A must read – Andrew Gunn’s brilliant satire on Mike Hosking in the Dominion Post. It’s worth reading over and over and over again. Andrew Gunn will not be on Hosking’s invitation to a barbecue at his mansion any time soon.
It's probably a good thing that Nostradumbass can't see far enough to realise he needs to not piss off the military. Especially if he's got any ideas of staying on after the voters reject him or he reaches the end of the time allowed by the constitution.
I would like to know who he did cc to on his email. Apparently it was a lot (over 10) he would have known his job was on the line and some people would not of wanted to make the hard call like he did.
Not sure if Trump will want him charged with something. Hope that Captain Crozier does not lose his military severance.
Everyone wants a hero in a time of crisis. But while Cuomo has certainly been willing to play the part (convincingly enough that a few folks even want him to run for president), what he’s done away from the cameras is telling: using $2/hour prison labor to rebottle hand sanitizer, refusing to release elderly and sick incarcerated persons from Riker’s Island, and slashing Medicaid rather than raising taxes on the 0.01 wealthiest New Yorkers. These aren’t the sorts of measures that would save lives in this crucial moment, and they certainly won’t prevent future crises from happening.
Hmmm, you have been commenting here for over 3 years.
When you viewing the content that you’re citing/quoting, go to the address bar at the top and highlight the address (AKA URL, it usually starts with “https://***** “), copy it, and paste it into your comment.
A question: for a while there was talk of a UBI being introduced – even temporarily – to ease people through this crisis. That talk seems to have subsided.
Setting aside whether people think it's a good or a bad idea, has anyone heard anything more on this? Or was it more of a twiteratti idea, floated by some and quickly lost sight of?
Nothing that I have seen. But I’d also say that there really isn’t and hasn’t been enough time to plan it even if it was on the table. To implement it would months if not years just in the software alone.
For what it happening now, you’re limited to existing channels.
Working for families is specific to a group. It has rules and a database attached to implement it.
What is the system for people who are not in working for families? Because WFF is a specific kind of tax code with a system and data store created specifically for the set of rules for that.
Remember that working for families took more than a year to implement on the old computer, and anecdotally almost as long on the new system.
They probably won’t have as much internal programming wiring to do. But they still have to get all of the other supporting systems in place. Then they have to load millions of data points into the system.
Basically plan on it taking at least a year once the policy is laid down. To do anything less is essentially guaranteed to make it fail.
Not to mention that there would have to be a pretty strong political debate. Personally I remain quite unconvinced that a UBI is a particularly good system for delivering any kind of useful outcome, and I have been reading about mutually contradictory versions here for a decade.
Sounds more like a religious slogan than something that is implementable into something useful for the whole of our society.
I’m also picking that the announcement of any specific UBI proposal will immediately trigger a war between the supporters of it because no proposal is going to satisfy any of its supporters. And that is before the skeptics get to look at it.
Supposedly START is faster to update than FIRST was, but a key difference here would be that the database is everyone or all natural persons, not an application process for a subset with specific criteria.
Agree that long term UBI needs a different debate to a short term grant. Perhaps a simpler option then is to increase benefits and other support so unemployment doesn't hurt so much.
Another option would be to hand out some one-off grants. That could be managed through income tax refunds – just make the minimum refund $1000, or $1000 for income < a figure TBD.
Agree that long term UBI needs a different debate to a short term grant. Perhaps a simpler option then is to increase benefits and other support so unemployment doesn't hurt so much.
That would be my pick – an existing channel.
That could be managed through income tax refunds..
That really isn't an existing channel.
I haven't filed a income tax statement in more than two decades. I haven't needed to. PAYE, witholding taxes, and these days even the close balance between costs and revenue on my rented out apartment haven't required me to.
Every 2-3 years I rough cut my possible tax return as an exercise and it winds up with trivial amounts that the government would have to return to me. I write it off as just another donation like – well – my taxes.
It simply isn't even worth my time to calculate or dispute or even to try to figure out how to avoid with all of the aggravating fiddling. If I want to change tax systems, I'll usually just advocate for it rather than waste the tax departments time.
