When I became eligible for superannuation I got a sense of how UBI would motivate those who strive – which actually is most of us. "Scum" is getting welfare now anyway so nothing changes there. What changes with UBI (and in my case now with superannuation) , is the ability to get ahead, to "get the foot in the door."
The other point I like about UBI is that we are all recognised as equal, nothing has to be qualified, justified, or scutinised, We are all recognised as equal and are valued at the point of adulthood. From there it is over to the individual to take the opportunity to run with it or to sit back in the sun and become "scum," or as most of us would, do just get on with life in a constructive way.
UBI would be a much more economic to administrate than the many headed monsters that ACC and social welfare have become.
UBI should be available to all New Zealand born citizens.
Ahhhh the miracle of turning 65 when you magically go from bloodsucking scum to deserving recipient who has paid taxes all your life.
It's as magic as caterpillars turning into butterflies or water into wine.
There are some special ones though who despite not having paid taxes all their lives in New Zealand want to get both a full NZ pension and keep their overseas one on top of. They are really extra special those ones – presumably cause the specifically chose to retire here – they have magic wings.
I absolutely agree with the UBI but need to point out:
Overseas pensions – you can choose either but not both.
DoS – you seem to believe that you can both, NZ and OS pension but I reassure you, you cant.
If you are receiving a pension from overseas and opted for the NZ one the former is being paid to the NZ Government. We are talking some 18 billion per annum here that goes into the consolidated fund.
How will this work if you are a permanent resident and worked in NZ 30 odd years contributing possibly more than some not so keen to work? Is it better to keep the overseas pension and what does this say about the status of being a permanent (not so permanent after decades?) resident. There are many reasons why people opt for not taking up citizenship. It does not have to be parochial. Fuel for thought.
UBI payable to Permanent Resident – this needs to be reviewed in the same way as its done with the pension and pegged against minimum years of tax contribution perhaps?
No UBI should be paid for people not living here and have just bought their way into NZ. Millions buy you a seat at the table kind of process.
Some fairness needs to be introduced and some serious thought put into this.
Generally, the UBI would be more efficient to administer.
People need to be prepared to get tax number and registration with the IRD as soon as they turn 18 (?).
"DoS – you seem to believe that you can both, NZ and OS pension but I reassure you, you cant."
Nope you can't but I was referring to all the lobbying that goes on to make this possible as if they were hard done by.
"If you are receiving a pension from overseas and opted for the NZ one the former is being paid to the NZ Government. We are talking some 18 billion per annum here that goes into the consolidated fund."
While you have said opted you still don't fairly represent the position. In essence if you have lived and worked for part of your life in two countries you will often be entitled to a pension in both countries. in essence a part pension for the time you worked in NZ and a part pension for the time you worked overseas. This means you are not advantaged over someone who ha actually lived and worked in New Zealand and contributed taxes for their entire life. You can get a NZ pension if you have lived here for 10 years.
So it is possible that you could have left home and worked overseas at 18 – which many of my peers did especially to the UK, worked there til 55 then returned and lived here til 65. So 37 years of your working life was in the UK and 10 here (if indeed you worked). 37 years of a UK pension is a decent amount.
The standard practise is to have your overseas pension calculated and then top up to the full NZS pension if your overseas pension is less than the NZ one. This will vary on a regular basis due to exchange rates etc and according to my father-in-law was bloody annoying. He was amongst those who lobbied some years ago now to have a simple system that people could opt into. His UK pension wasn't particularly large as he had only spent a small portion of his working life in the UK. You can choose to make the administration easier select to have your UK pension paid to the government and receive a full NZS pension.
It's incorrect to suggest the government takes your pension and puts it in the consolidated fund.You would have only ever been paid the difference between the two pensions so there is no net gain for the government or the consolidated fund. It's just easier administratively to have created that option for everyone.
For 10 years working in the UK you'd get not a lot from their government. We're pretty generous already.
Pigs at the trough. And in light of some contributions on a thread yesterday (I think maybe McFlock and Red), it never ceases to amaze me how some, who profess they follow religious guidance (of whatever religion) will selectively focus on a particular aspect to justify their antics – in this case the idea of 'self-reliance'. These greedy, status-seeking blokes are apt to forget the 5 Virtues and have well and truly signed up the 5 Thieves instead! Nanak would be rolling in his grave – probably let alone their own grandfathers. And these arseholes probably justify it all by thinking that they probably had to go through similar shit when they were starting out. And if they thought about it in any depth, 'self reliance' is actually the last thing they'e up to – taking handouts, ripping off others for their own personal gain, and then trying to justify it by wanking on about how they 'give back'. There are one or two politicians who operate in similar fashion.
I repeat btw, that its not limited to their particular religious belief (i.e. the selectivity in the aspects they use in order to justify their actions)
These pirates should be audited with extreme prejudice, particularly given their penchant for shafting their workers. I would be incredibly suspicious of that money being used appropriately. (There's a fancy mansion to complete and green fees to pay.) They're obviously awash with remorse for their previous actions.
"These pirates should be audited with extreme prejudice……."
Indeed! And not just by WINZ or whichever agency has provided the money, but IRD and others as well. But that won't necessary stop a few others from taking the risk to do likewise. You'll find that not only have these greedy, status-seeking, arrogant arseholes ripped people off, but they've lied to them repeatedly as well by way of false promises and what is effectively bondage – slavery even.
And if we really don't want to see this sort of thing as a feature of the future, we'd go further: Things like offering an amnesty to a few of their former employees and even PR if necessary – a sufficient number to ensure a successful prosecution. There are a few people around that'd be able to assist in tracing those employees if the appropriate agencies don't feel they're up to the job.
I really have to stop myself from beginning a rave, but the damage they do is far worse than they imagine because at times like this, it allows people's prejudices to seemingly become justified: Tarring everyone of like bretheren with the same brush (I've seen it often such as the "us" lecturing on how "they" are ripping off "their own"); ensuring the next/younger generations from becoming utterly cynical of the positive values this religion (but others as well) espouse – even though I'm basically agnostic tending (oops – pivoting) atheist.
No different though than those that religiously espouse "Good, Wholeseome Family Values" that think family, child and sexual abuse is quite OK (as long as its done in private) …. from the Capills and others, to the tithing Tamakis, or the 'exceptional' followers of Islam who are perfectly prepared to gruesomely murder others of the faith.
There's probably a chemical cure for most of them – it'd probably involve massive doses of oestrogen, but suffice to say these two are well-versed in Kaam, Krodh, Lobh, Moh and Hankaar – AND its a matter of record. I'm kind of wondering if a "kind and transformational" gummint is up to the challenge of facing them down through the various agencies and their supposed capabilities they have. I suspect not – but maybe in the fullness of time ("in this space, going forward")
Then lets look forward to F&P bringing their manufacturing back home!
Further processing of our all primary products, wood, wool, meat , hides, horticultural, fish and the return to the making of medical products from our primary products like thyroxine as Glaxo used to do, would be a logical manufacturing re- development and development!
Will not make sense for all firms. Both the F&P companies must remain focused on overseas markets to be viable (and have shifted manufacturing closer to those) and one is not even NZ-owned anymore.
The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times and Stuff are all owned by Channel 9 (Australian). Personally, I find the Ozzie variants better researched with better comments than Stuff. Think there is a bit of cross Tasman rivalry going on in Oz and there have been a few poorly written articles about NZ's response to Covid-19. Not matched by the NZ equivalents.
I see our Sith African Mayor here in Gisbo, capital of Maori NZ, wants to push on. Oh, to have the virtue of obliviousness. Or, the straight path to National MPdom. I can't remember the particularities of our present MP's unawareness of others, except all we fellow Napier exiles refuse to vote for her, in her Ohope homestead. So much we can get away with, or National.
Michael Reddell has another go at it, on Spinoff this time: "Successful economies tend to be ones where foreign trade – exports and imports – is rising as a share of GDP: especially for small countries the wider world is where most of the potential markets are. In New Zealand, the foreign trade share has hardly changed since about 1980, and has been falling this century – the peak years of the latest wave of globalisation. We were once among the most successful trading nations in the world – matched by really high living standards for the times – but no longer. Ministers and officials like to talk about the numerous preferential trade deals they sign, but the data tell their own story." https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/04-05-2020/rebuilding-a-shattered-economy-in-a-post-covid-world/
Running to stand still for 40 years gives us a good idea of the merit of all the macho business thrusters we had to endure the propanda from during Rogernomics & Ruthenasia. Nothing much heard from our right-wing thinktanks in recent years along those lines though, nor now. Zero from our sole left-wing thinktank.
Michael's point about the contrast between all the media hoop-la surrounding our foreign ministers signing trade deals, and the consequent lack of any bump in foreign trade earnings, shows just how much our media are captivated by froth not substance.
“When the economy is going backwards, when there is little appetite by firms to invest, and a strong precautionary motive to save, we need the OCR to be quite deeply negative for a time.” Nudge.
We were the "most successful trading nation " when we only had one customer, the UK, with butter, cheese and meat because it was desperately short of protein and wool for the mills for clothing. The price of wool was artificially high because of the Korean War at famously " a pound a pound " when average wages in NZ were about 5 Pound a week, that made wool about $180 a pound in todays money. Wool is probably about 12-15 dollars a pound today.
I have a grocery bill of my parents from 1950 and butter and milk even heavily subsidised as they were then, were a lot more expensive than now.
Having only one customer who takes all you can produce at huge prices only makes you "successful "in a limited sense.
to Adrian at 5:1 : Sorry Adrian …. milk was 4d a pint albeit subsidised. I know because had four children from 1955 < , my husband and I drank milk because cheaper than tea ( coffee a rarity then). Therefore we consumed 10 pints a day for years, allowing milk vendor to accept a cheque monthly rather than so much cash ( yes 40d was well worth pinching!) each day.
Not old enough to remember the fifties, but growing up in the sixties, my parents, with one earner, on less than half the average wage at the time, were able to buy 6 pints of milk daily, plenty of bread and other food, and put a lamb roast to feed at least eight, on the table every Sunday.
People on similar income, from two earners today, would be paying half their weekly food budget, after rent, for one roast.
You mean we were selling them quality produce, in return for their shoddy manufactured goods. Little has changed, apart from the countries we are selling to.
I would have a good think about which country was "propping up" the other, if I were you?
We were selling them quality produce in return for foreign exchange. The UK basically provided our high standard of living. They didn't need us at all. As for their ‘shoddy’ goods, you have a very short memory. Remember Tri-Ang, Corgi and Meccano toys, Morris and Austin motor cars, the Beatles (and hundreds of others). They did very well by the world did the UK.
I remember 2 shillings for a pound of butter and a shilling for a loaf of bread. 4 pence for a pint of milk. Nine pence for a seat in local movie theatre. Lamb was cheap and chickens only for special occasions.
2 cents (thats right, cents ) for a pint of milk…mind you wages were equally low.
It is important to remember that when this 'regime' was in place we had a very compressed remuneration structure which included a top tax rate of 60 cents in the dollar….and capital controls. Some of the solutions from the past are relevant….as are some of the lifestyle impacts.
So here's how the Democrats are trying to impress voters: "government programs in the United States—even those supported by the purportedly pro-government party—are not designed to solve problems. Rather, they are designed to solve a given problem only to a degree—and that degree can’t require an amount of spending that would necessitate financial sacrifice on the part of high-income taxpayers. This is not a leftist conspiracy theory, but the overt position of the party’s leaders, who believe they will not be able to achieve crucial voting margins in upscale suburbs if they authorize too much taxation and spending." https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/04/coronavirus-stimulus-failures-hit-professional-class.html?via=features
"To put it cynically, the job of much Democratic legislation is to make liberal voters of means feel good that something is being done for the less fortunate, not necessarily to actually do that thing."
