NZTA broke health and safety laws, spent over 200 grand of taxpayers money on lawyers, threatened us if my wife continued her case against them they would ruin her career,
threatened suppliers with loss of work if they employed my wife, using unsigned contracts.
[Snip. Im sorry Gerald but these comments are potentially defamatory and best that they be removed now. The link to the judgement remains and I recommend that people read it to see what has happened – MS]
we have been visited by police several times from false accusations made ba a nzta employee, one accusation was , "she was running around in the paddock doing a chicken dance", when they made this accusation against my wife, she was 600km away. haha. when presented with the evidence they just threw it away and said they didnt believe us.
NZTA legendary status for being able to do this to someone and get away scott free.
Increase their funding i say (sarc)
[lprent: I see that MS has already looked at this.
I have also deleted the names at the top. A brief scan of the judgement showed that one was misspelt and I couldn’t find one of the others. Possibly referred to in the judgement as A or B. Generally if you want to refer to people or events, then use what is already in the public record, or what you can directly and truthfully testify to yourself.
Please remember that if legal action is taken over comments made on this site, then I am also in the legal firing line as well. I will act accordingly to protect my time. ]
"She took NZTA to the Employment Relations Authority which dismissed her claims. Byrne then went to the Employment Court" and "Employment Court rules NZTA breached confidentiality clause".
So the ERA is a bullshit scheme? Or did it lack authority to dispense justice? Definitely indicates something seriously wrong somewhere…
Hi Gerard…I wish I could say i'm surprised, but sadly I'm not. I'm in the centre of an issue currently with Auckland Council that involves behaviour ranging from incompetence to downright nastiness. And all on the ratepayers. I'm glad your wife fought on. Go well.
Crikey that's a long time for Mrs Byrne's name to be cleared. Good to see her reputation clearer and a clear direction for costs for her.
That also names a lot of lower-order names within NZTA.
And a lot of HR processes gone drastically wrong in a lot of detail.
I know a lot about NZTA's internal culture, and concur with the judge.
As we are about to see with the Transmission Gully PPP failure, a government organisation with this amount of power in society truly wrecks things when it goes wrong.
If my experience as an ece teacher (now retired) coming from Auckland to Whangarei is anything to go by this sort of prejudice towards newcomers is all too common in the north
Hi Ad , unfortunately the awarding of costs doesn't cover the expenses incurred while fight the extremely pitbull type nature of the lawyers from NZTA on the taxpayers money
Hey Ad, check this out from the court finding: " [27] NZTA had engaged WSP Opus as principal advisors/consultants of the Northland Bridges Project (the Project).The Project related to three sites where one-lane bridges were to be replaced with two-lane bridges. WSP Opus was responsible for the business case of the Project, procurement of design and construction, and contract management. [28] There was no signed or final contract between those parties, although there was a draft document." https://www.employmentcourt.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Decisions/2019-NZEmpC-187-Byrne-v-NZ-Transport-Agency-jud-131219.pdf
So the NZTA hired them to build the bridges without signing a contract! That's so dodgy you'd suspect Bridges (Simon) authorised the deal! "They're all hicks from the sticks up there, nobody will notice."
Hard to tell, but from my experience it's not necessarily dodgy for work to commence before a final contract is signed … especially where there is an ongoing professional relationship between the parties.
And both parties might well want to see some preliminary investigation and design work done in order to fully understand the scope and risks before signing the dotted line. Whenever you are dealing with groundworks of any kind, there is real potential for nasty surprises.
I've just finished scanning the judgement. It's clear NZTA have acted very poorly in this matter and thoroughly deserved to lose this case. It reflects very badly on someone's judgement that they allowed a non-work related disagreement between neighbours to escalate into this kind of debacle.
In my 35 yrs in the engineering /tech field I've been close to similar problems of a breakdown in trust between professional colleagues a few times. It's never easy, and rarely ends well. I'm sorry you and your wife have gone through this, because I know exactly how it feels.
Having said that, I note that at least one small part of the story involved you disparaging NZTA on various blogs (sec 136 -138) which probably didn't help matters.
The judge clearly notes (sec 116 and 117) that both parties allowed their judgement to be clouded by personal animosity.
My advice to people caught up in this kind of legal battle is to always keep in mind what their ideal outcome would be once it is all over. You certainly want resolution, but you also need to be able to live life without this becoming a perpetual burden on you and everyone else. You need to get to a redemption of some kind. And you certainly want to do everything in your power to avoid walking into this kind of mess ever again.
there was no civil dispute between the parties until my wife lodged her complaint, then over 130 accusations were made against me and my wife to paint a picture of a certain behaviour.
after two years of being videod by nzta all they have is me giving their employee the fingers once.
you will find that i didnt disparage the nzta in any blogs, as they tried to get an order against me for my comments, but had to withdraw it because no untruths were told.
my advice to people getting into anything with the nzta is expect to be defamed, ridiculed, visited by police on several occasions, laws will be broken to ruin you, they will spy on you , use their employees to threaten your employer,
even after an outcome you will still be spied on and visited by police, which is happening to us even during lockdown!
the nzta employee who we have the civil dispute with is now in another with a 77 yr old man, and has had several disputes with other neighbours.
they just dont like the truth being told about them.
Not a particular problem – just a learning issue for you.
For the moderators, you have to state some facts explicitly if you want to use them and there might potentially be a problem for us. In this case just saying that "these names/events are all in the judgement" or words to that effect would probably have been sufficient. That shifts the liability to you, and if we find them to be incorrect, we will ban you from the site and point the liability to you.
You also need to be accurate when dealing with issues that are potentially legal issues. Imagine if you by accident managed to get the incorrect name – that was in fact correct for some other real person – you effectively just accused someone of a deed that they didn't do.
We don't have much time to read everything and we'll take the approach that if something isn't clear and potentially a legal issue for us – then it gets zapped.
In this case I literally scanned the whole judgment in 10 minutes while eating breakfast. It wouldn't surprise me if I missed a name or two. I'd noted that you'd misspelled a name for one, checked your comment history and found that it was limited. ie we don't have a history for you that leads us to trust what you write based on our experience. That was already way too much time for me to spend on a comment. Re-reading it again would have been a waste of my time.
So separately, MS and I exercised our default moderator option – excise the potentially liable parts of the comment.
Besides it helps you learn good habits about what you can do on the site. BTW: read the policy.
I know exactly what your wife has been through Gerard Byrne.
A long time ago I had similar experiences of spying activity plus serious bullying, intimidation and under-mining tactics by a couple of former senior Public Service managers who were attempting to gather 'evidence' against me for unfounded misdemeanours. They never succeeded because the evidence didn't exist. I took the matter to my superiors and other 'powers that be' but they all chose to believe the perpetrators who naturally denied everything. I resigned from my position – my trust and faith in senior officialdom destroyed forever.
It is sad to see that kind of deplorable behaviour – usually against female colleagues – is still occurring but I'm glad your wife knocked the bastards off their pedestal.
i do sympathise with you as that is ezactly what happened to my wife. unfortunately after she resigned the nzta literally tried to ruin her employment future in nz
unfortunately in NZ there are too many senior females who are only too willing to jump into the old boys club and destroy others careers.
….there are too many senior females who are only too willing to jump into the old boys club and destroy others careers.
Yes that element existed in my case too. The female concerned was not a public servant let alone a senior one. But she had contacts she could use to spread wild claims about individuals she decided she wanted to destroy. Successful women – or reasonably successful as in my case – were her prime targets. I think they call it jealousy. 🙂
The whole ERA is a joke from woo to go – its there to protect the powerful.
By definition -a organisation that punches down.
Glad you won, but the fact it was so long and drawn, is just another example of power differentials within the whole structure. And like WINZ a broken system which needs to be radically changed or removed.
There was a piece on the TVNZ news last night about the impact of COVID-19 on Pacific populations in the USA. According to the report, in the US Pacific peoples are dying at twelve times the rate of the general population. They were to polite to say so, but research is now clear that PIs are in general far more vulnerable due to their generally poorer health statistics. Co-morbidities that are lethal in combination with COVID-19 like obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cardio-vascular dissease are much more prevalent in poor PI communities.
Twelve times the death rate = around 14-15% based on our current death rate of 1.2%, so if one in three Pasifika got the virus – 100,000 Pacifika infected – the expected death rate (based on this US information) is going to be 14,000-15,000 people.
Simon Bridges has not bothered to summon a single brown face to his committee for advice. He'd rather abuse his position to make unsubstantiated attacks on Ashley Bloomfield. His demands to prematurely reopen the economy is the casual institutional racism of the white settler elite that he represents writ large.
This radionz story about difficulty getting help from a Samoan, partly from their reserve and not being assertive enough illustrates the problem they face with covid-19.
Trotter tries to make binary thinking seem sensible, fails. "If Canberra chooses Washington over Beijing, then the Australian economy will tank. If it chooses Beijing over Washington, then Australia will be plunged into a profound identity crisis." http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/
ScoMo will refrain from making either of these unpalatable choices. Trotter thinks the situation in Oz will become critical and force the choice – yet offers no persuasive reason why he believes that.
"In geostrategic terms, a US-aligned Australasia is crucial to Washington’s new “Indo-Pacific” plan for containing China’s ambitious “Belt and Road” project. It has become a matter of some urgency, therefore, to facilitate a decisive shift in New Zealand foreign policy towards Washington and away from Beijing."
Since when has any US Secretary of State fronted as a competent facilitator? Kissinger, perhaps. Dunno why Trotter discounts our post-ANZUS independent foreign policy. You'd think a 35-yr track record of success is sufficiently substantial for expectations of perseverance to be reasonable. Normal, even.
"In conformity with the maxim that it is shameful to let a good crisis go to waste, the pro-Washington faction within New Zealand’s foreign policy establishment has persuaded the University of Canterbury to oversee a “pop-up” think tank dedicated to assisting the New Zealand Government “devise a resilience strategy that will ensure New Zealand’s independence and sovereignty are protected during the Covid-19 pandemic and after.”"
Yeah? As if in response to what threat?? Apparently "our very own Professor Anne-Marie Brady." Gosh. She must be Superwoman.
"Professor Brady is not, however, without powerful friends in high places. Not the least of whom is New Zealand’s Foreign Minister, Winston Peters." Ah, the `enemy within' thesis. Trotter follows up with nothing substantial & his attempt to beat up a molehill into a mountain limps to a lame end.
I agree – Trotter's biggest problem is he has stopped trying to understand the world he lives in. He has retreated to just yearning for one that is gone, and interpreting the world from an armchair there. It doesn't mean sometimes he isn't correct in his observation – but he is more and more just plain out of touch.
If this Transmission Gully project PPP collapses, it will signal the largest commercial failure of the government since the late 1990s. Doesn't matter which team were in power at the time. This is a multi-generational scale work and is now a terminal case:
"Officials acknowledged on Sunday the already-delayed Transmission Gully project would be delayed until 2021. This has the potential to blow out costs by yet-more hundreds of millions of dollars. NZTA said in February the project’s estimated costs would over-run by $190m to $1b and the completion date had been extended from May to December this year.
An NZTA spokesman said on Sunday the project would now not be completed until some time in 2021 and the agency was in urgent negotiations again with the PPP’s contractor CPB HEB about the project. He would not comment on the fears of those close to the project that the contractor was days away from pulling out completely and dumping the project uncompleted back on the taxpayer. The project was suspended during the Level 4 lockdown, but failed to resume with all its workers as expected last week.
Several sources told Newsroom large numbers of subcontractors were permanently let go last week. One source said over 600 people had been cut from the project's workforce and a large amount of construction equipment had been removed from the site."
I thought the way a PPP was supposed to work was the private party secured the funding, then built and operated the asset (while the public retained ownership), in exchange for a set income stream once the asset was complete and operating.
So doesn't that mean we the public should not have yet paid anything for this since it is not yet complete and operating? Doesn't that mean the private part of this is wearing all the sunk costs to date?
If the private party walks away now, wouldn't we the public be able to just pay for what's left to do to complete it, and then we end up with the whole thing on the cheap without having to pay all the future fees we would have had to if the private party had actually completed the job?
Or were the original contract terms dramatically different to what that Treasury document says they should have been for a PPP?
There are more could-as, should-as, and would-as on Transmission Gully's PPP than there are deadweight list MPs.
Since it's not tolled, it's fee-for-access+long term maintenance. NZTA have already paid multiple times to the contractor to the PPP for over-runs.
I don't think anyone yet really knows what would happen with your second question. Plenty of major jobs consulted their insurers after Level 4. NZTA will be fighting hard to keep this one out of court: imagine how such a case would play in the run-up to the election. Even the NZTA Board can figure that one.
I'm not privy to the contractual terms on Transmission Gully, but I suspect a lot of New Zealand will be in the next few months.
NZTA have already paid multiple times to the contractor to the PPP for over-runs.
