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6:00 am, August 5th, 2020 - 108 comments
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Winston tells Luke Malpass about working with the Greens, then throws a curve ball at China:
You can imagine Twyford freaking out: "Hey, nobody told me the cost of the project would have to be calculated!"
Xi has obviously told his foreign minister that explaining the meaning of the agreement would take too long. Understandable. Words in such documents tend to mean different things to different people and even getting regime officials to agree would be hard enough, let alone foreigners!
Ardern, if re-elected, may have to give some thought to whether the thing has substance or not. She could see it as a useful ruse to lull everyone into thinking Aotearoa is China-friendly…
Yes i can totally see that consulting with one's party is something totally alien to Winston.
Lol.
Winston's "there's one good Green, the rest are useless" is the same ploy as National's "Jacinda's good but the rest are useless". Mind you, it's common knowledge that in NZFirst, Tracey Martin is good and the rest are useless
hahaha.
We can't say the same about National 😉
Greens have been opposing business as usual for more than half a century now. In civilised countries where non-violence is the cultural norm, activism has only an economic cost usually. Elsewhere, it's life or death:
Air pollution has major effects on health in New Zealand
In 2016, air pollution from human-made PM10 was associated with an estimated [4]:
https://www.ehinz.ac.nz/indicators/air-quality/health-effects-of-air-pollution/
A silver lining of Level 4 lockdown was a huge drop in measured air pollution in our major centres.
Serious question.
A silver lining of Level 4 lockdown was a huge drop in measured air pollution
How many of us would be willing to go into occasional Level -4 type Lockdown solely for the purpose of reducing air pollution?
Pre-planned, I would.
I really do wish those figures got more air-time. Maybe then people would realise that owning and driving a personal car pretty much equates to purposefully killing people and that it may actually be themselves.
Deconstructing Jonathan Swan's interview of President Corrupt. Conman. Traitor. Deranged. Dotard. that featured at least 17 lies in 35 minutes:
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/04/politics/fact-check-jonathan-swan-axios-hbo-interview-trump-coronavirus/index.html
Sample reactions:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-yo-semites_n_5f297faac5b68fbfc8884637
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-axios-interview_n_5f290ee6c5b656e9b09fc1ec
Meanwhile, over in the bearded-sky-fairy segment of the Cult of the Tinyfingers Twittertwat, one of the head acolytes is letting it all hang out.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jerry-falwell-jr-pants-unzipped_n_5f28f0b1c5b68fbfc88716ba
What a disappointment and a wasted opportunity. The "Falling into a coma" post was all too accurate, it seems.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/a-2nd-term-pm-for-crises-and-the-status-quo
Her approach is also the best way to splinter the right, and it's working.
As many here like to point out we operate under a MMP environment splintering the right doesn’t matter as long as the right is growing which at this point is debatable
It appears it may be shrinking the right – which is more valuable than splintering it. There are trade-offs though: if you shrink the right by becoming it, have you really shrunk it? Anyway, it's early days yet.
That is why we need the Greens, to balance the new centre right.
A conservative approach from this Government would ordinarily be reason to criticise them, but these are not ordinary times. Gnawing at Labour's leg for not completing promised programmes would be fine under ordinary circumstances, but COVID 19 changed the situation radically. Jacinda and her team's position and actions are entirely appropriate for the circumstances that exist right now. National can whine and grizzle (and they will) but that doesn't change the reality of the situation; fortunately, Jacinda et al are not taking National's bait. They are marching to their own tune and that's the one New Zealander's have been hearing since COVID 19 appeared and one they know is genuine. In my opinion.
it's also possible that they didn't have the capacity this year to manage the covid crisis and develop a bold new policy platform.
What are the figures for influenza cases in New Zealand over the winter, anyone know? I'm keen to know if my prediction that there would be few if any cases, was accurate.
