Baker, University of Otago Overjoyed. That’s not a word epidemiologists normally use, but that’s how I felt after hearing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s announcement about New Zealand’s COVID-19 shutdown of everything except essential services for at least four weeks from midnight on Wednesday. More than anything, I just ...
    SciBlogsBy Public Health Expert
    6 days ago

  • One way to solve the housing crisis
    How much homelessness is caused by house hoarding? We're about to find out. The pandemic has destroyed tourism, which means that house hoarders who put their hoarded properties up as short-term tourist rentals are now offering them on the ordinary rental market:Property investors are pulling properties from Airbnb to offer ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • The pros and cons of planting trees to address global warming
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bruce Lieberman It seems like such a simple, straightforward, empowering idea: plant trees – a lot of trees – all over the world, and watch the planet’s temperature fall. Who doesn’t love a tree or two, even far more – the right ...
    Skeptical Science
    6 days ago

  • Not a grand coalition, but a government of national salvation
    According to Newshub, Simon Bridges is open to joining a “grand coalition” with Labour as we hunker down to go into a month long lockdown. The idea is sound. Before now, the role of the opposition was to scrutinise and oppose. In the context of what almost amounts to a ...
    PunditBy Liam Hehir
    7 days ago

  • Raise the Bar: hospitality workers & wage subsidy entitlements
    Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or ...
    PosseBy chloeanneking
    7 days ago

  • Lifting our game against COVID-19
    We need to be lifting our game against COVID-19. You and I need to help those working to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while they’re trying to lift the testing and treatment efforts. We don’t want to be playing this game running backwards. Best to play it solidly forward, from ...
    SciBlogsBy Grant Jacobs
    7 days ago

  • The maths and ethics of minimising COVID-19 deaths in NZ
    Prof Tony Blakely, Prof Michael Baker, and Prof Nick Wilson The NZ Government must do more to clearly articulate its COVID-19 strategy: eradication or ‘flattening the curve’ mitigation. But to do so means understanding the maths and ethics of both these strategies. In this blog, we adapt our work for ...
    SciBlogsBy Public Health Expert
    7 days ago

  • All aboard the Covid Train
    A few days ago I was starting to write something about the pandemic, which now seems unconscionable. It took the form of a letter to an agony aunt:“Dear Deidre, I have an ugly confession. I am quite excited by Covid-19.”This is how the piece went:“I’m not a psychopath, honest. Although the ...
    PunditBy Phil Vine
    7 days ago

  • 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #12
    Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters The likelihood of extreme events ...
    Skeptical Science
    7 days ago

  • We are all socialists now
    Last week, the government announced a $12 billion initial package to support people during the pandemic. Today, the Reserve Bank is buying government bonds - effectively printing money - to keep up the money supply during the crisis. Normally such moves would have the right apoplectic. Instead, the National Party ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    7 days ago

  • A plea to experts: safeguard your role in public life
    I am a pundit, somebody who opines and comments on the news. There are no real qualifications to punditry though having a rudimentary way with words and good general knowledge helps. That is one reason there is a constant oversupply of would-be pundits and why it is quite hard to ...
    PunditBy Liam Hehir
    1 week ago

  • Enlightenment when?
    I recently encountered the following prescription from a Faculty of Education at a leading New Zealand University. At first I wondered if it was another product of the postmodern generator (http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/pomo/), designed to create gibberish in the postmodern form, but I’m told it is real: The “schooled” society: Towards the ...
    SciBlogsBy Michael Corballis
    1 week ago

  • What the Crisis Can teach Us
    The coronavirus pandemic has of course had a major impact on individual lives and on societies as a whole. But, long after the crisis has passed (assuming it does), we will begin to realise that its real and lasting significance lies in the lessons it has taught us, if only ...
    Bryan GouldBy Bryan Gould
    1 week ago

  • Hammering home measures to stop COVID-19
    COVID-19 has plunged Aotearoa New Zealand (indeed, the world) into territory that, while maybe not totally unprecedented, certainly hasn’t been seen during the lifetimes of most of us here today. Our borders are closed to non-citizens, we’re being told not to gather in groups of more than 500 outside/100 inside, ...
    PunditBy Andrew Geddis
    1 week ago

  • What does ‘level two’ mean – and why does it matter?
    For the last few weeks, I’ve been urging you to prepare yourself, your family, business, and community for Covid-19. Now it’s time for real action.  Yesterday the director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced another 13 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, bringing our total to date to 52. ...
    SciBlogsBy Siouxsie Wiles
    1 week ago

  • 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #12
    A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 15, 2020 through Sat, Mar 21, 2020 Editor's Pick Now Isn’t the Time to Forget About Our Climate Change Efforts   Tasha Tilberg, Lindsey Wixson, and Liu Wen photographed ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • Is the Guardian becoming  a real newspaper again?
    by Jan Rivers The article has been corrected to show that it was Ewen MacAskill, former Guardian journalist and not Luke Harding who travelled to meet Edward Snowden with journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras.  Some of the Guardian’s well-known journalists who did not sign the protest letter are ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    1 week ago

  • Life asserts itself regardless
    by Cultural Worker Late March 2020 amidst the virus. With gigs crashing and burning all around it was without much hope that I called a long standing rest home booking: “ Hi, I’m supposed to be entertaining at your place this afternoon – is it still on?” “”If you don’t ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    1 week ago

  • Politics, the possible, and the pandemic
    Whenever people demand real change from their politicians, we're told that "politics is the art of the possible". The implication is that change isn't possible, so we'd better just get used to the sucky status quo. But now that there's a pandemic, a lot of things we were previously told ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • The Only Way Through This Crisis Is Together.
    Together: In leading New Zealand through the Covid-19 Pandemic, the Prime Minister could do a lot worse than allow herself to be guided by the spirit of collective sacrifice and co-operation that animated the New Zealanders of 80 years ago. Most Kiwis alive today have had no opportunity to prove their ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 week ago

  • GFC vs Covid-19
    It is said that generals fight the last war. In the case of the early stages of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) they had learned from the Great Depression of the 1930s and they fought intelligently and successfully. Later their advice would be ignored in favour of the Austerians who ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    1 week ago