While I'm sure that the IRD is aware of a few of my bank accounts, they have no idea of where to place refunds. They certainly don't have a tax refund process for a whole swath of people like me who are usually reasonably well paid, don't have significiant periods of unemployment, and who haven't felt that it is worth their time wrangling fewer taxes through refunds.
There will also be a whole range of people who don’t file returns because their income is too low to make it worthwhile.
Imagine having to try to build a refund system for what will be (conservatively) half of the working population who never file returns nor receive refunds.
Kiwisaver would probably be a wider spread – but what good does sticking refunds in there do for the day-to-day.
As of last year, all taxpayers receive a personal tax summary (income statement is the legal term) if they are not IR3 filers, so the mechanism is there now to do that if government really wants to. If you didn't get a refund or a bill, either IRD don't have a current bank a/c (but Kiwisaver transfers from providers to IRD normally include a standard bank a/c number, so they might have that) or you owed them <$20 so it was written off automatically.
Couple that with an advertising campaign, and it might work. Probably the easiest method would be to increase the Independent Earner Tax Credit since that already exists, so income parameters can be adjusted, rather than having to add something new to the system.
Probably easier to just pay higher benefits/TAS though.
Considering what I view as pointed minority faux outrage over example setting, bike rides, bubble bursting and not following advice, and noting the increase of insulting bad language being used here over the past week, like calling others wankers, twats and cunts, maybe a stronger adherence to the edict of be kinder to each other may be in order.
It appears the tests have a problem with producing a lot of false negatives. Possibly especially among the asymptomatic. So while they are still resource constrained and not yet even testing all those presenting with symptoms, it's easy to see how it's not considered worthwhile testing those without symptoms.
Conventional diagnostic tests for the novel coronavirus may give false-negative results about 30% of the time, meaning people with an active COVID-19 infection still test negative for the disease, according to news reports.
…
In one scenario, the initial swab sample may not always collect enough genetic material to provide an accurate test. This problem may arise more often in patients who do not show many symptoms at the time of their test, the Globe reported. In addition, the standard nasopharyngeal swab, wherein a long instrument is wriggled and rotated to the very back of the nasal cavity, can be both difficult for clinicians to perform and uncomfortable for patients to endure, Krumholz wrote.
Yup. The tests developed in Germany ain't flash on the false negative front. But they're 100% accurate on the positive result side.
By the reasoning you present, then trace, track and test ain't gonna happen, and if there's no testing, then Shelter in Place ain't going to have the desired outcome and we'll wind up in the same place as we would have with a Social Distancing strategy. (ie – ~ 70% infection rate)
So the question comes down to whether people who are asymptomatic but worried are more likely to adequately self isolate than 30% who are asymptomatic but infected and received an all-clear.
I believe the result of a negative is relayed as "not found" (some such wording at any rate) – this from a friend who was tested. So not an unequivocal "all clear".
False negatives are a problem for screening tests because people treat it like an all-clear. False positives are a problem for diagnostic tests because they result in unnecessary treatment.
Copy that. Your friend is typical of literally every person ever tested, therefore you must be correct. Yay.
And there are very few tests with zero false positives. I'm sure you checked out the ROC charts on the German test before making that claim, though, so yay for you again.
I couldn't say whether they are typical or atypical. I can only relay their reaction to being given a test result that was worded in such a way as to preserved a measure of uncertainty in their mind.
On the German test, I'm simply repeating what Michael Osterholm (infectious disease epidemiologist, regents professor, and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. ) has said regards its sensitivity – given his field of expertise I thought it reasonable enough to take him at his word, but hey…
As for your comment about the German test, what was the good professor's exact comment? ISTR Roche was touting 95% accuracy, not perfection. Or was Osterholm talking about some other German-developed testing protocol?
So the question comes down to whether people who are asymptomatic but worried are more likely to adequately self isolate than 30% who are asymptomatic but infected and received an all-clear.
The bit I think is lacking is that people living in the same house should be physically distancing within the household if one of them has tested positive. But I don't think that is what is happening? It's a problem if any of them are going out to work.
I think there are guides on physically distancing from flatmates etc, but yeah – if someone in your house is infected, probably don't go to work would be my thinking. No matter what you do, you could well end up infecting other essential workers.
I would like to be more optimistic but I cannot be at this stage. It is the pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic cases as well as the false negative cases and the people not properly isolating who have it that bothers me.