"Some people might really benefit, but the process of doing so will be time-consuming and byzantine, and will only affect their overall life situation at the margins. (Consider the “free college in New York state” program that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo often takes credit for starting. Seventy percent of those who apply to the program are rejected—and it doesn’t cover the costs of housing or class materials, but you also can’t participate in it if you’re a part-time student, i.e., someone who needs to work on the side to cover the costs of housing and class materials. During his 2018 reelection campaign Cuomo belittled his opponent’s proposal to raise taxes on incomes over $1 million a year and called it a political “nonstarter.”)"
"Voters who might need better benefits have the choice of either accepting these as the best they can get or not voting at all, because the other party wants new programs to be inadequate on purpose—and wants to cut back the ones that do work, like Social Security and Medicare—so as to “incentivize” individuals to work harder to get a job or to get a better job or to save more. The choice is between drowning gradually or all at once."
But hey, Democrats are the progressive option, apparently. "“Our constituents have a lot of questions about where the hell this $3 trillion is going and why it isn’t coming into their pockets,” Pennsylvania Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon told Politico in an article about rank-and-file Democratic backlash against the party’s limited stimulus efforts."
Downside of that: those sociopaths who ignore the rules will get new recruits. Did you see those figures for the number of parties on saturday night complained about? Plenty of folks have a `been there, done that' attitude to social distancing…
either we will have a spike in infections which will be traceable to those parties and we go back to L4 and people learn to stop being dicks, or we don't have a spike because the curve was sufficiently flattened and we carry on figuring it all out as we go along and some people politicise the issue and we go back to the old macho politics (except Labour are in charge, with St Jacinda at the helm, lol).
28 days of this 0.00 and I'll be getting the champers out of the fridge. I'm picking that we may stay at level 3 until after the queens birthday weekend.
Saw some figures way back (for Aus) which indicted that lockdown compliance needed to be 70% or above to reduce transmission – we look like we went through level 4 in the high 90's – which makes the track to 0.00 faster. So if level 3 means we have dropped but are still above 70% we will get there but the more compliance the quicker.
Time to roll out the ad campaigns " play to the whistle" , " game not over yet" "fancy going to the beach this summer?" – make it really clear that we are close to full time but need that extra push just to get us there
Yes – brilliant. Now the plan to ensure that in those sectors of the economy that aren't coming back, nobody is left behind. The plan to ensure that after everybody has put in the effort, the result isn't that some people get to make out economically like bandits, while others go to the wall.
The PM working her magic again. Unusual times for sure, but this suggests her stance on AUS/NZ relations has not been as damaging as some alarmists on the right would have us believe.
Fortunately for Ardern the meeting is a phone in, but an interesting turn of events all the same. It's my sense that quite a few Australian politicians are quietly grateful that Ardern has paved the way for SloMo to follow.
But the outcome is a good one, both countries have responded magnificently so far, at least to the best extent you might reasonably imagine. It’s set the stage for a major trans-Tasman refresh.
There are scarcely two nations on earth more tightly linked socially and economically, but we've allowed the political relationship to drift. This may well be a good chance to reset the politics, because I think in this coming unsettled decade we are going to need the relationship working at full strength.
Certainly a common adversary helps focus common interests. If they get this trans tasman bubble working it could strengthen ties even further with each others citizens boosting badly damaged tourism sectors.
Australia's deportation policy is still a massive issue though.
Yes. The trick to sorting that issue will be getting the Australian public and politicians to start putting a higher value on their unique relationship with NZ. Ardern has raised our credibility enormously over here, almost everyone we have spoken with is aware of our govt's bold and gutsy approach. They respect that.
lol @ "SloMo" … their PMs are always good nickname fodder 😂
More seriously, there are stumbling blocks that both nations need to face up to in order to normalise & strengthen relations. Citizenship, border security, foreign policy, the FIRE sector, workers rights
I don’t think it’s so much that we’ve let the relationship drift on our side. It’s more a case of Australia thinking they have bigger fish to fry as they reach for middle-power status. At any rate, if this is a reset it’s welcome.
I think Scomo wants to bask in the positive "halo" effect around Jacinda. She's had a lot of good publicity so he may be wanting some of it to rub off on him. Suspect he needs it. Next Mike Pence will be wanting a phone in!!?
"this suggests her stance on AUS/NZ relations has not been as damaging as some alarmists on the right would have us believe."
Too many hilariously bad takes to choose from, especially after Ardern's last trip across the Tasman, where (shock!) a NZ PM spoke up for NZ. Here's one of the classics …
"Should she be returned to power, a prospect that looks remote, Jacinda Ardern has almost zero likelihood of a rapprochement with our PM." (The Australian, March 5 2020 – emphasis added).
(it's subscription only, but you can copy/Google the quote)
That says it all really doesn’t it? They’ve spent the last 3 years convinced she was just some weird aberration and that normal service would resume. Frankly I’m happy if they continue to underestimate her.
TDB's got a good appraisal of the reeferendum: "under this model almost everyone wins. Access to cannabis will be legal yet controlled, medical access gets easier and cheaper, current providers aren’t locked out and can go legal, social equity provisions are built in, overseas corporates are blocked, micro cultivators have a place, sales taxes support increased health and education and don’t just disappear to a general government fund, our police get better things to do, and people will have legal options other than alcohol." https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/05/04/cannabis-referendum-bills-recipe-for-success/
"A Yes vote will take away money and influence from organised crime, and it will reduce the dominance of our alcohol industry, and the pharma trade won’t be part of this. There won’t be cannabis stores on every corner. There won’t be a Big Cannabis industry. and imports won’t be allowed. Vertical integration will be banned, and advertising prohibited, so those who banked on a big corporate approach may be ruing their bets. Instead, this model supports local growers, producers and small businesses."
"The parties that make up the current Government have pledged to make the result binding. They’ve put forward the Bill, so they’re obviously supportive of it. Notably, the final version of the Bill has not backtracked on any parts of the earlier draft."
I'm surprised & pleased by the constructive collaboration of NZF. Well done, all involved in the process!
I seem to recall that in the early days of debate about legalisation especially in regard to medicinal cannabis that Grey Power (or a significant part of them) were strongly in favour, so this may have something to do with NZF's attitude.
See the hypocrisy around me almost every day. Employers complaining about young employees doping and drinking. They would never have passed a drug test, back in their day.
Yeah I'm with you on reducing the possibility of cartel formation like petrol retailers, but I assume the regulator will keep an eye on that tendency. Unlike the USA, we are small enough a democracy that regulator-capture isn't obviously happening.
Yet Mullah Bob al-McCroskie of the Christian Taliban is still not happy. If he had his way, people with a spliff in their pocket would be publicly flogged in Aotea Square.
A wee while back the case against the IRA was dropped, and now we find out that the outgoing administration, through the FBI, deliberately set up Flynn on minor crimes of process which they then used to puff up their whole Russia conspiracy crap.
But the lack of those involved anymore in current events and their alienation from organised society in the Rogernomics era is just an open door to bullshit, and the Right has the copyright on that.
The craft industry has promise, based on a long tradition of quality and uniqueness and I'm hoping will continue the Covid 19 rebirth of knitting and other handcrafts. The luxury goods market will not die. A hand knitted item from locally grown, spun and dyed fibres posted to a status conscious consumer overseas with cash to spend and rellies and friends to impress or gift could be a nice little earner.
Blood test today, what a nightmare, queue in the rain, people pushing past to front, maybe texted because its their turn. No staff long wait. In and out same tiny entry. If it was a burger bar would be shut down, Privatisation, lowest tender wins, all for profit. I should have flagged it but its a time dependant test.
"In other words many businesses – whether S&P 500 companies or small and medium-sized enterprises – will be rendered insolvent by the pandemic. No amount of liquidity, however, cheap, will avert that fate.
There are estimates that about 16 per cent of US listed companies either couldn’t cover their interest costs or barely covered them even before the crisis has cost them months of lost cash flow.
With the likelihood that any recovery will be slow and halting rather than the "V-shaped" recovery US markets had been pricing in since March 23, it is probable that the pandemic will cut swathes through corporate and Main Street America, along with similar impacts, albeit to differing degrees, on the rest of the world’s economies."
"We're a society that is governed by the rule of law, which means the state can't exercise power over people without the legal authority to do so," he told Magic Talk host Ryan Bridge on Monday.
Hey, Chris Findlayson, remember that time you let Police exercise power over Nicky Hager without the legal authority to do so?
“I remember, going back to my time as Security Minister, [the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet] had a list of national security concerns, and the pandemic possibility was toward the top of that list.” he said.
Right underneath Nicky Hager, who seemed to be the start and finish of the Prime Minister’s security concerns.
"In fact, nobody upheld the public-health interventions as long as they should have. San Francisco reduced mortality by at least 25% – the highest rate among US cities. But, rather than reinforcing its commitment to its interventions, this success led the city to cancel its restrictions in November; a second, much deadlier wave of infections followed in December and January. Had San Francisco sustained its social-distancing rules for longer, the National Academy of Sciences estimates, it could have cut the death toll by 95%."
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” George Santayana famously quipped in 1905….. all those clamouring for level 2 and trans tasman travel might want to consider such.
Global warming is still having big negative effects yet we still don't have efficient plans to minimise Global warming.
We are lucky to have the 21st century commutation devices to help businesses function during isolation there are many ways to make money using the Internet.?????.
That's is cool a company making a more cost effective ventilator in Aotearoa.
Last month I noted that the public policy debate was all about how we deal with covid-19. That’s changing now, and will change more over the next couple of months as the buffering impact of the wage subsidy disappears and we see starkly the economic hole out of which we ...
The mission of the New Zealand Police is to make this country the safest nation in the world. To achieve that aim, there is one important step the police need to take at the end of this month. When the evaluation of the Armed Response Teams’ trial is completed, the ...
The right of employees to strike is an internationally recognised employment right that has been a feature of New Zealand’s industrial relations system for over a century, albeit with different constraints and limitations at different times. Although more restricted, this right even continued under the anti-union Employment Contracts Act (1993-2000). ...
Bernard Hickey is one of New Zealand’s leading financial journalists. His latest article, published by Newsroom, lays bare the cruel treatment of hundreds of thousands of workers stranded since the lockdown. Our Prime Minister is lauded overseas for her compassion, but her Cabinet is refusing to properly support tens of ...
For a good part of my adult life I have studied civil-military relations. I have studied authoritarian and democratic variants, and I have studied them across countries and regions. I have also worked in and with several US security agencies and have lectured on the theme at a number of ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzIf we stopped oil, gas and coal extraction immediately – ...
by The Spark “The system is broken”—the words of a young black man in Minneapolis watching flames destroy a police precinct demonstrators had torched. Broken? Yes, it is! What else could you say about a system whose police for nine minutes casually knelt on a black man’s neck, watching until ...
The latest opinion poll is out, and it’s more bad news for the National Party, with Roy Morgan putting them on only 26.5% support, against Labour’s 56.5%. You can see the details here: Roy Morgan May opinion poll. Roy Morgan is regarded as less accurate than other polling companies, and the ...
When miners pillage conservation land, they are typically required to "rehabilitate" it afterwards. Its not much compared to the damage they do, but its something. But apparently even that is now too much to expect. NZG Limited, a company owned by Oravida directors James Blackwell, Julia Jiyan Xu, Stone Shi, ...
Like everyone else, I've spent too much of the weekend watching the protests in America, and the increasingly brutal response to them. The overwhelming impression is of a nationwide police riot, as people speaking out against a murder and demanding change are beaten, gassed and shot by racist, militarised thugs ...
In mid-April, as New Zealand entered its fourth week of alert level 4, the Prime Minister warned us not to make comparisons with other countries over our Covid-19 pandemic response. This extraordinary advice came after Simon Bridges had urged the government to adopt a less-stringent lockdown similar to those in ...
Wales has lowered the voting age to 16: 16 and 17 year olds can now officially vote in Wales for Senedd elections. Votes at 16 & 17 come into force on Monday, as part of the Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020. Next year’s Senedd elections will ...
The government announced more changes to the ETS today, including to the emissions budget for 2021 - 2025. The overall budget for that period will stay at 354 million tons of CO2-equivalent. But the ETS component of that - stockpile reduction, free allocation, and credits to be auctioned - budget ...