  • Nobody Left Behind.
    Solidarity Forever: All over the world, the arrival of the Covid-19 virus has exposed the fragility of the walls we erect around ourselves and our loved ones. It has shattered our illusions of autonomy and revealed to us how utterly dependent we all are on other human-beings. Finally, we see ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 week ago

  • Rebuilding a truly “Democratic” counter, or a “moderate Republican” bolt-hol...
    Looking across the various arguments for/against the leading candidates to take the Democratic Nomination, you might honestly be very hard pressed to tell. There are a number of things that have now started happening since Amy Klobuchar and “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg both threw the towel in and immediately (and ...
    exhALANtBy exhalantblog
    1 week ago

  • Abortion law reform a win for women
    by Daphna Whitmore Abortion is no longer in the Crimes Act in New Zealand. The law reform passed yesterday and now abortion is a medical matter between a woman and her doctor. Many women’s groups and progressive people have campaigned for reform for decades. The women’s liberation movement and some ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    2 weeks ago

  • How to spot bogus science stories and read the news like a scientist
    Doug Specht, University of Westminster and Julio Gimenez, University of Westminster When fake news, misreporting and alternative facts are everywhere, reading the news can be a challenge. Not only is there plenty of misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and other scientific topics floating around social media, you also ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    2 weeks ago

  • Why New Zealand needs to continue decisive action to contain coronavirus
    Michael Baker, University of Otago and Nick Wilson, University of Otago With some of the toughest border restrictions and a newly-announced NZ$500 million boost to health services, New Zealand is among a small number of countries with a strategy to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. New Zealand is also fortunate in ...
    SciBlogsBy Public Health Expert
    2 weeks ago

  • Parliament and the pandemic II
    As expected, the government has introduced a sessional order to allow Parliament to operate during the pandemic. You can read it on the Order Paper here, but the short version is that questions and motions can be filed electronicly, select committees can work remotely, and the the Business Committee can ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 weeks ago

  • When a virus goes viral: pros and cons to the coronavirus spread on social media
    Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology; Daniel Angus, Queensland University of Technology; Timothy Graham, Queensland University of Technology, and Tobias R. Keller, Queensland University of Technology News and views about coronavirus has spread via social media in a way that no health emergency has done before. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    2 weeks ago

  • How to survive 14 days of self-isolation
    So you’ve recently returned from overseas, come into contact with someone who tested positive, got a bit of a dry cough yourself or perhaps just want to self isolate for 14 days to avoid other people who might have COVID-19. Here are a few tips and tricks to help get ...
    The Jackal
    2 weeks ago

  • Abortion Legislation Bill passes third reading
    Some fave speeches:     ...
    Boots TheoryBy Stephanie Rodgers
    2 weeks ago

  • Why Leadership Matters – More Than Anything.
    Our Good Fortune: Precisely because she has never been an ideologue (she calls herself a “pragmatic idealist”) Jacinda Ardern has a political nimbleness and spontaneity which, when infused with her exceptional emotional intelligence, produces spectacular demonstrations of leadership. Jacinda's empathic political personality contrasts sharply with the less-than-sunny ways of her ...
    Bowalley Road
    2 weeks ago

  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11, 2020
    46 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Global pattern of short‐term concurrent hot and dry extremes and its relationship to large‐scale climate indices Opposite spatial variability of climate change‐induced surface temperature trends due to soil and atmospheric moisture in tropical/subtropical dry and wet land regions ...
    Skeptical Science
    2 weeks ago

  • 68-51
    The Abortion Legislation Bill has just passed its third reading, 68-51. NZ First MPs bailed because their referendum amendment didn't pass, but there were plenty of MPs to provide a majority without them. The bill is a long way from perfect - most significantly, it subjects pregnant people who need ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 weeks ago

  • The ‘herd immunity’ route to fighting coronavirus is unethical and potentially dangerous
    As most of the world tries to suppress the coronavirus spread, some countries are going it alone – trying to manage the pandemic through so-called “herd immunity”. Herd immunity means letting a large number of people catch a disease, and hence develop immunity to it, to stop the virus spreading. ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    2 weeks ago

  • Eight new COVID-19 cases today. It’s no surprise when you look at some numbers
    So, as I sit at home with a very, very slight headache (i.e. not at work when I would otherwise be so), the now familiar figure of Ashley Bloomfield reports eight new confirmed cases of COVID-19  including two in Waikato. A surprise, given that we had just twelve yesterday? No. ...
    SciBlogsBy Marcus Wilson
    2 weeks ago

  • The WINZ Paradox versus the new COVID-19 Reality: Get real people, seriously…
    Many who advocated for, and voted for, the current Coalition – particularly those who voted Labour and the Green Party – expected to see a sea change in the reality of social services. A real, deep change of attitude, approach of process through which the system negotiates the difficult and ...
    exhALANtBy exhalantblog
    2 weeks ago

  • The Air New Zealand bailout
    Stuff reports that the government is going to have to throw $2 - 3 billion at Air new Zealand to get it through the pandemic. Good. While international routes are basicly closed, Air New Zealand is a strategic asset which is vital to our tourism industry, not to mentioning airfreight. ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 weeks ago

  • Why NZ’s tough coronavirus travel rules are crucial to protecting lives at home and across the Pac...
    New Zealand’s border restrictions will come with significant job and business losses in the tourism sector, both at home and in the Pacific. But the new travel rules are absolutely necessary to protect the health of New Zealanders and people right across Pacific Islands, because New Zealand is a gateway ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    2 weeks ago

  • The tiniest of teeth
    Back in early 2018, as a shoddy legal tactic to try and avoid the prisoner voting ban being formally declared inconsistent with the BORA by the Supreme Court, Justice Minister Andrew Little floated the idea of greater legal protection for human rights. When the Supreme Court case didn't go the ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 weeks ago