A depiction of a silly person showing their economic model doesn't work. It works how it's supposed to work, how the market has determined it works.
Somewhere down the line when she finds it's not working in the way she wants it to be working she's demanding it change to operate in a different way. Of course in the current awful situation no-one's going to tell her to get off the grass especially the guy she's interviewing. She doesn't get it and even if she were told she probably still wouldn't get it.
For his trouble of doing what life has taught him to do, make money, he's called a traitor. Apparently though patriotism is a big thing, the most important thing. How did that go for career civil servants in the impeachment thing when patriotism had them coming forward looking after their country? This silly woman was probably calling them traitors too.
They don't want globalisation, they want to be self-sufficient. They want American companies operating off-shore making millions through cheap labour and also want to export stuff to other countries. Why don't they put a wall around the whole place? That'll stop masks escaping.
Never been one for Bill Maher. But it has been interesting watching chat shows without the studio audience, and the subtle changes to delivery that entails. The Daily Show is doing some interesting stuff, and John Oliver is largely doing the usual lol.
Not sure what 'NZ widlife' could be road kill, except possibly kiwi in parts of Northland where the numbers have increased with effective predator control recently. The only roadkill on NZ roads are introduced mammals like possums, rabbits and hedgehogs. That means they are probably surviving more and with probably next to no predator control being done, could be an environmental disaster in the making. Noticed the seagulls were looking hungry up at Waitangi the last week with no tourists chucking them chips or sandwichs to eat. The one place that will definitely benefit by hugely reduced traffic will be in Oz where some roads are normally splattered by dead wombats, wallabies, echidnas etc.!
Yes,I did. It's somewhat of a hodgepodge of an article, but the general message is that nature is getting a bit of a reprieve in may places in varied ways, even the climate. NZ's a bit of a outlier because of the pressure from non-native species. I would have thought that marine life generally will benefit from far fewer amateur fishers and boaties out on the water.
Ok, I couldn’t quite tell from your previous comment @ 19.1 if you had read it.
For example, the opening paragraph of the article is:
Scientists are expecting subtle changes in New Zealand wildlife behaviour during these extraordinary times but are frustrated that fieldwork is banned and they can only observe within their bubbles. [my italics]
See the connection to what I quoted @ 19?
In national parks and other conservation areas, human presence is usually low, not including the Great Walks and the like. But 1080 operations have reportedly ceased and there will be knock-on effects from this.
This relates to the “predator control” and the “environmental disaster in the making” in NZ that you mentioned @ 19.1.
The piece also touches on the balance between native and non-native species here in NZ in the last two paragraphs.
Taken together, it is a large-scale ‘experiment’ without observers in the field. I think this could be a missed opportunity to learn from because the ‘experiment’ will hopefully be short-lived.
Having spoken to the culpability of the CCP frequently, I'm going to balance the books with Joe Rogan talking with Eric Weinstein on what is happening in the USA. I've started the link at 14:22 and the next 40 min is probably the guts of it:
These are obviously concerning reports but it also poses the question…why do countries like the US, France Germany and Canada need to import masks from China?
indeed…i can understand that cost may be a factor in using chinese supply but find it difficult to believe that advanced economies arnt capable of their own production especially given we appear to have the capability here
Grateful here in NZ small businesses actually got the govt subsidies. This didn't happen in the US for the most part which all but guarantees widespread failures.
We don't know how lucky we are.
Does the disclosure of what companies received money breach privacy?
World count of approximately 10,000,000 cases by mid April. We are blessed to have a government that acted comparatively early, although there is a desperate need for harsh consequences.
I am trying to not look forward more than a day about the distress Covid-19 is causing. Some governments are just not prepared. The situation has become cruel in Ecuador, dead left out in the street and dead in the homes. I knew this would occur in countries with few resources.
I personally would have chosen Nandy. Maybe next time.
Already those who rage-quit the party when Corbyn was leader are starting to come crawling back, expecting to just pick up where they left off in 2015.
I just remembered your good links ecomaori and I will remember to keep checking to see what music you have heard lately. So I hope you will keep putting it up. Thanks. Kia ora ongoing.
You are reporting positives – gives me a lift, so thanks for telling about the good.