The new National Party leader, Todd Muller, had been at pains to portray himself as a solid, serious, safe pair of hands, in contrast to the increasingly Trumpian leanings of Simon Bridges, who Muller deposed in a leadership coup last Friday. But after an uneventful, if uninspiring, first press conference, ...
Minneapolis Police StationIf you’ve been keeping an eye on recent events in the United States, you’ll likely understand why there’s so much anger on the streets at the moment. Not only did police officers murder another black man; it is patently obvious that authorities initially attempted to cover up George ...
Becoming the leader of a political party is a bit like having a baby. Not so much the screaming and sleepless nights, as the fact that you’ve waited and hope and planned for something and it’s finally here. And when that wonderful gift finally arrives, you want to be ready, ...
The US appears to be headed towards what Antonio Gramsci and other Italian political theorists call an “organic crisis of the State.” It involves the simultaneous and compounded fractures of economy, society and politics, which together constitute a tipping point in a nation’s history. Social contradictions are exacerbated, class and ...
Like the rest of the world, I have been aghast at what I have seen of, and read and heard about, what is happening currently in the United States. It seems incredible that a once great country should be suffering the worst effects and the highest number of deaths worldwide ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week...
Climate concerns as Siberia experiences record-breaking heatHeat wave sparks concerns about devastating wildfire season and melting permafrost.Satellite ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 24 through Sat, May 30, 2020Editor's ChoiceAntarctic Ocean Reveals New Signs of Rapid Melt of Ancient Ice, Clues About Future Sea Level RiseA study of seafloor ripples ...
It’s almost painful to watch. Let’s be honest, maybe a pleasure too, in some quarters, but painful nonetheless. Because the fact is, for a democracy to function properly, any sitting Government does need honest and proper Opposition so that it doesn’t get ahead of itself. That’s what we should ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk A banner on the International Energy Agency website spells it out in bold font: “The global oil industry is experiencing a shock like no other in its history.” As the response to the coronavirus pandemic upends the lives of billions of ...
The ownership of newspapers and televison channels is in turmoil, and they want to redisorganise public broadcasting. *Three years ago, I expressed concern in a column about the future of the (traditional) media. Nothing has happened since to reduce the concern. It was based on an earlier column which ...
Australia's High Court has ruled that the "palace letters" between the queen and then-Governor-General John Kerr are public records rather than private papers: Historian Jenny Hocking has won her High Court bid to access the letters exchanged between then governor-general Sir John Kerr and the Queen around the time of ...
SATURDAY MAY 30Six60: Live at Western Springs 2020 (TVNZ 1, 8.45pm). Remember live concerts? The day will come again, friends, when we will be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in an uncomfortable sweaty venue with people we don’t know. It will happen. Sometimes the sound of concerts drifts over to the ...
New Zealand and its prime minister Jacinda Ardern have received international attention and praise, rightly so, for decisive leadership, clear communication and scientific management of the coronavirus pandemic. Observers point out that the nation has been through multiple crises under Ardern’s leadership – such as the Christchurch terrorist attack and ...
…a lot of things unrelated to the pandemic were happening. Relatively little attention was given to some major events on the global stage, so I thought I would do a quick recap of some of the high (or low) -lights, starting with something familiar. The common theme throughout is human ...
Labour's talk of gutting the RMA to push through "shovel ready" projects to boost employment after the pandemic predictably has every half-arsed pipe-dream crawling out of the woodwork demanding special treatment. Today, it's the West Coast inbreds, who are demanding a host of laws be rescinded so they can dig ...
"I can't breathe, Mama. I'm dying." - Last words of George Floyd.LOOK HARD at this image. Think about what it depicts. Ask yourself how one human-being could behave so brutally when so many eye-witnesses – and very soon millions of people online around the world – were there to watch ...
Since the government announced its pandemic wage subsidy, there have been regular stories about companies taking it and then sacking or refusing to pay their workers - essentially committing fraud. But how often does this happen? The Minister just doesn't want to know: Government ministers are not receiving up to ...
"You call that a conservative?Nah, this is a conservative!" New Zealanders are in the market for a quiet and reassuring small-c conservative political centrist. The critical question, however, is which politician is currently playing that role? Who has mastered the art of relaxed, informal and intimate political communication? Who ...
I’VE OFTEN WONDERED if South African immigrants passing through towns like Kerikeri and Kaikohe ever wonder how we do it. In their homeland, through the bitter years of Apartheid, keeping the races segregated required pass laws, Alsatian dogs, tear gas, rubber bullets and, all-too-often, live rounds. Not here. Not in ...
Below is the list of gender-critical material which appeared on Redline from July 31, 2019 to September 30, 2019. Sports categories must be by sex, not gender identity Queer theory glossary Woke misogyny and homophobia: a gay critique of trans ideology Another unfortunate experiment? New Zealand’s transgender health policy and ...
Smart Energy Europe: A Plan to provide 100% of ALL ENERGY using Renewable Energy to EuropeIntroductionAll Energy renewable energy systems are often commented on here at Skeptical Science. Many comments suggest that it will be difficult, expensive or impossible to use renewable energy to power the world. To ...
The government released its Action for Healthy Waterways package today, ostensibly with the goal of cleaning up our rivers and making them swimmable within a generation. Doing that, of course, requires confronting the cow in the room: the dairy industry which causes most of the pollution. But while they've imposed ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzI would like to know if New Zealand’s carbon emissions ...
Simon Lamb, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Timothy Stern, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonBack in the 1970s, scientists came up with a revolutionary idea about how Earth’s deep interior works. They proposed it is slowly churning like a lava lamp, with buoyant ...
Remember KiwiBuild? Previously the government's flagship policy, it was supposed to build thousands of new homes every year for kiwi families. But instead of flooding the market, we've got a pathetic dribble: The Government's former flagship housing policy is so far behind schedule it will take more than 400 years ...
Don Franks Now Covid-19 restrictions allow gatherings of a hundred, an urgent hui needs calling. A special conference of the Council of Trade Unions. Today, workers face the greatest attack on employment, pay and conditions since the depression, we need a strong united union voice. As it stands now, organised ...
George Henderson New Zealand schools have introduced a climate change resource that suggests children “eat less meat and dairy”, even though teachers will not know how much meat or dairy any child in their care has eaten. Opinion pieces in the papers have called for the reduction of meat and ...
Questioning the number of district health boards in New Zealand has got to the extent that “too many DHBs” has become a perceived truth requiring no further elaboration. It is rarely challenged by policy advisers, academics, and journalists. But when one drills down further it becomes clear that the number ...
The emergence of a new National party leader, seemingly out of nowhere, has – not surprisingly – raised a number of questions as to who Todd Mulller actually is and what makes him tick. He has been an MP for some time but seems to have hidden his light under ...
Costa Rica has become the first country in Central America to recognise same-sex marriage: The first same-sex weddings have taken place in Costa Rica, the first Central American country to equalise its marriage legislation. A lesbian couple became the first to tie the knot in a ceremony that took ...
There's a new twist in the Winston Peters secret donation story. It appears that a significant chunk of NZ First's secret laundered donations goes straight into the pockets of the people administering the scheme: Tens of thousands in donor's funds given to the New Zealand First Foundation were spent paying ...
Is Todd Muller the Ned Flanders of the National Party? This is how he’s been characterised by political commentator Gordon Campbell, who suggests the change in leadership is, in Simpsons terms, akin to swapping the scary and cruel Monty Burns for Homer Simpson’s compassionate but conservative neighbour. There’s almost a ...
We all know that many so-called journalists and political commentators in New Zealand work directly or indirectly for political parties or for certain political factions. This was obviously the case when pundit for hire Matthew Hooton launched a campaign against then National Party leader, Simon Bridges, over their numerous polling ...
Let's Roll! The easy victory over a Bridges-led National Party which the Left had every cause to anticipate just a few days ago is no longer in the offing. Our enemy’s position has changed. His numbers are swelling. A rapid thrust to the left, followed by an audacious outflanking manoeuvre ...
New National Party leader Todd Muller has been interviewed about his policies, and has promised to restart offshore fossil fuel exploration if elected: The Bay of Plenty MP rolled former leader Simon Bridges last week, but says the party has not changed its stance on previous promises. "That is ...
Anyone who keeps an eye on evidence around cannabis and public health will be familiar with the Christchurch Health and Development Study. It's one of two local longitudinal studies frequently cited with respect to cannabis and youth development. But in a new article in the New Zealand Medical Journal, it is ...
In the age of covid we are Jacinda’s team of five million, except for some. There has rarely been a more blatant case of discrimination against beneficiaries than Grant Robertson’s announcement yesterday that people who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus will receive weekly payments of $490 per week for 12 weeks and $250 per week for part time ...
It was 75 years ago this month that Germany surrendered and the Allies celebrated VE (Victory in Europe) Day. Millions of people around the world had been killed and many more injured or captured. It was an end to war not just for Europeans, but their allies too, in countries across Africa. But its impact is ...
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...
Watching Todd Muller make his first speech as the newly minted Leader of the Opposition after Simon Bridges’ defenestration on Friday brought to mind a headmaster addressing a school assembly. He showed no particular desire to ingratiate himself with his audience although the occasional flash of self-deprecating humour indicated a ...
The government has announced another income support scheme for people affected by the economic aftershocks of the pandemic: a $490 a week tax-free payment for the newly unemployed, which you can get even if you have a working partner. Which is great, because its supporting people who need help, but ...
The Greens have released their party list, and it contains a few surprises. The one that's getting all the news is that the membership are clearly fans of Chlöe Swarbrick, and she has worked hard to earn that. But they've also favoured incumbent protection over new blood, and in the ...
age credit:Science and Politics – Skeptically.org It seems impossible to keep politics out of science. It’s a pity because politics can end up forcing science to produce the results desired by ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Matthew Parry, Dr Ayesha Verrall, Prof Michael Baker, Prof Martin Eichner (author details*)This blog details a recent modelling study we conducted. In it we estimated that it would take between 27 and 33 days of no new detected cases of COVID-19 for there to be ...
The 2015 Schol Bio paper included a question about a group of birds known as honeycreepers, specifically, the 56 species endemic to the Hawaiian islands. (Or, were endemic: 18, or perhaps 19, are still living; the others are extinct.) Students who’ve already had a look at this paper as part of ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... What a Week’s Disasters Tell Us About Climate and the PandemicExtreme weather presents an even bigger threat ...
Todd Muller has made a good start to his leadership, though it would obviously be pretty stupid to extrapolate too much from the first couple of days. Nevertheless, as a matter of speculation, it is interesting to think what success on his part might say about the preferences of the ...
A guest post by Hamish Price.“A leader is a dealer in hope.”— Napoléon BonaparteCatholics have a name for potential successors to a dead pope. Papabile. The small coterie of distinguished cardinals who have what it takes to step up. Todd Muller has always been one.I first met Muller at a National ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 17 through Sat, May 23, 2020Editor's ChoiceMore than 80 killed in India and Bangladesh as Cyclone Amphan heaps misery on coronavirus-hit areasA man salvages items from ...
Two poor political polls within the same week had seen National for the first time in over a decade dropping major support in the face of a competent and assured COVID-19 health response from the Coalition government. Step forward the relatively unknown Todd Muller, who by Friday afternoon had secured ...
SUNDAY MAY 24The Luminaries (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). There are an awful lot of indeterminate accents in The Luminaries; even lead Eve Hewson seems undecided about being Irish, and she is Irish. Fair play, accents can go badly wrong, so perhaps not over-egging was a consideration. Marton Csokas, always impeccable, and Himesh Patel ...
SUNDAY MAY 24The Luminaries (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). There are an awful lot of indeterminate accents in The Luminaries; even lead Eve Hewson seems undecided about being Irish, and she is Irish. Fair play, accents can go badly wrong, so perhaps not over-egging was a consideration. Marton Csokas, always impeccable, and Himesh Patel ...
