It's hard to see when would be a better time than right now to hear about how parties are going to deal with the new economic reality and rebuilding both economy and society.
need for innovative policy is at the heart of this election
Tough. Labour and National don't want to know. The soft plopping sound you hear is their heads plunging into the sand – Nat/Lab ostriches know how to avoid the approaching lion of reality.
You missed your cue to tell Bryce to crawl back into his “ivory-tower bubble”.
In case Bryce and you missed it, there’s a global pandemic raging beyond our borders and an appropriate ‘innovative policy’ at this moment in time is to keep it out before it destroys our domestic economy and threatens our society.
Yup. Eliminating it and then successfully keeping it out, when nobody else in the world (except Taiwan) has succeeded in that and very few are really even trying, counts as highly innovative in my books.
You might want to look at Vietnam. Because they have done such a stellar job for a socalled emerging economy. They actually had less death then we did, and are country of 90 millions.
That is to say i don't have an issue with what Bryce is saying. Covid is going to stay with us for a few years. No matter how much we might be able to 'eliminate' it here – keep in mind it is here and it is arriving here with returning Kiwis.
At the end of it all, at somestage living with Covid will be to a large extend like living with HIV – for which we still have no vaccine, which people still get mainly because of sex without condoms – go figure.
But we still need to see what the government plans re the local economy and just having shovel ready jobs to please the male based industry is nothing for the women – whom have lost the majority of jobs. But then, maybe they are just women and they can just go home, have babies, please hubby and hope to not get hte bash on friday like the good old days. I would also like to point out that the last of the wage subsidy extention is going to run out, once the covid unemployment runs out we are having a huge number of people out of jobs on a pittance of benefits (again, Labour can change this and hopefully will) and one can not run a local economy when half the country tries to survive of social welfare and rent subsidy.
So yes, can the government and the people of the country do both? Be sensible in regards to covid and come up with ways that we have an economy that works for all and not just some?
In light of the recent COVID-19 outbreak, Vietnam has imposed several travel restrictions on those entering the country. As of July 30, Vietnam had confirmed 459 cases of COVID-19, though 369 of the patients had recovered.
Those planning to travel to Vietnam should be aware of the latest restrictions currently in place:
Vietnam has suspended the entry of all foreigners from March 22 until further notice to limit the spread of COVID-19. The measure will not apply to diplomats, officials, foreign investors, experts, and skilled workers as per Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc
So according to this a nation of 90 millions had less infections then us a nation of 5 million and less death. Which means if people work together and the government is not a total asshole life can continue. And if you want to list successfull countries that keep the virus in check you need to list Vietnam. Unless of course we are only allowed to talk about approved countries that fit a certain narrative then of course we can not list Vietnam as a success. Which one is it?
Vietnam is currently experiencing cases of apparent community transmission from unknown sources. It's loose in the community.
We, and Taiwan, have good reason to believe we have eliminated community transmission and our only active cases are those detected and isolated at the border.
That's not a value judgement on what was achieved in view of relative resources, it's a simple statement of current status.
If Bryce Edwards wanted to do a useful job instead of whining about promises like a baby seeking a bottle, all he would have to do is go back to the Wellbeing Budget social and economic measures and put out a progress report card.
Now that would be useful policy-focused political analysis for voters.
I agree with everybody's comments. If Bryce Edwards says something look for the right-wing lean. He probably has to have corrective manipulation by a physiotherapist. Here he is just stirring to appear up with the play, while not making any inroads into our ongoing problems caused by bad economic policies of four decades.
Persons so "filthy rich" that they don't pay taxes usually keep quiet about it. Morgan speaks openly about it in order to point up the flaws in the system that allow him to get away with it. He has suggested solutions to the problems, both in his book The Big Kahuna, and also through his formation of the Opportunities Party in 2017.
Most home owners, having a vested interest in the status quo, don't see eye to eye with him.
Colin James is still alive?! Apologist for 84 in the language of 35. Useful in the day. Not for 35ist NZ of course.
I really wanted to hear Bryce's breakdown of the obituries for Mike Moore, but he not around, of a sudden. The MSM describing the gent as a 'hero of the working class' on the same grounds as they could describe Bob Jones — both grew up in statehouses.
But apparently only I felt the insult. The rewriting of the reality of our history before our eyes. '1984' in front of me. It was a shock. Waiting for the utter stream of diarrhea that meets Douglas's death.
Bernard Hickey demonstrates how the PM is defining herself:
This week Jacinda Ardern revealed herself as a small 'c' conservative, focused on maintaining the current shape and (historically and comparatively small) size of government, but with a friendlier face. She confirmed Labour had no plans for major new spending or tax or welfare reform in the last full post-Cabinet news conference of her first term.
Instead, voters should look at the Government's current achievements, its plans for Covid-19 recovery and Budget 2020's debt track as an indicator of 'steady-as-she-goes'. There is no more. That is it.
Seems she feels she must present as a reliable manager only. Transformational was 2017 – been there, done that.
After months of wondering if she was about to flex her new and larger political muscles to pull a big policy rabbit out of the hat, she tapped the hat, turned it upside down, asked us to peer inside at the emptiness, and put it back down on the table: a popular magician without a trick who doesn't harm rabbits.
Her rationalisation that high Labour polling is no basis for imagining a resilient sustainable future is obviously an attempt to ensure that centrists don't shift back to National. Presuming most centrists are too stupid to want a resilient sustainable future could be the flaw in her thinking, eh?
Transformational was 2017 – been there, done that.
The flaw in your thinking is to gloss over a major global event that necessitated a change of plans. To keep the little raft called HMS Aotearoa away from the rocks is top priority. There’s plenty of policy material and detail if you open your eyes and want to see it. However, I’m sure the electorate thinks exactly like you and Bernard Hickey and is eagerly awaiting transformative policies that herald a time of unprecedented change in and of our economy and society; it’s Mass Psychology 101.
Exactly Ad, if one of those parties suddenly gets past the 20% then maybe the 2 big parties will change too. Labour are the only Centrist party, National are Centrist in drag, they're never honest coz they know they'd be on ACT numbers if they were.
I have a lot of time for Bernard Hickey. Bruce Edwards not so much. But all the commentators seem to have forgotten what happened the last time Ardern and Labour stuck their heads up above the parapet and offered up a far reaching policy shift in tax. They got crucified by the establishment in this country for daring to suggest we adopt a fairly standard capital gains tax. Now they are heavy favourites to win the election is it any wonder they won’t make the same mistake twice?
I favour the `enemy within' thesis to explain that cowardice. Did the first Labour govt wimp out during the depression? No, it did what was required. Same logic applies.
Difference is that unity happened back then. Nowadays I reckon there are both genuine progressives within Labour and those addicted to fakery, and the latter have the numbers to prevail currently.
I do agree it is smart politics for JA to outflank National on the right. It worked for HC, so she would be recycling a proven method. At the cost of authenticity in the minds of all genuinely progressive folks…
It's educational, informative to look at history and how things unrolled at that time. It is important to compare then and now when looking to repeat procedures and triumphs of policy. ScottGN makes the best point I think.
It seems to me that PM Ardern is doing another Helen Clark; we will have to win this election noting all the dilatory types staggering on from 20th century thinking and drag them into the forward-looking political bubble.
Yesterday I read a regular commenter from New Plymouth talking about extragavant spending there by Council, making a move towards present requirements which failed; expensive and poorly researched. This sort of thing examples the thinking of the many in positions with power to make a difference. They are just playing at facing the future, being bold and accepting new procedures, thinking is needed; their hands behind their backs with fingers crossed in childish defiance.
Agree. The commentators almost feel like they are throwing a hissy fit because there is not a raft of new details that they can attack labour on. Actually they could sit down and analyse the effects of some of the policy that is there.
Education has signaled that they want a high value overseas student sector not a visa selling rip off and the pandemic has hastened these decisions. National want to open the doors.They could sit down and analyse the economic effects of these two policies but they don't because it would call Nats plans out as rubbish.
Mostly Labour seem to be letting things (& us) settle down rather than throwing any dramatic curveballs ( Savage came in a few years after the depression had taken hold) nudging outcomes in the best direction for all of us. And they seem to be shaping their responses by all of public opinion not just the well off in the media. If they continue this step by step process of making lives better that's a direction of travel I can live with and stuff it if it doesn't make a policy filled campaign.
And when did Nact last campaign on on any public platform that they kept or reflected in their actions when in power.
When thinking about Michael Savage we should remember that he had to fight to get his policy through Parliament. He became ill and stuck at it; John Lee was a firebrand with strong beliefs – which were not the same as Savage's – and he was trying to get him sidelined on the grounds that the job was increasing his illness.
Savage should have had time off to tackle his cancer, I think it was, but wanted to be sure his cohort's votes and his own were there at the crucial time in Parliament. He was prepared to die and put himself last, and the policy for welfare for all first, while there was this opportunity after the Depression to concentrate people's minds and their morals on positive change.
I have read some of the history and that's my take on what Savage achieved and what he put into it. PM Jacinda is also putting aside much of her personal life for the good of the country, so there is time for some good positives too from her.
But all the commentators seem to have forgotten what happened the last time Ardern and Labour stuck their heads up above the parapet and offered up a far reaching policy shift in tax. They got crucified by the establishment in this country for daring to suggest we adopt a fairly standard capital gains tax. Now they are heavy favourites to win the election is it any wonder they won’t make the same mistake twice?
the CGT thing was before the election when Labour when it was still unclear if they could win the election. Now they're above 60%.
Best strategy for lefties who want tax reform is to vote Green. That way the Greens can do the heavy lifting on tax debate without Labour having to cop all the flack. Needs more Green MPs for that to work though.