  • One simple, common factor to success against COVID-19
    Professor Philip Hill and Associate Professor James Ussher Most infectious diseases have an Achilles heel, the secret is to find it. The question is if we don’t have a drug or a vaccine for COVID-19, is there something else we can do to beat it? Some people estimate that, without ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    2 weeks ago

  • National should isolate Simon Bridges
    The Coalition Governments $12.1 billion economic package to help combat the financial effects of COVID-19 was generally well received across the board, even amongst many business leaders who would normally be critical of a Labour led Government.However there was one glaringly obvious exception, Simon Bridges. The so-called leader of the ...
    The Jackal
    2 weeks ago

  • How testing for Covid-19 works
    With confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand up to 12, many influential people are writing open letters and opinion pieces and doing press conferences asking why we aren’t pulling out all the stops and testing thousands of people a day like they are in South Korea. The thing is, ...
    SciBlogsBy Siouxsie Wiles
    2 weeks ago

  • The COVID-19 package and the limits of capitalism
    by Daphna Whitmore The willingness to put human life before business shows that sometimes capitalism is capable of suspending its relentless drive for profit. For a short time it can behave differently. Flatten the curve is the public health message since COVID-19 suddenly overwhelmed the hospital system in northern Italy. ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    2 weeks ago

Older posts

  • Week That Was: COVID-19 Alert Level 4
    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. ...
    Labour Blog
    2 days ago

  • SPEECH: Green Party Co-leader James Shaw – Ministerial statement on State of National Emergency an...
    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. ...
    Greens
    5 days ago

  • Winston Peters urging New Zealanders overseas to stay put
    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 ...
    NZ First News
    6 days ago

  • New Zealanders overseas encouraged to shelter in place
    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 ...
    NZ First Press Release
    6 days ago

  • Ground-breaking abortion law passes, giving NZers compassionate healthcare
    Ground-breaking law has passed that will decriminalise abortion and ensure women and pregnant people seeking abortions have compassionate healthcare. ...
    Greens
    2 weeks ago

  • Package supports Kiwis to put collective health first
    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. ...
    Greens
    2 weeks ago

  • Winston Peters: COVID-19 rescue package ‘more significant’ than any worldwide
    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 ...
    NZ First News
    2 weeks ago

  • Our response to COVID-19
    We know some 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. ...
    Labour Blog
    2 weeks ago

  • ‘Demerit Points System’ will address youth crime
    Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order A New Zealand First member’s bill drawn from the ballot today seeks to overhaul the youth justice system by instigating a system of demerit points for offences committed by young offenders. “The ‘Youth Justice Demerit Point System’ will put an end to ...
    NZ First Press Release
    3 weeks ago

  • Investment in kingfish farming
    Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund is investing $6 million in a land-based aquaculture pilot to see whether yellowtail kingfish can be commercially farmed in Northland, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. A recirculating land-based aquaculture system will be built and operated ...
    NZ First Press Release
    3 weeks ago

  • 1BT grants for Northland planting
    Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for Forestry Forestry Minister Shane Jones has announced two One Billion Trees programme grants of more than $1.18 million to help hapu and iwi in Northland restore whenua and moana. “Many communities around Aotearoa have benefited from One Billion Trees funding since the programme was launched ...
    NZ First Press Release
    3 weeks ago

  • New Zealand reaffirms support for Flight MH17 judicial process
    Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahead of the start of the criminal trial in the Netherlands on 9 March, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has reaffirmed the need to establish truth, accountability and justice for the downing of Flight MH17 ...
    NZ First Press Release
    3 weeks ago

  • PGF investment in green hydrogen
    Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister The Government is investing $19.9 million through the Provincial Growth Fund in a game-changing hydrogen energy facility in South Taranaki, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters announced today. “The development of alternative energy initiatives like this one is vital for the Taranaki region’s economy. ...
    NZ First Press Release
    3 weeks ago

  • Coronavirus support for Pacific
    Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Minister for Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand is partnering with countries in the Pacific to ensure they are prepared for, and able to respond to the global threat of Coronavirus (COVID-19). “There are currently no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the ...
    NZ First Press Release
    3 weeks ago

  • Green Party passes landmark law to ensure deaf and disabled voices heard equally in democracy
    Chlöe Swarbrick's Members Bill to support disabled general election candidates has passed into law. ...
    Greens
    3 weeks ago

  • Tariff concessions on COVID-19 related products
    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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Clarification of modification to wage subsidy scheme
    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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Face masks flowing to DHBs
    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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • COVID-19: Further steps to protect New Zealanders’ jobs
    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. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Tax relief for Mycoplasma Bovis farmers
    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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • $27 million for NGOs and community groups to continue providing essential services
    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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Statement on guilty plea of March 15 terrorist
    “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, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • COVID-19 updates
    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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Police numbers break through 10,000 mark
    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. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Urgent tax measures for economic recovery
    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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Further support for farmers and growers as drought persists
    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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • COVID-19: Temporary changes to Education Act
    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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar join NZ and Singapore in committing to keeping supply a...
    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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • COVID-19: Rent increase freeze and more protection for tenants
    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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Working together to protect businesses and workers
    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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • State of National Emergency declared to fight COVID-19
    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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Prime Minister’s statement on State of National Emergency and Epidemic Notice
    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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Deadline for domestic travel extended
    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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago

  • Mortgage holiday and business finance support schemes to cushion COVID impacts
    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 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago

  • Government working to keep air freight moving
    Minister of Transport Phil Twyford has today announced details of the Government’s support package to keep key air freight moving and ensure New Zealanders retain access to essential goods during the four-week level 4 lockdown. “The Government is working with airlines and air freight operators to ensure New Zealand’s key ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago

  • New Zealand moves to COVID-19 Alert Level 3, then Level 4 in 48 hours
    New Zealand moved up to COVID-19 Alert Level 3 – Restrict New Zealand to move up to COVID-19 Alert Level 4 – Eliminate, in 48 hours Two-staged approach to give people and businesses time to prepare  Level 3, from tomorrow Non-essential businesses must close All events and gatherings must be ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago

