Quantitative easing has been discussed by a handful of commentators here. The reason most evade the topic is likely due to lack of comprehension.
Last week the Reserve Bank printed $1.4 billion. That’s the equivalent of 116 Green Schools at the prevailing rate. This was a typical week. No one cared. There were no headlines. No one asked for Adrian Orr to resign… So you may wonder, where is all of this cash going?
Following the money is real hard. The msm never try to, and rarely even acknowledge that the imaginary money is being made real. Damien Grant has a theory:
Orr’s money-printing programme is making the rich richer in the hope that they will spend some of this cash on frivolities like restaurant meals and herbal supplements, thus benefiting those minions who provide such services who are able to retain their jobs. This is trickle-down economics.
Not dead yet? Then Damian outs himself as cynic:
Under this government and their pliant central banker we are seeing a massive transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the 1 per cent. If you want to talk about ‘transformational government’, this is as transformational as it gets.
Wow! So Jacinda is leading by example, and the example is her Nat predecessor. But don't tell anyone!
Maybe the Green Party members demanding James Shaw’s head should turn their focus towards this destructive and deeply regressive policy instead.
Shrill ideologues change their thinking? Hell will freeze over first. Such people could never even think about imaginary money made real, let alone it going to wealthy people, or deduce the political implications.
The Reserve Bank’s current policy settings are designed to keep people in employment, and he is correct in the short term.
Socialism in practice. Too bad about increasing the wealth gap…
Agree Chris T. Finally Winston showed himself up in his true colours. Well done, Jack Tame for keeping the questions flowing even when there were no coherent answers.
The next guest Simon Thornley was equally frightening. Worrying to hear he thinks COVID is no worse than the 'flu. And that only the elderly, Pacific Island and Maori people are vulnerable so we should all learn to live with it.
Even worse is that he is teaching at Auckland University.
I actually felt sorry for Thornley when the interview started as he was obviously nervous being on national tv, and then he went on his flu thing, and my sympathy kind of went away pretty quick.
TBF given the deaths that are happening, I am steering in my opinion to the temporarily shielding the smaller number of most vulnerable over screwing our entire economy every time it will crop up, for everyone else.
What a great idea – lock up all us oldies and brown people and get on with it! And this nonsense doesn't even begin to address the ongoing health issues that people who have supposedly recovered from the virus continue to suffer from.
The so-called 'economy' that we have all been putting up with for far too long is due for a serious makover anyway. Maybe this is our opportunity?
By putting up with, do you mean being large enough to cover, our healthe system, WFF, Benefits, super annuation and all the other things like national infrastructure?
Can you point to anywhere that has successfully used a model of "temporarily shielding the smaller number of most vulnerable over screwing the entire economy"? Because as best as I can tell, locking down fast to get the quickest control of the virus is also the best for the economy.
Given there's already at least 8 vaccines in the final trial stage before approval, at least three of which are credible western efforts following established protocols with open publishing of results, and hundreds more not far behind, plus hundreds of other treatments, I think the reasonable strategy right now is a bit of patience and see what actually works.
Because right now, only places that have locked down hard and gone for elimination look in any way appealing. Everywhere else just looks like shit.
If we get to say March next year and it's clear that all the efforts that look promising right now are all fizzers, then it might be appropriate to look for another strategy.
Actually, you did not say that you disagreed with Dr Thornley. Your subsequent comments @ 2.1.2.1 and 2.1.2.1.2.1 seemed to suggest that you were actually agreeing with Dr Thornley.
Dr Thornley did mutter a lot without answering much but maybe you can tell how we could keep safe an estimated 25% of our population that is deemed vulnerable to infection with Covid-19? These people live among us (i.e. they are interspersed) and in some communities they represent much more than 25% of the total population.
I actually felt sorry for Thornley when the interview started as he was obviously nervous being on national tv, and then he went on his flu thing, and my sympathy kind of went away pretty quick."
What I mean is while I disagree with his comparing it to the flu like an idiot, I am "tending" to think we just can't keep going into level 3 every time something happens, indefinitely, without the country turning to shit.
The recent response had to be stringent because the NZ people had been complacent. It has been argued that we can eliminate the virus without the need for lockdowns.
@Chris T – it's reasonably likely that if the first new case had been the Rydges case, a single case in the community with a clearly plausible connection to the border, then the response would likely have been much less dramatic.
But the Americold outbreak was clearly well underway and spreading widely by the time it was detected, and we still don't have evidence for how it got loose. Hence the stringent response.