She, and Michael Cullen, must have known, prior to forming the TWG, that NZF would veto a CGT. Perhaps she was hoping that the group would come up with something better. Better options were available, of course, but they may have been too radical for Labour to take the initiative on.
for daring to suggest we adopt a fairly standard capital gains tax.
Which would have had very little effect on our dysfunctional housing market. Michael Cullen and his Tax Working Group let them down, rather, by failing to come up with something better, though better options were available.
that is my issue i have with the current lot. it is all just bullshit. You still get the run around if you need a benefit. You still don't get the benefit one is entitled too. But at least they offer you now a chair when you wait for an appointment filing for unemployment.
(and this is what a lot of people have voted Labour for, to reform welfare, access to needed benefits that have been paid for by the people working and paying taxes, and still nothing has changed).
Wasn't there a Handbrake in Govt, you know, MMP, where all parties get to decide on policies, how come you think Labour could just enforce their policies.
You only have to listen to James Shaws adjournment speech yesterday to recognise that many of the policies that would/should have been introduced were curbed by NZF, but thats how MMP works
Your views are still in the FPP days, 2 decades ago, compromise is the rule rather than the exception.
Asked by Corin Dann what Labour's tax and economic policy was, given postal voting would start in just over four weeks, she pointed to the Government's track record and its current five point plan for Covid-19 recovery, focused on retraining. "That five point plan really is giving a very strong indication of the momentum we want to maintain should we be re-elected. What we'll be doing over this election period is yes adding some additional aspects, but I would flag to voters not to expect to see large scale manifestos that are a significant departure from what we're doing," Ardern said. https://www.newsroom.co.nz/pro/a-2nd-term-pm-for-crises-and-the-status-quo
See what she did? He asked what the policy was & she didn't tell him the answer, but instead delivered the verbal equivalent of "Hey, look over there!"
Why is it vitally important for her to mask the lack of Labour's tax and economic policy? I presume the decision was made by whoever does strategic thinking for the Labour campaign that voters are actually turned off by policy documents.
Yeah, nice zen response, mirrors hers – deflects his request to specify the policy. I'm not ruling out the possibility that the actual policy will eventually show up in the media – just pointing out the various ruses being used to distract media/public from examining it. Smoke & mirrors do work, but often prove unsustainable.
You missed the answer, Dennis, because you weren’t listening and at the same thinking that people think like you. Your binary paranoia is clouding your mind with biased BS thoughts and the only antidote is to empty your mind of all the baggage has been accumulated and stored there over more than one life time and just observe what’s going on in the world at this very moment in time. It takes praxis to undo praxis and adopt a new praxis of disentanglement and detachment. Let it go and be free of the burden of your thinking.
All Dennis' posts basically repeat the same thing, so I suppose we just have to keep repeating the same answer:
Parliament ended yesterday. Campaigning starts today. Labour launch at the weekend. Policies will be rolled out in the same way as always … each day, to get maximum positive headlines on the campaign trail. A photo-op at a hospital = a health policy, a visit to a school = an education policy, and so on. A series of debates will feature the finance spokespeople, talking tax policy and the economy. There is a predictable timetable, including the TV leaders' debates.
This is what they do every 3 years, so why pretend to be indignant about the obvious?
I wasn't feeling indignant when I reported those views from opinion-leaders, just wanted to point out that the expectations expressed here by many in response to the pandemic in recent months are shared by influential folk in the establishment.
Yes of course Labour's pretence at being progressive is traditional. Most of us know that – have known it all our lives – so we expect the sham as usual. If they do something good, I'll happily acknowledge their temporary nonconformism! 😎
You think opinion-leaders in the media don't influence public opinion?? Judging by your comments here in the past, I wouldn't have thought you were that naive. They do. That's why news & political media have used them since forever.
and you have no problem with "news" media featuring "opinion leaders"?, you cant see the conflict of interest? , You dont get the "opinion leading" has largely replaced news on most platforms? You have no problem with this?
Oh, I see. It's true that I did feel the same as you when I first thought about it long ago. The propriety around it is murky. Columnists tend not to have a disclaimer at the top specifying who is paying them and if their contract includes editorial direction, eh?
Media were originally owned only by those who created them, and each context had different wealth & power levers to be operated by a successful entrepreneur before success was attained. Whereupon the owner eventually employed others to do the messaging, while retaining publisher's rights over the output. Later, states assumed hegemony and some produced their own media. Eventually, a pretence that such systems served the common interests of the citizens was exhibited.
So the question of conflict of interest that may arise in the minds of you & I, driven by our personal values, isn't necessarily widely shared. We don't get taught this stuff as part of our education. My insights into it came partly from my career in the media and partly from having read history as a hobby since I was a child.
Media politics, unfortunately, is not driven by shared perception of our common interests alone. It is also driven by vested interests. I'd like to see media charters that compel provision of public service instituted – but that idea has always been too radical for leftists to consider, let alone adopt.
I used the method used by the essay writers onsite here. Standard practice. Try mouthing off at them for using that technique, see how far it gets you.
Like it was ‘hiding’ KiwiBuild, you mean? A policy so obscure that nobody has ever heard of it? Did it even exist or was it just a fidget of imagination?
[this programme is also known as The Politician’s Guide to Ducking Awkward Questions]
This is an aural instruction manual for incoming politicians giving guidance on how to answer those tricky questions from the media when you’d rather not. Using examples from the masters, including Sir Keith Holyoake, Sir Robert Muldoon, Winston Peters, Helen Clark and Jenny Shipley, the guide offers advice about giving earnest, fulsome and convincing replies without actually answering the questions. The Guide takes us through the Seven Strategies of Successful Subject-Shifting, including Answering a Slightly Different Question, the "Let-Me-Just-Say-This" Manoeuvre, Attacking the Critic and the Amazing Shipley One-Size-Fits-All Multi-Purpose Response.
Perhaps sabine you think that there will be many good jobs working on the AI controlled air cargo flights being developed in Nelson? Nothing like machines to take over human jobs.
What if we get to the stage where we are shown unmistakably by machine-collected data that we are utterly unwanted in this place. Then maybe babies get drowned in buckets as was said to have happened somewhere in China under their one child policy (as reported by Readers Digest, practically an agent for USA hegemony and propaganda.)
Those kind machines will build us a nice orbital out amongst the stars furnished with all the bells and whistles and we can lounge our little lives away .
Asked why the Government needed to be so fiscally conservative and worry about debt when it had the lowest debt in the OECD and it could borrow for less than 1.0 percent, she said: "It's a good question because we have always been careful around our fiscal management." https://www.newsroom.co.nz/pro/a-2nd-term-pm-for-crises-and-the-status-quo
She decided not to explain why, and issued a compliment to mask her evasion, then positioned Labour as staunch adherents to neoliberal austerity doctrine. The necessity of fronting as the high priestess of neoliberalism escapes me. Perhaps someone else can explain it?? The doctrine became trendy post-gfc to get govts out of deep shit – but her govt is flush, so economics can't explain her stance.
She can believe what she wants, the question is do we need to borrow more? Should she borrow more? Can the country afford it.
I belive a lot of things, very earnestly too, but then time change and believes changes. So currently i don't give a fuck what she believes or not, i want to know what they are planning for the next three years so as to see if i will vote for them or humpty dumpty. Because there is always Humpty Dumpty.
"…currently i don't give a fuck what she [PM Ardern] believes…" "Because there is always Humpty Dumpty."?Brownlee trying to put ChCh back together again?
it seems that the binary choice of NZ – red vs blue seems to affect many. I.e. if one does not go for the red choice it must be blue. The way i see it is that Labour is purple, and way to blue for me. I will vote for them if i have too, but i take no joy in it. Nor do i feel that our current lot did anything spectacular. I feel they did what they ought to do, keep the country safe and stable. So no extra cookies from me for doing a job they wanted to do when running.
But this shooting down people that don't totally walk lockstep is annoying as heck. We all have priorities in live, and often we base our votes around our priorities. And to ask what are the policies, what are the economic plans in place, to ask when will the kinder gentler bullshit be rolled out to the least looked after population in our country is not 'against' labour, it should be done by all who want to vote.
Yet, it seems that if one is not a hundred percent happy with the current lot that they should get burned.
I have never voted for national, in fact if you go back to my comments to the time of the hairpuller you will see that i am an equal opportunist when it comes to our selected suits in parliament. I dislike all of them, i consider all of them civilian failures for whom parliament is the best earning option without ever having to actually achieve something.
But i do want to know what Labour has planned and it seems they are reluctant to let us know. It is ok, considering that Covid makes planning a bit hard, but take for example 'retraining' of our current and future unemployed. What would she like us to retrain too? Where would she like us to retrain? Vs, i would like to know if early retirement would be an option for people mid – fifties and older rather then unemployment? Increase in base benefits for unemployed as they stand a chance of being long term unemployed et.
And frankly that is fair and should not lead to howls of discontent by others.
Political parties plan out the release of policy during their campaign. It's unfortunate if that timing does not suit us or the media who want answers today.
i don't give a fuck about the media, and i don't think i have ever commented on the media or its bobble heads, as i neither watch tv nor listen to radio, i consider both a waste of time. But i read a lot, and having a shop i talk to a lot of people.
So yes, i would like to know a few things, and i think it is fair to ask about it. At some stage i and others will cast our votes and chances are i do so early as always. So why should i vote for a party that is reluctant to even hint at what they are going to do. And considering the times we live in why not now?
And the two points that i listed imo are points that they could actually talk about. What happens with another outbreak, consider that Bloomfield started that discussion yesterday with his 'not if, but when' comment. What happens to those to old to be retrained and to old to be hired easily? Will unemployment benefits be increased to cope with higher cost of living. All of this is something they can start talking anytime they seem fit or after tea.