I think that the road sight in Te Taitokerau should be examined by archaeological people before any roads are built. Why are they doing that while the lock down is in place Shady.
I think that the parents should not stress to much if there tamariki are not receiving education resources.
Water problems in Auckland That's part of global warming predictions.
If a business person was running the country he would have waited till the Rinos had run Aotearoa over before making big moves that has big financial effects there way of thinking is money before humanity.
You can't help but try and politicise the virus issue. We have to put people's lives first.
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 29 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 28 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
The virus may scear you – but capitalism's latest round of failure and ever growing monopolies should make you mad.
Do you mean 'scare' or 'scar'?
And by 'mad' to you mean insane, or angry?
And which monopolies are you speaking of?
My poor spelling skills again – scare.
angry
🙂
all of the meanings work, though, in that context. 🙂
Which failures and monopolies are you thinking of in particular ?
Have you got your head in the clouds Stunned Mullet?
No one is unemployed.
There is no bailout
Everything is fine
You must have misunderstood my question… or I misunderstood what you were trying to say.
I thought there were some particular monopolies you were concerned about ?
…and not sure how capitalism or indeed any particular 'ism' is to blame for the current crisis.
Nothing is wrong in Stunned Mullets world.
I never pointed our particulars.
You seem to be avoiding the economic crisis for some odd reason, you know 600 people lost their jobs today.
That had nothing to do with the economic structure we live under ah Stunned Mullet??!?
A must read – Andrew Gunn’s brilliant satire on Mike Hosking in the Dominion Post. It’s worth reading over and over and over again. Andrew Gunn will not be on Hosking’s invitation to a barbecue at his mansion any time soon.
Link?
The Mike Hoskin satire-its actually David Slack if this is the same one. I love the way they find it necessary to tell you it is satire at the end.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/inspire-me/120717536/mike-hosking-loves-a-bath-bomb?fbclid=IwAR0Dh-oBmWmBooW9sQiXC95uoK57d8dLDELtYgA8wmzkfDQEsPV0bKtHuyY
This is probably the one Reality meant: https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-dominion-post/20200404/281904480286046 Was on Stuff this morning but must have been too hot for them.
Even better than the one I posted. Superb
Probably show up on Stuff later.
Mutiny in the mking.
https://twitter.com/AmberSmithUSA/status/1246052144115077120
It's probably a good thing that Nostradumbass can't see far enough to realise he needs to not piss off the military. Especially if he's got any ideas of staying on after the voters reject him or he reaches the end of the time allowed by the constitution.
Yep and US has just passed 30k new cases today!!!
I would like to know who he did cc to on his email. Apparently it was a lot (over 10) he would have known his job was on the line and some people would not of wanted to make the hard call like he did.
Not sure if Trump will want him charged with something. Hope that Captain Crozier does not lose his military severance.
Fighting for every life.
/
Everyone wants a hero in a time of crisis. But while Cuomo has certainly been willing to play the part (convincingly enough that a few folks even want him to run for president), what he’s done away from the cameras is telling: using $2/hour prison labor to rebottle hand sanitizer, refusing to release elderly and sick incarcerated persons from Riker’s Island, and slashing Medicaid rather than raising taxes on the 0.01 wealthiest New Yorkers. These aren’t the sorts of measures that would save lives in this crucial moment, and they certainly won’t prevent future crises from happening.
But hey, the PowerPoints are great.
https://www.theroot.com/andrew-cuomo-is-trash-1842641091?
I believe that I pointed out Coumo's austerity policies not long after he was first elected as New York governor about a decade ago.
Bearded Git – not the same one. I don’t know if Andrew Gunn’s is on Stuff and I don’t know how to do a link.
Just google it that's how I found it
No worries Reality-see above.
Hmmm, you have been commenting here for over 3 years.
When you viewing the content that you’re citing/quoting, go to the address bar at the top and highlight the address (AKA URL, it usually starts with “https://***** “), copy it, and paste it into your comment.
Kinsley gaffe: when a politician tells the truth – some obvious truth he isn't supposed to say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ted2j6KxMf0
A question: for a while there was talk of a UBI being introduced – even temporarily – to ease people through this crisis. That talk seems to have subsided.