Looking at how PPPs were sold to us for how they should work, the cost overruns should have been compensated by increased payments after the job was completed and operating. Not by up-front extra payments: those are the old-skool conventional model.
NZTA will be fighting hard to keep this one out of court
Yeah, the firefighters with their high-powered pumping equipment will be getting called into big law firms to clean up all the anticipatory salivation going on over this one. What with the questions around the exact legality of the lockdown orders that massively added increased costs and delays, and all that.
The real concern is why NZTA awarded the Transmission Gully contract to CPB with no experience of New Zealand conditions but very good experience of making sure contract risks were put on the NZ government.
It's less to do with it being a PPP as such, more NZTA's naivety at the time of going for the lowest cost operator regardless of contractual conditions.
Compare with Puhoi to Warkworth where the risk sits with the Fletcher led consortium who are wearing the cost increases.
That's what would have happened under a conventional procurement, yes.
But the selling proposition for a PPP is that the private contractor wears the costs and the risks until the job is done and operating, at which point they start getting paid. Not before.
Yes. Devil meet details. Because if you are right and the private contractor is walking this late in the job, with this much sunk cost, then it's logical to guess they've decided the cost of completing is even greater than anyone wants to talk about in public just yet.
Or the whole PPP thing is just a smoke and mirrors job that really doesn't transfer any extra risks and responsibilities to the contractor in exchange for the extra long term margin they expect to make out of it.
"…NZTA said in February the project’s estimated costs would over-run by $190m to $1b…"
That is a difference of $810 million, which makes that a total wild guess of a number.
It looks to me like CPB massively underbid to get the work and/or underestimated the complexity and are now trying to blackmail the government by threatening to pull the pin. Another legacy of the genius of the minister for everything, Steven Joyce. And National like to go on how they are better managers of the economy!
NZTA are spineless and utterly committed to roads. They’ll want to fold in a jiffy. the question is – will the government take their advice to fold?
It transfers all the risks to the State, while any upsides go to the private contractor, in return for keeping the liability off the Government books. Until it turns to shit, as so many have around the world.
We should have looked at the glaring examples from the UK, in particular.
The other problem is that the expertise to manage, assess and cost projects, has been lost from NZTA, with that being left to private firms.
Rest homes will be the next to come under the spotlight.
Whoops. I was going to comment on this the day before yesterday when it was first noted, but deleted it because it wasn't too clear to me from the info linked to just how serious the problems were.
I recall debating this project back when Steven Joyce announced it back in 2009. There was considerable opposition at the time, including groups like Option 3 making the case that the whole damned thing wasn't necessary.
Having lived in the immediate area for some years I was always a bit skeptical of the original price, it was always going to be challenging terrain to build a modern road through and the costs were always going to blow out. In the end it was plain that Joyce only sold it on the basis of a lowball bid.
Well I'd like to think all the poor bastards who've had to work on this job did their best, but it looks like they're only going to prove the critics of the project right.
NZTA will see the upside if the Transmission Gully PPP even gets close to failure because they will see it damaging the NZInfra PPP light rail proposal, and in effect supporting their own non-PPP light rail proposal.
Of course it's not the only big roading PPP they've got going at the moment: Puhoi-Warkworth SH1 is still ongoing. I haven't heard any trouble there (other than Covid-19 infections and stoppages).
But for the super-major jobs I could easily foresee NZTA preferring Alliance-type contracts over the fully commercially independent PPP forms.
I'm intrigued by what might be hidden by those big bits of black. Especially since a quick skim of the visible bits didn't catch anything about disengagement before opening the works.
All of that means we wait even longer for the Manawatu Gorge replacement road.
I understand 800 workers will be moving to in and around Palmy for the project. It will be a welcomed boost to the district's involved- Manawatu and Tararua.
At the same time this becomes an obvious task for change in govt – first catch your MOW and then treat it right so it flourishes – find our indigenous ancient govt depts and breed 'em strong and good, check for efficiency and enjoy effectiveness.
Starting Friday, Russian students as young as 17 will be deployed in coronavirus hospitals. Students told The Moscow Times they face academic repercussions if they reject the order to work and reported salaries drastically lower than promisedhttps://t.co/NBf2EFIBce
Highly doubtful seeing he couldn't even be the best in his chosen field and, unless you count being an insufferable shock jock for effect, fails on tv as the biggest tool on the home renno show, not to mention making cricket unlistenable with pathetic analysis and obnoxious wittering.
There may be a piss up in a brewery he could organise, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Careful, mate. If you carry on like that there'll be a puff piece in Stuff about poor Mark Richardson being bullied by horrible internet trolls and how his kids cry themselves to sleep at night. It's been a while since the last one.
Ah but is he going to put his money where his mouth is? Stand as candidate for the Nats, I mean. Hosking's too scared. Talk is cheap but folks make character judgments on actions, not talk.
So. Under Level 2 those pathetic bastards who have been pining for attention from their hairdresser can be comforted that the Orders from Above have dictated that masks must be worn.
Because, I guess, it's a tad difficult to faff with some narcissist's locks from a safe distance.
Cast your minds back just a wee while to when Uncle Bleeding Ashley was steadfast in his determination that those providing homebased care for frail elderly and disabled need only wear a mask if the person being cared for was a confirmed or probable Covid 19 case.
While I know this suggestion may raise yr hackles…
I would like to see all in-home carers/assistants etc bought back under the DHB umbrella, rather than working for all the various middle-men, ticket clipping parasite companies. Companies that are seeking to make a profit from the allocation of the health budget that provides care for the elderly, disabled etc.
This has been the call for years…those needing support services being caught in the middle of the pissing contests between the MOH, DHBs and ACC and the various contracted providers.
None of that lot ever, ever put the needs of those requiring care to the front.
And it's only very recently that the guidelines for PPE use have been updated.
Healthcare workers at all levels were crying out for masks and 'permission' to use them for weeks. Having some bureaucrat repeatedly state that wearing even the basic surgeons mask was unnecessary unless there was disease present has done real damage to the relationship between frontline healthcare workers and those at the top who set the rules.
I guess it comes down to the personal experience of the politician or bureaucrat (or the science communicator du jour).
Clearly they have a much better understanding of proximity issues for hairdressers than they do of the same for frontline healthcare workers.
Today Grant Robertson said that the government is to walk back its planned 2020 budget focus on redirection of the economy as to global warming because of the extra debt and a priority of focus on economic growth.
He notes the higher debt in Europe and USA and his rationale provides them reason to do little more than they are. It's a blame the GFC, and or the pandemic, for limited goverrnment will/capacity to deal with GW.
Positive – it should provide the oxygen for the Greens to return to parliament.
Negative – the government is wedded to the capitalist debt model and will be complicit in using this as an excuse for continued poverty, homelessness and a second rate health care/welfare/aged care system.
This is exactly the wrong decision. The New Zealand economy (despite reasonable support during lock-down) is going to emerge in a highly depressed (high unemployment) state. In this state there are more real resources available to be put to use implementing the economic redirection (and lower employment in the status quo parts of the economy).
The financing (how you pay the people many who desperately want the work anyway) is particularly irrelevant in this case, it neither restrains the governments ability to employ people towards its initiative or negatively impacts how the economy performs while implementing these reforms.
No doubt Robertson was got to by treasury boffins and its a real shame. He needs to be well enough informed to put them (and their ideology) in their place when this happens rather than undermining the government and their ability to implement public policy.
"The government was focused not only on rebuilding the economy, but on rebuilding it better, he added.
"In the midst of the crisis and our desire to return to a sense of normality, we should all acknowledge that things weren't perfect before Covid-19 hit us.
"There are few times in life when the clock is reset. Now is the time we should address these long-term issues. It is a privilege many countries won't have. It's not one we should squander," he said."
Thank you so much Water Care, our Mayor and council – It is MAY and we are now told there is to be a water restriction put into place. How we are not well served by some of our leaders. Goff is all smile and wave. "We have had a long, hot summer with less than half of our normal rainfall, which means our storage dams have fallen to around 46.5 per cent, well below the 76 per cent average for this time of year." So we act NOW
Did you not know the water restrictions were coming? It’s been signposted for months. We were told weeks ago that restrictions were almost certainly likely but imposition of them had been delayed while the level 4 lockdown was in place in order not to put anyone under extra stress.
Why wasn't this in place in February graduated in implementation e.g. turn of tap when brushing teeth, toilets only flush when its brown, water gardens by hand held hoses, no washing of cars, etc
In August 2019 we had this August Average 89% Aug 19 73%. And then we had "Auckland: Record-breaking low summer rainfall. Depending on which rain gauge you look at, summer 2019/20 was the driest, 2nd-driest or 3rd-driest summer on record." yes with all this preceding our current situation I call it Incompetence some may try to argue with the FACTS.
I think you unreasonably expect perfection…the hoped for summer rain hasnt eventuated and there has been a call to restrict use for a month ..
"Under usual circumstances restrictions would kick in at about 51 per cent during autumn, Jaduram said.
Amid a dry start to the month and on the back of a summer that saw just 35 per cent of average rainfall, the city's storage dams on Thursday dropped to 49.7 per cent – the first time they'd fallen below 50 per cent since the drought of 1993/1994, when storage levels got down to a frightening 36 per cent.
The historical average for this time of year is about 77 per cent."
You could increase storage capacity but I suspect youd object to the rate increase to fund it…..but given CC I expect youll have plenty of opportunity in the not too distant future.
25 Feb "Auckland's longest dry spell on record was finally broken last weekend, with Saturday's rainfall marking the first time there's been more than 1mm of rain in 47 days. " add this to what I liked from August 19 position- So we had a record dry period in Feb and No action from Watercare. I think action was required. And comparing to 1993 Auckland then did not have the Waikato river available as a water source IMO is nothing more than diversion tactics, and that Watercare was nothing more than Hoping the Weather would cover for inaction !!!
Agreed pat. Judging exactly when to bring in water restrictions is a tricky business to get right.
I saw the process happening in Wellington one year, and it was fascinating just how much care and judgement was put into it. In the end we were saved by decent rain that arrived with less than 48hrs to spare.
The big issue is that if Watercare was not pumping Waikato water for all it was worth for the past few months Auckland would be in an absolutely chronic position.
micky, are you privy to information you can share off the top of your head on the status of Watercare's efforts to increase how much it can take from the Waikato at higher flow times?
I haven't found anything definitive online, but I get the impression it's still tied up in the consenting process.
You get some good hints here in the request for Crown intervention in the consenting application process from this Stuff article from February this year:
It's on Parker's desk, and I betcha it's a good case for waiting for the RMA reforms that will enable a whole bunch more major work accelerations.
As well as the majority of Auckland's water already coming from outside the Auckland region, Watercare took over management of the Waikato District water system a couple of years ago.
When the government announces its massive list of the "shovel ready" projects, I have a sneaking suspicion that Watercare will be called upon to be the central procurement agency for the water-focused infrastructure.
Then why as per my above comment was the August 19 storage 73% vs an average of 89%. Not sure how starting with a storage level 16% below the average with what has transpired over this summer is Forward warning of risk ?? that requires urgent action now- To me someone has been missing in action. I understand you are not of recent vintage from reading your contributions but I can recall 1993 and calls such as: placing a 2l bottle of water/brick in the cistern of a toilet to save water and the flush it if its brown, and the need to take action of a leaky tap and more. Such calls have been lacking under the current situation- We have been saved by the Waikato river uptake this time.
And in Feb Watercare requested govt to take more from the Waikato https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/119610027/calls-for-crown-intervention-as-aucklands-waikato-river-water-application-stagnates
Seems like quite a different system to Whangarei. Your "Stage 1" restriction says no domestic hose use. Whangarei went to "Level 2" on February 26 which banned sprinklers and irrigation systems. Then we went to "Level 3" on April 16 which bans hose use, gardens can still be watered with a bucket.
Trump’s assertion in the third paragraph that there are effectively no limits on the president’s authority to use military force around the world, and to strike preemptively, without any congressional authorization is the really alarming part. pic.twitter.com/qSslrpdpnq
In another move aimed at consolidating control over policy and messaging, the Trump administration is sending a White House loyalist to serve in a key Defense Department policy role that officials are worried is aimed at weeding out civilians not loyal to the president, Foreign Policy has learned.
Michael Cutrone, who has been detailed as Vice President Mike Pence’s top national security aide for South Asia, is set to arrive at the Pentagon to serve in a behind-the-scenes role vetting Defense Department officials for loyalty to the president, according to two current administration officials.
Listening to the National Party over the last two weeks, I was under the impression Australia was almost 'business as usual' and achieving the same results as New Zealand. Not if this report is correct.
The negative impacts of prolonged unemployment on mental and physical health has been long recognised, and unemployment could emerge as the major public health crisis from COVID-19.
Barry Soper’s Shock! Horror! Government Bombshell! ‘They Had No Right To Lock Us Up!’ Column from this arvo has has undergone quite a substantial re-write on the online Herald after the A-G released a statement saying that the so-called leaked advice from Crown Law that Soper received was just a draft report and not the final advice given to the government.