Labour can start talking or it won't. In the meantime all the other parties are talking. Go figure. Because as i stated, the No mates Party has its policies on their billboards while Labour tells us to 'keep moving'. Where too was the question i asked my Labour candidate wannabe. I got no answer, cause that would be 'policy'. Now why would i vote for the candidate or the party?
So you're basically saying you'll vote for something that's Unknown (Humpty Dumpty) rather than for a political party with a century of experience and a distinct Social policy that's been part of the party for, well, forever.
Good luck with Humpty Dumpty then, certainly hope he spouts some policies over the next few weeks for you to consider.
Because a large segment of the voting public is uncomfortable about the idea of building massive debt and wants the government to try to be fiscally prudent. If nothing else, it's very sound politics to position as careful around fiscal management, rather than 'we'll borrow whatever we feel like to have a good time'.
Because the section of voters who might also vote for the Nats is uncomfortable. Others of us want more boldness and are willing to back what's needed to achieve that.
quite a few currently would like to know if in another lockdown occures if there will be another wage subsidy.
quite a few currently would like to know how to pay mortgages now that the Missus lost her job and chances are she won't be finding a new one – even with retraining as a fruit picker or a cow milker or a stop/go sign roadworker.
quite a few currently would like to know how to live on unemployment benefits that were already outdated under the last National government but that are still current.
so yes, quite a few people would like to know things, and it is up to the incumbent to let the voting public know what on earth they have planned.
Cause their 'keep moving' Billboars are bullshit. It sounds a bit like 'move along dear' nothing to see nothing to hear.
Compare this with Nationals Billboards : Jobs. 'Support local buisnesses' 'support your community'.
Even NZFirst, Maori, Vision billboards are more informative then the Labour ones.
Can't comment on the Greens, they obviously are not running here according to the complete lack of advertisment for them.
And again, these are the billboards in Rotorua. Keep moving vs Support local businesses. Maybe like Kiwis the Labour party is getting a bit smug 'having beaten covid (until the next outbreak) and think its all done and we can go back to usual, doing fuck all until we have too.
But the " massive debt" is comparable to Keys heavy borrowing, the difference is, Key was responsible for the economic failure that led to the BORROWING (tax cuts), where as the current situation is caused by a reaction to Global Pandemic.
Public perception. Some seem to think that running the Government books is like running a household or business. For example, what do people do when they see their neighbours, friends, and family borrow up large against the house to a ‘afford’ big spendings and lavish overseas holidays twice a year? It rubs off, doesn’t it? Don’t think like Dennis, think like somebody else for a change.
oh Jesus really we have spent $30billion and counting in four months, are still rolling out hundreds of millions more per week on projects, and the moisties still accuse us of some shock doctrine or other.
Give yourself a weekend reading Acemoglu and come back.
We're about to drop another $30b next year without so much as blinking an eye.
Fortunately we have positioned for a natural disaster, and it has helped us deal with one coming from off shore. We had small debt compared to most countries so are not crippled by the amounts needed for this.
A number of talking heads want us to believe the right would do better.
How they would do better without the risk of allowing the virus in to decimate our economy is never explained, just hubris and "allow more over the borders".
To hear Judith Collins, " she never fudged Police Stats, she crushed lots of cars and never lost one prisoner." So she and Gerry are far better managers (sarc) MY eyebrows are raised!!
When did "managing" become a dirty word? We have been fortunate in the management of the virus threat here thanks to the WHO epidemiologists the Public Service and the Government that has protected lives and jobs.
The alternative is starkly obvious in Victoria the GDP of the USA and Britain is a guide for what would happen here should the virus get away.
Attacks come in a variety of forms. " Freedom" has been threatened according to some. The Government is using covid for "Politics." The Government hasn't "delivered" Finally it is "Where is the Policy?" Read the Budget 2020.
We knew Dirty Politics would start with the campaign, but the outright lies and statements which are patently untrue is breathtaking. I guess the Right feel they have nothing to lose.
There is a sense there is a campaign to break up the team of 5 million for political gain. The new understanding about mask wearing has become the latest lever.
No one blinked an eye when Key borrowed $120B to pay for the tax cuts, $65B was still owing when National lost the last election.
It's OK for National to borrow heavily to cover up an economic fuckup but its a problem for Labour to borrow to get the country through the worst Global event in our lifetimes.
But the $30B is a quarter of what Key borrowed in 2011, over $60B was still owing when he left office, no one cared, but now we have a major Global event that is demolishing most western Economies and you complain, NZ is in a much better economic position than any other western economy right now cos we're all back at work, going to the footy and shopping at will.
Would you rather have the USA experience, over 40 million unemployed, 70 thousand new virus cases a day and averaging more than a thousand deaths daily, what is the real Cost of those policies.
A careful dissection of where that money is going would not reveal any departure from the cult neoliberalism that has impoverished so many of us. Time was we earned decent money, rather than waiting for government largesse. But governments decided to sell our industries, and the promised economic benefits never materialised.
Roll on the day they break out of the fiscal death spiral – but they will never do so without an existential threat, for it would require them to admit that they were wrong. Good governance is hostage to their egos, and escape is a forlorn hope.
Austerity docterines became trendy following the GFC and the release of the Reinhart and Rogoff paper on growth rates and public debt. Unfortunately that paper collapsed and was demonstrated to be ridden with basic errors and ideological bias (after the harm was done and it became trendy already).
In practice austerity helped zero countries and hurt many. Some examples, the UK went through a (predicted) double/tripple dip recession following its national Austerity turn. Only the first dip was attributable to the GFC in any way. Greece lost 20% of its GDP as a result of externally imposed Austerity policies. The forecast which accompanied the policies had been for growth to occur almost immediately. Australia sailed through the GFC but following the successful stimulus took an austerity turn. By 2020 Australias economy had worse unemployment than New Zealand with GDP matching this trend. In late 2019 Japan implemented the latest in a series of sales tax hike induced economic contractions. These are usually short lived due to the obvious causality involved.
Maybe she thinks that centrists might shift back to National on the back of some sensationalised nonscandal petroled on the slow burning election by someone like J Collins assisted by someone like D Garner.
Judging what percentage of centrists are in that band that don't want triflings like a resilient sustainable future to inhibit their jumping on some hysterical righteous bandwagon is the challenge.
In a letter to the pair, a copy of which was obtained by Newsroom, Auckland lawyer Julian Miles QC said he had been instructed that Samarakone had been “the subject of a damaging, malicious and untrue campaign against her arising after the Auckland Central selection process”.
…
Miles said Samarakone had “clear evidence” that one or both of the pair had instigated or been involved in the campaign, which she believed was inspired by the failure of one to be chosen as a potential nominee.
Last night a good friend of ours found herself back in Victoria found herself back in another 14 day iso after a possible workplace exposure. She sent us this message:
"Things are going a bit stir crazy around here, this old house has lots of character, but now it's talking to me. I was just having a chat with the microwave and toaster while having a coffee, and they agreed it was getting bad. I didn't mention anything to the washing machine as she always puts her own spin on everything. The fridge is acting cold and distant, but the iron straightened things out nicely. Always finds his own wrinkle on things, no situation is too pressing for a chat.
The vacuum was very unsympathetic, basically said just to suck it up, and the kitchen fan said it was all overblown nonsense. The toilet just looked embarrassed, didn't say anything and came over all flushed, but the door knob told me to get a grip … haha.
I thought maybe I should get some fresh air, but the front door told me I was unhinged, and the living room curtains piped up that, you guessed it, that I should pull myself together. This place is far too crowded and noisy; I need to go somewhere more …. isolated."
It was a hoot. Gerry simultaneously argued two contradictory positions on the call for people to have a supply of masks at home:
The border is shambolic and the Government knows the virus will escape (if it hasn't already) and they should be making this clear rather than obliquely suggesting that people have masks
The border is safe (no community transmission for 80+ days) and the Government is trying to scare people and make the election about Covid rather than their shambolic recovery effort
Apart from the pure idiocy of it, he sounded petulant and irritated about not being in charge – which in his mind is the natural order of things. My partner was going to text something to RNZ about Gerry surely understanding the need for belt and braces – but decided against the body-shaming.
He was hurt, deeply hurt, by the suggestion he was scaremongering. He was just relating stuff he'd heard. It was the other lot scaremongering by preparing for bad stuff, and the bad stuff is going to happen because of their shambolicness, mark my words! We're dooomed.
He stood for himself. Like so many others in parliament. i hear the pay and perks are very very good and you don't have to achieve a single thing to earn them.
Having once been Labour, by the time he ignominiously gave up at the last election, refusing to contest Ohariu, he was closer to ACT than National in his outlook.
Everyone should re-read fully this account from 2013 before considering the latest sage opinion from Peter Dunne. I can't believe how short people's memories are.
Chris Trotter asks the right question…but provides no answer.
"Why are the nation’s two largest political parties no longer up to the task of fulfilling one of their principal functions? It was once an axiom of representative government that the primary responsibility for contributing the ideas and programmes advanced by political parties rested with their members. The larger the parties, the more comprehensive and unconstrained its policy debates, the more likely it was that their respective manifestoes would accurately reflect the aspirations of society’s key sectional interests."
I would normally not touch Odgers with a bargepole but that post is a pretty straight take on his trajectory:
Only Matthew Hooton could get away with the professional absurdity of going from:
– Herald columnist using his influence in print and radio to assist in conducting a coup on Bridges.
– Quit Twitter and Herald column to work in Wellington for nine weeks.
– Lead a disaster of a transition with Muller who then collapses under the strain of it all.
– Stays on with Collins it appeared prima facie quite happily else he would have exited with Muller.
– Quit for the old chestnut of “travel demands and family reasons”.
AND
– Then basically pretends it all has not happened and reverts to writing about the very election campaign that last week he was in the middle of working on for Collins and National!
the fact that hooten was able to slide straight back into being a mouthpiece at the herald says alot about heralds ethics and journo standards. would like to know how many suckers actually pay to get past heralds paywall. would think its very few.