Hopefully we have all learned about things we all need to do differently. So an outbreak won't get as widespread before it's detected.
In the community, take it seriously to go get tested as soon as you have symptoms that might be COVID. Track movements. Wear a mask. Test border staff and international aircrew more – don't neglect regular testing on some because they're doing runs to "safe" places or behaving safely on their layovers.
Well, the fantasy seems to be that it will be managed somehow so that only the young and healthy will magically will end up infected, and they will just shrug it off.
Nevermind my late-20s nephew in France that was healthy, active, no pre-existing conditions, that got it in March and has yet to recover enough to return to his medical work.
The idea also seems to be unaware of just how much of the population are dealing with some kind of condition that raises risk. ISTR seeing somewhere a credible estimate that around 25% under the under-65s have some kind of condition that's considered an elevated risk factor for dying of covid.
The idea also seems to be unaware of just how much of the population are dealing with some kind of condition that raises risk.
Perhaps the people right at the top, the ones we can't see, that are suggesting/pushing this policy actually want a 25% die off. It'd be one way to address climate change without addressing the underlying cause which is capitalism.
There are very few medications that have been successfully developed against viruses, whereas vaccines against viruses are fairly common and successful.
There doesn't appear to be anything special about coronaviruses in general that gives reason to believe a vaccine is unlikely to be developed. Indeed, there is a vaccine against a bovine coronavirus in the market now, and has been for years.
That there aren't yet vaccines against human coronaviruses is because they are either too mild to be bothered developing a vaccine against (cold coronaviruses), have burnt out and disappeared in a short time before a vaccine was developed (SARS), or too rare to inspire much vaccine development effort (MERS, although IIRC one is in trials now).
I could be wrong, but I haven't seen any vaccines that have been produced against coronaviruses.
Even if they develop one in good time, and can prove no side affects, given our success in slowing it down we will probably be one of the last on the list getting supplied it, once they work out how to mass produce it, which will take ages.
As it will probably go to worst hit countries first, as it should be, and then you have all the weirdos refusing to take it.
Edit: Apologies Andre. I misread your last paragraph.
I gave you a link to an article that talks about a vaccine against a coronavirus that is in production and widely sold right now. It's just that it's for cows, not humans.
Since it seems you didn't follow up the hint with a search of your own about a vaccine against the MERS coronavirus, here's a link.
That vaccine hasn't had a lot of attention since it's only infected about 2,500 people in the 8 years since it was first detected. Almost all of whom were in the habit of getting up close and personal with camels. So it really wasn't much of a public health priority.
As soon as a vaccine is demonstrated to be adequately safe and effective, production is going to ramp up like has never been seen before. It may be that if we're unhappy with how far down the list we are, we may be able to license the recipe and produce it here. We have an animal health industry that's fairly likely to be able to adapt to the challenge if needed.
Going on about lockdowns is sort of yesterday isn't it? There are already some spit on the paper etc type tests coming over the horizon that are cheap so can be spread widely and be used at home to indicate infection and even if there are excess false positives the better tests then sort those out.
Give it another 6 months and this stuff is likely to be widespread so we then won't need the massive lockdowns. A bit of patience for a bit longer, no need to kill the old geezers and we will be there.
The "we need to have no lockdowns now" should stop preaching their views and be more realistic about the unnecessary death and suffering they would cause with their dated lack of forward thinking
Agree Chris T @ (2) … Winston Peters seemed to be channelling the ghost of his mentor Rob Muldoon to conduct his interview with Jack Tame this morning! Unbelievable!
@Dennis Frank. We should probably not attempt to understand the economy through the eyes of Damian Grant. What the QE policy does for the economy is convert the 'cash' recently accumulated in the banking system and convert it into a low risk state which pays a small amount of interest. That cash is generally accumulated by large NZ financial institutions as these provide the bank accounts to people who received recent govt payments in the first place. But if you want to understand who was paid by the govt Grant is looking in completely the wrong place.
The correct interpretation is that post QE, the govt borrowed money from itself, it paid people with that money as indicated by its fiscal statement, but who ever ended up with that money (many govt payees will have spent it) has it invested in low risk savings form.
Of course its not necessary for the govt to provide a low risk savings investment to facilitate its spending, but that is the rort here, and you wont ever get that from Damian Grants analysis.
Ah, thanks Nic for that clarification. Since he's a libertarian (hence a likely ideologue) I did wonder if he got the analysis right. I take the point re govt finagling. I don't really understand why they are doing it but will have faith in Orr's judgment provisionally, since it maintains public confidence in the system.