Here ya go Robert
https://info.flutracking.net/reports-2/new-zealand-reports/
Wow! Thanks, Pingao, that's comprehensive stuff. Looking at the main graph, I'm going to claim that I was right
Big difference! hopefully fewer people have ended up in hospital so they can catch up on other health needs. And I guess we aren't importing strain variations with the borders and quarantine.
We're both signed up for Flu Tracking – we get a weekly questionnaire to complete which takes less than a minute then you get shown the graph which is interesting to compare with news about covid testing numbers.
Also flu jab numbers were well up this year after a big push by MoH around lockdown.
Have been thinking along the same lines as I have not run into any coughers, snotty noses or sneezers so far this year. I wonder if raising the awareness of personal hygiene for covid control has impacted. Also why are we not requesting negative tests before people leave the borders of the current countrys they are in before flying home to NZ – as the Tongans had to do before flying home yesterday. That would take away a lot of risk at the border and do a lot to avert a second wave.
"I wonder if raising the awareness of personal hygiene for covid control has impacted".
Indeed. Plus not importing the flu virus from "elsewhere".
Closing "The Warehouse" over lockdown probably accounts for much of it
lock down ended 27 april – so the warehouse has been open now for a few month.
personal hygiene would have helped but i would put more emphasis on a. a double heating allowance for the elderly and beneficiaries, b. better insulation in many rentals, and above all our really unseasonably warm 'winter' with hardly any cold days at all but days sitting at a balmy 15 degrees in middle nu zillind. This might be different in the south island, but i have friends currently eating outdoor tomatoes in Auckland.
Because we can't pass laws for other countries.
Of course, we could say that any aircraft that doesn't forward a full list of confirmed tests won't be able to land here. But, then, do we actually then trust those lists/tests? I know I wouldn't.
We could insist that they have a negative covid test in hand as they enter our passport control at the other end. There used to be vaccination cards that had to be presented. Provider to be either approved or if the tests are wrong no more using that provider. But as just in time tests get better though – spit on a piece of paper is one being developed – it's very feasible. Dodgy test immediate deportation on the return flight – same as other issues.
BTW a relative is flying home from the UK in November. She has to have a clear covid test 4 days before travel to get on the flight………….a good precaution I think
If our quarantine wasn't as awesome and tightly guarded we really would be fucked, we seem to catch a couple of positive s every few days, so thanks to all those working their arses off at our borders.
At the "Auckland’s Future, Now" event Key said:
"universities should be allowed to bring in international students"
Mayor Phil Goff said:
"There was no point calling for an early end to New Zealand's border closure, he said.
“We would be mad to do that.”"
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/122338065/relax-border-restrictions-to-soften-covid19s-economic-blow-sir-john-key-says
The business report on RNZ National this morning informed us that former Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe is also calling for the government to "leverage" our Covid-free status. He is apparently "highly critical" of the New Zealand government's bureaucratic caution.
Fyfe is displaying the same level of due diligence and responsibility as he did in March 2011, when he went on television and claimed, in high seriousness, that it was "perfectly safe" for New Zealanders to fly Air New Zealand to Tokyo, and that there was no evidence to suggest that the disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant posed any danger whatsoever. In fact, it was later revealed, at the very moment Fyfe was trying to assure people that there was "nothing to worry about", the Japanese government was engaged in urgent talks and seriously considered ordering the evacuation of Tokyo.
A few years before that epic display of ignorance and fatuousness, Fyfe had embarrassed the Clark government by hiring out Air New Zealand planes to the Australian Air Force to fly Australian soldiers into Iraq, in contravention of New Zealand law.
Far from paying any sort of penalty for these massive breaches of trust, Fyfe is still being appointed to consulting positions by the government. He is admired by (surprise, surprise) Mike Hosking…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12339795
Pretty sure that wasn't in contravention of NZ law – but it was definitely against what the government and people of NZ wanted.