Setting aside whether people think it's a good or a bad idea, has anyone heard anything more on this? Or was it more of a twiteratti idea, floated by some and quickly lost sight of?
It already has been to a large extent.
To all the contractors sole traders, business employees and at risk people who cannot work at present.
Nothing that I have seen. But I’d also say that there really isn’t and hasn’t been enough time to plan it even if it was on the table. To implement it would months if not years just in the software alone.
For what it happening now, you’re limited to existing channels.
To implement it would months if not years just in the software alone.
Especially when software designers forget they have an edit function,to resolve mostly duplicated posts.
IRD could pay it easily – they already pay working for families, so they have the system for it
Yep , where theres a will theres a way …. so it appears no will.
Not the same… And rather too simplistic.
Working for families is specific to a group. It has rules and a database attached to implement it.
What is the system for people who are not in working for families? Because WFF is a specific kind of tax code with a system and data store created specifically for the set of rules for that.
Remember that working for families took more than a year to implement on the old computer, and anecdotally almost as long on the new system.
They probably won’t have as much internal programming wiring to do. But they still have to get all of the other supporting systems in place. Then they have to load millions of data points into the system.
Basically plan on it taking at least a year once the policy is laid down. To do anything less is essentially guaranteed to make it fail.
Not to mention that there would have to be a pretty strong political debate. Personally I remain quite unconvinced that a UBI is a particularly good system for delivering any kind of useful outcome, and I have been reading about mutually contradictory versions here for a decade.
Sounds more like a religious slogan than something that is implementable into something useful for the whole of our society.
I’m also picking that the announcement of any specific UBI proposal will immediately trigger a war between the supporters of it because no proposal is going to satisfy any of its supporters. And that is before the skeptics get to look at it.
Supposedly START is faster to update than FIRST was, but a key difference here would be that the database is everyone or all natural persons, not an application process for a subset with specific criteria.
Agree that long term UBI needs a different debate to a short term grant. Perhaps a simpler option then is to increase benefits and other support so unemployment doesn't hurt so much.
Another option would be to hand out some one-off grants. That could be managed through income tax refunds – just make the minimum refund $1000, or $1000 for income < a figure TBD.
That would be my pick – an existing channel.
That really isn't an existing channel.
I haven't filed a income tax statement in more than two decades. I haven't needed to. PAYE, witholding taxes, and these days even the close balance between costs and revenue on my rented out apartment haven't required me to.
Every 2-3 years I rough cut my possible tax return as an exercise and it winds up with trivial amounts that the government would have to return to me. I write it off as just another donation like – well – my taxes.
It simply isn't even worth my time to calculate or dispute or even to try to figure out how to avoid with all of the aggravating fiddling. If I want to change tax systems, I'll usually just advocate for it rather than waste the tax departments time.
While I'm sure that the IRD is aware of a few of my bank accounts, they have no idea of where to place refunds. They certainly don't have a tax refund process for a whole swath of people like me who are usually reasonably well paid, don't have significiant periods of unemployment, and who haven't felt that it is worth their time wrangling fewer taxes through refunds.
There will also be a whole range of people who don’t file returns because their income is too low to make it worthwhile.
Imagine having to try to build a refund system for what will be (conservatively) half of the working population who never file returns nor receive refunds.
Kiwisaver would probably be a wider spread – but what good does sticking refunds in there do for the day-to-day.
As of last year, all taxpayers receive a personal tax summary (income statement is the legal term) if they are not IR3 filers, so the mechanism is there now to do that if government really wants to. If you didn't get a refund or a bill, either IRD don't have a current bank a/c (but Kiwisaver transfers from providers to IRD normally include a standard bank a/c number, so they might have that) or you owed them <$20 so it was written off automatically.
Couple that with an advertising campaign, and it might work. Probably the easiest method would be to increase the Independent Earner Tax Credit since that already exists, so income parameters can be adjusted, rather than having to add something new to the system.
Probably easier to just pay higher benefits/TAS though.
Robertson said that it was being considered. I'm picking that we will hear more about it later on.