I really can't get excited about this from Soper. So what? Did they want to be right but dead? Or have a loved one die? I'd certainly support some retrospective legislation to stop the money hungry suing the government for money. Other than that yawn!
As Rationalist nation say – we need a UBI and we need to keep a lid on this. Corona ant going away and a mad push to get back to work will undo all we have done.
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After a long break, the government is back inserting secrecy clauses in legislation. This time its the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill (No 3), which in its clause allowing Ministers to exempt purchasers of farm land from the usual rules also allows them to exempt an exemption from the publication requirement: ...
Over the past two years the government has repeatedly delayed a scheme to put cameras on boats to monitor Mew Zealand's pervasively criminal fishing industry. But it turns out that the industry actually wants cameras: Three of the country's biggest seafood companies have broken ranks with the rest of the ...
Louise Delany (public health lawyer)Health and emergency laws have played a critical role in this country’s successful elimination of community transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic. This blog details key aspects of the legislation and comments on issues around testing, payments by incoming travellers for quarantine costs, and mask use. ...
I like Andrew Curry’s succinct and insightful futures blog The Next Wave. His most recent post is about social change. In particular, the decadal-long periods usually required for changes in values. He highlights a 2016 paper by Inglehart and Norris, who examined whether economic insecurity or a “cultural backlash” ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Stop making sense: why it's time to get emotional about climate changeThe science has been settled to the highest degree, so now ...
MONDAY JULY 6Washington (History, Sky 073, 7.30pm). The brilliant Doris Kearns Goodwin is the executive producer of this six-part series about America's first president. It combines interviews with live action and is narrated by Jeff Daniels. It's engaging, said Salon.TUESDAY JULY 7The ABC Murders (Prime, 8.30pm). Sarah Phelps has done incredible things with ...
I think we can all agree that the mainstream media in New Zealand has a very different set of rules for the right wing compared to the left. While Labour and Green Party politicians don’t seem to be able to fart without it becoming a sackable offence, National and Act ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 28 through Sat, July 4, 2020Editor's Choice'2040': A funny, entertaining, upbeat climate documentaryA timely Australian documentary takes a 'solutions' approach, with the filmmaker inspired by visions of ...
Racist National MP Hamish WalkerEven before Todd Muller's coup ousted Simon Bridges by a single vote, it was patently obvious that the National Party promotes and stands for white privilege. In fact they’ve always worked to ensure the discriminatory status quo in New Zealand doesn’t change.So it’s no surprise that ...
Dave HeatleyZero community transmission. Just a handful of active cases, all in quarantine. New Zealand is in an attractive situation, at least compared to much of the world. The situation could be robust and enduring – or it might be fragile, just one border incursion away from a “second ...
Is the consequence of the Simpson Report proposals for restructuring the health system poorer accountability to people? When in doubt, centralise‘ has been a persistent theme in New Zealand public policy throughout our history. The current government is no exception. Here are some examples. - The regional polytechs have been ...
I wrote earlier in the week about the Scientology front organisations Drug Free World and Drug Free Ambassadors and their quite prominent role in anti-cannabis reform "coalition" assembled by Family First and a newloca branch of the American prohibitionist organisation SAM.It turns out Family First aren't the only ones helping ...
Nik GreenMuch of the public debate about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has focused on the extent to which government regulations have restricted personal and business activity.Oxford University Blavatnik School of Government Here in New Zealand, the question of when to change Alert Levels dominated the ...
Raising The Bar: Would that the Prime Minister and her colleagues would listen as intently to what the people – as opposed to the power elites – are saying as the Greens. Were they so disposed, the popular clamour for a transformational post-Covid reset would be loud in their ears. ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzDo you think the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown will slow or ...
A bit like a letter home. I have now been full-time at the University of Melbourne since 2019. Before that, I was 20 years at the University of Otago, Wellington. Indeed, I set up this very Public Health Expert Blog with Nick Wilson ten years ago. Now I am your ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections House Democrats have released a comprehensive report showing how – if they control the White House and both the Senate and the House of Representatives – they might move forward on climate change. Their “Climate Crisis Action Plan,” released June 30 by the ...
Not Ready: Todd Muller’s lack-lustre and self-contradictory performances offer conclusive proof that a political leader cannot be managed into competence. National’s new boss has Janet Wilson handling his media and Matthew Hooton writing his speeches. Both are highly professional political and public relations specialists, and Muller is lucky to have ...
Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency, I have landed in hospital so am not able to do a current update on the NZ blog statistics. Let’s hope I can get back to this in good time. ...
It started as a family story, about a step-father who went out one night to break into an embassy in Wadestown, Wellington. John Daniell wanted to understand what his family had been part of when his mother and then step-father work for New Zealand’s Security Intelligence. He wanted to know ...
The Greens have shaken up the election campaign with the announcement of their radical poverty and action plan to reform welfare provision and introduce a new wealth tax for millionaires. It’s a big-thinking, controversial policy and has generated a lot of disagreement over how radical it is, whether it could ...
My house is currently supplied electricity by Meridian. As soon as I can change I will because Meridian spilled water to hike electricity prices. They got consumers to spend an extra $80 million on power unnecessarily. Clever them. The Electricity Authority has called their behaviour an “undesirable trading situation”, or ...
When Jacinda Ardern unexpectedly became the Labour Party leader shortly before the 2017 general election, she promised to lead a government of transformation. After nearly three years occupying the Treasury benches, health professionals working in public hospitals have been keenly waiting for transformational progress, including in the capacity and quality ...
Last night, One News ran a follow-up story to its Colmar Brunton poll results on the cannabis referendum, headed here as Government accuses big American anti-cannabis group of interfering in NZ politics.In truth it wasn't just the government: Justice minister Andrew Little, National's Shane Reti and the Greens' Chloe Swarbrick ...
When the government refused to put cameras on fishing boats to ensure fishers obeyed the law, Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash claimed that coalition partner NZ First (which has received large donations from the fishing industry) was not responsible for the decision. He has repeated that claim repeatedly since then. But ...
Heroic Evasions: Labour needs to be unequivocal in its communications with the electorate. Either it has a plan to prevent their fellow New Zealanders from falling off the economic cliff, or it doesn’t. Either it has a fiscal policy equal to the task of funding that plan, or it hasn’t. ...
Prof John Potter*Elimination has been an effective strategy for New Zealand in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic virus (SARS-CoV-2). Most other countries have not pursued this goal and are ignoring the opportunity even now. SARS-CoV-2 is not manageable by the influenza playbook; its longer incubation period makes tracing ...
This is a re-post from Weather Underground by Bob HensonAbove: This rainbow appears unusually low in the sky because it has formed early in the afternoon, rather than toward sunset. For a rainbow to form, water droplets must be present in the air in front of an observer ...
On Monday, Todd Muller gave an important speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, He spoke firmly about his belief in the need for foreign investment, for the public sector to partner with the private sector rather than boss it around and, crucially, demanded the government deliver a clear strategy ...
Todd Muller's first act on become party leader was to appoint an all-white front bench. This understandably raised eyebrows, so he is now apparently reconsidering caucus and list rankings. Which is obviously necessary, but there's still the underlying problem: National doesn't have a lot of Māori MP's. And the reason ...
Meridian energy has been caught manipulating the electricity market for fun and profit: Meridian Energy pushed up power prices by unnecessary spilling water from its south dams in December that could have been used for generation, the Electricity Authority has ruled in a preliminary decision. The authority said the ...
When the Christchurch murderer pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder and a number of other violent assault charges a few months ago, he effectively closed the door on what the public will know about the lead up to and commission of the event. His plea means that no evidence ...
Daphna Whitmore The Philippines is enduring one of the longest lockdowns in the world. For President Duterte the lockdown provides an opportunity to garner more powers and to push through a brazen assault on human rights. A new law called the Anti-Terror Bill has been passed under urgency and it ...
Hearing the Prime Minister castigate the Warehouse for laying off 1,000 workers after receiving $52 million in wage subsidies reminds me of the fabled frog who agreed to carry a scorpion across a river. The scorpion stings the frog halfway across, dooming both to drown. The frog cries “Why on ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Amanda Kvalsvig, Prof Michael BakerCompared with other OECD countries NZ is a stand-out success story by ending community transmission of COVID-19. While there have been some well-publicised recent deficiencies (eg, quarantine organisation), there has still been no evidence of community transmission for many weeks. Nevertheless, ...
It’s June 30th, marked as Asteroid Day by many people of an astronomical bent around the globe. On this date in 1908, early in the morning in a remote part of central Siberia, the sky fell in. Well, not literally. What happened is a substantially-sized lump of cosmic detritus ...
There really is not much about Paula Bennett concerning her career trajectory, the policies she promoted, and most importantly, the socio-economic effect this had upon New Zealand (and particularly the most vulnerable in this, our oft-cited “egalitarian” society of this country) that can be said now that hasn’t already been ...
Don Franks Poverty, inequality – really – aren’t politicians paid to sort that stuff ? Why can’t they just get it together and come up with something fair and sensible? A cold rainy 2020 morning, a headline showed promise. “Green Party’s $8b plan would guarantee an income of $325 a ...
A guest repost by Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF) staff attorney Augusta Wilson. Fundraising is not the objective of this article but readers may wish to know that CSLDF is currently conducting a summer fundraiser to support defense of research scientists and research integrity from anti-science interference by politicians and industrial interests. The COVID-19 pandemic ...
Helloy… My name is Todd Muller and I am the leader of the National Party of New Zealand. Many people come up to me on the street and ask me who I am. I’m often walking through Tauranga, or in a mall in suburban Auckland, or maybe even a farmers’ ...
The US state of Mississippi has finally voted to remove the Confederate emblem from its state flag. Good. Its appalling that it was put there in the first place, but even more appalling that it took so long to remove it. Its basicly as if a German Länder still had ...
No one could have predicted when David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill was passed by Parliament last November that the referendum required to bring the legislation into force would be held against the backdrop of a deadly global pandemic. Since then, the mounting tally of casualties around the world ...
Paul GoldsmithYou can often tell just how effective a progressive policy proposal will be by how much the right wing criticise it. The more socially beneficial, the more vitriolic and unhinged they seem to become.That was the case when the Green Party announced their Poverty Action Plan yesterday. The response ...
Back at the beginning of April, when we had much else on our minds, I wrote this post urging some caution in interpreting the results of the latest Horizon poll, conducted in February, on voting intentions in this year's cannabis referendum, which was paid for by Helius Therapeutics.I wrote that ...
Over the weekend the Greens made their first election policy announcement, and promised transformational change: a more progressive tax system, with new rates applying to incomes of $100,000 and $150,000; a new wealth tax on net wealth over $1 million; and a guaranteed minimum income to eliminate poverty. Its bold, ...
Story of the Week... El Niño/La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Global Warming Is Melting Our Sense of Time Satellite image of smoke from active fires burning near the ...
. . Plague town? There are two things right now in Aotearoa New Zealand that are guaranteed to piss people off. Firstly, it’s National playing silly-bugger politics with the covid-19 pandemic. This cost Simon Bridges his job as National’s Leader. Lately, Michael Woodhouse has been playing fast and loose with ...
Tertiary fees in New Zealand versus Australia: Fees Are Important, but not as Important as Financing In Australia, the Education Minister Dan Tehan has proposed an overhaul of the existing higher education funding system to offer 39,000 additional study places by 2023 and 100,000 by 2030. The proposal has been ...
The latest opinion poll forecasts a landslide win by Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party, but when taken alongside other polling, it illustrates New Zealand politics remains volatile and the contest is still very open. According to the Colmar Brunton poll published by TVNZ last night, Labour would easily romp back ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 21 through Sat, June 27, 2020Editor's ChoiceFacebook creates fact-checking exemption for climate deniers Facebook is "aiding and abetting the spread of climate misinformation,” said Robert Brulle, an ...
The images and reports delivered to us by the world’s media leave us in no doubt that the rest of the world is still in the grip of a coronavirus pandemic that shows no signs of slackening, but is actually uncontrolled and picking up pace in many countries; and even ...
Minister of Health - David ClarkIf you follow politics at all in New Zealand, David Clark is likely a name you’re a bit familiar with. The current Minister of Health is perhaps the most disliked Member of Parliament at the moment, which amongst very stiff competition is really saying something. ...
SUNDAY JUNE 28Beat the Chasers (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). Judging by the tweets, which is probably a bad idea, over lockdown, all of New Zealand found itself in front of The Chase every night at 5pm. It is a brilliant fomat: hardly anyone wins any money ...
SATURDAY JUNE 27Banksy and the Rise of Outlaw Art (Sky Arts, Sky 017, 8.00pm). There was graffiti before Banksy, but perhaps his pungent political messages hit home a bit harder. Anyways, a doco about his influence on street art featuring a bunch of cool people.SUNDAY JUNE 28Beat the Chasers (TVNZ 1, ...