Also, as a longtime alternative thinker, I do like that the capitalist powers that be have resorted to magical thinking to keep their system trundling along… 😎
Since he's a libertarian (hence a likely ideologue) I did wonder if he got the analysis right.
I merely assumed that he was lying. Appears I was right to do so.
When it finally dawns on the people that the government can create money at will, not cause massive inflation and can do it with no interest people are going to start to wonder why we have capitalists. That latter part is why the Damian Grants of this world don't like it when the governments create money as they see the end of their bludging in it.
Magical according to current mainstream economists, and Grant of course.
Because they object to "money printing" that doesn't result in more income for banking.
It is just a complicated way of justifying what is really the same as a monarch minting more gold coins, because there are not enough in circulation to keep trade going.
The first Labour Government were more honest about it. "Money printing for State housing and infrastructure. Which paid off in so much we still use today.
“I never imagined that I would live to see our courts condemn the NSA’s activities as unlawful and in the same ruling credit me for exposing them,”
Snowden after US court finds the mass surveilance he revealed was unlawful.
the American Civil Liberties Union, which helped bring the case to appeal, welcomed the judges’ verdict on the NSA’s spy program. “Today’s ruling is a victory for our privacy rights,” the ACLU said in a statement, saying it “makes plain that the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records violated the Constitution.”
@Dennis, Its not like Orr has a choice. If the govt is going to make it transparent that its funding itself then that decision rests with Robertson (short term) or parliament.
The magical thinking has been there forever. Think in particular of the following ideas,
1) the RBNZ can raise and lower inflation rates by lowering and raising the OCR.
2) in fiddling with the OCR there are no distributional issues, house prices and wages are both effected in the same way by the OCR shift.
3) in reacting to an unanticipated economic event, an economy which was recently fully employed is equally resiliant to an economy which recently went through a recovery.
Agreed Orr dosnt have a choice…he is (successfully) performing his job and we should be thankful of that but he cannot control distributional issues though he has been calling on the government to do so pretty much since he took over the role….they appear to have a hearing problem.
Do we need a paradigm shift in the understanding (and management ) of certain mental disorders?
Often paradigm shifts are from researchers outside the field of study,here biological anthropologists have reposed the problems of ADHD and others as evolutionary responses,rather then mental disorders ,
ADHD is not a disorder, the study authors argue. Rather it is an evolutionary mismatch to the modern learning environment we have constructed. Edward Hagen, professor of evolutionary anthropology at Washington State University and co-author of the study, pointed out in a press release that “there is little in our evolutionary history that accounts for children sitting at desks quietly while watching a teacher do math equations at a board.”
If ADHD is not a disorder, but a mismatch with a human environment, then suddenly it’s not a medical issue. It’s an issue for educational reform
Yep, really, really pleased to see this. I'd also say that often the start of the paradigm shift comes from within the communities of people most affected. eg the neurodiversity communities have critiqued mainstream framing of neurological conditions, and parents of ADHD kids in alternative sub cultures were doing it before them.
Some of the cleverest and most intelligent buggers I've known were at risk of being diagnosed with ADHD. I'm under the impression that they just think faster than others.
Some very intelligent people are on the continuum. In a school setting they can become unstuck because of their impulsive behaviour, shifting concentration, and often mismatching in social settings. Sadly this can lead to being treated as idiots and made to feel stupid by peers and teachers. Low esteem on tap. Some ADHD kids escape into antisocial/drugs etc.
One lad I know was scooped up by an IT developer after Uni because these kids think outside the square so solve problems that others cannot even imagine.
It's an encouraging step – I'm afraid contemporary education is built more around institutional convenience than student need. If this creates some pressure for change, so much the better.
The problem is, teachers end up being the meat in the sandwich – tasked to produce assessible task-based learning. I had the advantage teaching privately for a while there – if students really are learning, assessment becomes redundant – they can do stuff.
Peter's mentioned a couple of times that the 'horse racing industry donations/ NZ First foundation/partner SFO questioning' weren't included in the questions that were going to be asked. therefore questions he had been briefed on.
He was a lot more coherent about the cow ship sinking/criticising government Covid response questions.
Don't get me wrong, I would like the questions that James asked, answered. It seemed like Tame's line of questioning had fallen to the 'gotcha' category.
Often I hear on RNZ the interviewer ask a question that is often prefaced with an expression that acknowledges the question is not related to the topic the interviewee was asked on to the show to speak about.