Let’s be honest; Simon Bridges was a disaster of a political leader. If he wasn’t attempting to criticise the Government’s perfectly good policy initiatives that the public generally supported, he was fudging his lines after getting caught out in yet another lie. When Jami-Lee Ross said Bridges “is a flawed individual ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First is disappointed that the removal of the spousal deductions has had to be delayed by the Ministry fo Social Development, due to COVID19 workload pressures. “New Zealand First has always stood for fairness when it comes to superannuation ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First On the steps of Parliament today the Leader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters received a petition from registered nurse Anna Maria Coervers, requesting an amendment to the Protection for First Responders Bill which will ensure the legislation also include registered ...
It's been a busy seven days as we start to rebuild New Zealand together. From delivering extra support for small businesses, to investing in our artists and arts organisations, to cutting red tape on home DIY projects, we're rolling out our plan to get the economy and New Zealand moving ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says alert level 2 restrictions have to be discussed during today's Cabinet meeting. Thousands gathered across the country, including at Parliament, yesterday forBlack Lives Matter marcheswhere social distancing and mass gathering rules were flouted. Mr Peters said the breaching of Alert Level 2 rules at ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of State Owned Enterprises KiwiRail’s Northland rail upgrade steps up another gear today and will help Northland recover from the impacts of COVID-19, State Owned Enterprises Minister Winston Peters says. The Government is investing $204.5 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to ...
“Today and every day we stand in solidarity with George Floyd’s family, friends and community who feel pain and fear about his untimely death at the hands of Minneapolis police”, said Green Party Co-leader and Māori Development spokesperson Marama Davidson. ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Hon Eugenie Sage, Minister of Conservation The West Coast forests of Mount Te Kinga at Kotuku Whakaoho/Lake Brunner are the latest predator free project to receive Government funding, announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
The Green Party says major freshwater reforms announced today provide the strongest ever protections of our waterways, to help ensure the next generation can swim in the rivers of Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party has begun the process for a Select Committee inquiry into student accommodation, which has been exposed during COVID-19 as an under-regulated sector that straddles students with unfair debt. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Megan Woods, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation Hon Dr David Clark, Minister of Health Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods, and Health Minister David Clark today announced a COVID-19 vaccine strategy, ...
Budget 2020 is about rebuilding together, supporting jobs, getting business moving and the books back into the black. It’s an integral part of our COVID-19 economic response, and our plan to grow our economy and get New Zealand moving again.Here’s a quick look at the five top things you ...
The Coalition Government has approved $206 million in essential upgrades at Ōhakea Air Base. Defence Minister Ron Mark said the money would be spent on improving old infrastructure. He said safety issues would be addressed, as well as upgrades to taxiways, accommodation and fresh, storm and waste water systems. "This ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First “I am not persisting with this case just for myself, but for all people who have had their privacy breached. Privacy of information is a cornerstone of our country’s democracy. Without it our society truly faces a bleak future. We now ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones has introduced a Bill to Parliament that he says will "force more transparency, integrity and respect" for the domestic wood-processing sector through the registration of log traders and practice standards. The Forests (Regulation of Log Traders and Forestry Advisers) Amendment Bill had its first reading in ...
Green MP Golriz Ghahraman is joining over 300 lawmakers from around the world in calling on the big banks and the IMF to forgive the debt of developing countries, in the wake of the COVID crisis. ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones says concerns that carbon foresters are planting pine trees that will never be harvested are the result of "misinformation". "The billion tree strategy is an excellent idea, unfortunately from time to time it's tainted by misinformation spread by the National Party or their grandees, hiding in scattered ...
The Green Party welcomes funding in the budget to reunite more refugees with their families, ensuring they have the best chance at a new life in Aotearoa New Zealand. ...
This year’s Budget is about rebuilding New Zealand together in the face of COVID-19. Jobs are central to how we’re going to do that.There’s a lot of targeted investment for employment in this year’s Budget, with announcements on creating new jobs, training people for the jobs we have, and supporting ...
Young people in Waikato will be the first to have free access to period products in schools in another step to support children and young people in poverty,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. During term 3, the Ministry of Education will begin providing free period products to schools following the ...
The Minister of Police Stuart Nash has issued the following statement in response to charges filed against three Police officers this morning in the New Plymouth District Court. “Any incident involving a loss of life in Police custody is taken very seriously. The charges today reflect the gravity of the ...
Further temporary changes to NCEA and University Entrance (UE) will support senior secondary school students whose teaching and learning have been disrupted by COVID-19. “The wellbeing of students and teachers is a priority. As we are all aware, COVID-19 has created massive disruption to the school system, and the Government ...
Minister for Racing Winston Peters today announced that the terms for the directors of the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) have been extended to 30 June 2021. Due to the COVID-19 crisis the transition period has been extended to ensure that the Racing Industry Bill can complete its progress through ...
The deadline for landlords to include detailed information in their tenancy agreements about how their property meets the Healthy Homes Standards, so tenants can see the home they are renting is compliant, has been extended from 1 July 2020 to 1 December 2020. The Healthy Homes Standards became law on 1 July 2019. The Standards are ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little today announced details of further appointments to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. “I am pleased to announce Paula Rose QSO OStJ as Deputy Chief Commissioner for a term of five years commencing on 15 June 2020,” said Andrew Little. “I am also pleased to announce the ...
The Targeted Training and Apprenticeships Fund (TTAF) will pay costs of learners of all ages to undertake vocational education and training The fund will target support for areas of study and training that will give learners better employment prospects as New Zealand recovers from COVID-19 Apprentices working in all industries ...
The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will finally start to cut New Zealand’s greenhouse gas pollution as it was originally intended to, because of changes announced today by the Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw. The changes include a limit on the total emissions allowed within the ETS, rules to ensure ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List provides an abundance of examples that Pacific people’s leadership capability is unquestionable in Aotearoa. “The work and the individuals we acknowledge this year highlights the kind of visionary examples and dedicated community leadership that we need ...
The Government is backing a new $27 million project aimed at boosting sustainable horticulture production and New Zealand’s COVID-19 recovery efforts, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “Our horticulture sector has long been one of New Zealand’s export star performers, contributing around $6 billion a year to our economy. During and ...
Applications have opened for 2021 Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships, which will support more Māori and women to pursue careers in forestry science, says Forestry Minister Shane Jones. “I’m delighted Te Uru Rākau is offering Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships for the third year running. These ...
The Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List once again highlights the dedication by many to looking after our native plants and wildlife, including incredible work to restore the populations of critically endangered birds says Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. Anne Richardson of Hororata has been made an Officer of the New ...
The Government will invest $10 million from the One Billion Trees Fund for large-scale planting to provide jobs in communities and improve the environment, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor and Forestry Minister Shane Jones have announced. New, more flexible funding criteria for applications will help up to 10 catchment groups plant ...
Organisations that support women are invited to apply to a new $1,000,000 fund as part of the Government’s COVID-19 response. “We know women, and organisations that support women, have been affected by COVID-19. This new money will ensure funding for groups that support women and women’s rights,” said Minister for ...
Healthier waterways are front and centre in a new project involving more than 300 King Country sheep, beef and dairy farmers. The Government is investing $844,000 in King Country River Care, a group that helps farmers to lift freshwater quality and farming practice, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “Yesterday ...
A major funding package for libraries will allow them to play a far greater role in supporting their communities and people seeking jobs as part of the economic recovery from COVID-19. “Budget 2020 contains over $60 million of funding to protect library services and to protect jobs,” says Internal Affairs ...
A jobseekers programme for the creative sector and four new funds have been set up by the Government to help our arts and music industry recover from the blow of COVID-19. Thousands of jobs will be supported through today’s $175 million package in a crucial economic boost to support the ...
Minister for Veterans Ron Mark has welcomed the First Reading of a Bill that will make legislative changes to further improve the veterans’ support system. The Veterans’ Support Amendment Bill No 2, which will amend the Veterans’ Support Act 2014, passed First Reading today. The bill addresses a number of ...
Views sought on Order in Council to help fast track the reinstatement of the Christ Church Cathedral The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Hon Poto Williams, will be seeking public written comment, following Cabinet approving the drafting of an Order in Council aimed at fast-tracking the reinstatement of the ...
The law setting out New Zealanders’ basic civil and human rights is today one step towards being strengthened following the first reading of a Bill that requires Parliament to take action if a court says a statute undermines those rights. At present, a senior court can issue a ‘declaration of ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today reiterated the deep concern of the New Zealand Government following confirmation by China’s National People’s Congress of national security legislation relating to Hong Kong. “New Zealand shares the international community’s significant and long-standing stake in Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability,” Mr Peters said. “New Zealand ...
Thousands of artists and creatives at hundreds of cultural and heritage organisations have been given much-needed support to recover from the impact of COVID-19, Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Jacinda Ardern announced today. “The cultural sector was amongst the worst hit by the global pandemic,” Jacinda ...
Key New Zealand assets will be better protected from being sold to overseas owners in a way contrary to the national interest, with the passage of the Overseas Investment (Urgent Measures) Bill. The Bill, which passed its third reading in Parliament today, also cuts unnecessary red tape to help attract ...
Setting higher health standards at swimming spots Requiring urban waterways to be cleaned up and new protections for urban streams Putting controls on higher-risk farm practices such as winter grazing and feed lots Setting stricter controls on nitrogen pollution and new bottom lines on other measures of waterway health Ensuring ...
The Government is on the verge of reaching its target of state sector boards and committees made up of at least 50 percent women, says Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter and Minister for Ethnic Communities Jenny Salesa. For the first time, the Government stocktake measures the number of Māori, ...
The Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister and Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Minister, Kris Faafoi, has today announced the appointment of Tristan Gilbertson as the new Telecommunications Commissioner and member of the Commerce Commission. “Mr Gilbertson has considerable experience in the telecommunications industry and a strong reputation amongst his peers,” ...
The Ministry of Education and NZEI Te Riu Roa have agreed to settle the pay equity claim for teacher aides, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. This will see more than 22,000 teacher aides, mostly women, being valued and paid fairly for the work they do. “Teacher aides are frontline ...
Subcontractors will have greater certainty, more cashflow support and job security with new changes to retention payments under the Construction Contracts Act says Minister for Building and Construction, Jenny Salesa. A recent review of the retentions money regime showed that most of the building and construction sector is complying with ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong have marked the first anniversary of the New Zealand-Singapore Enhanced Partnership with a virtual Leaders’ Meeting today. The Enhanced Partnership, signed on 17 May 2019, provides the framework for cooperation across the four main areas of trade, defence and ...
On 17 May 2019, New Zealand and Singapore established an Enhanced Partnership to elevate our relations. The Enhanced Partnership – based on the four pillars of trade and economics, security and defence, science, technology and innovation, and people-to-people links – has seen the long-standing relationship between our countries strengthen over the ...
State-Owned Enterprises Minister Winston Peters has welcomed KiwiRail’s announcement that it is seeking a preferred shipyard to build two new rail-enabled ferries for the Cook Strait crossing. “This Government is committed to restoring rail to its rightful place in New Zealand. Bigger, better ships, with new technology are yet another ...
Better protection for seabirds is being put in place with a new National Plan of Action to reduce fishing-related captures, Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced today. The National Plan of Action for Seabirds 2020 outlines our commitment to reduce fishing-related captures and associated seabird ...
Almost $1 billion in interest-free loans for small businesses More than 55,000 businesses have applied; 95% approved Average loan approx. $17,300 90% of applications from firms with ten or fewer staff A wide cross-section of businesses have applied, the most common are the construction industry, accommodation providers, professional firms, and ...
Thousands of children will have healthier lungs after the Government’s ban on smoking in cars with kids becomes law, says Associate Minister of Health Jenny Salesa. This comes after the third reading of Smoke-free Environments (Prohibiting Smoking in Motor Vehicles Carrying Children) Amendment Bill earlier today. “This law makes it ...
The special Epidemic Response Committee (ERC) has successfully concluded its role, Leader of the House Chris Hipkins said today. The committee was set up on 25 March by the agreement of Parliament to scrutinise the Government and its actions while keeping people safe during levels 4 and 3 of lockdown. ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced four diplomatic appointments: New Zealand’s Ambassador to Belgium, High Commissioners to Nauru and Niue, and Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism. “As the world seeks to manage and then recover from COVID-19, our diplomatic and trade networks are more important than ever,” Mr Peters said. “The ...