It's another reminder that there is little correlation between somebody's high media profile (and self-importance) as a commentator, and their abilities as a staffer/adviser.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who would struggle to name members of the PM's team. Andrew Campbell I think, and a bunch of others like the chief of staff who 99% of voters wouldn't pick in a line-up.
As opposed to Hooton, Janet Wilson and the A Team.
The comfy cushion of establishment favouritism. Same one that protected Garrick Tremain for decades.
But now we have some real-world evidence of Hooten's abilities. Even if he has any actual skill at lining his pockets, he couldn't do a damned thig for the nats.
I don't understand why people have been thinking this is about trying to get National to win the election though. Hooton fucked up. Or maybe shit went down we don't know about. Or maybe someone or some people have the long game in mind.
And maybe trying to increase the popularity of a national party under Muller or Collins was always a "stop the sinking" rather than "pump the water out" situation.
But the short tenure suggests that he didn't appreciate some aspect of the job. Maybe it really was the commute. But if National continue at this level in the polls, one might well query what impact Hooten managed to have.
Political commentator turned National consultant turned political commentator Matthew Hooton has revealed he only spent 15 minutes face to face with Todd Muller, during the former leader’s 53 days in the job. Hooton was hired during the coup by Muller against Simon Bridges.
In an appearance on Magic Talk this afternoon, Hooton said he mainly dealt with political staffers during his time in Wellington. He said Muller preferred to work alongside his deputy Nikki Kaye, and number three Amy Adams. Together, they referred to themselves as “the triangle,” Hooton said.
Hooton, who recently quit his role within the National Party to return to punditry, told the programme he “jumped ship” and definitely wasn’t pushed.
Fair call on the Luxon plan, but wouldn't they want their saboteur throwing the game closer to the election? Doing the job "just good enough" to be in a position to really bugger things up ten days or so out from polling day?
President Trump, in comments Thursday, said, “That’s a very terrible thing that just happened,” adding that “the N.R.A. should move to Texas and lead a very good and beautiful life.”
I actually seriously wish them well, as I think the NRA has turned into an evil institution, but I really can't see them losing any battles anytime soon.
Too entrenched into a lot of Americans way of thinking.
Now that evidence has come out that NRA leadership bilked its membership for tens of millions, they may start to regret the fact that their membership is heavily armed.
Just saying.
1/ I just finished reading @NewYorkStateAG’s 169 page lawsuit against @NRA and I’m shocked beyond belief at the level of corruption, lawlessness, and self-dealing.
What follows is a THREAD that highlights the very worst abuses alleged by @TishJames.
There will be lots and lots of policy for the right to moan about for the next nine years or more, because after Labour has won this coming election and has a free hand to rebuild this lovely land that has been crying for years for some love and attention. National only loves the land to be sold to some rich exploiters from yankeeland. So suck it up you right wing commentators haha your truly screwed. Get a proper job or piss off to a country who may agree with you.
There has been policy coming out,there has been clues as to what policy to expect and it is all about rebuilding infrastructure, reinvesting in apprenticeships etc etc, are you just looking for promises.
Yeah the media fools and the National party idiots have this problem with lead times and project management.
If you give them a 10 year objective then they will all divide it by 10 and say that you didn’t achieve a first year target. While this is laudable in that they have mastered division on a calculator. However it does point to some issues with their mathematical and business education past primary school.
Just as a quick check – what is your understanding about how you measure progress on decade length infrastructural projects. Just so we know how you’d measure Nationals progress on their roads. Not to mention Bridge’s northland bridges.
It's like planting a tree for fruit. Nothing at all at first, but buying the land, fertilising it, weeding it, digging the holes, then staking, training, pruning, spraying, and then a few fruit and then finally full production in a few year's time.
Then you have to find and train the pickers, house them and pay them a decent wage, treat them properly.
Then there's the transport of the crop, its sale and storage, its marketing and its acceptance by the buying public.
That's a farmer's metaphor so the Nats can understand it.
asking for the plan of the next three years is not 'looking for promises', it is asking the candidate what they plan to do next.
Infrastructre is nice, but when 90% of the last unemployment numbers are women it is meaningless as Infrastructure is a male dominated industry.
So what are the plans for the unemployed women?
Re-investing in apprenticeships is great. Who is going to train these youngsters?, Are they receiving a wage from the company they work for while being apprenticed , or will they have to get a studentloan of sorts in order to pay their living costs while being trained and work for free?
Oh i am asking for details. Gosh Darn it. Don't i know that i should just shut up and vote.
The infrastructure programmes are good for those that currently working in the field as it will keep them employed and provide employment for those that are not coming out of the training/study pipeline be they men or women.
But it will do nothing for unemployed people of a certain age where physical work is an issue, nor will it work for all the women who have lost their jobs recently.
So what i am talking about is this current need that can not wait for some women who lost her job to get trained to be available as a hammer hand on a building site.
Unemployment
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.0 percent in the June 2020 quarter, down from 4.2 percent last quarter.
For men, the unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent, down from 4.0 percent last quarter.
For women, the unemployment rate rose to 4.4 percent, up from 4.3 percent.
The seasonally adjusted number of unemployed people fell to 111,000 (down 6,000).
7,000 fewer men were unemployed. (i would assume these guys are getting jobs in building, infrastructure, roadworks etc)
1,000 more women were unemployed.
The fall in the number of unemployed people coincided with a rise of 37,000 people not in the labour force.
Underutilisation
The seasonally adjusted underutilisation rate rose to 12.0 percent this quarter, up from 10.4 percent last quarter. This was the largest quarterly rise recorded since the series began in 2004.
For men, the underutilisation rate rose to 9.4 percent, up from 8.3 percent.
For women, the underutilisation rate rose to 14.9 percent, up from 12.7 percent.
and i really would like to know what the government has planned for these women other then the kinder gentler same as bullshit at Winz and a life of no income and dependence on welfare or the generosity of a partner.
Why on earth should taking a test be optional and so infrequent (3 weeks) in the border staff situation? I would also support higher pay and reductions in total work hours to lessen the stress on staff as well. There should also be a steady withdrawal of outsourced contracts – we need the best job not the cheapest. The costs of it getting out are far beyond any of this expenditure
Outright racism, unafraid of authority descending on landlord for blatant vilification. This sort of thing has to be stopped.
What could be done is that their is an agency that tenants can opt to be connected to that keeps a record of their tenancies and sets them on a coloured star list based on results of approvals from landlords. Then a landlord can see from their rating level, and have no excuse for refusing people on race or looks or whatever.
sacha – Both i think would be excellent. People would be encouraged to be good tenants and say look at my record now let me have this rental. Landlords won't be able to tapdance a flamenco as many do now, there would be no fleet of foot for those rentiers any more.
Well Sacha says an agency to rate landlords. That would be good. You are getting into an angry negative mode Sabine. As there isn't much good news around you could find yourself in a spiral.
edit
Yes, fairly simple stuff but adequate, state housing, staaattte housssiing dah de dah, tweedle de dee, what about a house for me, and you, and them, or a flat not too far off the ground. There must be a song about that. I see that the removal of some controls somewhere means that places more than 6 stories can be built. Don't let us see tower blocks please you Council people and politicians. Next thing we are into Grenfell as in London. We have had some officials in NZ look and find the same cladding. Take our eyes off the developers and it will be replaced with something as bad. 6 stories limit eh, with a lift after 3 stories high.
Here is lovely Graham Nash talking about homes and the Crosby – CSNY song 'Our House' –
I’ve just remembered. Talking to someone with a Swiss wife. Some of the apartments over there are interesting – I think might go up to 6 floors with stairs all the way. And the stairway is not blocked off from the flats, one on each floor. As you walk up at the end of their living space you say hello or give a wave and up to the next floor the same. The only one that is entirely private is at the top. They seem to get on okay with that. It’s a new idea to me.
When you look back on what the National party has achieved you arrive in nothing but a vacuum.
For it is but a bunker for the Wealthy. A group which does nothing for New Zealand.
It builds its massive money bags, by paying working citizens very low wages. Year after year, after year.
It has continued its behaviour since the 1930's. It has now happily arrived determinedly, at a situation where it builds no Houses for its people.
They have deliberately denied housing. Numerous get it tough. Families sleep in cars and vans. Landlords and Lawyers exert their vicious greed on thousands of NZeders.
Some Good people in cities give and share food – and in rural areas too. Bless them.
The wealthy as usual are in their counting rooms counting out their money,
As we move towards the Year 2020, please remember the foreign banks; the callous Wealthy and the cruel Landlords.
The retched National Party exists only for itself . They are not Kiwis.
They are Kiwis. Greedy kiwis. But Kiwis they are and they get voted in by Kiwis every now and then. Generally when Labour looses the plot and has nothing to offer.
I don't disagree with you on your description of the No Mates Party. But they are Kiwis. They are Kiwi as.
They may be New Zealanders by accident of birth but they have no loyalty to the idea of Aotearoa as a decent, fair, democratic nation. The Nats loyalty is to themselves first, and if that means selling out NZ (public assets, taonga, and people) to the whims of global capitalism, then so be it.
Of course they claim a homey "Kiwi" persona but it's fake. The 0.01% cares nothing for borders or the lives of ordinary people. They are the TransNational party
But wasn't that people transitioning from sleeping on the streets and in cars, you know, NZ had the highest rate of homelessness per capita in the OECD when the Coalition took office, just another hangover from Key and English.
Earlier this morning Judith Collins was in the Waikato. Stuff reporter Libby Wilson was there.
Speaking to a farming crowd in the Waikato on Friday, Collins repeatedly said National would scrap the RMA.