I'd be surprised if producers worked off the principle of only pre-arranged questions can be asked, but it would be useful to know in terms of understanding Peters' reactions.
What I really don't like is the continuation of new cases connected to this cluster. Auckland went to L3 on August 12. That is 3 1/2 weeks ago. 25 days. It is assumed everyone isolated at that point and no mixing between family members but we are still seeing new cases.
I feel that there has been severe breaches with family members mixing when they shouldn't have.
When is the message going to get through to people that we all need to play by the rules if we are going to get through this?
It's not that hard to understand how it could happen even with everyone involved trying to do the right thing. Just keep in mind the high proportion of asymptomatic infections and the long period of presymptomatic infectiousness.
To add to that, there is bugger all mask wearing in Auckland. I don't have an issue with no masks outside walking but when you are going inside to a shop makes should be on.
People aren't doing it!
I said to the boy we are doing our duty and the more we do it the more acceptable it will become but I feel like we are pushing shit uphill.
I have an advantage because I naturally hate people so to be distanced from them is natural to me.
The explanation I've given my kids is that first, it's about trying to stop the entire country from copping the bad-luck Powerball much more than it being about individual risk, and that wearing a mask is about normalising mask-wearing. Kinda like when I was their age nobody wore helmets skiing or bike riding, but now almost everyone does because it's been normalised.
I think the mask wearing varies in different parts of Auckland. I live in the Belmont/Devonport area and mask wearing is high. The ones who stand out are the non-maskers. I forgot to put mine on once and someone in the local supermarket informed a close relative of mine. I received a bollocking and have never forgotten since.
The article link below was 31st August; today Sept 6 like everyday since, the 4 new community cases are still members from this sub cluster church group.
Supposedly, this church while already having links to the first Americold case, once level 3 lockdown began they literally took the rule of max. of 10 gathering as permission to still meet for evangelism.
Is it always a government's fault for lockdowns and hardship or are individual's being self gratifying responsible too ?
Auckland went to L3 on August 12. That is 3 1/2 weeks ago. 25 days. It is assumed everyone isolated at that point and no mixing between family members but we are still seeing new cases.
I feel that there has been severe breaches with family members mixing when they shouldn’t have'
Is it just cascading infection among families who are all in managed isolation? I recall if one family member was infected, say 20 days ago, they moved the whole family into managed isolation, so it's called community transmission but not as we think it is.
Won't there always be immediate 'importances' to divert from the real ones? Managing the immediate as the Left has done for all its governmental history — its lasting message from its Depression victory — ends us here.
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A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
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Quantitative easing has been discussed by a handful of commentators here. The reason most evade the topic is likely due to lack of comprehension.
Following the money is real hard. The msm never try to, and rarely even acknowledge that the imaginary money is being made real. Damien Grant has a theory:
Not dead yet? Then Damian outs himself as cynic:
Wow! So Jacinda is leading by example, and the example is her Nat predecessor. But don't tell anyone!
Shrill ideologues change their thinking? Hell will freeze over first. Such people could never even think about imaginary money made real, let alone it going to wealthy people, or deduce the political implications.
Socialism in practice. Too bad about increasing the wealth gap…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/300098580/the-moneyprinting-programme-helping-the-rich-get-richer
Far out.
Winston's interview on Q and A is a bit of a train crash.
How many times can you avoid questions and call someone the wrong name?
Lol
Agree Chris T. Finally Winston showed himself up in his true colours. Well done, Jack Tame for keeping the questions flowing even when there were no coherent answers.
The next guest Simon Thornley was equally frightening. Worrying to hear he thinks COVID is no worse than the 'flu. And that only the elderly, Pacific Island and Maori people are vulnerable so we should all learn to live with it.
Even worse is that he is teaching at Auckland University.
Agree
I actually felt sorry for Thornley when the interview started as he was obviously nervous being on national tv, and then he went on his flu thing, and my sympathy kind of went away pretty quick.
A country where old people or poor ethnic people are not seen lest they catch flu and die.
TBF given the deaths that are happening, I am steering in my opinion to the temporarily shielding the smaller number of most vulnerable over screwing our entire economy every time it will crop up, for everyone else.
What a great idea – lock up all us oldies and brown people and get on with it! And this nonsense doesn't even begin to address the ongoing health issues that people who have supposedly recovered from the virus continue to suffer from.
The so-called 'economy' that we have all been putting up with for far too long is due for a serious makover anyway. Maybe this is our opportunity?