New Zealanders will be better protected from online harm through a Bill introduced to Parliament today, says Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin. “The internet brings many benefits to society but can also be used as a weapon to spread harmful and illegal content and that is what this legislation targets,” ...
New Zealand’s world-first plan to eradicate the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis is on track the latest technical data shows, says Agriculture and Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor. “Two years ago the Government, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb New Zealand and industry partners made a bold decision to go hard and commit ...
Further support for New Zealanders affected by 1-in-100 year global economic shock 12-week payment will support people searching for new work or retraining Work programme on employment insurance to support workers and businesses The Government today announced a new temporary payment to support New Zealanders who lose their jobs due ...
The Provincial Growth Fund will play a vital role in New Zealand’s post-COVID-19 recovery by creating jobs in shorter timeframes through at least $600 million being refocused on projects with more immediate economic benefits, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The funding is comprised of repurposed Provincial Growth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government will provide eligible owner-occupiers with a grant of $25,000 to build a new home or extensively renovate an existing one. The scheme – estimated to cost up to $688 million – will not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Purnendra Jain, Adjunct Professor, Asian Studies, University of Adelaide Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will finally hold a virtual summit this week after efforts to meet in person were scuttled by the bushfires and coronavirus. The meeting ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna-Sophie Jürgens, Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Popular Entertainment Studies and Science in Fiction Studies, Australian National University Bloodsucker, leech, tick – few things have a reputation worse than parasites. But these biological hangers-on also have a comic cultural history. In biology, a ...
By RNZ News The organisers of Black Lives Matter protests in several main centres will not be prosecuted. On Monday, thousands gathered at several events around the country for Black Lives Matter marches in solidarity with protesters in the United States after the police killing of George Floyd. The protests ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Fletcher, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington One of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s favourite exhortations is that we all “be kind” to one another. It’s part of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University A go-slow on spending sent the economy backwards 0.3% in the first three months of this year, only the fourth such decline since Australia was last in recession in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Heidi Zimmer, Research associate, Southern Cross University As bushfires blackened forests last summer, one tree species was protected by a specialist team of firefighters: the Wollemi pine. These trees have a deeply ancient lineage dating back to when dinosaurs walked Gondwana 100 ...
Children's Minister Tracey Martin says she was never officially asked to do anything about the Māori-led inquiry into Oranga Tamariki commissioned by Whanau Ora. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Whittaker, Research Fellow, University of Technology Sydney You probably know the details of the death of George Floyd. He was a doting father and musician. He was killed when a police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck for nearly nine ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Greste, Professor of Journalism and Communications, The University of Queensland Here is a line from the latest safety advisory for reporters issued by the US-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ): Taking into account the increased levels of violence ...
Aaron Ironside is the new spokesperson for the Say Nope To Dope campaign. Aaron Ironside rose to prominence in the 1990’s as the anchor of Radio Hauraki’s popular Morning Pirates breakfast show. The young rock DJ fully embraced the Sex, Drugs and ...
AgResearch chairman Dr Paul Reynolds said the Government’s capital contribution of $45 million towards a new education, science and innovation precinct in Lincoln is a huge boost for New Zealand’s COVID 19 recovery plan and the contribution to ...
Dunedin writer Victor Billot on America's "President Cheezel". Go Big or Go Home Prezident Cheezel deletes lockdown, deletes the World Health Organization, deletes the memory of George Floyd, then hunkers in his hunker bunker, hunkers with freedom fries at midnight, a lights out party at the House of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Locke, Research Associate, LCT Centre for Knowledge-Building, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Sydney Prime Scott Morrison last week outlined a plan to create jobs and revitalise the economy post COVID-19. Part of this so-called Jobmaker plan includes an ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Willand, Lecturer, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University Stay-at-home orders and the economic crisis have increased the burden of energy costs on lower-income Australians. Poor housing quality and unequal access to home energy efficiency are hurting our most ...
Jacinda Ardern has unveiled details of the changes New Zealanders can expect when we move from level two to level one. What will it mean for businesses, hospitality and day-to-day life? Level one! At last, life is finally back to normal.Not so fast. We’re still in level two, and will be ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kantha Dayaram, Associate Professor, Curtin University The number of Australians working from home has soared during the COVID-19 crisis. Latest data from the Australian Bureau of Stastistics shows 46% of the workforce worked from home in late April and early May. By ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Economic Life, Economics and EconomismKeith Rankin. When things go wrong with economic life, it’s easy to blame economics; that is, the academic discipline called ‘economics’. We all live economic lives, and use metaphors to give meaning to that amorphous thing we call ‘the economy’ ...
National survey asks New Zealanders If They Support Recognition For the Contribution of Our Service Personnel and their Families The Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association (RSA) said today that it supports the proposal for a Kawenata which is ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says there will still be strict controls on the border, but all current rules and restrictions on businesses and services will be "essentially lifted" under alert level 1. ...
ANALYSIS:By Philip Russo of Monash University The death of African-American man George Floyd at the hands of police has sparked protests across the United States and inspired many people to reflect on our own history of police violence against Indigenous people in Australia and New Zealand. After thousands marched ...
The New Zealand Police Association is supporting the three officers who are now facing manslaughter charges in relation to the death of a man in the Hawera Police Station cells in June last year. Association President Chris Cahill says the officers ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Associate Professor, Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT University As we have been cooped up at home during coronavirus lockdown, reports of image-based abuse have skyrocketed. According to Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, it received more than 1,000 reports of image-based abuse between ...
In the third part of our series with Kiwibank answering your questions about Covid-19’s impact on New Zealanders’ finances, two readers at different ends of their saving journeys ask what to do with their KiwiSaver account. Melissa Vasta, Kiwi Wealth GM retail and product, responds.Hi Melissa, My KiwiSaver ‘growth’ fund has ...
Landlords have been given a break – well, a bit of a break – according to the latest bunch of Beehive pronouncements. Other announcements by the Beehive Bugle Brigade tell us: People wanting to train for employment– or retrain – will be given a helping hand. But funding “will ...
“The Government’s bill to regulate vaping won’t bring New Zealand any closer to its smokefree ambition, unless MPs now get in behind the many submitters and intervene to drive down the country’s smoking rates,” says Jonathan Devery, spokesperson ...
Covid-19 has not stopped a North Island Iwi from continuing to ready itself for a vote this year, that if ratified will be one of the largest Treaty settlement to date. Whakatōhea is located in the eastern Bay of Plenty region centred around ...
New Zealand ranks first in a new global food security index produced by multinational real estate company Savills. The company has compiled its Food Security Index as part of its latest global Impacts research, which looks at the factors shaping the ...
“A huge opportunity has been missed to make risk-reduced vaping products more accessible to smokers in order to reach the SmokeFree 2025 goal set by government,” says Nancy Loucas, Director of the Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA). Her ...
Noel Edmonds is a British TV legend with a 50 year career in broadcasting. So why did he move to Matakana and launch a radio station? Like an over-excited Mr Blobby, Tara Ward gave him a call to find out. When Noel Edmonds answers the phone from his home north ...
New statistics released by the New Zealand Police show Māori were disproportionately subject to police proceedings - including court proceedings and receiving warnings - during March and April, Marc Daalder reports As a debate heats up over racial bias in New Zealand policing, new statistics show that Māori were more ...
The Matariki and Puanga stars are due to rise this month, signalling the Māori New Year. Rehua will set in the west at the exact time Puanga rises. So how do we see them and what are the best dates? With thanks to Matua Rereata Mākiha for We often hear about Matariki ...
Here’s The Spinoff’s weekly round-up of data tracking the effects and response of Covid-19 around the world – and how New Zealand stacks up.Our weekly summaries of data and visualisations use Our World in Data’s work on the Covid-19 pandemic, which is freely available for re-use. Not all data is ...
Pacific Media Centre The Vanuatu Council of Ministers has agreed at its meeting held in Luganville, Santo, to postpone the hosting of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Meeting due in August 2020, reports the Vanuatu Daily Post. The decision followed the recommendations of the National Task Force based on ...
The National Party leader says the Black Lives Matter protests were a mockery of Covid-19 alert levels, but thinks the country should move to alert level 1 now. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wayne Hope, Professor of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology How many media analysts predicted it? In 2018 Australia’s Nine Entertainment absorbed Fairfax Media and its New Zealand subsidiary Stuff. Just under two years later chief executive Sinead Boucher bought Stuff from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Abby Mellick Lopes, Associate Professor, Design Studies, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney Home cooks have been trying out their skills during isolation. But the way food tastes depends on more than your ability to follow a recipe. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jeremy Moss, Professor of Political Philosophy, UNSW Queensland Nationals Senator Matt Canavan on Monday night denied suggestions the government subsidises Australia’s fossil fuel industry. The comments prompted a swift response from some social media users, who cited evidence to the contrary. Canavan ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ralph Sims, Professor, School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, Massey University CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Marshman, Honorary Principal Fellow, Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne Most of Australia’s universities have adequate cash and investment reserves to deal with the immediate impact of a downturn in international student revenue in 2020. But ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sameer Hasija, Associate Professor of Technology and Operations Management, INSEAD “This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away.”– WHO executive director Mike Ryan, May 13 Vaccine or not, we have to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Assistant Professor, School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra Later today we’ll know what the bushfires and the coronavirus did to the economy in the three months to March: whether gross domestic product grew (as is usual) or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dawson, Professor and Chair of Anthropology, University of Melbourne June, 1980, Laibach was formed. Soon, they became the musical wing of the Slovenian arts collective Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK), or New Slovenian Art. Comprising visual artists, theatre companies and a unit ...
"George Floyd was not the first, nor will he be the last, to have been denied his human rights as the police officers murdered him. Their names, overseas and in New Zealand are so many, over so many years, and their stories are all so different ...
The National Party is surprised New Zealand immigration officials didn't consult their Australian counterparts before granting a visa to refugee author Behrouz Boochani. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Strotz, Professor, Northwest University, Xi’an The COVID-19 outbreak has put into stark relief the disruption parasites can cause, both in human society and ecosystems. Researchers have long sought to better understand the evolutionary importance of parasites, to help lessen their impact. ...
More than half of a $30 million emergency welfare fund has been spent in just over a month, and many of those in need are foreigners and migrant workers who can't get a home. ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Significant new support announced for trainees and apprenticeships, more level one detail coming, and long-delayed changes made to ETS.Significant new support has been announced for trainees and apprentices, with thousands of dollars worth of costs being removed for each student. The ...
A Government okay for foreign crews to come here to train is likely shortly, Auckland's Mayor says America's Cup teams' hopes of winning border exemptions to get their crews to Auckland to prepare for next summer's big event should be met soon - with applications under consideration by officials and ...
Can anything stave off 'highly undesirable' cuts to services and projects in Auckland caused by the economic crisis? Will Wellington step in? Tim Murphy reports. For the second time in a year, Auckland Council needs to find half a billion dollars in a hurry to meet its financial commitments. After ...
Sewage fungus, bad smells and insinuations of ignored good faith clauses swirl in a dairy processing wastewater consent application heard in Hamilton last week New Zealand’s second largest dairy processor wants to discharge wastewater into the polluted Waitoa River, including during summer when flows are low. Open Country Dairy’s application for ...
Bubbles, tails, embers, mountains: The PM's deft use of metaphors has helped guide us in the battle to eradicate Covid-19 New Zealand’s success at containing the coronavirus has benefitted from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s clear communication during her daily media briefings. One aspect of what made this effective was her ...
Medical scientist Anona Pak won't let coronavirus wipe out her chances of playing badminton at the Tokyo Olympics, and an innovative national league will keep her on her toes. Two years ago, Anona Pak was playing badminton purely for the love of the game. The thought of representing New Zealand at ...
Former Woman’s Weekly editor Jenny Lynch on the Bauer-exterminated magazine that may yet rise again. It was born in 1932 at the height of the Depression and laid to rest in 2020 the middle of a global pandemic. In the intervening years the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly became a national ...