  • Prime Minister: COVID-19 Alert Level increased
    Good afternoon  The Cabinet met this morning to discuss our next actions in the fight against COVID-19.  Like the rest of the world, we are facing the potential for devastating impacts from this virus. But, through decisive action, and through working together, do we have a small window to get ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago

  • Govt takes significant economic decisions as NZ readies for Alert Level 4 in COVID-19 fight
    The Government is announcing significant further support for the economy, workers and businesses as the country unites to prepare for Alert Level 4 in the fight against COVID-19. Cabinet today agreed to remove the cap on the Government’s wage subsidy scheme, which will inject a further $4 billion into the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago

  • Govt backs RBNZ move to support economy with lower interest rates
    The Government is backing the Reserve Bank’s latest action to support the economy by reducing longer-term interest rates, meaning lower costs for businesses and mortgage holders, and a lower currency to help our exporters. The Minister of Finance has signed a memorandum of understanding and a letter of indemnity with ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Government statement on commercial cooperation during COVID-19
    The Government has asked the Commerce Commission to take account of the exceptional circumstances created by COVID-19 when monitoring business behaviour in coming weeks.   “The purpose of my request to the Commerce Commission is to make sure businesses can work together in ways that will allow them to provide ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • New Zealand temporarily closes diplomatic posts in Barbados and Myanmar due to COVID-19
    The New Zealand Government has temporarily closed its High Commission in Bridgetown, Barbados and its Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says.   “Due to the increasing scarcity of air links in and out of Bridgetown and Yangon, and the pressure COVID-19 is placing ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Supporting Māori communities and businesses through
    Associate Health and Whānau Ora Minister Peeni Henare has today announced the Government’s plan to support Māori communities and businesses in the face of COVID-19. “Our Government’s $12.1 billion economic package will help many Māori whānau, workers and businesses, whether it’s through wage subsidies, income support and worker redeployment, or ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Guidelines for hospitality establishments released
    The Government and the hospitality industry have worked together to produce guidelines to assist with managing and reducing transmission of COVID-19, Health Minister David Clark announced today.  The guidelines developed between the Government, Hospitality New Zealand and SkyCity Entertainment Group, set out how the new restrictions on physical distancing and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Nation steps up to COVID-19 Alert Level 2
    Four stage Alert System for COVID-19 announced New Zealand moved up to COVID-19 Alert Level 2 – Reduce Contact New Zealanders over 70 and those with certain medical conditions told to stay at home as much as they can to reduce risk of contact with the virus Workplaces to implement ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • PM Address – Covid-19 Update
    Kia ora koutou katoa I’m speaking directly to all New Zealanders today to give you as much certainty and clarity as we can as we fight Covid-19. Over the past few weeks, the world has changed. And it has changed very quickly. In February it would have seemed unimaginable to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • NZ and Singapore commit to keeping supply and trade links open, including on essential goods and med...
    New Zealand and Singapore have jointly committed to keep supply chains open and to 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 welcomed the commitment. “This is an important collective response, and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Joint Ministerial Statement by Singapore and New Zealand -Covid-19 situation
    JOINT MINISTERIAL STATEMENT BY SINGAPORE AND NEW ZEALAND AFFIRMING COMMITMENT TO ENSURING SUPPLY CHAIN CONNECTIVITY AMIDST THE COVID-19 SITUATION  The COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis.  As part of our collective response to combat COVID-19, Singapore and New Zealand are committed to maintaining open and connected supply chains. We ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Transit between Australia and New Zealand
    Travel restrictions, closing our border to almost all travelers came into force from 23:59 on Thursday 19 March 2020 (NZDT).  All airlines were informed of these restrictions before they came into force. Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says “The transit of passengers between Australia and New Zealand has been agreed upon and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • $100 million to redeploy workers
    The Government has allocated $100 million to help redeploy workers affected by the economic impact of COVID-19, with the hard-hit region of Gisborne-Tairāwhiti to be the first helped, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford, Forestry and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. Phil Twyford ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • More support for wood processing
    The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is ramping up support for Tairāwhiti’s wood processing sector to bolster the region’s economy at a time of heightened uncertainty, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. Following earlier announcements today of a regional support package for Tairāwhiti, Minister Jones has also announced a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Govt steps in to protect Air New Zealand
    The Coalition Government has stepped in to protect Air New Zealand with a significant financial deal that protects essential routes and allows the company to keep operating. The Government and Air New Zealand have agreed a debt funding agreement through commercial 24-month loan facilities of up to $900 million*. The ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Stronger border measures to protect NZers from COVID-19
    The Government has taken further measures to protect New Zealanders from the COVID-19 virus, effectively stopping all people from boarding a plane to New Zealand from 11:59pm today, except for returning New Zealanders, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today.  New Zealanders’ partners, legal guardians or any dependent children travelling with ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • Action on indoor gatherings and events to protect public health
    The Government has reinforced its commitment to protecting the health of New Zealanders from COVID-19 through the cancellation of indoor events with more than 100 people.  “Protecting the health of New Zealanders is our number one priority, and that means we need to reduce the risks associated with large gatherings,” ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • New Zealanders advised not to travel overseas
    The New Zealand Government is advising New Zealanders not to travel overseas due to COVID-19, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “We are raising our travel advice to the highest level: do not travel,” Mr Peters said. “This is the first time the New Zealand Government has advised New Zealanders ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • Govt announces aviation relief package
    Transport Minister Phil Twyford today outlined the first tranche of the $600 million aviation sector relief package announced earlier this week as part of the Government’s $12.1 billion COVID-19 economic response. The initial part of the aviation package aims to secure the operators of New Zealand’s aviation security system, and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

Older posts

  • ICYMI Business: Chorus and Stride hopeful
    ASB sees 6 percent GDP fall in 2020; Chorus, King Salmon and Stride reassure their profits are still on track; Augusta withdraws fund on rent relief fears; US stocks slide again; US jobs data looms ...
    Newsroom
    52 mins ago

  • The Bulletin: When are we getting out of lockdown?
    Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Conditions for leaving lockdown explored, nation’s first death from Covid-19 reported, and Australian govt continues to discriminate against NZers.When will the Covid-19 lockdown across New Zealand end? Short answer – when it’s actually safe to do so. Officially, the current state ...
    The SpinoffBy Alex Braae
    1 hour ago