It would go “out the back in the old oil drum and it’s going to be burnt”, she said.
Farmers must be sick of being told what to do on their own land, she said, and no-one told her dad he couldn’t chop down a pine tree.
She spoke to a crowd of about 200 in a Waikato agricultural contractor’s shed.
National’s support for farmers was the main thrust of her speech, but she also announced National’s intention to put $20m into more testing for gynaecological cancers, so they can be picked up early.
Being prepared is not a conspiracy theory, after all we are happy as to put together a kit for a natural disaster. 🌋 The kids are happy as to wear a mask, 😷 they think it's cool. It's the grown up's with the issues. Weird huh?
Mask making 101 – Because getting sewing supplies while in lockdown is a pain in the arse. And you won't want to wear a mask if it's uncomfortable.
✂️ Use a breathable natural fabric if possible, but not wool it's too itchy, check out your linen cupboard, or get some old cotton shirts from the recycle centre. Soft cotton/hemp blends are fantastic. The tighter the weave of the fabric the better.
🕯️ Not sure of the fibre content, do a flame test, if it melts don't use it, you're looking for a dusty ash.
👚 Instead of elastic to use over the ears, use stretch fabric, it's softer and more comfortable. Cut strips off the bottom of an old t-shirt and stretch it as far as it can go. Make your ear loops adjustable for extra comfort, just slide the loose ends through one well fitting bead. Hair ties for over ear loops can often be too small or tight and uncomfortable.
😷 Masks with pockets for filters (a filter could be a folded up tissue) are more effective. Single layer masks are less effective.
📎 A fitted mask is best, you don't want a gap over the bridge of your nose. Make a casing for the bridge of the nose and insert a piece of wire, like an unfolded paper clip. Use some pliers to curl over the ends of the wire, so you don't get poked in the nose.
🧵 Top stitching might look nice, but, the more sewing holes in the mask the less effective it will be. Try not to top stitch your mask.
Cinny that is so good of you. Helpful and worthwhile to do as I bought a pack from the pharmacy and for a 5 pack it was $13. For a family the cost mounts up. I am planning to wear and air in sun after so that I can reuse, for a time anyway. Not sure how many wears would be too much.
Just made me think of hemp – any time something is mentioned, someone says 'Hemp's good for that'. Though I think it might be a bit scratchy. But if it had enough 'TLC' it could be bearable and bring a smile.
Back then we replaced the rubber bands with elastic or hair ties and used 3 ply paper towels with an extra layer of dried (fragrance free) baby wipes.
Close fitting…to the point that after dong the during lockdown grocery shop at paknspend just about needed O2. As it is with the highly expensive N95 masks.
We removed the elastic for reuse….Spotlight having run out of the stuff very early on.
Going to try the sock mask as well…someone here posted a video a coupe of weeks ago.
Sounds like a wonderful Business Opportunity for enterprising individuals with some time on their hands, we could export them to the rest of the world.
Already has been a good business opportunity, you can by them online from Made Gallery. Raglan NZ https://www.facebook.com/madegalleryraglan/, and various other places and they have been offered since lockdown Level 3. I got a whole bunch for the hairdressers next to me for opening day on Lockdown L2. We looked outstanding in our colorful masks. 🙂
Gloves, Masks and sanitizer by now should be a stable in every household.
added link and disclaimer these are friends who run this little place.
Now I really do think people returning home to NZ should have had a negative result test just prior to flying to NZ . "Two people who recently returned from overseas are in managed isolation at their own house in a suburb in South Auckland." ( NZ Herald ) No wonder they are telling us to worry about a second wave hitting our shores.
"She (A spokeswoman for Managed Isolation and Quarantine) acknowledged that such exemptions were given only under strict conditions or compassionate reasons – in this case, a medical reason.
It was allowed when those needing to stay in 14-day managed isolation could not have their health needs met in a hotel."
Can you tell us what the medical situation is? Can you tell us how the way they are being monitored is less strict that in the hotels?
The risks from monitoring and health checks will be higher at a home,then at a managed hotel where such as changing facilities for health staff,clothing being a significant transfer mechanism.
If they have health needs that would otherwise mean going into a shared hospital outpatient setting (eg: regular dialysis) then arranging that to be provided at their home poses much less overall risk.
They should still go into quarantine for 2 weeks … but at least it is one way to lower the risk to the people who have to process them once they are in NZ
It gives only false reassurance of lowered risk, so is actually more dangerous than not doing it. Need to trust the public health officials who make these decisions. Deadly serious business.
Yes. The woman who escaped through a fence in Auckland, and the man who went to get beer in Hamilton, and the family that wanted to go to the funeral, had all returned a negative test (in NZ isolation).
An earlier negative test, from another country's health system, would only encourage more to break the rules ("it was negative, so what's the big deal?").
Few would dispute that the Left, today, are few in number. Is their failure to make the public aware of and act upon the manifest failures of the present system attributable to their lack of active energy and intelligence? Or, is it simply because the Left’s ideas have become, almost entirely, those of the historically compromised middle-class?
Yeah, the left do seem to be a constantly shrinking microcosm of the people. Trotter spends a lot of time circumnavigating the problem and very little in an attempt to get to the crux.
Unfortunately, the critics of neoliberalism have achieved nothing like the cut-through achieved by the critics of Keynesianism in the 70s and 80s. The careful creation of an intellectual climate for change; the constant publication of detailed proposals for reform; the extraordinary preparation and seeding of the political ground that prefaced the policy revolutions unleashed by Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Roger Douglas; none of these have been replicated by the Left.
Doing what the situation requires takes intellectual endeavour. Leftists prefer to live on trickle-down from capitalists than co-create an alternative system. Trotter fails to explain that bit. He also fails to attempt the task himself.
Ninety years ago, the father of public relations, and author of the ground-breaking book Propaganda, Edward Bernays, wrote: “Only through the active energy of the intelligent few can the public at large become aware of and act upon new ideas.”
Few are capable of conceiving and designing innovative social projects, but that's the easier bit. Recruiting others in collaborative teams to make them work is harder.
For the left as a political project, those who seek a better system are ever opposed by those who prefer to use the current system. Teamwork is stymied by this internal schism. Trotter, of course, fails to identify this as crux of the problem…
"Nothing Too Drastic: Few would dispute that the Left, today, are few in number. Is their failure to make the public aware of and act upon the manifest failures of the present system attributable to their lack of active energy and intelligence? Or, is it simply because the Left’s ideas have become, almost entirely, those of the historically compromised middle-class?
right under the picture on the post linked in Dennis comment.
I presume he wrote that in his belief that he doesn't need to cite political science research? Just guessing. I agree it is a worthy topic for political scientists to investigate. They would probably raise the funding question in response…
"please stop punishing me for my ignorance, please stop telling me to commit suicide"
(read the whole thread for context)
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Hi,I go between excitement about AI — and absolute terror. I’m terrified it will take our jobs — and also kill us. Not kill us on purpose… more in a gray-goo kinda way.And as I wrote about over two years ago, I’m excited it might be the only thing to ...
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Stuart Nash’s downfall appears to have had its beginnings with one of the players from the “Dirty Politics” scandals of 2014. Simon Lusk, a close associate of Cameron “Whaleoil” Slater, one of the key figures in Nicky Hagar’s “Dirty Politics” expose, has been associated with Stuart Nash. Lusk has ...
Worried if this election will be shellacked by “the culture war”? That arrived ages ago. And, one side is definitely in panic mode, even if that’s not being admitted right now. Because of that, they’re reverting yet again to straight up… culture wars. Yes, fellow traveler, the Party who ...
All About Climate is a Youtube channel dedicated to communicating climate science and combating misinformation about global warming. It is run by Roshan Salgado D'Arcy - or 'Rosh' for short. He is a geology graduate with an MSc in climate change and is currently reading for a PhD in the communication of ...
ChatGPT is an interesting little beastie. I have only really started experimenting with it recently – not because I have any interest in using it for my own writing projects, but because I enjoy pushing and prodding the AI in strange directions. I have spent an inordinate amount of ...
The science of climate change is clear: we need to stop burning fossil fuels as quickly as possible, and we cannot burn even a fraction of those already discovered. So naturally, Labour is offering oil companies more exploration permits: The Government is offering companies another opportunity to search for ...
There are two keyboards in my office. I hammer at one a lot more than the other.But some days — today, for instance, after a few days of steeping myself in toxicity —that other keyboard can really come into its own.I learned to play the piano as a kid, went ...
Is the government imploding? Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has had to sack one of his more effective (and likeable) ministers, while another (from the Green Party) has insulted many of the adult population. For his part, Hipkins had appeared to be shaping up well since he took over the ...
Mobbed! As Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s (Posie Parker’s) opponents surged forward, her only protecters were a handful of burly security guards who surrounded their client and began forcing a path through what was now a howling mob. At least one video recording shows the diminutive Keen-Minshull, a terrified rag-doll, eyes dulled by ...
Buzz from the Beehive It looks like Marama Davidson must revile white sis males – or some other group of our population – three more times before she gets the heave-ho as one of Chris Hipkins’ ministers. That’s the conclusion to be drawn from the PM’s treatment of Stuart Nash, ...
For a serial offender like Stuart Nash, it was inevitable that another skeleton would emerge from his closet, and end his ministerial career. This one though, was a whopper. Previously, Nash had tried to tell the Police how to do their job. He had also tried to tell the courts ...
Cabinet Minister Stuart Nash was sacked last night for violating Cabinet Collective Responsibility rules, when it was revealed he disclosed sensitive Government information to business supporters who had donated money to him. The breach of the Cabinet Manual was enough to land him in trouble, but the fact that it ...