By putting up with, do you mean being large enough to cover, our healthe system, WFF, Benefits, super annuation and all the other things like national infrastructure?
Can you point to anywhere that has successfully used a model of "temporarily shielding the smaller number of most vulnerable over screwing the entire economy"? Because as best as I can tell, locking down fast to get the quickest control of the virus is also the best for the economy.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300082211/do-the-health-gains-of-lockdown-20-outweigh-economic-pain
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/300083404/heres-why-lockdowns-are-the-best-economic-solution-too
Let alone that's it's not just the deaths, it's also the long term disability and suffering caused among quite a few of those that get it but survive.
And then what happens.
We just have a permanently closed border for an unknown amount of years?
Given there's already at least 8 vaccines in the final trial stage before approval, at least three of which are credible western efforts following established protocols with open publishing of results, and hundreds more not far behind, plus hundreds of other treatments, I think the reasonable strategy right now is a bit of patience and see what actually works.
Because right now, only places that have locked down hard and gone for elimination look in any way appealing. Everywhere else just looks like shit.
If we get to say March next year and it's clear that all the efforts that look promising right now are all fizzers, then it might be appropriate to look for another strategy.
https://covid-19tracker.milkeninstitute.org/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker-how-they-work-latest-developments-cvd/
Neither you nor Dr Thornley answered Andre’s question although Dr Thornley mentioned Iceland as an example.
Interestingly, according to the Government Response Stringency index (GRSI), the Auckland region in L2.5 is as stringent as Iceland.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-stringency-index?tab=chart&year=latest&time=2020-01-22..2020-09-03&country=ISL~NZL
BTW, the NZ border is not closed; your imprecise phrasing is unhelpful.
I have already said I don't agree with Thornley
Actually, you did not say that you disagreed with Dr Thornley. Your subsequent comments @ 2.1.2.1 and 2.1.2.1.2.1 seemed to suggest that you were actually agreeing with Dr Thornley.
Dr Thornley did mutter a lot without answering much but maybe you can tell how we could keep safe an estimated 25% of our population that is deemed vulnerable to infection with Covid-19? These people live among us (i.e. they are interspersed) and in some communities they represent much more than 25% of the total population.
"
Chris T2.1.1
6 September 2020 at 10:07 am
Agree
I actually felt sorry for Thornley when the interview started as he was obviously nervous being on national tv, and then he went on his flu thing, and my sympathy kind of went away pretty quick."
What I mean is while I disagree with his comparing it to the flu like an idiot, I am "tending" to think we just can't keep going into level 3 every time something happens, indefinitely, without the country turning to shit.
Apologies if I was too vague.
No worries and thanks for the clarification.
The recent response had to be stringent because the NZ people had been complacent. It has been argued that we can eliminate the virus without the need for lockdowns.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/eliminating-covid-19-without-lockdowns
@Chris T – it's reasonably likely that if the first new case had been the Rydges case, a single case in the community with a clearly plausible connection to the border, then the response would likely have been much less dramatic.
But the Americold outbreak was clearly well underway and spreading widely by the time it was detected, and we still don't have evidence for how it got loose. Hence the stringent response.
Hopefully we have all learned about things we all need to do differently. So an outbreak won't get as widespread before it's detected.
In the community, take it seriously to go get tested as soon as you have symptoms that might be COVID. Track movements. Wear a mask. Test border staff and international aircrew more – don't neglect regular testing on some because they're doing runs to "safe" places or behaving safely on their layovers.
Better than thousands of dead.
And don,t forget our health system could not manage if Covid precautions are loosened up to lighten up on the eonomic effects.
Well, the fantasy seems to be that it will be managed somehow so that only the young and healthy will magically will end up infected, and they will just shrug it off.
Nevermind my late-20s nephew in France that was healthy, active, no pre-existing conditions, that got it in March and has yet to recover enough to return to his medical work.
The idea also seems to be unaware of just how much of the population are dealing with some kind of condition that raises risk. ISTR seeing somewhere a credible estimate that around 25% under the under-65s have some kind of condition that's considered an elevated risk factor for dying of covid.
Perhaps the people right at the top, the ones we can't see, that are suggesting/pushing this policy actually want a 25% die off. It'd be one way to address climate change without addressing the underlying cause which is capitalism.
I've had bronchitis twice pneumonia once and childhood lung problems, I also have someone who needs me around for atleast another 15 years .
We need to keep this thing at bay till we have a vaccine or a very good cure .