The country’s coronavirus restrictions might be coming to an end sooner than you think. Justin Giovannetti looks at what level one rules mean for you.Crowded stadiums and restaurants filled to capacity could be reality in New Zealand as soon as next Wednesday as the government eyes an early move to ...
Waitomo is a town built on tourism. But as overseas visitors, who have been flocking to its spectacular network of glow-worm caves for over a century, dry up, the future looks uncertain.More than 130 years ago, the eruption of Mount Tarawera killed an estimated 153 people and buried Te Otukapuarangi ...
Our Prime Minister is lauded overseas for her compassion, but her Cabinet is refusing to properly support tens of thousands of jobless migrants and beneficiaries struggling through the Covid-19 crisis, Bernard Hickey argues Over the last year since the March 15 attacks, our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has become a paragon of virtue for many ...
There's the law; then there's what's right. Our national carrier has been battered with complaints that it's hanging on to customer cash for flights it grounded. Jon Duffy's first week as head of Consumer New Zealand is a memorable one - the consumer watchdog was swamped with complaints from Air ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards The latest opinion poll is out, and it’s more bad news for the National Party, with Roy Morgan putting them on only 26.5% support, against Labour’s 56.5%. You can see the details here: Roy Morgan May opinion poll. Roy Morgan is regarded as less accurate than ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Russo, Associate Professor, Director Cabrini Monash University Department of Nursing Research, Monash University The death of African-American man George Floyd at the hands of police has sparked protests across the United States and inspired many people to reflect on our own ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney I can’t breathe, please! Let me up, please! I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe! These words are not the words of George Floyd or Eric Garner. They weren’t uttered on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roberto Musotto, Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre Postdoctoral Fellow, Edith Cowan University Alongside growing concerns over a possible resurgence of the coronavirus during winter, the pandemic is now creating even more victims as cybercriminals aim to capitalise on the economic upheaval. According ...
Open mike 04/05/2020 
74 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Surface-Energy-Balance Closure over Land: A Review (open access) Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Human influence has intensified extreme precipitation in North America (open access) Observation-derived ice growth curves show patterns and trends in maximum ice thickness and ...2 hours ago
Last month I noted that the public policy debate was all about how we deal with covid-19. That’s changing now, and will change more over the next couple of months as the buffering impact of the wage subsidy disappears and we see starkly the economic hole out of which we ...7 hours ago
The mission of the New Zealand Police is to make this country the safest nation in the world. To achieve that aim, there is one important step the police need to take at the end of this month. When the evaluation of the Armed Response Teams’ trial is completed, the ...7 hours ago
Bernard Hickey is one of New Zealand’s leading financial journalists. His latest article, published by Newsroom, lays bare the cruel treatment of hundreds of thousands of workers stranded since the lockdown. Our Prime Minister is lauded overseas for her compassion, but her Cabinet is refusing to properly support tens of ...12 hours ago
For a good part of my adult life I have studied civil-military relations. I have studied authoritarian and democratic variants, and I have studied them across countries and regions. I have also worked in and with several US security agencies and have lectured on the theme at a number of ...15 hours ago
The CTU is planning to mount a campaign to double sick leave, from 5 to 10 days a year. Good. We've all just had an extremely strong reminder of the need to stay at home when sick, and of the effectiveness of doing so (the lockdown, social distancing, and responsible ...16 hours ago
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz If we stopped oil, gas and coal extraction immediately – ...19 hours ago
by The Spark “The system is broken”—the words of a young black man in Minneapolis watching flames destroy a police precinct demonstrators had torched. Broken? Yes, it is! What else could you say about a system whose police for nine minutes casually knelt on a black man’s neck, watching until ...1 day ago
Minneapolis Police StationIf you’ve been keeping an eye on recent events in the United States, you’ll likely understand why there’s so much anger on the streets at the moment. Not only did police officers murder another black man; it is patently obvious that authorities initially attempted to cover up George ...2 days ago
Like the rest of the world, I have been aghast at what I have seen of, and read and heard about, what is happening currently in the United States. It seems incredible that a once great country should be suffering the worst effects and the highest number of deaths worldwide ...3 days ago
Image credit: Writing an Article vs. Writing a Blog Post: What’s the Difference? I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is ... 3 days ago
It’s almost painful to watch. Let’s be honest, maybe a pleasure too, in some quarters, but painful nonetheless. Because the fact is, for a democracy to function properly, any sitting Government does need honest and proper Opposition so that it doesn’t get ahead of itself. That’s what we should ...5 days ago
SATURDAY MAY 30Six60: Live at Western Springs 2020 (TVNZ 1, 8.45pm). Remember live concerts? The day will come again, friends, when we will be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in an uncomfortable sweaty venue with people we don’t know. It will happen. Sometimes the sound of concerts drifts over to the ...6 days ago
6 days ago
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...1 week ago
age credit: Science and Politics – Skeptically.org It seems impossible to keep politics out of science. It’s a pity because politics can end up forcing science to produce the results desired by ... 1 week ago
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First is disappointed that the removal of the spousal deductions has had to be delayed by the Ministry fo Social Development, due to COVID19 workload pressures. “New Zealand First has always stood for fairness when it comes to superannuation ...2 days ago
It's been a busy seven days as we start to rebuild New Zealand together. From delivering extra support for small businesses, to investing in our artists and arts organisations, to cutting red tape on home DIY projects, we're rolling out our plan to get the economy and New Zealand moving ...2 days ago
“Today and every day we stand in solidarity with George Floyd’s family, friends and community who feel pain and fear about his untimely death at the hands of Minneapolis police”, said Green Party Co-leader and Māori Development spokesperson Marama Davidson. ...3 days ago
Young people in Waikato will be the first to have free access to period products in schools in another step to support children and young people in poverty,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. During term 3, the Ministry of Education will begin providing free period products to schools following the ...14 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government will provide eligible owner-occupiers with a grant of $25,000 to build a new home or extensively renovate an existing one. The scheme – estimated to cost up to $688 million – will not ...4 hours ago
A new bill has forest owners fuming, but it could be the tip of the iceberg for them if NZ First are re-elected to Government ...8 hours ago
Children's Minister Tracey Martin says she was never officially asked to do anything about the Māori-led inquiry into Oranga Tamariki commissioned by Whanau Ora. ...11 hours ago
...12 hours ago
The mantra for economic and social change in the wake of Covid-19 is strong, but it is not yet clear whether it will amount to much ...13 hours ago
Dunedin writer Victor Billot on America's "President Cheezel". Go Big or Go Home Prezident Cheezel deletes lockdown, deletes the World Health Organization, deletes the memory of George Floyd, then hunkers in his hunker bunker, hunkers with freedom fries at midnight, a lights out party at the House of ...13 hours ago
Jacinda Ardern has unveiled details of the changes New Zealanders can expect when we move from level two to level one. What will it mean for businesses, hospitality and day-to-day life? Level one! At last, life is finally back to normal.Not so fast. We’re still in level two, and will be ...14 hours ago
Landlords have been given a break – well, a bit of a break – according to the latest bunch of Beehive pronouncements. Other announcements by the Beehive Bugle Brigade tell us: People wanting to train for employment– or retrain – will be given a helping hand. But funding “will ...16 hours ago
New statistics released by the New Zealand Police show Māori were disproportionately subject to police proceedings - including court proceedings and receiving warnings - during March and April, Marc Daalder reports As a debate heats up over racial bias in New Zealand policing, new statistics show that Māori were more ...18 hours ago
After dodging HNA's bullet from China thanks to an OIO block, ANZ finally sells UDC for $762m to Japan's BBB+-rated Shinsei Bank ...22 hours ago
A Government okay for foreign crews to come here to train is likely shortly, Auckland's Mayor says America's Cup teams' hopes of winning border exemptions to get their crews to Auckland to prepare for next summer's big event should be met soon - with applications under consideration by officials and ...22 hours ago
Can anything stave off 'highly undesirable' cuts to services and projects in Auckland caused by the economic crisis? Will Wellington step in? Tim Murphy reports. For the second time in a year, Auckland Council needs to find half a billion dollars in a hurry to meet its financial commitments. After ...22 hours ago
Sewage fungus, bad smells and insinuations of ignored good faith clauses swirl in a dairy processing wastewater consent application heard in Hamilton last week New Zealand’s second largest dairy processor wants to discharge wastewater into the polluted Waitoa River, including during summer when flows are low. Open Country Dairy’s application for ...23 hours ago
Bubbles, tails, embers, mountains: The PM's deft use of metaphors has helped guide us in the battle to eradicate Covid-19 New Zealand’s success at containing the coronavirus has benefitted from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s clear communication during her daily media briefings. One aspect of what made this effective was her ...23 hours ago
Medical scientist Anona Pak won't let coronavirus wipe out her chances of playing badminton at the Tokyo Olympics, and an innovative national league will keep her on her toes. Two years ago, Anona Pak was playing badminton purely for the love of the game. The thought of representing New Zealand at ...23 hours ago
Former Woman’s Weekly editor Jenny Lynch on the Bauer-exterminated magazine that may yet rise again. It was born in 1932 at the height of the Depression and laid to rest in 2020 the middle of a global pandemic. In the intervening years the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly became a national ...23 hours ago
Our Prime Minister is lauded overseas for her compassion, but her Cabinet is refusing to properly support tens of thousands of jobless migrants and beneficiaries struggling through the Covid-19 crisis, Bernard Hickey argues Over the last year since the March 15 attacks, our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has become a paragon of virtue for many ...24 hours ago
There's the law; then there's what's right. Our national carrier has been battered with complaints that it's hanging on to customer cash for flights it grounded. Jon Duffy's first week as head of Consumer New Zealand is a memorable one - the consumer watchdog was swamped with complaints from Air ...24 hours ago
Happy Star Wars Day! 🙂
May the fourth be with you, too.
The problem with universal payments is that scum may be eligible for them as well: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/121359471/coronavirus-wealthy-liqour-store-barons-claim-550k-covid19-wage-subsidy
It goes to their staff.
Audit the hell out of them to make sure because of their past practises, but this is how welfare should be operated.
I agree. There will always be some bad apples but that does not invalidate the whole scheme. May be a challenge we see to UBI.
When I became eligible for superannuation I got a sense of how UBI would motivate those who strive – which actually is most of us. "Scum" is getting welfare now anyway so nothing changes there. What changes with UBI (and in my case now with superannuation) , is the ability to get ahead, to "get the foot in the door."
The other point I like about UBI is that we are all recognised as equal, nothing has to be qualified, justified, or scutinised, We are all recognised as equal and are valued at the point of adulthood. From there it is over to the individual to take the opportunity to run with it or to sit back in the sun and become "scum," or as most of us would, do just get on with life in a constructive way.
UBI would be a much more economic to administrate than the many headed monsters that ACC and social welfare have become.
UBI should be available to all New Zealand born citizens.
[lprent: I removed the double up for you. ]
Ahhhh the miracle of turning 65 when you magically go from bloodsucking scum to deserving recipient who has paid taxes all your life.
It's as magic as caterpillars turning into butterflies or water into wine.
There are some special ones though who despite not having paid taxes all their lives in New Zealand want to get both a full NZ pension and keep their overseas one on top of. They are really extra special those ones – presumably cause the specifically chose to retire here – they have magic wings.
Hi Janet
I absolutely agree with the UBI but need to point out:
Overseas pensions – you can choose either but not both.
DoS – you seem to believe that you can both, NZ and OS pension but I reassure you, you cant.
If you are receiving a pension from overseas and opted for the NZ one the former is being paid to the NZ Government. We are talking some 18 billion per annum here that goes into the consolidated fund.
How will this work if you are a permanent resident and worked in NZ 30 odd years contributing possibly more than some not so keen to work? Is it better to keep the overseas pension and what does this say about the status of being a permanent (not so permanent after decades?) resident. There are many reasons why people opt for not taking up citizenship. It does not have to be parochial. Fuel for thought.