We have been assailed by Fox News-style headlines, lurid stories of “a breach!”. An almost nuclear level disaster on the horizon scream, “Fiasco!” here, “Hero to Zero!” there… Oh quick, panic everyone!This has fueled an unbelievably stupid environment of panic among some, and spurred useless, counterproductive political ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters A massive dust storm formed over the Sahara Desert last week and invaded the Caribbean over the June 20-21 weekend, bringing dangerous levels of air pollution and low visibility to the islands. The dust is accompanied by a large amount ...
Will the Covid Crisis lead to a dramatic redirection for New Zealand and the World? A hinge in history occurs where the past and present are connected but they point in different directions. Big hinges are rare but crucial in the development of humankind. Not in Narrow Seas identifies six. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industry New Zealand First is supporting calls by hunters and the New Zealand Tahr Foundation (NZTF) to halt a large scale cull of Himalayan Tahr by the Department of Conservation in National Parks. The calls are supported by a 40,000 strong petition and the ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First leader Winston Peters today scoffed at suggestions that a team of six political operatives have been dispatched to New Zealand to assist his campaign. ‘As President Ronald Reagan once said, ‘there they go again.’ ‘The clickbait journos can’t ...
New Zealand First is pleased to announce Jenny Marcroft as the party’s election 2020 candidate for the Auckland Central electorate. Jenny spent years working in Auckland Central, having spent a vast proportion of her broadcasting career there. She says she, "knows the place and knows the people." Ms Marcroft says ...
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...
This week we moved into the second half of 2020 - and our Government delivered another week of big changes and major progress for New Zealanders. Read below for a wrap of the key things moments from the week - from extending paid parental leave, to making major investments in ...
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Regional Economic Development A regional freight hub for the lower North Island will be built just northeast of Palmerston North, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Government is investing $40 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to designate and buy land and design ...
Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson is calling for the introduction of a Guaranteed Minimum Income to lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty and prevent more families entering into further debt with the Ministry of Social Development. ...
There has been renewed focus on New Zealand First acting as a handbrake on the Government after our decision to not support Auckland light rail. We are a handbrake for bad ideas, that istrue, but our track record since 2017 has seen New Zealand First constructively also serve as an ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP New Zealand First’s Fair Residency for Superannuation Bill passed its First Reading in Parliament today. The Bill makes a significant change to NZ Super by raising the minimum residency requirement from 10 to 20 years, after age 20. “Currently, a migrant of ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order A New Zealand First member’s bill in the name of Darroch Ball introducing a six-month minimum prison sentence for assaults on first responders has passed its second reading in Parliament. The new offence of "injuring a first responder or corrections officer with ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Deputy Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First welcomes the launch of the new Criminal Cases Review Commission, gifted with the name from Waikato-Tainui - Te Kāhui Tātari Ture, announced in Hamilton today by Justice Minister Andrew Little. “New Zealand First has long believed in and ...
The Green Party is celebrating over $800m in new funding for green projects, which will get people into jobs while solving New Zealand’s long-term challenges. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is appalled that Meridian seems to have been unnecessarily spilling water from its dams to drive up its profits."While New Zealanders have been coming together in some of our darkest hours, we don’t expect power gentailers to waste water and ...
We wrapped up the first half of 2020 with a busy month, taking additional steps to support New Zealanders as we continue with our economic recovery. We rolled out targeted packages to support key industries like tourism and construction, helped create jobs in the environmental and agriculture sectors, and set ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Infrastructure Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has welcomed the appointment of Maurice Davis and his deep infrastructure and construction experience to the board of the Infrastructure Commission. Mr Davis (Ngāti Maniapoto), is the seventh and final appointment to the board led by former Reserve Bank Governor ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand’s click bait journalism is taking a turn for the worse, with yet another example of sensationalist, wilful-misrepresentation of the facts. “New Zealand First has worked constructively with its Coalition partner on hundreds of pieces of legislation and policy, and ...
The Green Party is today unveiling its Poverty Action Plan, which includes a Guaranteed Minimum Income to ensure people have enough to live with dignity. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Rotorua Museum redevelopment and Whakarewarewa and Tokorangi Forest projects will be accelerated thanks to a $2.09 million Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) boost, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
This week, we rolled out the next steps of our recovery plan, with new infrastructure investment, extra support for tourism operators, and a new programme to get Kiwis into agriculture careers. The global economic consequences of COVID-19 will continue to be a challenge, but we have a detailed plan to ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its final reading in Parliament today fulfilling a coalition agreement commitment. “This is an important step in saving the lives of New Zealanders and delivers a key coalition commitment ...
Whakatāne has been given a $2.5 million boost to speed up previously funded projects and create more than 450 jobs in the next decade. Of those, the equivalent of 160 full-time jobs could be delivered in the next six weeks. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is in town to make ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $2.5 million to accelerate three infrastructure projects in Whakatāne, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “This package is about ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones is throwing his weight behind a bid by the Auckland Council to fast-track the more than doubling of the city's water allowance from the Waikato River. And he's coming out strongly against anyone who plans on getting in the way of this campaign. "It is my ...
The Green Party is thrilled to see changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that mean consents for large projects can be declined if they will have significant climate change implications that are inconsistent with the Zero Carbon Act and Aotearoa New Zealand’s Paris Agreement obligations. ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence The Royal New Zealand Navy’s new ship, Aotearoa, set sail for New Zealand on 10 June from the Republic of Korea, and is due to arrive in Auckland tomorrow, announced Minister of Defence Ron Mark. “Aotearoa is the Royal New Zealand Navy’s new fleet ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters has today welcomed the Racing Industry Bill passing its third reading, creating the legislative framework for revitalising the racing industry while limiting the need for future government intervention. “For too long our domestic racing industry has ...
The Green Party has today put forward an amendment to the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill to ensure all people in prisons can vote in general elections. ...
The Green Party welcomes the decision to not proceed with Public Public Investment (PPI) delivery of Auckland’s light rail project and to instead run the process through the public service. ...
Hon Ron Mark, New Zealand First List MP based in the Wairarapa New Zealand First List MP Hon Ron Mark welcomes the announcement of Provincial Growth Funding investment of $1.4 million to help secure the Wairarapa’s water supply. The funding boost will allow the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), and ...
New Zealand First list MP Mark Patterson has been selected to represent the party in the newly formed Taieri electorate at the upcoming election. Mr Patterson, his wife Jude and two daughters farm sheep and beef at Lawrence and Waitahuna. He previously stood in the Clutha-Southland electorate however boundary changes ...
Hon Shane Jones, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises A new ‘super depot’ to be built for NZ Post in Wellington will create around 350 jobs during construction, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises Shane Jones says. Shane Jones today attended a ground-breaking and blessing ceremony for the parcel-processing depot ...
Our strong economic management prior to COVID-19 - with surpluses, low debt and near-record-low unemployment - put us in a good position to weather the impact of the virus and start to rebuild our economy much earlier than many other countries.Now we're putting our plan to recover and rebuild ...
Darroch Ball MP, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Law and Order Recently released Police fleeing driver statistics have shown yet another increase in incidents with another record-high in the latest quarter. “This new quarterly record-high is the latest in a string of record-high numbers since 2014. The data shows incidents ...
New Zealand First MP Fletcher Tabuteau is pleased to be confirmed today as the party’s candidate for the Rotorua electorate. Speaking at the Rotorua AGM for New Zealand First, Mr Tabuteau said this is an election that is incredibly important for the people of Rotorua. “The founding principles of New ...
The Human Rights Commission’s PRISM report on the issues impacting people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) provides an excellent programme of work for future governments to follow, say the Greens. ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said the trans-Tasman bubble had not been jeopardised after aborder botch-upresulted in New Zealand having two active cases of COVID-19. On Friday, Mr Peters told RNZ's Morning Report he had heard from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison that borders for trans-Tasman travel would open by ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said today he was pleased the army was now running the quarantine and isolation process - up until now it has been the Ministry of Health. Peters told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that the army knew how to introduce and follow protocols and instil discipline. ...
The Government is making immediate short-term changes to visa settings to support temporary migrants already onshore in New Zealand and their employers, while also ensuring New Zealanders needing work are prioritised, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. We are: Extending temporary work visas due to expire by the end of 2020 ...
Professor Peter Skelton CNZM has been appointed as Chief Freshwater Commissioner and Alternate Environment Court Judge Craig James Thompson as Deputy Chief Freshwater Commissioner for the newly established Freshwater Planning Process (FPP). Environment Minister David Parker today also announced the appointment of Chief Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook as the ...
Auckland Queen’s Counsel Neil Campbell has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Campbell graduated with a BCom and LLB (Hons) from the University of Auckland in 1992. He spent two years with Bell Gully Buddle Weir in Auckland before travelling to the United ...
The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to better enable the development and operation of commercial film and video facilities in Christchurch. The Proposal, developed by Regenerate Christchurch in response to a request from Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section ...
The Government has launched a bold plan to boost primary sector export earnings by $44 billion over the next decade, while protecting the environment and growing jobs. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today released Fit for a Better World – Accelerating our Economic Potential, a 10-year roadmap to unlock greater value ...
A new approach to prevent family harm that encourages greater collaboration across government and community groups is being celebrated at the opening of a new facility in Auckland. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today opened the Multi-Disciplinary Family Harm Prevention Hub Te Taanga Manawa in Lambie Road in Manukau. The facility ...
The Government has released a major new report on the options for relocating the Port of Auckland’s freight operations while deferring any decision on the issue. “That decision needs to be informed by policy analysis that is still to be completed. As a result it will be up to a ...
The history of Rāpaki is being restored through the inclusion of te reo in thirteen official place names on Te Pātaka-o-Rākaihautū / Banks Peninsula and around Lyttelton Harbour/Whakaraupō, the Minister for Land Information, Eugenie Sage, announced today. “I am pleased to approve the proposals from Te Hapū o Ngāti ...
Bookings for seats on Air New Zealand flights into New Zealand will be managed in the short term to ensure the Government is able to safely place New Zealanders arriving home into a managed isolation or quarantine facility, says Housing Minister Megan Woods. “Last week Air Commodore Darryn Webb and I ...
Grant Robertson has today announced the first major release of funding from the $265 million Sport Recovery Package announced at Budget 2020. “Today we’re setting out how $80 million will be invested, with $54 million of that over the 2020/2021 financial year for organisations from community level through to elite ...
The Government is maintaining current levy rates for the next 2 years, as part of a set of changes to help ease the financial pressures of COVID-19 providing certainty for businesses and New Zealanders, ACC Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “New Zealanders and businesses are facing unprecedented financial pressures as a ...
Small businesses are getting greater certainty about access to finance with an extension to the interest-free cashflow loan scheme to the end of the year. The Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme has already been extended once, to 24 July. Revenue and Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says it will be ...
A package of 23 projects across the country will clean up waterways and deliver over 2000 jobs Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Environment Minister David Parker announced today. The $162 million dollar package will see 22 water clean-up projects put forward by local councils receiving $62 million and the Kaipara ...
Tena koutou katoa Nga tangata whenua o tenei rohe o Pōneke, tena koutou Nau mai, haere mai ki te hui a tau mo te roopu reipa Ko tatou! Ko to tatou mana! Ko to tatou kaupapa kei te kokiri whakamua Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa Welcome. I ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $1.5 million to ensure QE Health in Rotorua can proceed with its world class health service and save 75 existing jobs, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development, Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. The PGF funding announced today is in addition to the $8 million ...
A new programme, which sets a firm course for the Building and Construction sector to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has been announced by the Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa. “A significant amount of New Zealand’s carbon emissions come from the building and construction sector. If we’re serious ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing more than $7.5 million in Northland ventures to combat the economic impact of the COVID-19 virus, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones have announced. The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investment is going to the Northern Adventure Experience and ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris Hipkins today announced significant funding for Auckland’s Northcote College as part of the first wave of a new nationwide school redevelopment programme to upgrade schools over the next 10 years. The $48.5 million project brings the total investment in Northcote College to ...
The Government has opened an urgent response fund to support schools and early learning services to get children and young people back on track after the Covid-19 lockdown. “While we are seeing improvements in attendance under Alert Level 1 Ministry of Education data shows that attendance rates in our schools ...
The law to boost the economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19 by speeding up resource consenting on selected projects has passed its second and third readings in the House today. “Accelerating nationwide projects and activities by government, iwi and the private sector will help deliver faster economic recovery and ...
Five port-related projects in Whanganui will receive a $26.75 million Provincial Growth Fund investment to support local economic recovery and create new opportunities for growth, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This is a significant investment that will support the redevelopment of the Whanganui Port, a project governed ...
Whanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery will receive an investment of up to $12 million administered by the Provincial Growth Fund to support its redevelopment, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. The project is included in a $3 billion infrastructure pipeline announced by Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Shane Jones yesterday. ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing nearly $2.5 million into three Te Ara Mahi programmes to support Manawatū-Whanganui jobseekers and employees to quickly train and upskill, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Up to 154 local people will be supported into employment within the first year by these ...