  • Covid-19 live updates, March 30: Australia bans gatherings of more than two as it nears 4,000 cases
    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 ...
    The SpinoffBy The Spinoff
    1 hour ago

  • Coronavirus: PM backs families battling to keep seniors in their bubble
    People over 70 and those with underlying health conditions faced the lockdown four days before the rest of the country - but some of the elderly still aren't taking any notice. ...
    Radio NZ – political
    1 hour ago

  • A photo essay on the one thing to keep you sane in the lockdown: bookshelves
    Steve Braunias presents a photo essay of the one thing that New Zealanders are holding close to their hearts during the Lockdown: their bookshelves. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's bookcase at Premier House in Wellington. The photograph which she posted this weekend on her Instagram page reveals two novels by Elizabeth ...
    Newsroom
    2 hours ago

  • Glimmer of hope for Lake Alice victims
    Police start “initial” investigation into abuse at a notorious psychiatric hospital. David Williams reports The Government has missed a 90-day deadline for responding to a United Nations committee over torture at Lake Alice’s child and adolescent unit in the 1970s. However, in a move that might represent a glimmer of ...
    Newsroom
    2 hours ago

  • Emma Espiner: Sunday at Countdown
    Emma Espiner makes a slow and deliberate trip to the supermarket yesterday, where she finds we are approaching social distancing in a very New Zealand way  It took me three attempts to go to the supermarket. Two days ago I saw the cheerless conga line snaking around the car park ...
    Newsroom
    3 hours ago

  • Society’s ‘invisible bonds’ come into the light
    Dr Neal Curtis looks at all the points of implicit trust within society, and how Covid-19 is revealing how important this trust is As I stood in the queue to get into our local supermarket it was encouraging to see how carefully people were engaging in social distancing to minimise ...
    Newsroom
    3 hours ago

  • Practise, practise, practise: The Black Fern and the law
    From growing up on the remote East Cape to becoming a Black Fern and a lawyer, Ruahei Demant wants to show young Māori that anything is possible. In the long run, Ruahei Demant wants to be a sports lawyer. But in the short term, the Black Ferns first-five is juggling her ...
    Newsroom
    3 hours ago

  • Like being randomly pricked with a pin … and worse
    Having toughed it out alone with Covid-19 and survived, one Kiwi man learned the hard way how self-isolation really can save lives, writes Jill Herron Choosing to self-isolate early with only Sophie the spaniel as company led to a lonesome, rough ride through Covid-19 for a Christchurch asthmatic – but ...
    Newsroom
    3 hours ago

  • Love in the times of Covid-19
    As we begin what could become a long period of self-isolation, we encounter a dilemma. On the one hand, epidemiological research and recent global events show us the dangers of not responding swiftly to Covid-19. With community spread now within our shores, it is critical that we follow government orders ...
    Newsroom
    3 hours ago

  • The fears of community health and care workers
    Community health and care workers talk of their fear of infection  -  for themselves, their vulnerable clients and New Zealand Over the last few days, Newsroom has written several articles about the fact that thousands of home and community health care workers, who care for elderly, disabled and sick people, have ...
    Newsroom
    3 hours ago

  • Covid-19: Petitions launched demanding ‘hazard pay’ for essential workers
    Calls are growing for extra payment for those who continue to head out to work every day, including many on very low wages.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here.Two petitions have been circulating over the weekend ...
    The SpinoffBy Toby Manhire
    3 hours ago

  • History, hope, and Covid-19
    Covid-19 will transform society, just as the plague and smallpox transformed nations centuries ago. This time, however, we have something they didn’t, writes historian Ayelet Zoran-Rosen.Throughout history, epidemics and pandemics have been a threat to people and states. They strike societies with little or no notice, upend their social and ...
    The SpinoffBy Ayelet Zoran-Rosen
    3 hours ago

  • Christchurch, coronavirus and the ‘new normal’
    The Covid-19 epidemic is only the second time New Zealand has entered a state of national emergency. Newsroom’s Sam Sachdeva had first-hand experience of the first  - the devastating Christchurch earthquakes - and tries to make sense of how the two compare. There is so much that is new about New ...
    Newsroom
    3 hours ago

  • The virus as a Vector for power use switch
    In another of his interviews with key industry CEOs on their response to the Covid-19 crisis, Rod Oram talks with Simon Mackenzie of lines company Vector, who expects permanent changes in where and why people consume electricity even once the lockdown ends At mid-afternoon on Wednesday, nine hours before New ...
    Newsroom
    3 hours ago

  • Facebook hires AAP for NZ fact-checking
    In the lead-up to the general election, Facebook has launched a fact-checking service for New Zealand and the Pacific, Marc Daalder reports Facebook has contracted the Australian Associated Press' fact-checking division to serve as a certified agency to review content pertaining to New Zealand and the Pacific and rate its ...
    Newsroom
    3 hours ago

  • Govt’s ComCom Covid-19 directions illegal and irrational
    The Consumers' Union of Aotearoa has issued a challenge against Kris Faafoi's ministerial press statement which instructed the Commerce Commission to relax its standards for supermarkets and telecommunications companies[*]. ...
    Scoop politics
    4 hours ago

  • Public gatherings restricted to two people and all foreign investment proposals scrutinised, in new ...
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra No more than two people are to gather together in public spaces, and playgrounds will be closed in the latest restrictions in the coronavirus crisis. Meanwhile the government will now scrutinise all foreign investment proposals ...
    Evening ReportBy The Conversation
    7 hours ago

  • Give people and businesses money now they can pay back later (if and when they can)
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda Botterill, Professor in Australian Politics, University of Canberra The novel coronavirus sees Australia facing major unprecedented health and economic crises. The key to preventing a downward spiral of the economy is to avoid a collapse in incomes of newly laid-off workers ...
    Evening ReportBy The Conversation
    10 hours ago