UBI payable to Permanent Resident – this needs to be reviewed in the same way as its done with the pension and pegged against minimum years of tax contribution perhaps?
No UBI should be paid for people not living here and have just bought their way into NZ. Millions buy you a seat at the table kind of process.
Some fairness needs to be introduced and some serious thought put into this.
Generally, the UBI would be more efficient to administer.
People need to be prepared to get tax number and registration with the IRD as soon as they turn 18 (?).
"DoS – you seem to believe that you can both, NZ and OS pension but I reassure you, you cant."
Nope you can't but I was referring to all the lobbying that goes on to make this possible as if they were hard done by.
"If you are receiving a pension from overseas and opted for the NZ one the former is being paid to the NZ Government. We are talking some 18 billion per annum here that goes into the consolidated fund."
While you have said opted you still don't fairly represent the position. In essence if you have lived and worked for part of your life in two countries you will often be entitled to a pension in both countries. in essence a part pension for the time you worked in NZ and a part pension for the time you worked overseas. This means you are not advantaged over someone who ha actually lived and worked in New Zealand and contributed taxes for their entire life. You can get a NZ pension if you have lived here for 10 years.
So it is possible that you could have left home and worked overseas at 18 – which many of my peers did especially to the UK, worked there til 55 then returned and lived here til 65. So 37 years of your working life was in the UK and 10 here (if indeed you worked). 37 years of a UK pension is a decent amount.
The standard practise is to have your overseas pension calculated and then top up to the full NZS pension if your overseas pension is less than the NZ one. This will vary on a regular basis due to exchange rates etc and according to my father-in-law was bloody annoying. He was amongst those who lobbied some years ago now to have a simple system that people could opt into. His UK pension wasn't particularly large as he had only spent a small portion of his working life in the UK. You can choose to make the administration easier select to have your UK pension paid to the government and receive a full NZS pension.
It's incorrect to suggest the government takes your pension and puts it in the consolidated fund.You would have only ever been paid the difference between the two pensions so there is no net gain for the government or the consolidated fund. It's just easier administratively to have created that option for everyone.
For 10 years working in the UK you'd get not a lot from their government. We're pretty generous already.
Previous articles suggested the offenders had committed to no longer being employers, by selling their liquour store.
I guess their greed outed them again, then.
They just parted ways with Super Liquor and rebranded under a new corporate structure.
Pigs at the trough. And in light of some contributions on a thread yesterday (I think maybe McFlock and Red), it never ceases to amaze me how some, who profess they follow religious guidance (of whatever religion) will selectively focus on a particular aspect to justify their antics – in this case the idea of 'self-reliance'. These greedy, status-seeking blokes are apt to forget the 5 Virtues and have well and truly signed up the 5 Thieves instead! Nanak would be rolling in his grave – probably let alone their own grandfathers. And these arseholes probably justify it all by thinking that they probably had to go through similar shit when they were starting out. And if they thought about it in any depth, 'self reliance' is actually the last thing they'e up to – taking handouts, ripping off others for their own personal gain, and then trying to justify it by wanking on about how they 'give back'. There are one or two politicians who operate in similar fashion.
I repeat btw, that its not limited to their particular religious belief (i.e. the selectivity in the aspects they use in order to justify their actions)
These pirates should be audited with extreme prejudice, particularly given their penchant for shafting their workers. I would be incredibly suspicious of that money being used appropriately. (There's a fancy mansion to complete and green fees to pay.) They're obviously awash with remorse for their previous actions.
"These pirates should be audited with extreme prejudice……."
Indeed! And not just by WINZ or whichever agency has provided the money, but IRD and others as well. But that won't necessary stop a few others from taking the risk to do likewise. You'll find that not only have these greedy, status-seeking, arrogant arseholes ripped people off, but they've lied to them repeatedly as well by way of false promises and what is effectively bondage – slavery even.
And if we really don't want to see this sort of thing as a feature of the future, we'd go further: Things like offering an amnesty to a few of their former employees and even PR if necessary – a sufficient number to ensure a successful prosecution. There are a few people around that'd be able to assist in tracing those employees if the appropriate agencies don't feel they're up to the job.
I really have to stop myself from beginning a rave, but the damage they do is far worse than they imagine because at times like this, it allows people's prejudices to seemingly become justified: Tarring everyone of like bretheren with the same brush (I've seen it often such as the "us" lecturing on how "they" are ripping off "their own"); ensuring the next/younger generations from becoming utterly cynical of the positive values this religion (but others as well) espouse – even though I'm basically agnostic tending (oops – pivoting) atheist.
No different though than those that religiously espouse "Good, Wholeseome Family Values" that think family, child and sexual abuse is quite OK (as long as its done in private) …. from the Capills and others, to the tithing Tamakis, or the 'exceptional' followers of Islam who are perfectly prepared to gruesomely murder others of the faith.
There's probably a chemical cure for most of them – it'd probably involve massive doses of oestrogen, but suffice to say these two are well-versed in Kaam, Krodh, Lobh, Moh and Hankaar – AND its a matter of record. I'm kind of wondering if a "kind and transformational" gummint is up to the challenge of facing them down through the various agencies and their supposed capabilities they have. I suspect not – but maybe in the fullness of time ("in this space, going forward")
Manufacturing returning to NZ: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/prosper/121177344/coronavirus-manufacturing-can-be-the-backbone-the-covid19-economic-recovery
Then lets look forward to F&P bringing their manufacturing back home!
Further processing of our all primary products, wood, wool, meat , hides, horticultural, fish and the return to the making of medical products from our primary products like thyroxine as Glaxo used to do, would be a logical manufacturing re- development and development!
Will not make sense for all firms. Both the F&P companies must remain focused on overseas markets to be viable (and have shifted manufacturing closer to those) and one is not even NZ-owned anymore.
I see a piece in Ozzie daily 'the age' quoting soimon, Gisborne mayor and no one else whining on about lockdown levels.
JA has her work cut out.
Isn't that a Murdoch rag?
The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times and Stuff are all owned by Channel 9 (Australian). Personally, I find the Ozzie variants better researched with better comments than Stuff. Think there is a bit of cross Tasman rivalry going on in Oz and there have been a few poorly written articles about NZ's response to Covid-19. Not matched by the NZ equivalents.
I see our Sith African Mayor here in Gisbo, capital of Maori NZ, wants to push on. Oh, to have the virtue of obliviousness. Or, the straight path to National MPdom. I can't remember the particularities of our present MP's unawareness of others, except all we fellow Napier exiles refuse to vote for her, in her Ohope homestead. So much we can get away with, or National.
Michael Reddell has another go at it, on Spinoff this time: "Successful economies tend to be ones where foreign trade – exports and imports – is rising as a share of GDP: especially for small countries the wider world is where most of the potential markets are. In New Zealand, the foreign trade share has hardly changed since about 1980, and has been falling this century – the peak years of the latest wave of globalisation. We were once among the most successful trading nations in the world – matched by really high living standards for the times – but no longer. Ministers and officials like to talk about the numerous preferential trade deals they sign, but the data tell their own story." https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/04-05-2020/rebuilding-a-shattered-economy-in-a-post-covid-world/
Running to stand still for 40 years gives us a good idea of the merit of all the macho business thrusters we had to endure the propanda from during Rogernomics & Ruthenasia. Nothing much heard from our right-wing thinktanks in recent years along those lines though, nor now. Zero from our sole left-wing thinktank.
Michael's point about the contrast between all the media hoop-la surrounding our foreign ministers signing trade deals, and the consequent lack of any bump in foreign trade earnings, shows just how much our media are captivated by froth not substance.
“When the economy is going backwards, when there is little appetite by firms to invest, and a strong precautionary motive to save, we need the OCR to be quite deeply negative for a time.” Nudge.
We were the "most successful trading nation " when we only had one customer, the UK, with butter, cheese and meat because it was desperately short of protein and wool for the mills for clothing. The price of wool was artificially high because of the Korean War at famously " a pound a pound " when average wages in NZ were about 5 Pound a week, that made wool about $180 a pound in todays money. Wool is probably about 12-15 dollars a pound today.
I have a grocery bill of my parents from 1950 and butter and milk even heavily subsidised as they were then, were a lot more expensive than now.
Having only one customer who takes all you can produce at huge prices only makes you "successful "in a limited sense.
to Adrian at 5:1 : Sorry Adrian …. milk was 4d a pint albeit subsidised. I know because had four children from 1955 < , my husband and I drank milk because cheaper than tea ( coffee a rarity then). Therefore we consumed 10 pints a day for years, allowing milk vendor to accept a cheque monthly rather than so much cash ( yes 40d was well worth pinching!) each day.
And in 1963/4 when i was flatting, a leg of lamb was 7 and 6d.
crikey that's impressive memory and track record.
good to have on this site.
Coarse wool ( which is most wool not off a merino) is about $2.80 a kg at the moment.
Not old enough to remember the fifties, but growing up in the sixties, my parents, with one earner, on less than half the average wage at the time, were able to buy 6 pints of milk daily, plenty of bread and other food, and put a lamb roast to feed at least eight, on the table every Sunday.
People on similar income, from two earners today, would be paying half their weekly food budget, after rent, for one roast.
In the '60's NZ was still being propped up by the UK. Today we have no such safety net.
You mean we were selling them quality produce, in return for their shoddy manufactured goods. Little has changed, apart from the countries we are selling to.
I would have a good think about which country was "propping up" the other, if I were you?
We were selling them quality produce in return for foreign exchange. The UK basically provided our high standard of living. They didn't need us at all. As for their ‘shoddy’ goods, you have a very short memory. Remember Tri-Ang, Corgi and Meccano toys, Morris and Austin motor cars, the Beatles (and hundreds of others). They did very well by the world did the UK.
I remember 2 shillings for a pound of butter and a shilling for a loaf of bread. 4 pence for a pint of milk. Nine pence for a seat in local movie theatre. Lamb was cheap and chickens only for special occasions.
2 cents (thats right, cents ) for a pint of milk…mind you wages were equally low.
It is important to remember that when this 'regime' was in place we had a very compressed remuneration structure which included a top tax rate of 60 cents in the dollar….and capital controls. Some of the solutions from the past are relevant….as are some of the lifestyle impacts.
Hi Denis, follow the money….
Look who was talking about "predators" in 1994
Starts at the 0:30 mark….
Speaking of manufacturing, the past and future and wool.
It is such a great fibre and massively undervalued.
The rise of the plastic/fossil fuel based clothing has to have reached its peak. Surely a clever marketing crowd can put that message across.
Unsustainable vs organic. Foreign sourced vs made in Aotearoa.
All the different businesses/people that would be involved. Farmers, shearers, science (R&D), manufacturing….
Combined with a hemp product it would be unstoppable.
we've been trying for 50 years without success
Cheap plastic vs expensive bespoke organic fibres
A choice few can afford
Boots theory?..we seem to have lost the ability to apply it.
But you are right to observe that price will be even more of a factor in the current environment.
So here's how the Democrats are trying to impress voters: "government programs in the United States—even those supported by the purportedly pro-government party—are not designed to solve problems. Rather, they are designed to solve a given problem only to a degree—and that degree can’t require an amount of spending that would necessitate financial sacrifice on the part of high-income taxpayers. This is not a leftist conspiracy theory, but the overt position of the party’s leaders, who believe they will not be able to achieve crucial voting margins in upscale suburbs if they authorize too much taxation and spending." https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/04/coronavirus-stimulus-failures-hit-professional-class.html?via=features
"To put it cynically, the job of much Democratic legislation is to make liberal voters of means feel good that something is being done for the less fortunate, not necessarily to actually do that thing."
"Some people might really benefit, but the process of doing so will be time-consuming and byzantine, and will only affect their overall life situation at the margins. (Consider the “free college in New York state” program that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo often takes credit for starting. Seventy percent of those who apply to the program are rejected—and it doesn’t cover the costs of housing or class materials, but you also can’t participate in it if you’re a part-time student, i.e., someone who needs to work on the side to cover the costs of housing and class materials. During his 2018 reelection campaign Cuomo belittled his opponent’s proposal to raise taxes on incomes over $1 million a year and called it a political “nonstarter.”)"