Fyfe is proving himself a typical CEO – profits for the bludging shareholders before anything else. Which just proves, yet again, just how bad capitalists are at being any good for a society.
Good-natured derision followed by a solid ignoring is probably the best approach.
i.e. to use a sporting analogy, let anything wide of off-stump go with a little smile of satisfaction and then block the straight ones
He also said.
He said universities should be allowed to bring in international students and the Government should lift a ban on foreign buyers.
Allowing them to invest in property in New Zealand would help support the construction industry, which was going to need assistance, he said.
Seems to be at odds with the underlying consensus I am hearing.
Such as increased work for tradesman from renovation, and deferred maintenance.Far more sustainable.
The best way to sort out the housing situation is to bring in 50,000 tradies from overseas. Do they build housing for the 50,000 immigrants first or attack the housing shortage?
If it's the latter, where do they live in the meantime?
That's not the capitalists concern – making a profit is.
Where do they live? Are there not vans?
Goff's very next line was that we should let skilled workers in though!
If (BIG IF)we can manage more in quarantine I think we should to .
Totally user pays for students and workers .
We are still getting people back in. but what "skilled workers does he have in mind" and why can't we start using home grown talent. We used to manage most of our activity quite nicely thank you without constant imports of people. Most of the boomers are still available to train people. But mainly I think a lot of businesses (particularly overseas owned ones) are going to have to get used to paying better wages to allocate the talent correctly.
But would we really want them training people with their outdated knowledge?
OMG, you actually expect the business community to properly use the pricing system of the market rather than whinge to government so as to bring in under-priced labour?
Most of them are just starting to leave the workforce – so no no reason ( except blatant ageism) to suppose their knowledge and experience is out of date. Plumbing knowledge moves at a great rate yes? Just saw John Key on the news though – sounded very much like yesterday's man.
As to business not whining at the government- not a hope the large ones seem to have no idea about personal responsibility.
It will depend a lot on the boomer and if they've kept up with modern techniques. And it really is an if. There are fields, especially some trades, where knowing the latest and greatest ideas isn't needed to get by and so they don't and they simply coast into retirement.
And that's on the tech side, then we have to ask about their teaching ability which may not have been developed at all. I know plenty that wouldn't be able to teach well.
Beats me why the media give so much space to the idiot personal views of ex company directors. And how slow they are to sense that there is a need to cahnge and that there are other alternatives.
As to education and international students Chippie's onto it. Wants quality over quantity .It's a good read – points out the level of financial risk that the government has been exposed to by state funded institutions taking on so many overseas students and that they need to be of overall value to NZ not just high volume low quality courses.
We'd like to see less of a focus on getting students in the country who have to work whilst they're studying out of financial necessity, to ones who can support themselves while they are studying," he said
Hipkins said he hoped to see more students studying at higher levels, more students from countries other than India and China, and more New Zealanders going overseas to study.
And then we have the truly selfish private education sector – who want to select migrants, sell them a visa with work rights , pocket the profits and bleat about how many jobs they provide whilst pushing a far greater number of people into the local workforce. Paul Chalmers for the private sector.
However, he said ITENZ would oppose the Government if it wanted to reduce enrolments in one-year programmes that led to employment and residency.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/422694/nz-international-student-sector-more-focus-on-quality-education-than-work-rights-cabinet-papers
Higher education, theories, precepts v satisfying practical trade skills.
What about trade education with jobs at the end of it. What about learning how to make products yourself, not just be an endless consumer buying-in your requirements, looking for bargains, and expecting things to land in your lap.
This making education a profit-oriented business takes us further into the spiralling trade in ephemeral things that actually produce nothing, just measure, report on things. A friend midwife said dourly that they were always having meetings at the hospital she worked out, otime-consuming and often producing nothing of value for dealing with matters needing attention.
Computers – a machine to facilitate things being thought about. Computers driving 3CD? – making things by machine, that would previously have been crafted by people, so undermining human skill.