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__4_fCgjI74&feature=youtu.be
RIP Bill Withers, he had an incredible story. If you haven’t watched this doc yet It's well worth the watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdizl63aols
Considering what I view as pointed minority faux outrage over example setting, bike rides, bubble bursting and not following advice, and noting the increase of insulting bad language being used here over the past week, like calling others wankers, twats and cunts, maybe a stronger adherence to the edict of be kinder to each other may be in order.
Profiles in Leadership. If a self-culling base is what you're after.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-coronavirus-social-distancing-golf_n_5e87c167c5b6cc1e47754e1a
Yeah…
Her son, who lives in a flat with five others, has been self-isolating in a unit next door since he fell sick.
To her shock, none of his flatmates were required to be tested as no one had shown any flu-like symptoms, she said.
"I was just surprised [that's the advice] when he's been living with them all this time and especially when they keep saying: 'Test, test, test'.
But you know what?
"There is no point testing people who don't have symptoms, who are unlikely to have the illness." – David Clark.
It appears the tests have a problem with producing a lot of false negatives. Possibly especially among the asymptomatic. So while they are still resource constrained and not yet even testing all those presenting with symptoms, it's easy to see how it's not considered worthwhile testing those without symptoms.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/false-negative-coronavirus-test-accuracy-rates-worry-experts-report-2020-4?r=US&IR=T
Yup. The tests developed in Germany ain't flash on the false negative front. But they're 100% accurate on the positive result side.
By the reasoning you present, then trace, track and test ain't gonna happen, and if there's no testing, then Shelter in Place ain't going to have the desired outcome and we'll wind up in the same place as we would have with a Social Distancing strategy. (ie – ~ 70% infection rate)
So the question comes down to whether people who are asymptomatic but worried are more likely to adequately self isolate than 30% who are asymptomatic but infected and received an all-clear.
I believe the result of a negative is relayed as "not found" (some such wording at any rate) – this from a friend who was tested. So not an unequivocal "all clear".
Point still stands.
False negatives are a problem for screening tests because people treat it like an all-clear. False positives are a problem for diagnostic tests because they result in unnecessary treatment.
No. My friend isn't treating it as an "all clear". And there are no false positives with the tests being used that were developed in Germany.
Copy that. Your friend is typical of literally every person ever tested, therefore you must be correct. Yay.
And there are very few tests with zero false positives. I'm sure you checked out the ROC charts on the German test before making that claim, though, so yay for you again.
I couldn't say whether they are typical or atypical. I can only relay their reaction to being given a test result that was worded in such a way as to preserved a measure of uncertainty in their mind.
On the German test, I'm simply repeating what Michael Osterholm (infectious disease epidemiologist, regents professor, and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. ) has said regards its sensitivity – given his field of expertise I thought it reasonable enough to take him at his word, but hey…
So your anecdata is irrelevant.
As for your comment about the German test, what was the good professor's exact comment? ISTR Roche was touting 95% accuracy, not perfection. Or was Osterholm talking about some other German-developed testing protocol?
The bit I think is lacking is that people living in the same house should be physically distancing within the household if one of them has tested positive. But I don't think that is what is happening? It's a problem if any of them are going out to work.
I think there are guides on physically distancing from flatmates etc, but yeah – if someone in your house is infected, probably don't go to work would be my thinking. No matter what you do, you could well end up infecting other essential workers.
Screening test vs diagnostic test.
Which also explains why the govt was saying they have sufficient tests, but people are complaining they didn't get tested.
Evidence that the lockdown is working:
1) As per the latest Bloomfield Briefing, the curve is flattening. Very early signs, but that's what we're aiming for, and it's starting to happen.
2) The Spin-Off reports on our reduced contact
Well done New Zealand. Let's keep it up.
And Australia…
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/2020/apr/01/is-australia-flattening-the-coronavirus-curve-look-at-the-charts-
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-australia/australia-gives-free-childcare-as-coronavirus-case-curve-flattens-idUSKBN21J73M
I would like to be more optimistic but I cannot be at this stage. It is the pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic cases as well as the false negative cases and the people not properly isolating who have it that bothers me.
Indeed, neither the room nor the time for complacency!
A depiction of a silly person showing their economic model doesn't work. It works how it's supposed to work, how the market has determined it works.