  • How Ardern’s coronavirus kindness theme can become contagious
    The South African ‘Don’t Panic Buy’ jingle. Video: ENCA/PickNSave PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By David Robie, self-isolating in Auckland under New Zealand’s Covid-19 lockdown as part of a new Pacific Media Watch series. A South African celebrity jingle that has gone viral at the end of this week could easily ...
    Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
    12 hours ago

  • Government says Australia’s coronavirus curve may be flattening
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The federal government says there are signs the coronavirus curve may be flattening in Australia. Scott Morrison told a Sunday news conference the rate of increase in cases had fallen to about 13-15% a day ...
    Evening ReportBy The Conversation
    14 hours ago

  • Broadband and data usage surges as New Zealanders reach out
    Whether to connect with friends and colleagues, catch up on news, or stave off the boredom with bingeable TV, we’ve all been on our devices a lot more than normal.Vodafone has released a summary of its traffic stats for the past six days, which compares phone calls, broadband, and mobile ...
    The SpinoffBy Michael Andrew
    15 hours ago

  • Rushed Vaping Bill During Covid-19, Grossly Unfair
    New Zealand vaping representatives have joined forces to condemn the Government continuing with its plan to rush legislation through Parliament to regulate vaping despite the Covid-19 lockdown. The Vaping Trade Association of New Zealand (VTANZ), ...
    Scoop politics
    16 hours ago

  • Locked down and locked out in Australia
    Celebrated Kiwi author and expat Ian Brodie adds his voice to pleas for the Australian government to relax welfare rules and help more than half a million vulnerable New Zealanders, writes Jill Herron. Brothers in arms, we are not. That’s the call from award-winning Kiwi author, photographer and film tourism ...
    Newsroom
    16 hours ago

  • Review: Netflix’s addictive Tiger King will leave you feeling grubby for watching
    The new true crime documentary sensation shares many of the flaws of its own subject, writes Sam Brooks.Joe Exotic, the man at the centre of Netflix’s new documentary series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, is a star. There’s an unnerving charisma that burns through the tattooed eyeliner, the sickly ...
    The SpinoffBy Sam Brooks
    17 hours ago

  • NZ lockdown – Day 4: First death in New Zealand from coronavirus
    By RNZ News New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern have confirmed the country’s first death from the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Dr Bloomfield said New Zealand had its first death today, after a woman who was initially diagnosed with influenza died. The woman ...
    Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
    17 hours ago

  • Covid-19 in NZ – Sunday’s numbers charted
    How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. There were 63 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, down from the previous day's 83 new cases. Details of how many tests have been completed are now being released ...
    Newsroom
    17 hours ago

  • PNG’s Health Minister Jelta Wong ‘sidelines’ Kramer in virus briefings
    Papua New Guinea will have only one press release in the afternoons at 4:00pm daily to give updates on the Covid–19 in the country in a reshuffle of information briefings. Health Minister Jelta Wong announced this when visited the office of the PNG Nurses Association accompanied by his department’s ...
    Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
    18 hours ago

  • First Covid-19 death in New Zealand
    New Zealand has had its first death linked to Covid-19. The patient, a woman in her 70s on the West Coast, was admitted to hospital with what was thought to be influenza complicated by underlying health conditions. She was later diagnosed with Covid-19. The woman's family has asked for privacy ...
    Newsroom
    19 hours ago

  • President Lú-Olo declares Timor-Leste state of emergency over coronavirus
    Pacific Media Watch The President of Timor-Leste, Francisco Guterres Lú-Olo, has declared a state of emergency to enable the government to address the global Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. The state of emergency started last night at midnight and it will run until the night of April 26. Timor-Leste’s National Parliament ...
    Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
    19 hours ago

  • Cut Traffic Speeds To Reduce Pressure On Hospitals, Say Cycling Advocates
    It’s time to lower traffic speeds to reduce crashes and free up hospital beds, say cycling advocates. "This will reduce harm and ease the burden on our health workers and emergency services," says Patrick Morgan from Cycling Action Network. ...
    Scoop politics
    19 hours ago

  • Pacific coronavirus: French Polynesia Covid-19 tally rises to 34
    By RNZ Pacific The number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in French Polynesia has risen by four to 34. The update from the government said the hospitalisation rate is unchanged with one person in care. Last night a curfew was declared for the first time, forcing residents across ...
    Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
    20 hours ago

  • Ohura Medieval Market Day, and the fight to keep a small town standing
    It’s a town where people often feel the rest of the country has given up on them, in the middle of a region where every place feels isolated. So how did Ohura become an unlikely centre of Medieval Combat sports in New Zealand? Alex Braae spent three days there finding ...
    The SpinoffBy Alex Braae
    21 hours ago

  • Coronavirus – analysing the data makes you think we could do with more of it
    If you want to understand some of the thinking behind the policy response to the spread of coronavirus, you might want to read the paper from the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team, which is credited with accelerating the introduction of the current lockdown measures in the UK. The paper builds ...
    Point of OrderBy xtrdnry
    21 hours ago

  • The Pink Jumpsuit: An essay about the bubbles we live in
    ‘It seems like someone else’s dream of my past.’ For Emma Neale, the painting ‘Wanderlust’ by Dunedin artist Sharon Singer stirs memories of her childhood, and new understandings of guilt and forgiveness.There were gifts from my father when he came home from overseas trips. Love offerings; a bit like those ...
    The SpinoffBy Emma Neale
    21 hours ago

  • Māori Party delay launch to fight Covid-19
    The Māori Party is delaying the launch of its new-look party to fight Covid-19 in Māori communities. ...
    Radio NZ – political
    21 hours ago

  • Resuscitating a virus-ravaged economy – the answer lies in the soil and the exports it generates
    Westpac is forecasting 200,000 jobs will be lost in NZ as a result of the response to the coronavirus pandemic.  Chief economist Dominick Stephens estimates economic activity during the four week lock-down would decline by a third, despite the government and the Reserve Bank having “done a lot to calm ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    22 hours ago

  • Renée, the Lockdown Letters #3: Help yourself to my rhubarb
    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, Ōtaki author Renée.I have a wild tomato flopping all over the path down the back of the veg garden. I picked a ...
    The SpinoffBy Renée
    23 hours ago