This morning I have formally tendered my resignation as Minister of Health, which was accepted by the Prime Minister. Serving as Minister of Health has been an absolute privilege – particularly through these extraordinary last few months. It’s no secret that Health is a challenging portfolio. I have given ...
Scholarships for 57 early-career agricultural emissions scientists from 20 developing countries is another example of New Zealand’s international leadership in primary sector sustainability, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. Mr O’Connor, announcing the scholarships today, says hundreds of applications were received for this fourth round of the CLIFF-GRADS programme (Climate, Food ...
A project to help rejuvenate the Horowhenua town of Foxton will receive a Provincial Growth Fund investment of $3.86 million, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This funding for the Foxton Regeneration project will be used to make the well-known holiday town even more attractive for visitors and ...
Moa bones and other sub-fossil remains of extinct species are set to have improved protection with proposals to prevent the trade in extinct species announced the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today. “We have lost too many of our native species, but these lost species, such as moa, remain an ...
The Government’s free and healthy school lunches programme moves south for the first time creating jobs for around 30 people in Otago and Southland. “Eighteen schools with 3000 students are joining the programme – 11 have already begun serving lunches, and seven are preparing to start during Term 3. This is ...
Thousands of Kiwi jobs and investment in New Zealand productions will be protected through a screen sector support package announced today by Associate Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Economic Development Phil Twyford and Minister for Broadcasting Kris Faafoi. The package also includes investment in broadcasting ...
The Government has established a new $10 million fund for the domestic events sector to help save jobs and protect incomes as it recovers from the impacts of COVID-19, Minister of Economic Development Phil Twyford announced today. This funding from Budget 2020 follows talks with the event sector designed to ...
The Government has taken another step in its commitment to making sure New Zealanders get a fairer deal at the petrol pump with the introduction of legislation to improve competition in the retail fuel market, says Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods. “The fuel market study that this Government ordered ...
New Zealand has joined a global initiative that aims to enable all countries to access a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced today. The COVAX Facility was recently launched by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The Alliance includes the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank ...
From today new legislation takes effect to both restore the right to legal representation at the start of a Care of Children (CoCA) dispute in the Family Court, and allow parties to those proceedings to access legal aid where eligible. During a visit to the Family Court in Auckland today, ...
Home-based early childhood education (ECE) subsidised by the government will transition to a fully qualified workforce by 2025 to ensure better and more consistent quality, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. “Quality early learning helps provide children with a strong foundation for their future,” Chris Hipkins said. From 1 January ...
The new Criminal Cases Review Commission | Te Kāhui Tātari Ture (CCRC) has started work and can now independently investigate claimed miscarriages of justice. “Even though we have appeal rights and safeguards against unsafe convictions, from time to time our justice system does get things wrong. The design of the ...
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangatanga maha, tēnā koutou Ki a koutou Te Āti Awa, Taranaki Whānui, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, ngā mana whenua o te rohe nei, tēnā koutou Ko Te Whare Wānanga o Aotearoa ki ngā take o te Ao (NZIIA), Ko te Rōpū Tohu Tono ...
The Government’s increase to paid parental leave kicks in today with another 4 weeks taking New Zealand up to a full 6 months (26 weeks, up from 22 weeks) leave for new parents, and the maximum weekly payment will increase by $20pw, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. ...
A new package of infrastructure investments will help kick-start the post-COVID rebuild by creating more than 20,000 jobs and unlocking more than $5 billion of projects up and down New Zealand. Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones today outlined how the $3 billion infrastructure fund in the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today expressed the New Zealand Government’s deep disappointment at the passage by China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee of a national security law for Hong Kong. “New Zealand has consistently emphasised its serious concern about the imposition of this legislation on Hong Kong without inclusive ...
More jobs and more family time with newborns are the centrepiece of a suite of Government initiatives coming into effect today. July 1 is a milestone day for the Government as a host of key policies take effect, demonstrating the critical areas where progress has been made. “The Coalition Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary-Louise McLaws, Professor of Epidemiology Healthcare Infection and Infectious Diseases Control, UNSW From midnight Wednesday, all of Metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire will return to Stage 3 lockdown for six weeks. There are only four reasons for residents to leave their homes: ...
After the Spinoff recounted Leave.EU heads telling Britain’s Daily Telegraph they had ‘dispatched’ a team to Auckland to work with NZ First, the party leader issued a deeply curious statement.The day began with news that the “bad boys of Brexit” were back and they were coming to New Zealand.The Daily ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Vaz, Senior Lecturer, Department of Banking and Finance, Monash University The reimposition of stage 3 restrictions on metropolitan Melbourne is, as Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says, a matter of life or death. That’s also true for small businesses. A further six ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By C Raina MacIntyre, Professor of Global Biosecurity, NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, Head, Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute, UNSW After early success in suppressing COVID-19, we are facing a resurgence in Victoria, which is threatening disease control for the whole country. Outbreaks in northwestern ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin, 6 July 2020 Three Citizenships The concept of ‘citizenship’ has both general and specific meanings. Keith Rankin. The most specific and familiar I call passport citizenship. A passport citizen of a country is a person holding a passport for that country, or with unambiguous entitlement to ...
Minister of Health and State Services Chris Hipkins says he is disappointed the leak of Covid-19 patient details involved politicians, but he does not want to prejudice the investigation. ...
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is rejecting accusations he influenced the outcome of a report saying Ports of Auckland should shift to Northland. ...
Wellington’s newspaper, The Dominion-Post, gave it to its readers straight: “I’m no saviour”—Ardern rejects saintly status”. But would the crowd of 500 attending Labour’s Congress have believed it? They had stamped and cheered when, in opening the event, Peter Samuel Jackson (no, not the film director) had said: “We have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Victorian government will lock down all metropolitan Melbourne for six weeks from Wednesday night, as a new wave of the coronavirus takes hold in the city. The lockdown will also cover the Mitchell Shire, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, La Trobe University As the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, one question that keeps coming up is whether COVID-19 can be transmitted through the air. In fact, 239 scientists in 32 countries have written an ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Victorian government will lock down all metropolitan Melbourne for six weeks from Wednesday night, as a new wave of the coronavirus takes hold in the city. The lockdown will also cover the Mitchell Shire, ...
Transport Minister and senior Labour MP Phil Twyford has joined forces with his former colleague and now Auckland Mayor Phil Goff against New Zealand First and the party's push to move the port north. ...
The admissions by Walker and veteran spin doctor Michelle Boag follow the government’s announcement yesterday of a sweeping inquiry to find the source of the leak.National MP Hamish Walker has disclosed that he engineered a privacy breach over the weekend when he purposefully released the personal details of Covid-19 patients ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Russo, Associate Professor, Director Cabrini Monash University Department of Nursing Research, Monash University Metropolitan Melbourne and the shire of Mitchell will returned to Stage 3 stay-at-home restrictions as of midnight Wednesday, Premier Daniel Andrews has announced, after 191 new cases were ...
A National MP has outed himself as the source of media reports about a confidential Covid-19 patient data breach National's Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker has confessed to sharing the private information of Covid-19 patients with media, after the Government launched a high-powered inquiry to determine the source of the data breach. ...
"I have spoken to National Party Leader Todd Muller and informed him that I passed to members of the media, by email, information containing Covid-19 patient details that was given to me by a source." ...
I have spoken to National Party Leader Todd Muller and informed him that I passed to members of the media, by email, information containing Covid-19 patient details that was given to me by a source. I did this to expose the Government’s shortcomings ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jeff Borland, Professor of Economics, University of Melbourne When a recession hits, no group of workers is immune. But some are harder hit than others. The latest labour market figures are giving us a good idea of who is being hardest hit ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Wilcox, Lecturer in Music and Sound Design, University of Technology Sydney Prolific composer Ennio Morricone has died in Rome at the age of 91. From his origins in Italian radio, Morricone became renowned internationally as a groundbreaking film composer. Composing over ...
One of the "bad boys of Brexit" who believes in political campaigns that are blunt and edgy has been hired to help with NZ First's election campaign, a UK newspaper is reporting. ...
Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance spokesperson Jo Holmes says: “Auckland Council has released a statement to media boasting that, based on submissions to the Emergency Budget, a majority of Aucklanders support its rates increase. What the Council fails ...
The Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand said it repeatedly warned the government an attack like that on March 15 last year was possible. Today, it released the evidence.Within days of the March 15 mosque attacks, while the names of the dead were still being recorded, Anjum Rahman of the ...
In the 90s, the so-called information superhighway was more of a dirt road. Now it’s a multi-lane motorway. Vodafone NZ’s Sharina Nisha explains the technology that makes it all possible.They used to call it the information superhighway. Back in the heady days of the 1990s, the term was used to ...
Air New Zealand are temporarily suspending new international bookings to New Zealand to ensure that all arrivals can be accommodated in a managed isolation or quarantine facility. But as more countries open their borders to foreigners, including Kiwis, ...
Greenpeace says the newly released Government plan for the Primary Sector is a missed opportunity to build back better. The plan Fit for a Better World - Accelerating our Economic Potential , was released by Jacinda Ardern on Tuesday. It aims to map ...
Organisations representing a cross section of New Zealand industries are alarmed that no decision has been made on the fate of thousands of temporary workers with visas about to expire. ...
After three decades in existence, Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust has launched its own gallery on Auckland’s Karangahape Road.The first thing that hits you entering Tautai Gallery’s inaugural exhibition, Moana Legacy, is the range of works on show. On one huge wall is a mural of black humanoid crocodiles on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sue McIntyre, Honorary Professor, Australian National University Last week we learned woody vegetation in New South Wales is being cleared at more than double the rate of the previous decade – and agriculture was responsible for more than half the destruction. Farming ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chongyi Feng, Associate Professor in China Studies, University of Technology Sydney Chinese law professor Xu Zhangrun, who completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne, has become the latest high-profile critic of President Xi Jinping to be silenced for his views. It’s ...
If you’ve ever wondered what influencers have to offer to the world, look no further than Simone Anderson’s new recipe book So Delish!, which will revolutionise the way you put things on plates and in freezers.You know what I’m tired of? Professional cooks publishing cookbooks. Boring. If I ever fancy ...
The Electoral Commission has confirmed that the 'Aroha' posters of Jacinda Ardern, promoted by artists Weston Frizzell and advertiser Phantom Billstickers, does indeed constitute a party advertisement for the Labour Party. This judgment comes after ...
The Primary Land Users Group (PLUG) representing a cross-section of forestry, dairy, horticulture and dry-stock land-users has called out the Green Party, asking how they can reconcile their desire for legal cannabis with the negative environmental ...
Latest from the Beehive Readers are increasingly being introduced to Te Reo by a government which eschews prosaic names that simply and functionally reflect an agency’ purpose – such as Ministry of Forestry. Consistent with the discarding of plain English, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has opened a Multi-Disciplinary Family Harm ...
Mau Whenua statement on Nicky Hager Investigative Report - The long, sorry saga of Shelly Bay – Published Saturday 4th of July 2020 Hirini Jenkins-Mepham Chair of the Mau Whenua group opposing Port Nicholson Block Trustees land sales said “Nicky ...
Forest & Bird welcomes a new sustainable vision for the primary sector, but says it needs to be backed up with strong rules, meaningful support, and a change of attitude from industry laggards. The Government has released a report outlining ...
Rather than MPs rushing to regulate vaping in the last few days of this Parliamentary term, the bill’s many complexities should be debated after the General Election, says Nancy Loucas, co-director of Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA). Parliament ...
The Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand will share parts 1 and 2 of the submission we presented to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch Mosque Attacks. The aim is to ensure New Zealand is fully informed about the efforts IWCNZ took prior ...
Irrigation New Zealand is greatly encouraged by the fact that the Government has today recognised the “transformational opportunity” water storage provides for New Zealand as part of our post-Covid economic recovery. Water storage was acknowledged ...
The Taxpayers’ Union cannot believe that New Zealand First is importing foreign political consultants, presumably because no New Zealanders are suitable, or perhaps willing, for NZ First campaign roles. Union spokesperson Jordan Williams says: “Winston ...
Retailers upset by the Government’s blinkered restrictions on vaping products say they feel shut out and ignored given the outcome of the select committee process. New Zealand Association of Convenience Stores (NZACS) Executive Director, Dave Hooker, ...
The MakeItLegal campaign has today welcomed the website on cannabis legalisation from the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor. “It is essential that people have reliable and factual information to help them decide how to vote in the cannabis ...
Responding to National MP Nicola Willis’s statement that National was wrong to sell so much state housing, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says: “What a weak capitulation to left-wing ideology.” “Selling a state house ...
The Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand are sharing parts 1 and 2 of the submission we presented to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch Mosque Attacks. The aim is to ensure New Zealand is fully informed about the efforts IWCNZ took prior ...