Somewhere down the line when she finds it's not working in the way she wants it to be working she's demanding it change to operate in a different way. Of course in the current awful situation no-one's going to tell her to get off the grass especially the guy she's interviewing. She doesn't get it and even if she were told she probably still wouldn't get it.
For his trouble of doing what life has taught him to do, make money, he's called a traitor. Apparently though patriotism is a big thing, the most important thing. How did that go for career civil servants in the impeachment thing when patriotism had them coming forward looking after their country? This silly woman was probably calling them traitors too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-Wi4yWltXs
They don't want globalisation, they want to be self-sufficient. They want American companies operating off-shore making millions through cheap labour and also want to export stuff to other countries. Why don't they put a wall around the whole place? That'll stop masks escaping.
Good to know Bill Maher will be back on screen tonight (our time).
Looks like a good remote panel line up.
Guests will include Willie Nelson, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, author Max Brooks, Seth MacFarlane and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
Never been one for Bill Maher. But it has been interesting watching chat shows without the studio audience, and the subtle changes to delivery that entails. The Daily Show is doing some interesting stuff, and John Oliver is largely doing the usual lol.
Just remember when you buy from Amazon they get to do this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyLT_NUFJN8&ab_channel=TheJimmyDoreShow
heh
https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow/status/1246146713523453957
Some mothers do have em:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12322473
Coronavirus: What's happening to NZ wildlife when humans locked down
https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/120759079/coronavirus-whats-happening-to-nz-wildlife-when-humans-locked-down
Not sure what 'NZ widlife' could be road kill, except possibly kiwi in parts of Northland where the numbers have increased with effective predator control recently. The only roadkill on NZ roads are introduced mammals like possums, rabbits and hedgehogs. That means they are probably surviving more and with probably next to no predator control being done, could be an environmental disaster in the making. Noticed the seagulls were looking hungry up at Waitangi the last week with no tourists chucking them chips or sandwichs to eat. The one place that will definitely benefit by hugely reduced traffic will be in Oz where some roads are normally splattered by dead wombats, wallabies, echidnas etc.!
You didn’t read the link, did you?
Yes,I did. It's somewhat of a hodgepodge of an article, but the general message is that nature is getting a bit of a reprieve in may places in varied ways, even the climate. NZ's a bit of a outlier because of the pressure from non-native species. I would have thought that marine life generally will benefit from far fewer amateur fishers and boaties out on the water.
Ok, I couldn’t quite tell from your previous comment @ 19.1 if you had read it.
For example, the opening paragraph of the article is:
See the connection to what I quoted @ 19?
This relates to the “predator control” and the “environmental disaster in the making” in NZ that you mentioned @ 19.1.
The piece also touches on the balance between native and non-native species here in NZ in the last two paragraphs.
Taken together, it is a large-scale ‘experiment’ without observers in the field. I think this could be a missed opportunity to learn from because the ‘experiment’ will hopefully be short-lived.
Having spoken to the culpability of the CCP frequently, I'm going to balance the books with Joe Rogan talking with Eric Weinstein on what is happening in the USA. I've started the link at 14:22 and the next 40 min is probably the guts of it:
https://youtu.be/wf0_nMaQ6tA?t=852
It is high time the rest of the western world got together and stood up to this f*****g fascist bully president and his team of thugs:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52161995
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has started the ball rolling by threatening the current American Administration with threats of his own. [see link]
These are obviously concerning reports but it also poses the question…why do countries like the US, France Germany and Canada need to import masks from China?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bird-flu/news/article.cfm?c_id=560&objectid=12321143
They may want to think twice and run QCs or they may end up with a lemon.
China's coronavirus supplies are being rejected — how do we ensure quality in a pandemic?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-04/china-coronavirus-covid-19-medical-supplies-recalled-regulation/12105110
indeed…i can understand that cost may be a factor in using chinese supply but find it difficult to believe that advanced economies arnt capable of their own production especially given we appear to have the capability here
Grateful here in NZ small businesses actually got the govt subsidies. This didn't happen in the US for the most part which all but guarantees widespread failures.
We don't know how lucky we are.
Does the disclosure of what companies received money breach privacy?
World count of approximately 10,000,000 cases by mid April. We are blessed to have a government that acted comparatively early, although there is a desperate need for harsh consequences.