  • Covid-19 live updates, March 29
    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 ...
    The SpinoffBy Toby Manhire
    1 day ago

  • Covid-19 scams: Here’s what you need to look out for
    Online criminals have been making the most of Covid-19 by preying on people’s fear and doubt. Here are some of the calling cards of these con artists.With most New Zealanders tucked up at home, digital devices are proving to be critical tools for staying connected with each other, making good ...
    The SpinoffBy Michael Andrew
    1 day ago

  • A visit to the supermarket
    Author and illustrator Sarah Laing draws a rite of passage in The Lockdown. Reprinted with the permission of the author from  Let Me Be Frank, Sarah Laing's blog devoted to "Reading. Writing. Parenting. Angsting." Let Me Be Frank is also the ...
    Newsroom
    1 day ago

  • Life on paws: How to deal with your pets during lockdown
    As New Zealand adjusts to a month of lockdown, many pet owners have questions about their furry friends. Alex Casey had a chat with the SPCA – here’s what she learned. AC: My cat had a disgusting abscess on his tail and now has to get his stitches out. ...
    The SpinoffBy Alex Casey
    1 day ago

  • No shops, no launches – but the NZ book scene is finding new ways to reach people under lockdown
    Books editor Catherine Woulfe takes an energising walk around the lockdown block of New Zealand books. When the bubbles settled over us they settled over the books too. Libraries were the first to shut down, then the physical bookstores and finally, the hammer blow: online sales and indeed any notion of ...
    The SpinoffBy The Spinoff Review of Books
    1 day ago

  • Fiji: A paradise under pandemic rules
    Convincing its citizens to take lockdown seriously will be a major challenge for Fiji’s government, writes Mandy De Vries. My husband, Howie, and I are lucky enough to live on the beautiful Coral Coast in Fiji. We started a tourism operation here two years ago which was, until recently, booming. ...
    Newsroom
    1 day ago

  • We’re better placed now than GFC or 1987
    New Zealand’s businesses and government are far better prepared for the rapidly escalating global health and economic crisis than they were for the Global Financial Crisis in 2008-09 or the stock market crash in 1987, says Rob Campbell, one of the country’s most experienced corporate leaders. “Executive teams and boards ...
    Newsroom
    1 day ago

  • Gavin Ellis: Time for adversity journalism
    Journalism commentator and former editor Gavin Ellis says media organisations play a vital role in keeping the community informed and, if possible, safe. They also have a crucial part to play in the maintenance of public order and morale, ­ just as they did in the 1940s. With the country in ...
    Newsroom
    1 day ago

  • We’ve been forgotten: midwife
    The country has millions of protective gowns, gloves and eyewear – midwives ask: Where are they? David Williams reports Two days into a national lockdown some midwives didn’t have any protective equipment, adding to concerns about safeguards for frontline health workers. On Friday, announcements were made by the Health Ministry ...
    Newsroom
    1 day ago

  • What lockdown could do for your business idea
    Covid-19 lockdown provides valuable time for planning a new business, as Dr Mary-Ellen Gordon explains You have a great idea for a business. You’ve been working to get it up and going. Then, just as you were starting to gain traction, the entire country and much of the rest of ...
    Newsroom
    1 day ago

  • Covid-19: A catch-22 for our most vulnerable
    Low-income workers whose jobs have disappeared thanks to Covid-19 will increasingly need to access benefit income. When this happens, however, they lose a tax credit for their children. As a direct result of the Covid-19 crisis, the Government has improved its rescue policies for business. We now need to see urgent ...
    Newsroom
    1 day ago

  • First boredom, then fear
    The strange energy of preparing for level four is over, now the dystopian reality has kicked in. Danyl Mclauchlan writes an essay about home life during a ‘cosy catastrophe’.We start by setting up our home workspaces, covering the kitchen table with such a thick mass of black cables and USB ...
    The SpinoffBy Danyl Mclauchlan
    1 day ago

  • All Australians will be able to access telehealth under new $1.1 billion coronavirus program
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison will unvieil on Sunday a $1.1 billion set of measures to make Medicare telehealth services generally available during the coronavirus pandemic and to support mental health, domestic violence and community services. The “Medicare ...
    Evening ReportBy The Conversation
    1 day ago

  • Covid-19 in NZ – Saturday’s numbers charted
    How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. There were 83 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, down from the previous day's 85 new cases. Details of how many tests have been completed are now bing released ...
    Newsroom
    1 day ago

  • NZ lockdown – Day 3: PM Ardern chats with followers on Facebook
    By RNZ News New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke to her followers on Facebook today from her office in Premier House. Her chat lasted about 15 minutes and garnered more than 310,000 views. She discussed wage subsidies for full-time and part-time workers, personal protection equipment (PPE) supplies for ...
    Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
    1 day ago

  • Effective coronavirus messages and fake news: Can we do better?
    COMMENTARY: By Bob Howarth (self-isolating in Australia after his latest trip to Timor-Leste) After days of web surfing for Covid-19 coronavirus news around the Asia-Pacific, two areas that appear to need improving in some countries are official communication and fact checking. So here’s my two cents, rupiah, kina or ...
    Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
    2 days ago

  • The best binges on NEON for these extraordinary times
    Whether it’s a robot uprising, a woman catfishing into the publishing world or a bunch of lovestruck islanders, NEON has you covered. Here’s what we’re bingeing on NEON for the foreseeable future.WestworldJust in time for lockdown, there’s a buzz-worthy show with endless discussion points coming out on a weekly basis. ...
    The SpinoffBy The Spinoff
    2 days ago

  • Covid-19: Who really needs to be wearing protective gear?
    There’s been a lot of talk about PPE of late – do we have enough, is it getting to the right people, and who exactly are the right people, anyway? Here’s the latest official advice.The Ministry of Health has now circulated updated advice on the appropriate use of PPE (personal ...
    The SpinoffBy Leonie Hayden
    2 days ago