It would be better to have a better-targeted cull aimed at the biggest polluters and contributors to CC.
That'd most likely be the ones pushing for the die off.
Yes the probably permanent lung damage and possibility of ongoing Chronic Fatigue Syndrome concern me greatly.
But you're steering arse backwards, why do you think the number of deaths happening, are happening?
There will probably be a treatment but there will not be a vaccine.
What's your basis for saying that?
There are very few medications that have been successfully developed against viruses, whereas vaccines against viruses are fairly common and successful.
There doesn't appear to be anything special about coronaviruses in general that gives reason to believe a vaccine is unlikely to be developed. Indeed, there is a vaccine against a bovine coronavirus in the market now, and has been for years.
That there aren't yet vaccines against human coronaviruses is because they are either too mild to be bothered developing a vaccine against (cold coronaviruses), have burnt out and disappeared in a short time before a vaccine was developed (SARS), or too rare to inspire much vaccine development effort (MERS, although IIRC one is in trials now).
I could be wrong, but I haven't seen any vaccines that have been produced against coronaviruses.
Even if they develop one in good time, and can prove no side affects, given our success in slowing it down we will probably be one of the last on the list getting supplied it, once they work out how to mass produce it, which will take ages.
As it will probably go to worst hit countries first, as it should be, and then you have all the weirdos refusing to take it.
Edit: Apologies Andre. I misread your last paragraph.
I gave you a link to an article that talks about a vaccine against a coronavirus that is in production and widely sold right now. It's just that it's for cows, not humans.
Since it seems you didn't follow up the hint with a search of your own about a vaccine against the MERS coronavirus, here's a link.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200422132600.htm
That vaccine hasn't had a lot of attention since it's only infected about 2,500 people in the 8 years since it was first detected. Almost all of whom were in the habit of getting up close and personal with camels. So it really wasn't much of a public health priority.
As soon as a vaccine is demonstrated to be adequately safe and effective, production is going to ramp up like has never been seen before. It may be that if we're unhappy with how far down the list we are, we may be able to license the recipe and produce it here. We have an animal health industry that's fairly likely to be able to adapt to the challenge if needed.
Going on about lockdowns is sort of yesterday isn't it? There are already some spit on the paper etc type tests coming over the horizon that are cheap so can be spread widely and be used at home to indicate infection and even if there are excess false positives the better tests then sort those out.
Give it another 6 months and this stuff is likely to be widespread so we then won't need the massive lockdowns. A bit of patience for a bit longer, no need to kill the old geezers and we will be there.
The "we need to have no lockdowns now" should stop preaching their views and be more realistic about the unnecessary death and suffering they would cause with their dated lack of forward thinking
Agree Chris T @ (2) … Winston Peters seemed to be channelling the ghost of his mentor Rob Muldoon to conduct his interview with Jack Tame this morning! Unbelievable!
Was he puropdly calling him James? Or is he losing it?
Is bush wacking interviewees normal like jack did? Or do they normally script the questions at these?
Think he is just losing it tbh.
I haven't heard of scripted questions in an NZ context. Think some are in the US.
Edit: Should add Hosking does it to Ardern all the time.
The difference is she doesn’t go all arsey, remembers his name and answers as best she can.
Just watched it again.
It is even more cringe worthy the second time
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/winston-peters-defends-not-airing-public-criticism-govts-covid-19-response-earlier-in-fiery-q-exchange
@Dennis Frank. We should probably not attempt to understand the economy through the eyes of Damian Grant. What the QE policy does for the economy is convert the 'cash' recently accumulated in the banking system and convert it into a low risk state which pays a small amount of interest. That cash is generally accumulated by large NZ financial institutions as these provide the bank accounts to people who received recent govt payments in the first place. But if you want to understand who was paid by the govt Grant is looking in completely the wrong place.
The correct interpretation is that post QE, the govt borrowed money from itself, it paid people with that money as indicated by its fiscal statement, but who ever ended up with that money (many govt payees will have spent it) has it invested in low risk savings form.
Of course its not necessary for the govt to provide a low risk savings investment to facilitate its spending, but that is the rort here, and you wont ever get that from Damian Grants analysis.
Ah, thanks Nic for that clarification. Since he's a libertarian (hence a likely ideologue) I did wonder if he got the analysis right. I take the point re govt finagling. I don't really understand why they are doing it but will have faith in Orr's judgment provisionally, since it maintains public confidence in the system.