I am trying to not look forward more than a day about the distress Covid-19 is causing. Some governments are just not prepared. The situation has become cruel in Ecuador, dead left out in the street and dead in the homes. I knew this would occur in countries with few resources.
Yes NZ is blessed.
Sir Keir Starmer has been elected as leader of the British Labour Party. Good luck to him, hopefully they can rebuild for the 2024 election.
I personally would have chosen Nandy. Maybe next time.
Already those who rage-quit the party when Corbyn was leader are starting to come crawling back, expecting to just pick up where they left off in 2015.
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
I just remembered your good links ecomaori and I will remember to keep checking to see what music you have heard lately. So I hope you will keep putting it up. Thanks. Kia ora ongoing.
You are reporting positives – gives me a lift, so thanks for telling about the good.
Kia Ora Newshub.
There are idiots everywhere.
Good on that teacher helping people out during these times.
The Internet is a great way for people to carry on making money.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
I think that the road sight in Te Taitokerau should be examined by archaeological people before any roads are built. Why are they doing that while the lock down is in place Shady.
I think that the parents should not stress to much if there tamariki are not receiving education resources.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora The Am Show.
Water problems in Auckland That's part of global warming predictions.
If a business person was running the country he would have waited till the Rinos had run Aotearoa over before making big moves that has big financial effects there way of thinking is money before humanity.
You can't help but try and politicise the virus issue. We have to put people's lives first.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Newshub.
Its impossible to keep everyone happy during the virus isolation times.
Hope no one is lost in the Cyclone in Vanuatu.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Cool that Iwi checking to make sure there Kaumatua are OK during there weeks of isolation.
Good move starting up there own online Kai delivery service.
I say our government is handling this virus situation well.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora The Am Show.
Aotearoa is lucky that we are a food produceing nation we can feed our Tangata.
What I can believe that you are a cracked record.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Newshub.
Its cool weather these days .
There will be unscrupulous people ripping off people and the government . Kia Kaha.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Someone ripping off the pepe things from a kohanga reo is not on.
Condolences to Jimmy's whanau for their loss.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
I think it's great that The Warehouse is going to donate Easter eggs to familys.
Cool that councils are helping feed their poor people we no who to thank for that phenomenon.
That's the way turn all those logs into timber and other stuff to create local employment just don't ruin our environment in the process.
Ka kite Ano P. S The gloves will come off after isolation
Kia Ora Newshub.
That's good two new channels and laptops being sent out to teach our students and tamariki.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Our government is doing it best to carry on our youth education during isolation.
Its good to see Kiwis working in the horticultural industry like they use to 20 years ago.
A 3rd of Kiwis in Australia could be in harder times kia kaha Whanau.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora The Am Show.
Hope no lives are lost in Fiji from the Cyclone hitting them.
I remember that incident well it was on the news as well on The Crowd goes wild.
I enjoyed living in my off grid camp till I was under arm bowled by you know who.
😇
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
That's is cool everyone person coming into Aotearoa is going into quarantine.
We know who caused the EQC mess.
I don't think 4 week of UN attended of a golf course will ruin it.???. in Autumn /winter
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Condolences to Huirangi whanau for their loss.
Plenty of vegetables growing on Turanga Nui A Kiwa whenua.
Ka pai to the Iwi koha kia to te tangata.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
It would be good to find symptoms to aid in early detection of the virus.
That's good online church services you can reach a lot of people online.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
5G protest I was baffled when I found out that some people believe that 5G caused the virus how can A radio wave influence A biological virus.??????.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
Yes we are mear mortals on the Mother Earth.
Aotearoa is lucky of our location in the middle of the Pacific.
Awsome our government sending supplies and helping to Vanuatu.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Its good to see our Kaumatua being given groceries during isolation.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
Yes our mokopuna enjoyed their Easter.
That's is awesome those Kiwis being aloud to come home into quarantine.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Good on the Cook Islands government for supporting that golden oldies Netball team.
That's is cool neighbours meeting each other and keeping safe inside there isolation bubble in Rotorua.
Great seeing the regions with a lot tangata whenua getting tested for the virus.
Now is a good time to use the Internet to teach Te reo Maori. Kia kaha Te reo Maori.
Ka kite Ano