Some good news last week with the Council confirming that Te Hā Noa – Victoria St Linear Park will go ahead and with construction starting on 11 April – though with a few fishhooks. Te Hā Noa, a renewed Victoria Street, is the next big project in Auckland Council’s Midtown ...
Stuart Nash’s assurances to Prime Minister Chris Hipkins that there were no further examples of him breaching the Cabinet Manual became meaningless with the release of emails from Nash sharing Cabinet discussions with business people. The Prime Minister had no choice but to sack Nash as a Minister with immediate ...
Hi,Just a quick online-only update after yesterday’s newsletter, How Michael Organ Weaponised the Family Court... and Sean Plunket. First up — wow. Thanks for all the support, and to all those who shared their own personal stories in the comments. And welcome to any new Webworm readers.I just wanted ...
Let that sink in for a moment - Christopher Luxon, who has spent the last year demonising Māori, wants Marama Davidson to apologise to white men.You will likely have seen the video, or read about it. Marama Davidson rushing along Princes St on Saturday evening, the road that runs between ...
Stuart Nash, the great-grandson of former Prime Minister Sir Walter Nash, has lost his political career. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Stuart Nash was sacked for telling donors what happened in Cabinet. Wellington’s City and Regional Councils are going cold on light rail plans. Wayne Brown is under ...
NZ First Leader Winston Peters is sympathising with Stuart Nash and defending him but dodging questions on whether he would be welcome in New Zealand First. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins last night sacked Nash from the Cabinet after an email he had sent to two of his campaign donors ...
So, after interfering with the police, and then interfering with immigration decisions, Stuart Nash has finally been sacked: Stuart Nash has been sacked as a minister, after Stuff revealed he had emailed business figures, including donors, detailing private Cabinet discussions. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed the people Nash emailed ...
Nearly 25% of mortgages in Auckland are deemed at risk in a 1-in-100 year flood event. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Once a year, every year, from now on, in our not-so-slow-cooking climate crisis, there will be a moment when the most important number in Aotearoa’s own personal, national ...
Item One: About a confected crisis Please bear with me for a moment, readers outside Auckland, I wish to sound the klaxon. Auckland, we have until 11pm today to have our say. About what? About this, as copied and pasted from Pippa Coom’s Facebook page:The "austerity" budget is built on ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yet again, the statement we were looking for could not be found on the Beehive website. Nor was it on the Scoop or Green Party websites. But – come to think of it – we are probably wasting our time by searching. Our quest is for the ...
The following is from a speech given by Arundhati Roy at the Swedish Academy on March 22, 2023, at a conference called Thought and Truth Under Pressure and reprinted from Literary Hub. I thank the Swedish Academy for inviting me to speak at this conference and for affording me the privilege ...
After almost two decades of racism, Australia is finally getting off its "stop the boats" bullshit. But don't worry, racists - Michael Wood has your back!The Government wants to increase the time it can detain without a warrant people seeking asylum en masse from four days to 28 ...
Last year, the Education and Workforce Committee recommended that the government legislate for pay transparency to prevent employers from secretly discriminating. This ought to be a bread and butter issue for Labour - discrimination sees women (and particularly Māori and Pasifika women) paid significantly less than men. But since then ...
Thomas Cranmer writes – ———— An unruly mob in Albert Park has catapulted New Zealand into the global headlines with ugly images that may become iconic in the debate about the dangers of transgenderism. ———— Bravo Kellie-Jay Keen. She did the job that needed to be done. For all the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global warming is melting the Arctic ice cap, and that’s having unforeseen effects on the world’s weather — even thousands of miles away from the North Pole. Some climate scientists have begun to link increasingly common heat waves in Europe to what is ...
Hot on the heels of the demotion of former police Minister Stuart Nash for breaching the Cabinet Manual, Radio New Zealand has revealed the close links between lobbyists and politicians- an area of New Zealand politics that is completely unregulated. The evidence in Guyon Espiner’s series Mate, Comrade, Brother, the ...
Over a million New Zealanders will receive a little extra to help with the cost of living as a result of our 1 April changes. Around the world, inflation is causing costs to rise and we’re feeling it here at home. In tough times, we need to support those who ...
With benefit changes coming into effect tomorrow, the Green Party is calling on the Government to lift benefits to liveable levels to make sure everyone has what they need to thrive. ...
Following decades of work by the Green Party alongside the organics sector, people will finally be able to be confident that products labelled organic have met standards. ...
The Green Party supports immediate Government action to close the pay gap as called for in an open letter released today by the Human Rights Commission and 50 other organisations. ...
The Green Party is today welcoming the release of the Government’s waste strategy, but says it has a big gap without action on the container return scheme for beverage containers. ...
The Government’s decision to introduce ‘mass arrivals’ legislation goes against the values we all share of Aotearoa as a place where all people are treated fairly, the Green Party says. ...
MINISTER DAVIDSON MUST RESIGN AFTER 'VIOLENCE' COMMENTS Marama Davidson should stand down as ‘Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence’ for the clear and outrageous statement she made at the Posie Parker protest that ‘white straight men’ are the cause of violence. Her offensive, racist, and sexist remarks ...
In response to Newshub and Amelia Wade’s obvious and ham-fisted attempt at a typical and predicted political hit job. As any politically aware reporter would know, any Cabinet subcommittee has a duty and obligation as a part of any government to respond to any UN declaration, in this case ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today and in your busy lives turning up to this meeting. Forty five years ago, in Howick, often described as racist, and where few Maori lived because it had been a ‘Fencible’ settlement at the time of the Anglo-Maori ...
The Green Party has marked the National Party’s new education policy and given it a fail, especially for its failure to address the underlying drivers of school performance. ...
“This is it; 2023 will be the last opportunity New Zealand has to get a government that will confront the climate emergency with the urgency it demands,” says the Green Party’s co-leader and climate change spokesperson, James Shaw. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
You will never truly understand, from the pictures you’ve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
We’re boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta, departs for Europe today, where she will attend a session of the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting in Brussels and make a short bilateral visit to Sweden. “NATO is a long-standing and likeminded partner for Aotearoa New Zealand. It is valuable to join a session of ...
A secure facility that will house protected information for a broad range of government agencies is being constructed at RNZAF Base Auckland (Whenuapai), Public Service, Defence and GCSB Minister Andrew Little says. The facility will consolidate and expand the government’s current secure storage capacity and capability for at least another ...
From today, 1.8 million flu vaccines are available to help protect New Zealanders from winter illness, Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall has announced. “Vaccination against flu is safe and will be a first line of defence against severe illness this winter,” Dr Verrall said. “We can all play a part ...
Associate Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage Willow-Jean Prime has congratulated Professor Rangi Mātāmua (Ngāi Tūhoe) who was last night named the prestigious Te Pou Whakarae o Aotearoa New Zealander of the Year. Professor Mātāmua, who is the government's Chief Adviser Mātauranga Matariki, was the winner of the New Zealander ...
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta has announced further sanctions on political and military figures from Russia and Belarus as part of the ongoing response to the war in Ukraine. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Alekseevna Lvova-Belova ...
A new public housing development planned for Whangārei will provide 95 warm and dry, modern homes for people in need, Housing Minister Megan Woods says. The Kauika Road development will replace a motel complex in the Avenues with 89 three-level walk up apartments, alongside six homes. “Whangārei has a rapidly ...
New Zealand welcomes the substantial conclusion of negotiations on the United Kingdom’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “Continuing to grow our export returns is a priority for the Government and part of our plan to ...
Ngā Iwi o Taranaki and the Crown initial Taranaki Maunga collective redress deed Ngā Iwi o Taranaki and the Crown have today initialled the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Deed, named Te Ruruku Pūtakerongo, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little says. “I am pleased to be here for this ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Barbara Edmonds has announced the 2023 Pacific Language week series, highlighting the need to revitalise and sustain languages for future generations. “Pacific languages are a cornerstone of our health, wellbeing and identity as Pacific peoples. When our languages are spoken, heard and celebrated, our communities thrive,” ...
880,000 pensioners to get a boost to Super, including 5000 veterans 52,000 students to see a bump in allowance or loan living costs Approximately 223,000 workers to receive a wage rise as a result of the minimum wage increasing to $22.70 8,000 community nurses to receive pay increase of up ...
Over 8000 community nurses will start receiving well-deserved pay rises of up to 15 percent over the next month as a Government initiative worth $200 million a year kicks in, says Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall. “The Government is committed to ensuring nurses are paid fairly and will receive ...
Tākiri mai ana te ata Ki runga o ngākau mārohirohi Kōrihi ana te manu kaupapa Ka ao, ka ao, ka awatea Tihei mauri ora Let the dawn break On the hearts and minds of those who stand resolute As the bird of action sings, it welcomes the dawn of a ...
The Government is introducing a scheme which will lift incomes for artists, support them beyond the current spike in cost of living and ensure they are properly recognised for their contribution to New Zealand’s economy and culture. “In line with New Zealand’s Free Trade Agreement with the UK, last ...
New Zealand is welcoming a decision by the United Nations General Assembly to ask the International Court of Justice to consider countries’ international legal obligations on climate change. The United Nations has voted unanimously to adopt a resolution led by Vanuatu to ask the ICJ for an advisory opinion on ...
More Police officers are being deployed to the frontline with the graduation of 59 new constables from the Royal New Zealand Police College today. “The graduation for recruit wing 364 was my first since becoming Police Minister last week,” Ginny Andersen said. “It was a real honour. I want to ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta met with Vanuatu Foreign Minister Jotham Napat in Port Vila, today, signing a new Statement of Partnership — Aotearoa New Zealand’s first with Vanuatu. “The Mauri Statement of Partnership is a joint expression of the values, priorities and principles that will guide the Aotearoa New Zealand–Vanuatu relationship into ...
The Government has passed new legislation amending the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) levy regime, ensuring the best balance between a fair and cost effective funding model. The Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Levy) Amendment Bill makes changes to the existing law to: charge the levy on contracts of ...