"Voters who might need better benefits have the choice of either accepting these as the best they can get or not voting at all, because the other party wants new programs to be inadequate on purpose—and wants to cut back the ones that do work, like Social Security and Medicare—so as to “incentivize” individuals to work harder to get a job or to get a better job or to save more. The choice is between drowning gradually or all at once."
But hey, Democrats are the progressive option, apparently. "“Our constituents have a lot of questions about where the hell this $3 trillion is going and why it isn’t coming into their pockets,” Pennsylvania Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon told Politico in an article about rank-and-file Democratic backlash against the party’s limited stimulus efforts."
Zero!
Zero new cases today!
WOOT!
Downside of that: those sociopaths who ignore the rules will get new recruits. Did you see those figures for the number of parties on saturday night complained about? Plenty of folks have a `been there, done that' attitude to social distancing…
either we will have a spike in infections which will be traceable to those parties and we go back to L4 and people learn to stop being dicks, or we don't have a spike because the curve was sufficiently flattened and we carry on figuring it all out as we go along and some people politicise the issue and we go back to the old macho politics (except Labour are in charge, with St Jacinda at the helm, lol).
I'll raise a glass to New Zealand. Well done
Then several glasses to JA and AB
I agree with this man and so does my wife!
Lovely Beef Stroganoff tonight thankyou Sanctuary.
We just celebrated too! Extra treats for lunch and I've knocked over my last bottle of Corona!
My partner said "Guess how many we got today" and I could just hear the zero answer in her voice.
28 days of this 0.00 and I'll be getting the champers out of the fridge. I'm picking that we may stay at level 3 until after the queens birthday weekend.
Saw some figures way back (for Aus) which indicted that lockdown compliance needed to be 70% or above to reduce transmission – we look like we went through level 4 in the high 90's – which makes the track to 0.00 faster. So if level 3 means we have dropped but are still above 70% we will get there but the more compliance the quicker.
Time to roll out the ad campaigns " play to the whistle" , " game not over yet" "fancy going to the beach this summer?" – make it really clear that we are close to full time but need that extra push just to get us there
Yes – brilliant. Now the plan to ensure that in those sectors of the economy that aren't coming back, nobody is left behind. The plan to ensure that after everybody has put in the effort, the result isn't that some people get to make out economically like bandits, while others go to the wall.
Hong Kong had zero for last two days,and 14 days with no local infection (cases being repatriation flights)
Clearly not a case of location.
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3082640/coronavirus-hong-kong-records-no-new-cases-sunday
A NZ doctor was responsible for HK's pandemic readiness as they had previous experience with Sars early 2,000's.
Taiwan no other countries were as well prepared.
A NZ doctor was responsible for HK's pandemic readiness as they had previous experience with Sars early 2,000's.
Taiwan and HK no other countries were as well prepared.
Desperate blame game rather lame
The PM working her magic again. Unusual times for sure, but this suggests her stance on AUS/NZ relations has not been as damaging as some alarmists on the right would have us believe.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300003988/jacinda-ardern-to-join-australian-national-cabinet-on-tuesday
I wonder if they'll seat her next to Dutton?
Fortunately for Ardern the meeting is a phone in, but an interesting turn of events all the same. It's my sense that quite a few Australian politicians are quietly grateful that Ardern has paved the way for SloMo to follow.
But the outcome is a good one, both countries have responded magnificently so far, at least to the best extent you might reasonably imagine. It’s set the stage for a major trans-Tasman refresh.
There are scarcely two nations on earth more tightly linked socially and economically, but we've allowed the political relationship to drift. This may well be a good chance to reset the politics, because I think in this coming unsettled decade we are going to need the relationship working at full strength.
Yes of course, a virtual meeting.
Certainly a common adversary helps focus common interests. If they get this trans tasman bubble working it could strengthen ties even further with each others citizens boosting badly damaged tourism sectors.
Australia's deportation policy is still a massive issue though.
Yes. The trick to sorting that issue will be getting the Australian public and politicians to start putting a higher value on their unique relationship with NZ. Ardern has raised our credibility enormously over here, almost everyone we have spoken with is aware of our govt's bold and gutsy approach. They respect that.
lol @ "SloMo" … their PMs are always good nickname fodder 😂
More seriously, there are stumbling blocks that both nations need to face up to in order to normalise & strengthen relations. Citizenship, border security, foreign policy, the FIRE sector, workers rights
I don’t think it’s so much that we’ve let the relationship drift on our side. It’s more a case of Australia thinking they have bigger fish to fry as they reach for middle-power status. At any rate, if this is a reset it’s welcome.
I think Scomo wants to bask in the positive "halo" effect around Jacinda. She's had a lot of good publicity so he may be wanting some of it to rub off on him. Suspect he needs it. Next Mike Pence will be wanting a phone in!!?
Mike Pants would be more likely to institute a trade war.
"this suggests her stance on AUS/NZ relations has not been as damaging as some alarmists on the right would have us believe."
Too many hilariously bad takes to choose from, especially after Ardern's last trip across the Tasman, where (shock!) a NZ PM spoke up for NZ. Here's one of the classics …
"Should she be returned to power, a prospect that looks remote, Jacinda Ardern has almost zero likelihood of a rapprochement with our PM." (The Australian, March 5 2020 – emphasis added).
(it's subscription only, but you can copy/Google the quote)
That says it all really doesn’t it? They’ve spent the last 3 years convinced she was just some weird aberration and that normal service would resume. Frankly I’m happy if they continue to underestimate her.
TDB's got a good appraisal of the reeferendum: "under this model almost everyone wins. Access to cannabis will be legal yet controlled, medical access gets easier and cheaper, current providers aren’t locked out and can go legal, social equity provisions are built in, overseas corporates are blocked, micro cultivators have a place, sales taxes support increased health and education and don’t just disappear to a general government fund, our police get better things to do, and people will have legal options other than alcohol." https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/05/04/cannabis-referendum-bills-recipe-for-success/
"A Yes vote will take away money and influence from organised crime, and it will reduce the dominance of our alcohol industry, and the pharma trade won’t be part of this. There won’t be cannabis stores on every corner. There won’t be a Big Cannabis industry. and imports won’t be allowed. Vertical integration will be banned, and advertising prohibited, so those who banked on a big corporate approach may be ruing their bets. Instead, this model supports local growers, producers and small businesses."
"The parties that make up the current Government have pledged to make the result binding. They’ve put forward the Bill, so they’re obviously supportive of it. Notably, the final version of the Bill has not backtracked on any parts of the earlier draft."
I'm surprised & pleased by the constructive collaboration of NZF. Well done, all involved in the process!
I seem to recall that in the early days of debate about legalisation especially in regard to medicinal cannabis that Grey Power (or a significant part of them) were strongly in favour, so this may have something to do with NZF's attitude.
So they should be. They were all smoking it, back in the day.
not just back in the day. you would be surprised how much gets used in places like waikanae beach.
Not really surprised.
See the hypocrisy around me almost every day. Employers complaining about young employees doping and drinking. They would never have passed a drug test, back in their day.
Personally I think permitting one entity to control 20% (one-fifth) of the market is too much, This should be reduced to 10-15%.
It's also a shame about the gummy bears….
Yeah I'm with you on reducing the possibility of cartel formation like petrol retailers, but I assume the regulator will keep an eye on that tendency. Unlike the USA, we are small enough a democracy that regulator-capture isn't obviously happening.
Yet Mullah Bob al-McCroskie of the Christian Taliban is still not happy. If he had his way, people with a spliff in their pocket would be publicly flogged in Aotea Square.
Let those without a skin cast the first stone(er).
Take heed of the fate of Oedipus.😉
what is it with powermad christians and flogging ? isnt he the loving father who wants to relegalise giving your kids a love punch?
Remember RussiaGate?
A wee while back the case against the IRA was dropped, and now we find out that the outgoing administration, through the FBI, deliberately set up Flynn on minor crimes of process which they then used to puff up their whole Russia conspiracy crap.
Farrar watch:
David reduced to complaining about Hezbollah and their possible influence in New Zealand.
Dd you expect him to headline a certain poll?
With his 400 commenters a blog.
But the lack of those involved anymore in current events and their alienation from organised society in the Rogernomics era is just an open door to bullshit, and the Right has the copyright on that.
Simon's been quiet after today's announcements. Perhaps Crosby Textor have advised him not to jump on the soap-box so soon this time.
The craft industry has promise, based on a long tradition of quality and uniqueness and I'm hoping will continue the Covid 19 rebirth of knitting and other handcrafts. The luxury goods market will not die. A hand knitted item from locally grown, spun and dyed fibres posted to a status conscious consumer overseas with cash to spend and rellies and friends to impress or gift could be a nice little earner.
https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/discover/research/crafting-aotearoast
Blood test today, what a nightmare, queue in the rain, people pushing past to front, maybe texted because its their turn. No staff long wait. In and out same tiny entry. If it was a burger bar would be shut down, Privatisation, lowest tender wins, all for profit. I should have flagged it but its a time dependant test.
"In other words many businesses – whether S&P 500 companies or small and medium-sized enterprises – will be rendered insolvent by the pandemic. No amount of liquidity, however, cheap, will avert that fate.
There are estimates that about 16 per cent of US listed companies either couldn’t cover their interest costs or barely covered them even before the crisis has cost them months of lost cash flow.
With the likelihood that any recovery will be slow and halting rather than the "V-shaped" recovery US markets had been pricing in since March 23, it is probable that the pandemic will cut swathes through corporate and Main Street America, along with similar impacts, albeit to differing degrees, on the rest of the world’s economies."
https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/bandaids-not-cures-the-economic-reality-of-the-pandemic-may-have-set-in-for-investors-20200504-p54pki.html
Hey, Chris Findlayson, remember that time you let Police exercise power over Nicky Hager without the legal authority to do so?
Right underneath Nicky Hager, who seemed to be the start and finish of the Prime Minister’s security concerns.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/05/coronavirus-troubling-arrests-during-lockdown-undermine-rule-of-law-in-new-zealand-former-attorney-general.html
People like Tinkerbell are really over reacting here. Making it sound like people are being snatched off the streets to be never seen again.
Starting to get other changes being made without full scrutiny – immigration, RMA
Bit of a worry
RIA
"In fact, nobody upheld the public-health interventions as long as they should have. San Francisco reduced mortality by at least 25% – the highest rate among US cities. But, rather than reinforcing its commitment to its interventions, this success led the city to cancel its restrictions in November; a second, much deadlier wave of infections followed in December and January. Had San Francisco sustained its social-distancing rules for longer, the National Academy of Sciences estimates, it could have cut the death toll by 95%."
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/04/how-to-avoid-a-w-shaped-global-coronavirus-recession
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” George Santayana famously quipped in 1905….. all those clamouring for level 2 and trans tasman travel might want to consider such.
Pat Science and truth is better than politicians and BS
Science and truth are also superior to business self interest and deception…the question is , where do those making the decisions stand?
Kia Ora The Am Show.
Global warming is still having big negative effects yet we still don't have efficient plans to minimise Global warming.
We are lucky to have the 21st century commutation devices to help businesses function during isolation there are many ways to make money using the Internet.?????.
That's is cool a company making a more cost effective ventilator in Aotearoa.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
That would be good tourists travel between Australia and Aotearoa.
I think our tamariki will be safe going back to school.
We had big thunder storm last night.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
It good seeing tangata moving back to their whenua.
Chur bro great mahi.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora The Am Show.
That's is cool that person gifting $100 dollar notes. The people that needed it would take the money.
That's correct climate change will make some countries very hostile to lives outside of air conditioned building.
That's a good video.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Newshub.
I would not gamble like Sweden is with people lives.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
I think that our government will help Maori through these hard times.
I quite like Troy's waita
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora The Am Show.
Its great to see grass roots sports getting a funding boost.
Regenerative Agriculture will be a great way to protect our environment for the many generation to come and create more mahi
Ka kite Ano