An interesting tale of international diplomacy has emerged over NZ’s decision to turn next year’s round of APEC meetings – including the leaders’ summit – into a virtual event. NZ had to fight off a determined bid by the 2020 host, Malaysia, which hoped it could have its hosting rights ...
Members of New Zealand’s Indian community rallied in Auckland on Sunday to raise awareness about threats to their homeland’s democracy from the rise of right-wing Hindu nationalism. As the world’s second-most populous nation grapples with a burgeoning pandemic and deepening political and social division, about 25 protesters gathered in Auckland’s Aotea ...
CEAC applauds professor Mike Joy as NZ’s leading environmental ecologists tireless efforts to enlighten ‘successive Governments’ over the pollution of our waterways and promoting best practice paths of cleaning up of our waterways over successive ...
Almost 170 years ago, Māori political processes were interrupted and displaced by a new, enforced electoral system. Researcher Jo Waitoa dispels the myth that voter turnout and political participation are the same thing. Read more of the The Spinoff’s Election 2020 coverage here.Māori political participation has a long and enduring tradition ...
After previously stonewalling inquiries on the matter, Leave.EU ‘bad boy’ Arron Banks has told a UK newspaper he is sending a team to New Zealand to work on Winston Peters’ NZ First campaign. Justin Giovannetti reports. New Zealand First has hired a crew of political operators from one of the most ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Campbell, Senior research fellow and ARC Future Fellow, Monash University Lithium is used in everything from medication to mobile phone batteries, but where does it come from? We know it is mined here on Earth, but where it is created in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janak Rogers, Associate Lecturer, Broadcast Journalism, RMIT University The case for a more diverse and representative media should be clear by now – it’s been made time and time again. But it’s instructive to take stock every now and then. Over the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Lee, Professor at the National Drug Research Institute (Melbourne) and Director at 360Edge, Curtin University The “hard lockdown” of nine public housing towers in Melbourne has no doubt brought an array of challenges for the thousands of residents. For people who ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ryan R. Witt, Conjoint Lecturer | School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle This article is a preview from Flora, Fauna, Fire, a multimedia project launching on Monday July 13. The project tracks the recovery of Australia’s native plants and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Turney, Professor of Earth Science and Climate Change, Director of the Changing Earth Research Centre and the Chronos 14Carbon-Cycle Facility at UNSW, and Node Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, UNSW Evidence of minute amounts ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Isaac Gross, Lecturer in Economics, Monash University Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has spent billions trying to save us from recession. The winding down of JobKeeper scheduled for September means he’ll have to spend billions more. Many of the stimulus measures talked about are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Hassan, Professor, School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne Spoiler alert: this story details how The War of the Worlds ends. The latest screen adaption of H. G. Wells’ 1898 modern masterwork The War of the Worlds will hit our ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level one – read about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. To support this ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Problems looming for temporary visa holders, state house waiting list balloons again, and US ban could hit NZ seafood exports.There are some real problems looming for temporary visa holders and their employers, with thousands set to expire all once, reports Nona ...
Publisher Stuff is turning its back on Facebook. Anna Rawhiti-Connell explains why, and how that might affect readers In a bold move, one of our biggest media companies announced on Monday it will cease all activity on Facebook and Instagram for an unspecified time. Stuff’s action follows in the wake ...
A call by Peter Gluckman, Helen Clark and Rob Fyfe for a 'conversation' on opening our border lacks serious economic analysis and ignores real risks to New Zealanders, writes Geoff Bertram From the start of the coronavirus pandemic there has been a steady drumbeat of demands from tourism and other ...
Cat MacLennan argues there's scanty evidence for a decision to rule footage of a sharemilker beating cows with a metal pole inadmissible on the grounds it would encourage more undercover filming The judge in the cow cruelty case of Ministry for Primary Industries v Luke ruled that hidden camera film footage ...
I’m one of many applauding the Government’s decision to prescribe the teaching of New Zealand history in our schools. But wait – prescription – isn’t that anathema to the Ministry of Education? We now have a localised curriculum, with the national document giving guidelines only. It’s up to schools to ...
An author finds historical parallels with the dog-whistling comments made by Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker. The recent race-based comments by the Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker have been described as “disgraceful, scaremongering and racist”. But I found them fascinatingly familiar. My wife Jenny and I, both Otago-born teachers, lived in Central ...
A new port report before Cabinet is a U-turn on the last one, which recommended Auckland's port be moved to Northland Moves to shift Auckland's port from the CBD to Northland have ground to a halt on the back of a new report before Cabinet that suggests Manukau Harbour is a better option. ...
Open mike 07/05/2020 
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good onya NZTA, give yourself legendary status.
[deleted], all legenday nzta employees who tried to ruin my wifes career.
https://www.employmentcourt.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Decisions/2019-NZEmpC-187-Byrne-v-NZ-Transport-Agency-jud-131219.pdf
NZTA broke health and safety laws, spent over 200 grand of taxpayers money on lawyers, threatened us if my wife continued her case against them they would ruin her career,
threatened suppliers with loss of work if they employed my wife, using unsigned contracts.
[Snip. Im sorry Gerald but these comments are potentially defamatory and best that they be removed now. The link to the judgement remains and I recommend that people read it to see what has happened – MS]
we have been visited by police several times from false accusations made ba a nzta employee, one accusation was , "she was running around in the paddock doing a chicken dance", when they made this accusation against my wife, she was 600km away. haha. when presented with the evidence they just threw it away and said they didnt believe us.
NZTA legendary status for being able to do this to someone and get away scott free.
Increase their funding i say (sarc)
[lprent: I see that MS has already looked at this.
I have also deleted the names at the top. A brief scan of the judgement showed that one was misspelt and I couldn’t find one of the others. Possibly referred to in the judgement as A or B. Generally if you want to refer to people or events, then use what is already in the public record, or what you can directly and truthfully testify to yourself.
Please remember that if legal action is taken over comments made on this site, then I am also in the legal firing line as well. I will act accordingly to protect my time. ]
sorry forgot the short version
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/employment/news/article.cfm?c_id=11&objectid=12296643
That's gobsmacking.
"She took NZTA to the Employment Relations Authority which dismissed her claims. Byrne then went to the Employment Court" and "Employment Court rules NZTA breached confidentiality clause".
So the ERA is a bullshit scheme? Or did it lack authority to dispense justice? Definitely indicates something seriously wrong somewhere…
Hi Dennis Frank,
thank you for your comment
yes you hit the nail on the head. NZTA made many untrue allegations providing no evidence and all of their witnesses didnt have to appear.
even more the ERA granted nzta extra security for their staff who were afraid of my 5'4" wife.
they also awarded nzta extra costs
Hi Gerard…I wish I could say i'm surprised, but sadly I'm not. I'm in the centre of an issue currently with Auckland Council that involves behaviour ranging from incompetence to downright nastiness. And all on the ratepayers. I'm glad your wife fought on. Go well.
thanks paddington, if you hang in there (its bloody hard) sometimes justice does actually prevail for us plebs
Crikey that's a long time for Mrs Byrne's name to be cleared. Good to see her reputation clearer and a clear direction for costs for her.
That also names a lot of lower-order names within NZTA.
And a lot of HR processes gone drastically wrong in a lot of detail.
I know a lot about NZTA's internal culture, and concur with the judge.
As we are about to see with the Transmission Gully PPP failure, a government organisation with this amount of power in society truly wrecks things when it goes wrong.
If my experience as an ece teacher (now retired) coming from Auckland to Whangarei is anything to go by this sort of prejudice towards newcomers is all too common in the north
A good outcome eventually Gerard. Hope your wife gains peace.
Hi Ianmac,
yes she has thank you and her faith in the NZ Justice system is restored.
bit hard to get peace when nzta employee is still calling the cops on us and videoing us, but meh to them.
Hi Ad , unfortunately the awarding of costs doesn't cover the expenses incurred while fight the extremely pitbull type nature of the lawyers from NZTA on the taxpayers money
True. I won't minimise that straight financial cost.
But the exposure of NZTA's processes and people in the decision is pretty strong in the scales. That looks like it counts for something.
Hey Ad, check this out from the court finding: " [27] NZTA had engaged WSP Opus as principal advisors/consultants of the Northland Bridges Project (the Project).The Project related to three sites where one-lane bridges were to be replaced with two-lane bridges. WSP Opus was responsible for the business case of the Project, procurement of design and construction, and contract management. [28] There was no signed or final contract between those parties, although there was a draft document." https://www.employmentcourt.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Decisions/2019-NZEmpC-187-Byrne-v-NZ-Transport-Agency-jud-131219.pdf
So the NZTA hired them to build the bridges without signing a contract! That's so dodgy you'd suspect Bridges (Simon) authorised the deal! "They're all hicks from the sticks up there, nobody will notice."
Hard to tell, but from my experience it's not necessarily dodgy for work to commence before a final contract is signed … especially where there is an ongoing professional relationship between the parties.
And both parties might well want to see some preliminary investigation and design work done in order to fully understand the scope and risks before signing the dotted line. Whenever you are dealing with groundworks of any kind, there is real potential for nasty surprises.
no signed contract after at least 18 months and then using that to wield the power stick to pursue personal agendas?
dodgy as in any third world country mate, let our 2.9th world here in NZ
I've just finished scanning the judgement. It's clear NZTA have acted very poorly in this matter and thoroughly deserved to lose this case. It reflects very badly on someone's judgement that they allowed a non-work related disagreement between neighbours to escalate into this kind of debacle.
In my 35 yrs in the engineering /tech field I've been close to similar problems of a breakdown in trust between professional colleagues a few times. It's never easy, and rarely ends well. I'm sorry you and your wife have gone through this, because I know exactly how it feels.
Having said that, I note that at least one small part of the story involved you disparaging NZTA on various blogs (sec 136 -138) which probably didn't help matters.
The judge clearly notes (sec 116 and 117) that both parties allowed their judgement to be clouded by personal animosity.
My advice to people caught up in this kind of legal battle is to always keep in mind what their ideal outcome would be once it is all over. You certainly want resolution, but you also need to be able to live life without this becoming a perpetual burden on you and everyone else. You need to get to a redemption of some kind. And you certainly want to do everything in your power to avoid walking into this kind of mess ever again.
Best wishes.
there was no civil dispute between the parties until my wife lodged her complaint, then over 130 accusations were made against me and my wife to paint a picture of a certain behaviour.
after two years of being videod by nzta all they have is me giving their employee the fingers once.
you will find that i didnt disparage the nzta in any blogs, as they tried to get an order against me for my comments, but had to withdraw it because no untruths were told.
my advice to people getting into anything with the nzta is expect to be defamed, ridiculed, visited by police on several occasions, laws will be broken to ruin you, they will spy on you , use their employees to threaten your employer,
even after an outcome you will still be spied on and visited by police, which is happening to us even during lockdown!
the nzta employee who we have the civil dispute with is now in another with a 77 yr old man, and has had several disputes with other neighbours.
they just dont like the truth being told about them.
the team in northland do need to be audited at the very least.
One of them is also involved in the waikato expressway fiasco.
He also has a little black book that was presented in court that has very disturbing observations in it.
Hi lprent and MS,
my apologies but the names mentioned are all named in the document.
witness A and B were not any of them, they are two other nzta employees.
there is nothing untrue in the allegations and can all be proved with evidence
Not a particular problem – just a learning issue for you.
For the moderators, you have to state some facts explicitly if you want to use them and there might potentially be a problem for us. In this case just saying that "these names/events are all in the judgement" or words to that effect would probably have been sufficient. That shifts the liability to you, and if we find them to be incorrect, we will ban you from the site and point the liability to you.
You also need to be accurate when dealing with issues that are potentially legal issues. Imagine if you by accident managed to get the incorrect name – that was in fact correct for some other real person – you effectively just accused someone of a deed that they didn't do.
We don't have much time to read everything and we'll take the approach that if something isn't clear and potentially a legal issue for us – then it gets zapped.
In this case I literally scanned the whole judgment in 10 minutes while eating breakfast. It wouldn't surprise me if I missed a name or two. I'd noted that you'd misspelled a name for one, checked your comment history and found that it was limited. ie we don't have a history for you that leads us to trust what you write based on our experience. That was already way too much time for me to spend on a comment. Re-reading it again would have been a waste of my time.
So separately, MS and I exercised our default moderator option – excise the potentially liable parts of the comment.
Besides it helps you learn good habits about what you can do on the site. BTW: read the policy.
thank you
I know exactly what your wife has been through Gerard Byrne.
A long time ago I had similar experiences of spying activity plus serious bullying, intimidation and under-mining tactics by a couple of former senior Public Service managers who were attempting to gather 'evidence' against me for unfounded misdemeanours. They never succeeded because the evidence didn't exist. I took the matter to my superiors and other 'powers that be' but they all chose to believe the perpetrators who naturally denied everything. I resigned from my position – my trust and faith in senior officialdom destroyed forever.