The Government has passed the Organic Products and Production Bill through its third reading today in Parliament helping New Zealand’s organic sector to grow and lift export revenue. “The Organic Products and Production Bill will introduce robust and practical regulation to give businesses the certainty they need to continue to ...
The Digital Identity Services Trust Framework Bill, which will make it easier for New Zealanders to safely prove who they are digitally has passed its third and final reading today. “We know New Zealanders want control over their identity information and how it’s used by the companies and services they ...
The full Cyclone Gabrielle Recovery Taskforce has met formally for the first time as work continues to help the regions recover and rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle. The Taskforce, which includes representatives from business, local government, iwi and unions, covers all regions affected by the January and February floods and cyclone. ...
Changes have been made to legislation to give subcontractors the confidence they will be paid the retention money they are owed should the head contractor’s business fail, Minister for Building and Construction Megan Woods announced today. “These changes passed in the Construction Contracts (Retention Money) Amendment Act safeguard subcontractors who ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood has unveiled five scenarios for one of the most significant city-shaping projects for Tāmaki Makaurau in coming decades, the additional Waitematā Harbour crossing. “Aucklanders and businesses have made it clear that the biggest barriers to the success of Auckland is persistent congestion and after years of ...
The Government has passed new legislation that ensures New Zealand’s civil aviation rules are fit for purpose in the 21st century, Associate Transport Minister Kiri Allan says. The Civil Aviation Bill repeals and replaces the Civil Aviation Act 1990 and the Airport Authorities Act 1966 with a single modern law ...
A Bill aimed at helping to reduce delays in the coronial jurisdiction passed its third reading today. The Coroners Amendment Bill, amongst other things, will establish new coronial positions, known as Associate Coroners, who will be able to perform most of the functions, powers, and duties of Coroners. The new ...
The Prime Minister has asked the Cabinet Secretary to conduct a review into communications between Stuart Nash and his donors. The review will take place over the next two months. The review will look at whether there have been any other breaches of cabinet collective responsibility or confidentiality, or whether ...
The new Recovery Visa to help bring in additional migrant workers to support cyclone and flooding recovery has attracted over 600 successful applicants within its first month. “The Government is moving quickly to support businesses bring in the workers needed to recover from Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland floods,” Michael ...
Bills to ensure non-teaching employees and contractors at schools, and unlicensed childcare services like mall crèches are vetted by police, and provide safeguards for school board appointments have passed their first reading today. The Education and Training Amendment Bill (No. 3) and the Regulatory Systems (Education) Amendment Bill have now ...
Wānanga will gain increased flexibility and autonomy that recognises the unique role they fill in the tertiary education sector, Associate Minister of Education Kelvin Davis has announced. The Education and Training Amendment Bill (No.3), that had its first reading today, proposes a new Wānanga enabling framework for the three current ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta will travel to Vanuatu today, announcing that Aotearoa New Zealand will provide further relief and recovery assistance there, following the recent destruction caused by Cyclones Judy and Kevin. While in Vanuatu, Minister Mahuta will meet with Vanuatu Acting Prime Minister Sato Kilman, Foreign Minister Jotham ...
The Government is backing Police and making communities safer with the roll-out of state-of-the-art tools and training to frontline staff, Police Minister Ginny Andersen said today. “Frontline staff face high-risk situations daily as they increasingly respond to sophisticated organised crime, gang-violence and the availability of illegal firearms,” Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government has provided Police with more tools to crack down on gang offending with the passing of new legislation today which will further improve public safety, Justice Minister Kiri Allan says. The Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Bill amends existing law to: create new targeted warrant and additional search powers ...
The Government today announced far-reaching changes to the way we make, use, recycle and dispose of waste, ushering in a new era for New Zealand’s waste system. The changes will ensure that where waste is recycled, for instance by households at the kerbside, it is less likely to be contaminated ...
New legislation passed by the Government today will make it harder for gangs and their leaders to benefit financially from crime that causes considerable harm in our communities, Minister of Justice Kiri Allan says. Since the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 came into effect police have been highly successful in ...
This evening I have advised the Governor-General to dismiss Stuart Nash from all his ministerial portfolios. Late this afternoon I was made aware by a news outlet of an email Stuart Nash sent in March 2020 to two contacts regarding a commercial rent relief package that Cabinet had considered. In ...
Legislation to enable more build-to-rent developments has passed its third reading in Parliament, so this type of rental will be able to claim interest deductibility in perpetuity where it meets the requirements. Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods, says the changes will help unlock the potential of the build-to-rent sector and ...
A law passed by Parliament today exempts employers from paying fringe benefit tax on certain low emission commuting options they provide or subsidise for their staff. “Many employers already subsidise the commuting costs of their staff, for instance by providing car parks,” Environment Minister David Parker said. “This move supports ...
Today marks the 40th anniversary of Closer Economic Relations (CER), our gold standard free trade agreement between New Zealand and Australia. “CER was a world-leading agreement in 1983, is still world-renowned today and is emblematic of both our countries’ commitment to free trade. The WTO has called it the world’s ...
The Government is making procedural changes to the Immigration Act to ensure that 2013 amendments operate as Parliament intended. The Government is also introducing a new community management approach for asylum seekers. “While it’s unlikely we’ll experience a mass arrival due to our remote positioning, there is no doubt New ...
The Government welcomes progress on public sector pay adjustment (PSPA) agreements, and the release of the updated public service pay guidance by the Public Service Commission today, Minister for the Public Service Andrew Little says. “More than a dozen collective agreements are now settled in the public service, Crown Agents, ...
The Government has introduced the Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Legislation Bill to further support the recovery and rebuild from the recent severe weather events in the North Island. “We know from our experiences following the Canterbury and Kaikōura earthquakes that it will take some time before we completely understand the ...
Tea drinkers of Aotearoa, your new favourite dunking bikkie is here. There are several things I love about this recipe. The first is that they make a delicious dunking biscuit, the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea shared with friends. The second is that the recipe is ...
Part two of writer Marty Smith’s reporting from her flood-damaged home.Read part one here. Sunday 12 March, 21 days after the floods.Google Maps shows a pale blue line for the flat-lined bridge between Taradale and Waiohiki and sends you instead over the Expressway to Merge Like A Zip, ...
Bard Billot on the booted out broadcasterSpartans, prepare for glory! The hardy army of Today FM Spartans Camps out on the harsh lands of talk radio. The long months of the campaign Have worn down their resolve, For though they have loyally broadcast Their snappy banter and hot ...
The danger of National's policy is that it undoes much of an informal pact with Labour to depoliticise education at a time of real struggleOpinion: The National Party’s recently released education policy narrowly channels nearly every tired and cliched right-wing approach to schooling. If you have been in education for ...
A refurbished, expanded and more earthquake-proof building is a still few years away. Can it live up to the impeccable postmodernist vibes of its predecessor?A long time ago, my non-Wellington then-boyfriend was visiting the windy city and asked the barber what he recommended in town. “Dunno mate,” the barber ...
Doing the cryptic crossword isn’t simply a hobby. It’s a way of life, a love affair – even a full-blown obsession. The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Illustrations by Asia Martusia King. Clue: Mafia boss consumed first dish free of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The rout of the Liberals in Aston is a disaster for Peter Dutton. The party has defied history – in the worst possible way. This is the first time in more than a century ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Morgan Hancock/AAP With 44% of enrolled voters counted in today’s Aston federal byelection, the ABC has Labor expected to win ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Morgan Hancock/AAP With 44% of enrolled voters counted in today’s Aston federal byelection, the ABC has Labor expected to win ...
Analysis - When is a cabinet minister not a cabinet minister? The faulty logic of Stuart Nash has landed him and Labour in a heap of trouble but opened the door to serious reform of the Official Information Act, Tim Watkin writes. ...
Jubi News in Jayapura Indonesia’s Papua police chief Inspector-General Mathius D Fakhiri has called for action to ensure that “security disturbances” in the Puncak Jaya highlands do not widen in the face of escalating attacks by pro-independence militants. “For Puncak, we will take immediate action,” he said. According to General ...
What are you going to be watching this month? We round up everything coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, Neon and TVNZ+. The biggies Party Down (all seasons on TVNZ+ from April 1) Thirteen years is a long time between drinks and ...
Ginny Andersen has landed a hot-potato portfolio and has been in Cabinet less than two months - the opposition will be eager to test her mettle this election year. ...
The executive producer of Modern Family has issued an incendiary claim about New Zealanders cheering and clapping in public. Hayden Donnell gets to the bottom of things.The sitcom Modern Family is remembered as a “warm-hearted story about the unbreakable bonds of family”; a tale of radically different people overcoming ...
As rain kept falling across January, February and into March, all band members cold do was sit at home cancelling festivals and posting sad Facebook messages to fans. The first post landed on January 3. As wild weather began hitting the country, campers around Northland packed up their tents ...
Because pro-social behaviour emerges so often after disaster, community empowerment should be central to disaster mitigation and recoveryOpinion: Cyclone Gabrielle caused major damage across the North Island. This unprecedented climate event created great uncertainty. People are wondering if, or when, they can return to their homes, the extent to ...
"We, women, loving you; you, men, finding new women to love": a Francophile love story in NZ Louis woke up and found out Marine was not lying next to him in bed. He checked his phone – 5:30am. The aurora shone a bright gold on the windows of the detached ...
Every weekday, The Detail makes sense of the big news stories. This week, we looked at how co-governance really works, Labour's record on climate action, what the new AUKUS nuclear submarine deal means for New Zealand, Posie Parker's visit to Auckland and the free speech debate, and the damage processed foods are ...