Education – teaching enough about things to do stuff like working in retail, making up catchy phrases (PR) without much understanding of why, the background and where it fits into human life. (Space flight, going to the moon.) Doesn't teach about important aspects of humanity and interaction, and how to stop our violent and accumulating impulses.
Economics – Learning about the way that humans generally behave, and how they and markets interact, and then how to manipulate both for the benefit of those interested in taking power in the market.
Finance – Learning how to create credits and manage their value and how to direct the flow to where you want it, and how to deny the great mass of people from advancing financially. Treating money as if it is a finite thing, rather than a cultural thing, that is maintained by agreements that can be cancelled, negating the agreed value.
Saw three lads walking to town after school, all about 15 one big, well-built sour looking – a bruiser, two accolytes. The language – Jesus Christ and fuck. They won't learn any fine abilities at secondary school; would be better off learning on a job doing something practical to occupy their energies, and learn with tradesmen they could relate to and with time off to add to their formal skills.
We need to think and do something to safely cap the energies of young men and their idle minds, narrowed by their early experiences, from taking in anything but the simplest beliefs, and ripe for mass hysteria of white supremacy or black cohesion through gangs.
Thank goodness no one listens to John Key anymore.
Beware of powerful city merchants….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plague_of_Marseille#Outbreak_and_fatalities
I've noticed a very good article on the Spinoff, this morning, on NZ's land and property problems, and on the British feudal system of land ownership.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/04-08-2020/why-william-the-conqueror-is-partially-to-blame-for-our-housing-problems/
Well worth a look.
Yes it's excellent – thinking of the small town I live in, I liked this quote:
Also, reading about the ancient roots of our attitude to land ownership, Jim Crace's 2013 Booker short-listed novel ‘Harvest’ is a superbly written 'report' from the past that resonates powerfully now. From this review:
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/books/review/harvest-by-jim-crace.html
Thanks miesh
Another good article from spinoff on how badly women have fared as a result of lockdown – over 60% of sales workers and over 70% of hospitality workers are female….
More striking is the gender breakdown of those no longer employed. Employment fell 0.4% over the period, which equated to an 11,000 fewer people in paid employment. And of those 11,000, 10,000 were women. That’s 90%! While it’s hard to believe such huge numbers, it’s clear that more women have been in the firing line.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/05-08-2020/11000-new-zealanders-have-lost-their-jobs-and-10000-of-them-were-women/
I hope these women are going to be properly financially supported and not treated by lazy, sleazy, layabouts who can't hold down a job as is the attitude of too many WINZ employees.
Peaceful city this morning.
https://twitter.com/DavidSlack/status/1290729288820375552?s=20
Know it well, the coold of that big city. Went right through me.
I posted a report yesterday showing how bureaucrats were helping to implement climate change policy (without pointing out how unusual this is). Just now reading Ecosophia I encountered some history of the bureaucracy dark side from a commentator, Patricia T:
Older readers than me will recall back when public servants were expected to perform public service. Ah, those were the days, eh? I never saw them. By the time I started paying attention to cultural trends in the sixties, the ethos had already degenerated into platitudinal tokenism.
Yeah well private enterprise has a dark side too. We used to run electricity out of Rutherford House – look at how many are swanning around in that space now.
So unemployment has dropped. Again thousands of economists have predicted 20 of the last 2 rises of unemployment, if they were doctors the dead would be piling up in the streets, fireman… not a building left standing, mechanics.. not a car running . They are the most useless occupation in history.
The official unemployment statistics are as manipulated as the CPI…..increasingly their use is discredited
In what way are they “manipulated” and by who?
Why by stats NZ of course. How else can they get from the spreadsheet to the official doc but by manipulation….
"The unemployment rate is a key economic indicator, but its definition and measurement is contentious."