It is sad to see that kind of deplorable behaviour – usually against female colleagues – is still occurring but I'm glad your wife knocked the bastards off their pedestal.
thank you very much anne for your comments.
i do sympathise with you as that is ezactly what happened to my wife. unfortunately after she resigned the nzta literally tried to ruin her employment future in nz
unfortunately in NZ there are too many senior females who are only too willing to jump into the old boys club and destroy others careers.
Yes that element existed in my case too. The female concerned was not a public servant let alone a senior one. But she had contacts she could use to spread wild claims about individuals she decided she wanted to destroy. Successful women – or reasonably successful as in my case – were her prime targets. I think they call it jealousy. 🙂
The whole ERA is a joke from woo to go – its there to protect the powerful.
By definition -a organisation that punches down.
Glad you won, but the fact it was so long and drawn, is just another example of power differentials within the whole structure. And like WINZ a broken system which needs to be radically changed or removed.
TVNZ breakfast political panel: Shane Jones + Paula Bennett. Must be trying to alienate their audience. 🙄
It is a circuit of the same tired shrieking skulls.
Spinoff has a good report on the downside of public/private partnerships (roadbuilding). I always thought them sensible in principle but the trend seems to be that they play out as a recipe for incompetence. Lack of operational oversight of project management by a suitable govt authority seems evident. https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/07-05-2020/the-transmission-gully-fiasco-should-call-time-on-the-folly-of-ppps/
There was a piece on the TVNZ news last night about the impact of COVID-19 on Pacific populations in the USA. According to the report, in the US Pacific peoples are dying at twelve times the rate of the general population. They were to polite to say so, but research is now clear that PIs are in general far more vulnerable due to their generally poorer health statistics. Co-morbidities that are lethal in combination with COVID-19 like obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cardio-vascular dissease are much more prevalent in poor PI communities.
Twelve times the death rate = around 14-15% based on our current death rate of 1.2%, so if one in three Pasifika got the virus – 100,000 Pacifika infected – the expected death rate (based on this US information) is going to be 14,000-15,000 people.
Simon Bridges has not bothered to summon a single brown face to his committee for advice. He'd rather abuse his position to make unsubstantiated attacks on Ashley Bloomfield. His demands to prematurely reopen the economy is the casual institutional racism of the white settler elite that he represents writ large.
This radionz story about difficulty getting help from a Samoan, partly from their reserve and not being assertive enough illustrates the problem they face with covid-19.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/413980/covid-19-testing-i-was-angry-about-the-process
Trotter tries to make binary thinking seem sensible, fails. "If Canberra chooses Washington over Beijing, then the Australian economy will tank. If it chooses Beijing over Washington, then Australia will be plunged into a profound identity crisis." http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/
ScoMo will refrain from making either of these unpalatable choices. Trotter thinks the situation in Oz will become critical and force the choice – yet offers no persuasive reason why he believes that.
"In geostrategic terms, a US-aligned Australasia is crucial to Washington’s new “Indo-Pacific” plan for containing China’s ambitious “Belt and Road” project. It has become a matter of some urgency, therefore, to facilitate a decisive shift in New Zealand foreign policy towards Washington and away from Beijing."
Since when has any US Secretary of State fronted as a competent facilitator? Kissinger, perhaps. Dunno why Trotter discounts our post-ANZUS independent foreign policy. You'd think a 35-yr track record of success is sufficiently substantial for expectations of perseverance to be reasonable. Normal, even.
"In conformity with the maxim that it is shameful to let a good crisis go to waste, the pro-Washington faction within New Zealand’s foreign policy establishment has persuaded the University of Canterbury to oversee a “pop-up” think tank dedicated to assisting the New Zealand Government “devise a resilience strategy that will ensure New Zealand’s independence and sovereignty are protected during the Covid-19 pandemic and after.”"
Yeah? As if in response to what threat?? Apparently "our very own Professor Anne-Marie Brady." Gosh. She must be Superwoman.
"Professor Brady is not, however, without powerful friends in high places. Not the least of whom is New Zealand’s Foreign Minister, Winston Peters." Ah, the `enemy within' thesis. Trotter follows up with nothing substantial & his attempt to beat up a molehill into a mountain limps to a lame end.
I agree – Trotter's biggest problem is he has stopped trying to understand the world he lives in. He has retreated to just yearning for one that is gone, and interpreting the world from an armchair there. It doesn't mean sometimes he isn't correct in his observation – but he is more and more just plain out of touch.
If this Transmission Gully project PPP collapses, it will signal the largest commercial failure of the government since the late 1990s. Doesn't matter which team were in power at the time. This is a multi-generational scale work and is now a terminal case:
"Officials acknowledged on Sunday the already-delayed Transmission Gully project would be delayed until 2021. This has the potential to blow out costs by yet-more hundreds of millions of dollars. NZTA said in February the project’s estimated costs would over-run by $190m to $1b and the completion date had been extended from May to December this year.
An NZTA spokesman said on Sunday the project would now not be completed until some time in 2021 and the agency was in urgent negotiations again with the PPP’s contractor CPB HEB about the project. He would not comment on the fears of those close to the project that the contractor was days away from pulling out completely and dumping the project uncompleted back on the taxpayer. The project was suspended during the Level 4 lockdown, but failed to resume with all its workers as expected last week.
Several sources told Newsroom large numbers of subcontractors were permanently let go last week. One source said over 600 people had been cut from the project's workforce and a large amount of construction equipment had been removed from the site."
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/economic-recovery/2020/05/03/1155823/unreal-turn-for-transmission-gully
I thought the way a PPP was supposed to work was the private party secured the funding, then built and operated the asset (while the public retained ownership), in exchange for a set income stream once the asset was complete and operating.
So doesn't that mean we the public should not have yet paid anything for this since it is not yet complete and operating? Doesn't that mean the private part of this is wearing all the sunk costs to date?
If the private party walks away now, wouldn't we the public be able to just pay for what's left to do to complete it, and then we end up with the whole thing on the cheap without having to pay all the future fees we would have had to if the private party had actually completed the job?
Or were the original contract terms dramatically different to what that Treasury document says they should have been for a PPP?
There are more could-as, should-as, and would-as on Transmission Gully's PPP than there are deadweight list MPs.
Since it's not tolled, it's fee-for-access+long term maintenance. NZTA have already paid multiple times to the contractor to the PPP for over-runs.
I don't think anyone yet really knows what would happen with your second question. Plenty of major jobs consulted their insurers after Level 4. NZTA will be fighting hard to keep this one out of court: imagine how such a case would play in the run-up to the election. Even the NZTA Board can figure that one.
I'm not privy to the contractual terms on Transmission Gully, but I suspect a lot of New Zealand will be in the next few months.
NZTA have already paid multiple times to the contractor to the PPP for over-runs.
Looking at how PPPs were sold to us for how they should work, the cost overruns should have been compensated by increased payments after the job was completed and operating. Not by up-front extra payments: those are the old-skool conventional model.
NZTA will be fighting hard to keep this one out of court
Yeah, the firefighters with their high-powered pumping equipment will be getting called into big law firms to clean up all the anticipatory salivation going on over this one. What with the questions around the exact legality of the lockdown orders that massively added increased costs and delays, and all that.
The real concern is why NZTA awarded the Transmission Gully contract to CPB with no experience of New Zealand conditions but very good experience of making sure contract risks were put on the NZ government.
It's less to do with it being a PPP as such, more NZTA's naivety at the time of going for the lowest cost operator regardless of contractual conditions.
Compare with Puhoi to Warkworth where the risk sits with the Fletcher led consortium who are wearing the cost increases.
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2020/05/06/times-up-for-ppps/
And the twist: who was Minister of Transport at the time this went through Cabinet? Was it Simon Bridges by chance?
I'd assume the private contractor has been paid out on progress so far.
I hope they release the Treasury Gateway Reviews for this one.
That's what would have happened under a conventional procurement, yes.
But the selling proposition for a PPP is that the private contractor wears the costs and the risks until the job is done and operating, at which point they start getting paid. Not before.
Yes. Devil meet details. Because if you are right and the private contractor is walking this late in the job, with this much sunk cost, then it's logical to guess they've decided the cost of completing is even greater than anyone wants to talk about in public just yet.
Or the whole PPP thing is just a smoke and mirrors job that really doesn't transfer any extra risks and responsibilities to the contractor in exchange for the extra long term margin they expect to make out of it.
If you pop over to Greater Auckland you will see that they fully agree with you.
Whoa,
"…NZTA said in February the project’s estimated costs would over-run by $190m to $1b…"
That is a difference of $810 million, which makes that a total wild guess of a number.
It looks to me like CPB massively underbid to get the work and/or underestimated the complexity and are now trying to blackmail the government by threatening to pull the pin. Another legacy of the genius of the minister for everything, Steven Joyce. And National like to go on how they are better managers of the economy!
NZTA are spineless and utterly committed to roads. They’ll want to fold in a jiffy. the question is – will the government take their advice to fold?
The previous government was happy to knowingly accept woefully underbid tenders. Then construction companies started going under.
If I'm correct, it's one of the things this government has changed.
This government must make sure the blame is sheeted home to where it belongs. In Simon Bridges' lap.
"…This government must make sure the blame is sheeted home to where it belongs. In Simon Bridges' lap…"
Just as long as once they've drawn the picture, they don't give the crayons to Simon. He'll probably just try and eat them.
I've never liked the PPP model.
It transfers all the risks to the State, while any upsides go to the private contractor, in return for keeping the liability off the Government books. Until it turns to shit, as so many have around the world.
We should have looked at the glaring examples from the UK, in particular.
The other problem is that the expertise to manage, assess and cost projects, has been lost from NZTA, with that being left to private firms.
Rest homes will be the next to come under the spotlight.
Whoops. I was going to comment on this the day before yesterday when it was first noted, but deleted it because it wasn't too clear to me from the info linked to just how serious the problems were.
I recall debating this project back when Steven Joyce announced it back in 2009. There was considerable opposition at the time, including groups like Option 3 making the case that the whole damned thing wasn't necessary.
Having lived in the immediate area for some years I was always a bit skeptical of the original price, it was always going to be challenging terrain to build a modern road through and the costs were always going to blow out. In the end it was plain that Joyce only sold it on the basis of a lowball bid.
Well I'd like to think all the poor bastards who've had to work on this job did their best, but it looks like they're only going to prove the critics of the project right.
And slam one big nail into the PPP concept.
NZTA will see the upside if the Transmission Gully PPP even gets close to failure because they will see it damaging the NZInfra PPP light rail proposal, and in effect supporting their own non-PPP light rail proposal.
Of course it's not the only big roading PPP they've got going at the moment: Puhoi-Warkworth SH1 is still ongoing. I haven't heard any trouble there (other than Covid-19 infections and stoppages).
But for the super-major jobs I could easily foresee NZTA preferring Alliance-type contracts over the fully commercially independent PPP forms.
The stakes are now in the multiple billions.
Some background as to the parties involved and in particular section 19 "Disengagement".
Wellington Gateway Partnership
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/wellington-northern-corridor/transmission-gully-motorway/partnerships/#wgp
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/projects/transmission-gully/docs/schedule-19.pdf
I'm intrigued by what might be hidden by those big bits of black. Especially since a quick skim of the visible bits didn't catch anything about disengagement before opening the works.
All of that means we wait even longer for the Manawatu Gorge replacement road.
I understand 800 workers will be moving to in and around Palmy for the project. It will be a welcomed boost to the district's involved- Manawatu and Tararua.
At the same time this becomes an obvious task for change in govt – first catch your MOW and then treat it right so it flourishes – find our indigenous ancient govt depts and breed 'em strong and good, check for efficiency and enjoy effectiveness.
I'm all for a reboot of MOW. Even with those accusations of inefficiency. benean
There is a lot to be said for a state agency that does trades training.
Farrar watch:
Dutifully, and following on from Simon's attack on Ashley Bloomfield yesterday, David has begun his attack on the DG of Health.
What one does the other does. It's a two pronged attack.
Scary times in Russia, especially for medicos. I'spose defenestration is easier and quicker than polonium tea.
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/6/21248553/coronavirus-russia-doctors-windows-death
Gosh Andre !
Thats shocking .I have no doubt Putin is behind it all, and most probably thosw US medics who commit suicide every year
Even before the pandemic, about 60% of emergency physicians experienced burnout in their career, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians. About 400 physicians commit suicide each year.
He's highly likely to be involved in these European nurses deaths too
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/03/31/trez-m31.html
And in NY
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/coronavirus-pandemic-doctor-ambulance-worker-suicides-how-to-help-2020-4?r=US&IR=T
Ya reckon Pootee dunnit? Wow, he's got his pedipalps everywhere!
Maybe they were part time journalists and/or opposition politicians.
Plenty more where they came from.