Also, as a longtime alternative thinker, I do like that the capitalist powers that be have resorted to magical thinking to keep their system trundling along… 😎
I merely assumed that he was lying. Appears I was right to do so.
When it finally dawns on the people that the government can create money at will, not cause massive inflation and can do it with no interest people are going to start to wonder why we have capitalists. That latter part is why the Damian Grants of this world don't like it when the governments create money as they see the end of their bludging in it.
Why does the Govt need to pay interest on their money creation!!!
Why should they call money they created debt they have to pay back?
By lockdown the government reduced the economy, creating money to pay wages so people can meet their bills is not inflationary.
And nor is the money borrowed from anyone.
They don't but they do it to keep up the illusion that people need to pay interest to get money and thus also prop-up the bludging of the capitalists.
@Dennis.
Magical according to current mainstream economists, and Grant of course.
Because they object to "money printing" that doesn't result in more income for banking.
It is just a complicated way of justifying what is really the same as a monarch minting more gold coins, because there are not enough in circulation to keep trade going.
The first Labour Government were more honest about it. "Money printing for State housing and infrastructure. Which paid off in so much we still use today.
Snowden after US court finds the mass surveilance he revealed was unlawful.
@Dennis, Its not like Orr has a choice. If the govt is going to make it transparent that its funding itself then that decision rests with Robertson (short term) or parliament.
The magical thinking has been there forever. Think in particular of the following ideas,
1) the RBNZ can raise and lower inflation rates by lowering and raising the OCR.
2) in fiddling with the OCR there are no distributional issues, house prices and wages are both effected in the same way by the OCR shift.
3) in reacting to an unanticipated economic event, an economy which was recently fully employed is equally resiliant to an economy which recently went through a recovery.
Agreed Orr dosnt have a choice…he is (successfully) performing his job and we should be thankful of that but he cannot control distributional issues though he has been calling on the government to do so pretty much since he took over the role….they appear to have a hearing problem.
'Murica
https://twitter.com/MsLisaHendricks/status/1302064472081670146
Gives Shooting ones mouth off awhile new meaning
With the angle of their dangle they won't be shooting themselves in the foot, anyway.
His aortic arch will be a tad worried.
Do we need a paradigm shift in the understanding (and management ) of certain mental disorders?
Often paradigm shifts are from researchers outside the field of study,here biological anthropologists have reposed the problems of ADHD and others as evolutionary responses,rather then mental disorders ,
ADHD is not a disorder, the study authors argue. Rather it is an evolutionary mismatch to the modern learning environment we have constructed. Edward Hagen, professor of evolutionary anthropology at Washington State University and co-author of the study, pointed out in a press release that “there is little in our evolutionary history that accounts for children sitting at desks quietly while watching a teacher do math equations at a board.”
If ADHD is not a disorder, but a mismatch with a human environment, then suddenly it’s not a medical issue. It’s an issue for educational reform
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shouldstorm/202008/what-if-certain-mental-disorders-are-not-disorders-all
Yep, really, really pleased to see this. I'd also say that often the start of the paradigm shift comes from within the communities of people most affected. eg the neurodiversity communities have critiqued mainstream framing of neurological conditions, and parents of ADHD kids in alternative sub cultures were doing it before them.
The flaw in the mismatch is that ADHD appears from birth, long before being seated at a desk.
Some of the cleverest and most intelligent buggers I've known were at risk of being diagnosed with ADHD. I'm under the impression that they just think faster than others.
Some very intelligent people are on the continuum. In a school setting they can become unstuck because of their impulsive behaviour, shifting concentration, and often mismatching in social settings. Sadly this can lead to being treated as idiots and made to feel stupid by peers and teachers. Low esteem on tap. Some ADHD kids escape into antisocial/drugs etc.
One lad I know was scooped up by an IT developer after Uni because these kids think outside the square so solve problems that others cannot even imagine.
It's an encouraging step – I'm afraid contemporary education is built more around institutional convenience than student need. If this creates some pressure for change, so much the better.
Talk and chalk is boring!! Learning by doing is so messy lol
The problem is, teachers end up being the meat in the sandwich – tasked to produce assessible task-based learning. I had the advantage teaching privately for a while there – if students really are learning, assessment becomes redundant – they can do stuff.
Lord, this was extraordinary. Good on James for putting up the full thing.
https://twitter.com/jacktame/status/1302404803180392449
TBF to the warhorse, there was a smell of Helen Clark v John Campbell 'corngate' to the interview.
You think Tame was unfair on Peters?