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/research-papers/document/00PLSocRP01151/unemployment-statistics
http://archive.stats.govt.nz/~/media/Statistics/browse-categories/income-work/employment-unemployment/guide-unemployment-statistics/guide-to-unemployment-statistics-2nd-ed.pdf
"HLFS data is collected from a sample survey, which is designed to represent the country as a whole. There are about 15,000 households in the sample, which corresponds to roughly 30,000 people, from both rural and urban localities. Households and household members are interviewed every three months and asked about their activities during a particular reference week. From the information provided, Statistics NZ can estimate the official unemployment rate and other labour market indicators"
I suppose that depends upon who you are. The rich are doing very well out of the work of the economists while everyone else is suffering.
Danger, red alert, Phil Goff! A radical has been spotted within your council! https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/122333597/coronavirus-call-for-radical-green-job-plan-to-lift-south-and-west-auckland
Gah, a manifesto!! Neolibs everywhere will freeze in terror! Expect a panic-stricken Phil to sic bureaucrats onto them pronto!
This looks suspiciously like a viable solution to the pandemic-created recession. Policy wonks in Labour ought to focus on it!
He reminds us why he became PM: top politicians succeed by telling people what they already know. Live the dream! Representative democracy, ad nauseum.
"In the last nine months, more than $4 million "
I believe that it is actually $44 M.
Tania Pouwhare presented the model at the 'Alternative Aotearoa' conference. She is an intrapreneur , as in, she is an 'employee' in an relationship delivering goods to council yet aiming to distribute profit more equitably at grass roots level.
https://youtu.be/83_N7wAJD-g
In the same section of " Economic Solutions" speeches ( all time pressed) , Geoff Bertram highlights that new models will have to break down long standing ' new feudalism'. Capitalism has gone too far to overturn, that NZ legislation empowers the success of capitalism.
https://youtu.be/nblHJ57ImmE
CPAG economist Susan St. John follows pointing out a flaw in GDP reporting. Her time was curtailed not allowing her to elaborate but did put CG tax back on the table. The form this would take is instead taxing the equity share that is currently tax free. The RFRM.
https://youtu.be/JNvDGJKsge0
Interestingly it links to recent views of a powerhouse group. ' Leave off personal income tax interference '
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/105452/pwc-argues-rebuilding-economy-post-covid-19-should-include-tax-reforms-and-addressing
However, despite Tania Pouwhare showing an exemplifier of new approaches for post crises, 'building roads for the serfs to get to work faster to line the tycoon's pockets' type policy will still prevail.
https://theconversation.com/a-post-pandemic-world-is-unlikely-to-focus-on-meeting-need-over-human-greed-141228
wow
https://twitter.com/AymanM/status/1290765327400411141
Do they mean 2.7 tonnes. Some places use comma's where others use decimal points
nope 2700 tonnes. If it were 'just' 2.7 tonnes the impact would have been not so bad. It looks like a whole subburb was just blown of the earth with several thousand people injured and as of now some 70 odd people dead.
in pictures here
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2020/aug/04/beirut-explosion-in-pictures
good grief.
Given the size and location of that blast that 70 fatality figure must surely be a gross underestimation
Nope, 2700 tonnes.
https://twitter.com/MaximeHaes/status/1290679780162101251
https://twitter.com/Lobnene_Blog/status/1290675724416884739
fuck me, that first video is insane.
was it an attack or an industrial accident?
So far the only person suggesting it was an attack is the orange anusmouth delivering his brainfarts from the usual orifice. Ammonium nitrate explosions due to fire are common enough that industrial accident is a reasonable working hypothesis. Until good evidence otherwise comes along.
Him, and the real prog-left knew who (((the perpetrators))) were.
//
https://i.redd.it/nc51puhbi0f51.png
https://twitter.com/veteranstoday/status/1290678764821774337
Nanothermite wasn't used?
Residue is knee deep in downtown
New York CityBeirut.I agree with your caution in apportioning blame for this explosion. However, your sarcastic suggestion, via those triple brackets, that the "prog/left" is anti-Semitic is Trumpian in its dishonesty.