  • The face of the Covid-19 response: Who is Ashley Bloomfield?
    A month ago, not many had heard of Ashley Bloomfield. But as the Covid-19 response has ramped up, the director-general of health has become a calm, reassuring presence in a time of uncertainty and fear. Rachel Thomas profiles him, in a piece first published on RNZ.Today, Saturday, director-general of health ...
    The SpinoffBy Rachel Thomas
    2 days ago

  • To fish or not to fish – that is the question
    Jim Kayes tests the waters of social media to see how people are coping with being told to avoid their favourite pastime. “There is something ridiculously exhilarating about catching a fish. The thrill might have faded for the salty angler, but for this rookie, the novice still snagging fish hooks ...
    Newsroom
    2 days ago

  • New PPE plan leaves community care workers without masks
    The Government yesterday reassured us there are plenty of masks for front line staff dealing with the public. Yet it seems home care workers, who provide up-close personal care for tens of thousands of people every day, won’t be given them. Yesterday two documents hit my inbox. One was a ...
    Newsroom
    2 days ago

  • Don’t fret, folks – Hone’s sweet with the mayor so long as he sets up checkpoints and doesn’...
    Hobson’s Choice spokesman Don Brash (a former leader of the National and ACT Parties) is not alone in challenging the justification for tribes claiming to have closed roads to protect their people against Covid. Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters – his remarks apparently ignored by ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    2 days ago

  • Manaaki Key For Getting Though COVID-19
    Preliminary results from a survey investigating how well-equipped Māori whānau in the South Island are to stay at home for extended periods show that the majority are prepared to manage their short-term needs, but have increasing anxiety about ...
    Scoop politics
    2 days ago

  • Parliamentary Monitoring And Reporting Is Critical In Dealing With COVID-19 Responses
    "The risk of fraud and corruption is compounded during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. When quick decisions are necessary to move vast amounts of resources, bribery, fraud and corruption abound," says Suzanne Snively, Chair of Transparency International ...
    Scoop politics
    2 days ago

  • Pacific coronavirus: Guam still region’s hot spot with 51 plus cases
    By RNZ Pacific Guam remains the Pacific pandemic hot spot with the number of Covid-19 coronavirus cases climbing above 50. On Friday six people tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total to 51. Thirteen of the cases are currently in hospital. READ MORE: Al Jazeera live updates – ...
    Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
    2 days ago

  • Outrage after Indonesian politicians get priority testing for Covid-19
    By Mong Palatino Many Indonesian internet users have expressed anger over the decision of the House of Representatives (DPR) to test its 575 members for Covid-19. Indonesia has a population of more than 260 million. As of today, the country has 913 Covid-19 positive cases with 87 deaths. But ...
    Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
    2 days ago

  • Latest numbers: 83 new cases, two in ICU
    New Zealand has 78 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and five probable cases, the Government has announced today, taking the total to 451. Civil Defence Emergency Management director Sarah Stuart-Black said 12 people are in hospital and two are in intensive care, including one on a ventilator. Twelve are in ...
    Newsroom
    2 days ago

  • Covid-19: Total tops 450
    New Zealand has 78 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and five probable cases, the Government has announced today, taking the total to 451. Civil Defence Emergency Management director Sarah Stuart-Black said 12 people are in hospital and two are in intensive care, including one on a ventilator. Twelve are in ...
    Newsroom
    2 days ago

  • ‘We’re ready,’ says NCD chief Parkop with Port Moresby locked down
    By Michelle Steven in Port MoresbyPacific New Guinea’s National Capital City Covid-19 Task Force team is preparing ahead should there be a possible coronavirus case during the 14-day lockdown. NCD Governor Powes Parkop told a media conference that the capital city would be in total lockdown with no public ...
    Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
    2 days ago

  • Automatic 3-month Visa Extension Granted For Every Migrant
    Leading immigration lawyer Aaron Martin assesses the impact of the announcement of the epidemic notice for migrants. Immigration New Zealand announced that the government epidemic management notice relating to immigration matters comes into effect on 2 ...
    Scoop politics
    2 days ago

  • Government rules magazines and community newspapers aren’t an essential service
    Just a tiny handful of print publications will continue through the lockdown, with only daily newspapers specifically identified as being able to continue. Duncan Greive spoke to publishers of magazines and community newspapers about the impact on them and their communities.Publishers of magazines and community newspapers are reeling, after a ...
    The SpinoffBy Duncan Greive
    2 days ago

  • Magazines and community papers aren’t an essential service, leaving some small towns and elderly w...
    Just a tiny handful of print publications will continue through the lockdown, with only daily newspapers specifically identified as being able to continue. Duncan Greive spoke to publishers of magazines and community newspapers about the impact on them and their communities.Publishers of magazines and community newspapers are reeling, after a ...
    The SpinoffBy Duncan Greive
    2 days ago

  • Coronavirus: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says no change in Australia’s stance to New Zealand...
    Jacinda Ardern has pleaded with the Australian Prime Minister to make an exception to the rule that bars many of the 650,000 New Zealanders there from receiving a benefit. ...
    Radio NZ – political
    2 days ago

  • Morgan Godfery, The Lockdown Letters #2: I’m never sleeping
    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, political commentator and essayist Morgan Godfery.I’M TWEETING AT 2AM.The responsible part of my brain is sending sleep signals. Inconvenient yawns. The ...
    The SpinoffBy Morgan Godfery
    2 days ago

  • A review of Attraction, the road trip novel we need right now
    Take a vicarious roadie via Attraction, the novel by Ruby Porter that was longlisted for the country’s biggest fiction prize. Released last year, it’s now a slightly eerie snapshot of Aotearoa as we were. Attraction is a New Zealand road trip novel with a heavy dose of postcolonial guilt. Whitewashing, cultural ...
    The SpinoffBy Emma Gattey
    2 days ago

  • Iwi do their thing: helping those in need
    Iwi everywhere put support plans into action, focusing on their  kaumātua, writes Kayne Ngātokowhā Peters. Iwi are ramping up support services to assist their people in need following the closure of Ministry of Social Development offices and the move to online and phone assistance from Work and Income. Central North Island ...
    Newsroom
    2 days ago

Older posts