Peter's mentioned a couple of times that the 'horse racing industry donations/ NZ First foundation/partner SFO questioning' weren't included in the questions that were going to be asked. therefore questions he had been briefed on.
He was a lot more coherent about the cow ship sinking/criticising government Covid response questions.
Don't get me wrong, I would like the questions that James asked, answered. It seemed like Tame's line of questioning had fallen to the 'gotcha' category.
are Ministers or MPs usually given a set of questions ahead of time and those are the only topics covered?
I don't know if that is the way of things.
Often I hear on RNZ the interviewer ask a question that is often prefaced with an expression that acknowledges the question is not related to the topic the interviewee was asked on to the show to speak about.
Winston implied this was the case too.
I'd be surprised if producers worked off the principle of only pre-arranged questions can be asked, but it would be useful to know in terms of understanding Peters' reactions.
Winnie's whole thing is making every interview an attack on him. The dim are persuaded, hence his following.
For anyone moderately average the device annoys to death. Despite him delivering Left govts regularly.
Winnie is one long sigh for me, but…
Hey, there's and election happening. Were would we be without a train wreak Winston Peters interview about a month out from the day
It happens every time. And NZF comes back from the dead nearly every time.
Not betting on the outcome this time either
heh
https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1302344161476128771
https://www.mediaite.com/news/perfect-metaphor-dumbkirk-trends-after-multiple-boats-sink-at-trump-boat-parade-in-austin/
"Klanish Armada"!
https://twitter.com/mark_matranga/status/1302385468659515392
barking
https://twitter.com/DecoherenceWave/status/1302344868283387904
Schadenfreude.
https://twitter.com/davematt88/status/1302369089315241984
https://archive.li/Y8nVb/db41d12dc49e58ce7797a6a9dabb0336095812ba.jpg
oh dear.
What I really don't like is the continuation of new cases connected to this cluster. Auckland went to L3 on August 12. That is 3 1/2 weeks ago. 25 days. It is assumed everyone isolated at that point and no mixing between family members but we are still seeing new cases.
I feel that there has been severe breaches with family members mixing when they shouldn't have.
When is the message going to get through to people that we all need to play by the rules if we are going to get through this?
It's not that hard to understand how it could happen even with everyone involved trying to do the right thing. Just keep in mind the high proportion of asymptomatic infections and the long period of presymptomatic infectiousness.
To add to that, there is bugger all mask wearing in Auckland. I don't have an issue with no masks outside walking but when you are going inside to a shop makes should be on.
People aren't doing it!
I said to the boy we are doing our duty and the more we do it the more acceptable it will become but I feel like we are pushing shit uphill.
I have an advantage because I naturally hate people so to be distanced from them is natural to me.
The explanation I've given my kids is that first, it's about trying to stop the entire country from copping the bad-luck Powerball much more than it being about individual risk, and that wearing a mask is about normalising mask-wearing. Kinda like when I was their age nobody wore helmets skiing or bike riding, but now almost everyone does because it's been normalised.
Kids are up against shit like this.
https://twitter.com/BalloonBoysInc/status/1250189982188408833
Boomer killers.
I think the mask wearing varies in different parts of Auckland. I live in the Belmont/Devonport area and mask wearing is high. The ones who stand out are the non-maskers. I forgot to put mine on once and someone in the local supermarket informed a close relative of mine. I received a bollocking and have never forgotten since.
The article link below was 31st August; today Sept 6 like everyday since, the 4 new community cases are still members from this sub cluster church group.
Supposedly, this church while already having links to the first Americold case, once level 3 lockdown began they literally took the rule of max. of 10 gathering as permission to still meet for evangelism.
Is it always a government's fault for lockdowns and hardship or are individual's being self gratifying responsible too ?
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/122617065/coronavirus-church-investigated-over-allegation-meetings-were-held-in-lockdown
Is it just cascading infection among families who are all in managed isolation? I recall if one family member was infected, say 20 days ago, they moved the whole family into managed isolation, so it's called community transmission but not as we think it is.
Clear majority support for the recent extension of level 2 (2.5) :
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/vote-compass-exclusive-numbers-reveal-strong-support-level-extension?auto=6188189093001
Note that only 41% of National voters are opposed. Even allowing for 'don't know/won't say', that leaves around 30-40% of National voters in favour.
Won't there always be immediate 'importances' to divert from the real ones? Managing the immediate as the Left has done for all its governmental history — its lasting message from its Depression victory — ends us here.