It might be incorrect in this case, but it’s by no means unreasonable to suspect the rogue Israeli regime, which has devastated Lebanon in the past, to be involved.
Or was it, yet again, those dastardly Russian masterminds?
Blaming Israel is one thing.
Claiming nukes were used is bloody stupid though.
I agree with you. My problem is with the suggestion that criticism of, or as in this case probably, wild allegations against, that rogue state is anti-Semitic.
Who said it was anti-semitic? All I saw here was mockery of jerks who think "mushroom cloud" = "nuke" and similar conclusion-leapers.
Joe 90 wrote: "the real prog-left knew who (((the perpetrators))) were."
Those triple brackets are a code used by the lunatic anti-Jewish fringe. Most of that fringe is, of course, extreme right wing.
Jesus christ, the ~adjacents have even appropriated punctuation now? [headdesk]
But in that case I'd suggest that it wasn't the unsubstanitated allegation that Israel was responsible that was antiSemitic (covertly, maybe, or foolhardy, maybe, but not outright ~adjacent), but the fabrication that it was a nuclear attack by Israel would be obviously intended to forment hatred towards Israel and Judaism.
A biggie.
The blast was heard 240km (150 miles) away on the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-53656220
https://twitter.com/stephen_latham/status/1290773457622499329
An actual bonfire of regulations.
https://twitter.com/marcelvandenber/status/1290896695367262211
https://twitter.com/Amena__Bakr/status/1290912926182912000
https://twitter.com/HachemYassin/status/1290702640930791424
Whatever the Greens do in New Zealand won't 'save' any New Zealanders from climate change either.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
it can if we are all in this together.
If by "we" you mean "the citizens of China, America and European countries" then sure.
Not sure what the Green party in NZ are going to do to influence them.
a conversation for another time, but generally we've moved on from the small emitters don't count theory, because together they count for a lot.
and you know, the Greens’ ability to shift political and individual responses to cc is impressive given how few resources they have. (the NGOs too).
Whatever NZ does won't hold back the tides.
Thank you for admitting that NZ by itself can do nothing.
no country can by itself can prevent the worst of climate change. It's a global crisis, meaning everyone needs to do their bit.
Thank you for admitting that you're an idiot.
We must, absolutely must, curb our GHG emissions. That's just so that we can be sustainable. It helps that it would also be us doing our bit to curb global GHG emissions.
Then, once we've done that, we can turn to the rest of the world and say 'now you.' The Greens have always been insistent that leading by example has a hell of a lot more power than just whinging.
I was simply replying to Weta's fanciful claim that The Greens will "save" New Zealanders from climate change.
They can't and won't.
Before action becomes imagination; the Greens are forming the picture of of where New Zealand must be and what New Zealanders must do to get there; The Greens will "save" New Zealanders from climate change. Weka's correct.
I wish I'd said it now.
That's not what I said. I said that Labourites liking the GP in a 6% holding pattern won't save us from CC. You can mistake that as an inference that I meant the GP alone would save us, but what I actually believe is that we need an increasingly strong green representation in parliament in order to both mitigate and adapt, and atm that requires a much bigger Green Party caucus. In the next few terms that means a L/G govt.
Having said that, Robert is right. It's the Greens that are creating the culture that is necessary for NZ to act meaningfully. There are non-parliamentary groups and people doing this too, but in parliament the Greens are a necessity because of what they specifically can do.
Totally agree that we need the Greens in Parliament to force policies and general thinking that will allow NZ to better adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change, as well as helping to avoid investing our scarce resources into infrastructural developments (of all sorts on all scales) that will become stranded assets in the next 20-30 years.
Having said that, some of the Greens policies are ideologically 'pretty' while not actually being overall sensible things to do, such as trying to achieve 100% carbon neutrality in electricity production by 2030. Getting the final few percentage points over to renewable resources will be very costly and that money could be better spent on other initiatives in the economy to prepare us for a carbon-constrained future.