/
Should have asked the Cubans
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/cuban-doctors-battling-covid-19-around-the-globe/12217896
So apparently the knobhead on the tv3 breakfast show thinks he'd do a better job at running the country than the much vaunted JA
Mark Richardson slams Government, says he'd do a better job as Prime Minister
Highly doubtful seeing he couldn't even be the best in his chosen field and, unless you count being an insufferable shock jock for effect, fails on tv as the biggest tool on the home renno show, not to mention making cricket unlistenable with pathetic analysis and obnoxious wittering.
There may be a piss up in a brewery he could organise, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Maybe he's angry because The Block just got canned for this year.
The worth of TV3's schedule has grown exponentially.
The rampant egotism of these media morons is incredible.
Careful, mate. If you carry on like that there'll be a puff piece in Stuff about poor Mark Richardson being bullied by horrible internet trolls and how his kids cry themselves to sleep at night. It's been a while since the last one.
Ah but is he going to put his money where his mouth is? Stand as candidate for the Nats, I mean. Hosking's too scared. Talk is cheap but folks make character judgments on actions, not talk.
Talk is cheap? I suspect he's paid many times the income of an essential worker.
Murica
https://www.tiktok.com/@shawn_quinn/video/6821873859562605830
So. Under Level 2 those pathetic bastards who have been pining for attention from their hairdresser can be comforted that the Orders from Above have dictated that masks must be worn.
Because, I guess, it's a tad difficult to faff with some narcissist's locks from a safe distance.
Cast your minds back just a wee while to when Uncle Bleeding Ashley was steadfast in his determination that those providing homebased care for frail elderly and disabled need only wear a mask if the person being cared for was a confirmed or probable Covid 19 case.
What the fucking fuck?
Good point, Rosemary.
While I know this suggestion may raise yr hackles…
I would like to see all in-home carers/assistants etc bought back under the DHB umbrella, rather than working for all the various middle-men, ticket clipping parasite companies. Companies that are seeking to make a profit from the allocation of the health budget that provides care for the elderly, disabled etc.
Everything under the DHB is a profoundly depressing thought, although I agree about the ticket clippers.
Maybe a compromise is non-profit NGOs?
Non profit NGOs could work. Anything to get away from the race-to-the-bottom/tiered essential services.
This has been the call for years…those needing support services being caught in the middle of the pissing contests between the MOH, DHBs and ACC and the various contracted providers.
None of that lot ever, ever put the needs of those requiring care to the front.
The commodification of the sick, elderly and disabled has be a utter disaster.
There was a reason social democracy created and used the social model in the area of health care.
Because the monetary model has never worked in health. Only dullards and ideological purists think their business model in health works.
jesus fucking christ.
Did they say if it's workers only or customers as well? (it's not clear from the MSM).
"Jesus fucking christ"
Yep..and a few more expletive.
It was Ardern. She said…'….masks, masks for the hairdressers '. At the one pm stand up.
I went a bit apoplectic.
I hope her ears caught fire.
Metaphorically speaking that is.
And it's only very recently that the guidelines for PPE use have been updated.
Healthcare workers at all levels were crying out for masks and 'permission' to use them for weeks. Having some bureaucrat repeatedly state that wearing even the basic surgeons mask was unnecessary unless there was disease present has done real damage to the relationship between frontline healthcare workers and those at the top who set the rules.
I guess it comes down to the personal experience of the politician or bureaucrat (or the science communicator du jour).
Clearly they have a much better understanding of proximity issues for hairdressers than they do of the same for frontline healthcare workers.
Did a report on the problems with homecare and PPEs come out today? (haven't caught up yet).
I am just loving this Lincoln Project work against Trump.
This time they undo the Trump family relationship with China:
They aren't just going after the Fourth Dorkman of the Shitpocalypse, they're going after his remoras too.
Today Grant Robertson said that the government is to walk back its planned 2020 budget focus on redirection of the economy as to global warming because of the extra debt and a priority of focus on economic growth.
He notes the higher debt in Europe and USA and his rationale provides them reason to do little more than they are. It's a blame the GFC, and or the pandemic, for limited goverrnment will/capacity to deal with GW.
Positive – it should provide the oxygen for the Greens to return to parliament.
Negative – the government is wedded to the capitalist debt model and will be complicit in using this as an excuse for continued poverty, homelessness and a second rate health care/welfare/aged care system.
This is exactly the wrong decision. The New Zealand economy (despite reasonable support during lock-down) is going to emerge in a highly depressed (high unemployment) state. In this state there are more real resources available to be put to use implementing the economic redirection (and lower employment in the status quo parts of the economy).
The financing (how you pay the people many who desperately want the work anyway) is particularly irrelevant in this case, it neither restrains the governments ability to employ people towards its initiative or negatively impacts how the economy performs while implementing these reforms.
No doubt Robertson was got to by treasury boffins and its a real shame. He needs to be well enough informed to put them (and their ideology) in their place when this happens rather than undermining the government and their ability to implement public policy.
"The government was focused not only on rebuilding the economy, but on rebuilding it better, he added.
"In the midst of the crisis and our desire to return to a sense of normality, we should all acknowledge that things weren't perfect before Covid-19 hit us.
"There are few times in life when the clock is reset. Now is the time we should address these long-term issues. It is a privilege many countries won't have. It's not one we should squander," he said."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/416076/grant-robertson-budget-2020-will-be-far-from-business-as-usual
Not sure where you draw that conclusion from….might pay to wait until next week.
Looks like most of the restrictions in the first 10 Days of Level 4 lockdown were not legal. Oops!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12330349
Why does it matter. All but a few idiots complied with them voluntarily, because they made sense.
Thank you so much Water Care, our Mayor and council – It is MAY and we are now told there is to be a water restriction put into place. How we are not well served by some of our leaders. Goff is all smile and wave. "We have had a long, hot summer with less than half of our normal rainfall, which means our storage dams have fallen to around 46.5 per cent, well below the 76 per cent average for this time of year." So we act NOW
TOTAL INCOMPETENCE
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12330268
Did you not know the water restrictions were coming? It’s been signposted for months. We were told weeks ago that restrictions were almost certainly likely but imposition of them had been delayed while the level 4 lockdown was in place in order not to put anyone under extra stress.
Why wasn't this in place in February graduated in implementation e.g. turn of tap when brushing teeth, toilets only flush when its brown, water gardens by hand held hoses, no washing of cars, etc
In August 2019 we had this August Average 89% Aug 19 73%. And then we had "Auckland: Record-breaking low summer rainfall. Depending on which rain gauge you look at, summer 2019/20 was the driest, 2nd-driest or 3rd-driest summer on record." yes with all this preceding our current situation I call it Incompetence some may try to argue with the FACTS.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/119936610/northland-drought-whangrei-records-driest-summer-since-wwii
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/115144382/auckland-water-shortage-storage-dams-remain-lower-than-last-year
so you are now demanding water restrictions from when exactly?….mid 2019?
January, with increasing severity of restrictions, as the drough continued Is that good enough for you !!
Another who challenges others, OK then what about your thoughts/contribution then ?? was Mat the correct time then ??
I think you unreasonably expect perfection…the hoped for summer rain hasnt eventuated and there has been a call to restrict use for a month ..
"Under usual circumstances restrictions would kick in at about 51 per cent during autumn, Jaduram said.
Amid a dry start to the month and on the back of a summer that saw just 35 per cent of average rainfall, the city's storage dams on Thursday dropped to 49.7 per cent – the first time they'd fallen below 50 per cent since the drought of 1993/1994, when storage levels got down to a frightening 36 per cent.
The historical average for this time of year is about 77 per cent."
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/auckland/auckland-under-voluntary-water-restrictions-as-dam-levels-sink-below-50-per-cent/
You could increase storage capacity but I suspect youd object to the rate increase to fund it…..but given CC I expect youll have plenty of opportunity in the not too distant future.
25 Feb "Auckland's longest dry spell on record was finally broken last weekend, with Saturday's rainfall marking the first time there's been more than 1mm of rain in 47 days. " add this to what I liked from August 19 position- So we had a record dry period in Feb and No action from Watercare. I think action was required. And comparing to 1993 Auckland then did not have the Waikato river available as a water source IMO is nothing more than diversion tactics, and that Watercare was nothing more than Hoping the Weather would cover for inaction !!!
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/02/weather-new-zealand-s-drought-set-to-be-broken-as-march-spells-increased-rain.html
Agreed pat. Judging exactly when to bring in water restrictions is a tricky business to get right.
I saw the process happening in Wellington one year, and it was fascinating just how much care and judgement was put into it. In the end we were saved by decent rain that arrived with less than 48hrs to spare.
Forward planning is incompetence now??
The nil rainfall is the lowest for 4 months ever recorded for Auckland.
It is not the current low water level so much as the forward warnings that Auckland's summer supply is at risk.
So said the Head of Watercare.
The big issue is that if Watercare was not pumping Waikato water for all it was worth for the past few months Auckland would be in an absolutely chronic position.
micky, are you privy to information you can share off the top of your head on the status of Watercare's efforts to increase how much it can take from the Waikato at higher flow times?
I haven't found anything definitive online, but I get the impression it's still tied up in the consenting process.
You get some good hints here in the request for Crown intervention in the consenting application process from this Stuff article from February this year:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/119610027/calls-for-crown-intervention-as-aucklands-waikato-river-water-application-stagnates
It's on Parker's desk, and I betcha it's a good case for waiting for the RMA reforms that will enable a whole bunch more major work accelerations.
As well as the majority of Auckland's water already coming from outside the Auckland region, Watercare took over management of the Waikato District water system a couple of years ago.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/112886576/aucklands-watercare-to-take-over-waikato-district-services
When the government announces its massive list of the "shovel ready" projects, I have a sneaking suspicion that Watercare will be called upon to be the central procurement agency for the water-focused infrastructure.
Then why as per my above comment was the August 19 storage 73% vs an average of 89%. Not sure how starting with a storage level 16% below the average with what has transpired over this summer is Forward warning of risk ?? that requires urgent action now- To me someone has been missing in action. I understand you are not of recent vintage from reading your contributions but I can recall 1993 and calls such as: placing a 2l bottle of water/brick in the cistern of a toilet to save water and the flush it if its brown, and the need to take action of a leaky tap and more. Such calls have been lacking under the current situation- We have been saved by the Waikato river uptake this time.
And in Feb Watercare requested govt to take more from the Waikato
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/119610027/calls-for-crown-intervention-as-aucklands-waikato-river-water-application-stagnates
They put that application in to the Waikato Regional Council 7 years ago.
The request in February was for direct call-in from the Minister since they'd been dicked around for so long.
Seems like quite a different system to Whangarei. Your "Stage 1" restriction says no domestic hose use. Whangarei went to "Level 2" on February 26 which banned sprinklers and irrigation systems. Then we went to "Level 3" on April 16 which bans hose use, gardens can still be watered with a bucket.
He’s dead set on starting a war.
In another move aimed at consolidating control over policy and messaging, the Trump administration is sending a White House loyalist to serve in a key Defense Department policy role that officials are worried is aimed at weeding out civilians not loyal to the president, Foreign Policy has learned.
Michael Cutrone, who has been detailed as Vice President Mike Pence’s top national security aide for South Asia, is set to arrive at the Pentagon to serve in a behind-the-scenes role vetting Defense Department officials for loyalty to the president, according to two current administration officials.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/06/trump-pence-pentagon-point-man-disloyal/
'It's fantastic': MP thrilled flights to Queenstown resuming"
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/416104/it-s-fantastic-mp-thrilled-flights-to-queenstown-resuming
Yep…might be when the taxpayer is paying for your ticket….there might be a different response from the public when the fares are released
Listening to the National Party over the last two weeks, I was under the impression Australia was almost 'business as usual' and achieving the same results as New Zealand. Not if this report is correct.
Scott Morrison wants Australia to get back on the job. But what does a Covid-safe workplace look like?
I'd already thought it must be closer to us, if this was true
Barry Soper’s Shock! Horror! Government Bombshell! ‘They Had No Right To Lock Us Up!’ Column from this arvo has has undergone quite a substantial re-write on the online Herald after the A-G released a statement saying that the so-called leaked advice from Crown Law that Soper received was just a draft report and not the final advice given to the government.
I really can't get excited about this from Soper. So what? Did they want to be right but dead? Or have a loved one die? I'd certainly support some retrospective legislation to stop the money hungry suing the government for money. Other than that yawn!
Latest Stunt:
David Parker is going to ask the Speaker to refer Simon Bridges to the privileges committee:
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/121452782/coronavirus-government-escalates-stoush-over-lockdown-legal-advice-refers-national-leader-simon-bridges-to-the-privileges-committee
A left wing solution to a mutation. Those who know more than me can explain the findings from the report in this LA Times piece.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-05/mutant-coronavirus-has-emerged-more-contagious-than-original
As Rationalist nation say – we need a UBI and we need to keep a lid on this. Corona ant going away and a mad push to get back to work will undo all we have done.