But mitigation, adaptation and avoiding foolish investment choices are not "saving" us from climate change – the only thing that would is an amazing technological breakthrough about 3 or 4 orders of magnitude more cost effective at removing CO2 from the atmosphere than anything we have now, or sudden co-operation by 70%+ of the world's government to make drastic and near-term cuts to CO2 emissions. Neither of which are likely to happen and neither of which the Green Party of NZ are likely to play a large part in (of course they have more scope for the latter of the two).
A mate who owned a fertilizer mixing factory once said that if I ever saw him leaving town at 100 mph to do a fast handbrake turn and follow him.
when u see the yellow cloud rn the opposite direction. I was told this many years ago by an old hand working one of the Orica Depots in Auckland that also had an Ammonia Station. 🙂
A mate of mine who worked at Ravensdown here in Dunedin said the same thing, and the fact it was near seawater/the harbour he said just a matter of time before some kind of disaster.
Shit! Too close to home for comfort.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/422816/victoria-posts-record-725-new-coronavirus-cases-15-deaths
But John sez open the borders! Just a smidge, it'll be ok, he wouldn't lie to us…
Did Sirjonkyponyboy mention how we should go about this? Let people in who rickn they're 'pretty' clear?
It's scary stuff. Qld has just closed its borders with NSW again as people have been crossing the borders telling lies about where they have come from. Mind you, Ashley Bloomfield is probably right. For NZ, it might be not "if" but "when."
And banker Key was telling people today we should loosen border restrictions….
Thank goodness we have Jacinda, not that financier, as our P.M.
An important development in the Boag/Walker/Woodhouse story:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122357021/privacy-commissioner-launches-inquiry-into-covid19-patient-leak
National should respond by saying "support decision, full co-operation, need all the facts" etc.
But Collins and co might just be stupid enough to complain about it instead, thus keeping the story in the headlines.
National party cohorts will not say a peep because Commissioner Edwards states that he will not be investigating Walker and Boagy
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/01-08-2020/battle-of-the-berm-the-outdoor-furniture-pitting-aucklands-authorities-against-a-community/
This is how micro businesses being run by people making their own jobs are often treated though they are following encouragement to replace ones that would have been there if the Labour and National governments hadn't boldly strode forward and opened the gate wide to all the hoi polloi from the world.
Reduce regulations was the cry by business and government responded. But that really meant big business, or the ones that appear glamorous and important to the officious in whatever entity gets to wield the sand-filled sock, the rubber bullet, or the supposed light-handed regulation that is rolled out to the struggling entrepreneurs.
Kia Ora
Whanau looks like things are going fine in Aotearoa we just have a problem with the Kiore on Mokoia island but I think we have that same problem all around Aotearoa.
Ka kite Ano
Ka pai
Auckland Council welcomes the Ministry for the Environment announcement of $10.67 million for improvements to the Community Recycling Centres as part of the Resource Recovery Network across the Auckland region.
This $10 million Central Government funding will fast track the effectiveness of Community Recycling Centres through developing fit for purpose infrastructure. It will expand employment by increasing the volume of materials and the number of related activities they can undertake to work towards zero waste.
Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage announced this as “a major investment in recycling.
Link below.
https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/articles/news/2020/08/auckland-welcomes-a-10-million-investment-in-new-zero-waste-infrastructure/
Ka kite Ano
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
It does not take much of a increase in temperature to make life very difficult.
Rising temperatures will cause more deaths than all infectious diseases – study.
The growing but largely unrecognized death toll from rising global temperatures will come close to eclipsing the current number of deaths from all the infectious diseases combined if planet-heating emissions are not constrained, a major new study has found.
Ka kite Ano
Link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/04/rising-global-temperatures-death-toll-infectious-diseases-study