The radio workers were caught by the unexpected speed of the decline of NZ's consumer economy, since Christmas – and they won't be the last. Jonathan Milne reports. When broadcaster Tova O’Brien uttered the resounding words, "they’ve f***ed us", they resonated beyond the 1 percent audience share of a small talk radio operation ...
A New Zealand Battery Project centred on Lake Onslow in Central Otago is up against a cheaper North Island alternative Studies into whether a massive pumped-hydro scheme at Lake Onslow is New Zealand’s best bet for a secure energy future may have only four more months to run. While the ...
This is The Detail's Long Read - one in-depth story read by us every weekend. This week, it's Jungle Warfare, written by Ellen Rykers and published in New Zealand Geographic's March/April 2023 edition. You can find the full article, with photos by Adrian Malloch, here. Hundreds of pest plant species—many of them garden escapees—run rampant in ...
The Red, White & Brass star talks spectacle, honouring family sacrifices and his debut lead role over a Tongan lunch in Otāhuhu.Name a creative pursuit and 28-year-old Tongan New Zealander John-Paul Foliaki will give it a go. That is, if he hasn’t already. Foliaki plays the lead role, Maka, ...
To mark 100 years since the great short story writer’s death, books editor Claire Mabey marathonned her collected works – these are the top 20.Reader, I did it. I read all of Katherine Mansfield’s short stories. Confession: I haven’t always been a fan. I have tedious memories of ...
In her first season as an ANZ Premiership captain, Ameliaranne Ekenasio was nervous about filling the shoes of the legendary Magic captains before her. But, as Merryn Anderson writes, the quiet leader has the full respect of the side who voted her in. When the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic created history ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Ordway, Associate Professor Sport Management and Sport Integrity Lead, University of Canberra Lawyers for Australian 800-metre star Peter Bol say allegations the runner engaged in doping should be dropped after two independent labs found no evidence he used a banned substance. ...
Vanuatu’s Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Trading Post Ltd, the owner of the VanuatuDaily Post newspaper, BUZZ FM96 and other media outlets, in a case against the government’s refusal to renew the company’s former media director’s work permit. Dan McGarry, who served as a director of the ...
Balclutha-based farmer Stephen Jack has been selected by local party members as National’s candidate in Taieri for the 2023 General Election. “Taieri is my home and I’m incredibly excited to have the opportunity to campaign for a National Government ...
Analysis - The Stuart Nash scandal has the potential to damage Labour's election chances, Marama Davidson creates controversy and Auckland's second harbour crossing to be built earlier than expected. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare JM Burns, Assistant Professor and Non-executive Director, Bond University Shutterstock The story of the Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund, whose name and marketing misled thousands of customers into believing it was Indigenous owned and run, is a stark example of ...
It’s the biannual reminder to tamper with that pesky analogue clock you still have in your kitchen for some reason (or at the least your microwave/car stereo). This Sunday at 3am, we will all gain an hour of sleep as the clocks roll back ahead of winter. Get ready for ...
The chief ombudsman has elected to reopen his investigation into an email from former minister Stuart Nash to a pair of donors back in 2020. The email, which only came to light this week, quickly triggered Nash’s dismissal from cabinet. But in bad news for the prime minister Chris Hipkins, ...
Last week we celebrated The Bulletin’s fifth birthday with Spinoff members and staff at The Spinoff’s offices in Auckland. The Bulletin launched in March 2018 seeking to curate news and great journalism and email that to people for free each weekday morning. That hasn’t changed and it’s still going strong. ...
The biggest increase in the history of the minimum wage will have a huge impact for workers on low wages, says the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions. From tomorrow, the minimum wage will rise to $22.70, up from $21.20. This increase will benefit ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By George Siemens, Co-Director, Professor, Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning, University of South Australia agsandrew/Shutterstock Recent public interest in tools like ChatGPT has raised an old question in the artificial intelligence community: is artificial general intelligence (in this case, ...
Auckland’s wet summer is delivering one final blow just in time for the weekend. The Synthony festival, due to be held on Saturday at Auckland Domain and featuring performances by Shapeshifter, Dave Dobbyn and Kimbra, has been postponed following predictions of heavy rainfall across the day. More than 20,000 people ...
We would like to see a temporary by-pass of the major slip on State Highway 25A built to alleviate the concerns of the residents of the Eastern Side of Coromandel. Cyclone Gabrielle inflicted substantial damage to roading on the Coromandel Peninsula. ...
Alex Casey watches Wellmania, the new Netflix comedy starring Instagram sensation Celeste Barber. The lowdownBased on the book by journalist Brigid Delaney, Netflix comedy Wellmania follows successful yet shambolic Australian food writer Liv Bealey (Celeste Barber) as she embarks on a quest to get well as quickly as possible. ...
The Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier says he has reopened his investigation into an Official Information Act complaint about a decision by former Minister Stuart Nash. "The original enquiry was discontinued in May last year in discussion with the ...
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) has welcomed this morning’s Government announcement to address pay disparities in the nursing and kaiāwhina workforces from 1 April. NZNO Chief Executive Paul ...
Don’t let broccoli’s virtuous goody two-shoes reputation put you off – these verdant and versatile florets make the perfect addition to tray bakes, salads, soups and more.I reckon broccoli’s “superfood” status has given it a bit of a bad reputation. Because it’s so healthy (and reasonably inoffensive), its nutrients ...
A poem from Michele Leggott’s forthcoming book Face to the Sky. escher x nendo I hear you Eddie Woo coming clear across the galleries of intercochlear space you have the measure of these galaxies earthmeasure you have the measure of their difference earthmisia you translate one world artemisia and here ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Doubleday, $26) The new, smaller format of Bonnie Garmus’ ...
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Bryce Edwards, lecturer in Politics at Victoria University, surveys the scene at the start of the election campaign proper: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12354423
Which throws into high relief the reluctance of the Nat/Lab establishment to front up and deliver. Colin James sees it too (https://democracyproject.nz/2020/07/28/colin-james-does-history-tell-us-anything-about-the-2020-election/). The
Tough. Labour and National don't want to know. The soft plopping sound you hear is their heads plunging into the sand – Nat/Lab ostriches know how to avoid the approaching lion of reality.
You missed your cue to tell Bryce to crawl back into his “ivory-tower bubble”.
In case Bryce and you missed it, there’s a global pandemic raging beyond our borders and an appropriate ‘innovative policy’ at this moment in time is to keep it out before it destroys our domestic economy and threatens our society.
Yup. Eliminating it and then successfully keeping it out, when nobody else in the world (except Taiwan) has succeeded in that and very few are really even trying, counts as highly innovative in my books.
You might want to look at Vietnam. Because they have done such a stellar job for a socalled emerging economy. They actually had less death then we did, and are country of 90 millions.
https://www.google.com/search?q=vietnam+covid+statistics&oq=Vietnam+Covid+statis&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i57.5352j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
That is to say i don't have an issue with what Bryce is saying. Covid is going to stay with us for a few years. No matter how much we might be able to 'eliminate' it here – keep in mind it is here and it is arriving here with returning Kiwis.
At the end of it all, at somestage living with Covid will be to a large extend like living with HIV – for which we still have no vaccine, which people still get mainly because of sex without condoms – go figure.
But we still need to see what the government plans re the local economy and just having shovel ready jobs to please the male based industry is nothing for the women – whom have lost the majority of jobs. But then, maybe they are just women and they can just go home, have babies, please hubby and hope to not get hte bash on friday like the good old days. I would also like to point out that the last of the wage subsidy extention is going to run out, once the covid unemployment runs out we are having a huge number of people out of jobs on a pittance of benefits (again, Labour can change this and hopefully will) and one can not run a local economy when half the country tries to survive of social welfare and rent subsidy.
So yes, can the government and the people of the country do both? Be sensible in regards to covid and come up with ways that we have an economy that works for all and not just some?
See if you can work out why I said Taiwan and not Vietnam.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/viet-nam/
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/taiwan/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Taiwan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Vietnam
(hint: it has something to do with recent community transmission)
I look to vietnam as they are a third world emerging country blahblahblah. Taiwan is a highly industrialise first world country.
https://www.vietnam-briefing.com/news/covid-19-vietnam-travel-updates-restrictions.html/
So according to this a nation of 90 millions had less infections then us a nation of 5 million and less death. Which means if people work together and the government is not a total asshole life can continue. And if you want to list successfull countries that keep the virus in check you need to list Vietnam. Unless of course we are only allowed to talk about approved countries that fit a certain narrative then of course we can not list Vietnam as a success. Which one is it?
Nope, you didn't work it out.
Vietnam is currently experiencing cases of apparent community transmission from unknown sources. It's loose in the community.
We, and Taiwan, have good reason to believe we have eliminated community transmission and our only active cases are those detected and isolated at the border.
That's not a value judgement on what was achieved in view of relative resources, it's a simple statement of current status.
Vietnam is not a good comparison as it may have originated there.
If I may direct you to an earlier post: https://thestandard.org.nz/covid-19-a-human-adapted-virus/
If Bryce Edwards wanted to do a useful job instead of whining about promises like a baby seeking a bottle, all he would have to do is go back to the Wellbeing Budget social and economic measures and put out a progress report card.
Now that would be useful policy-focused political analysis for voters.
That would not suit his agenda Ad. Bryce always quotes everyone else and slants things to favour the right.
Bryce Edward's is a well off NZer making top money for being a political analyst .To far removed from the struggles the majority of us face everyday.
I agree with everybody's comments. If Bryce Edwards says something look for the right-wing lean. He probably has to have corrective manipulation by a physiotherapist. Here he is just stirring to appear up with the play, while not making any inroads into our ongoing problems caused by bad economic policies of four decades.
burn the witch on the stake.
Gareth Morgan is so filthy rich he don't even pay taxes and is open and proud about it. But we had to take him and his TOP bullshit seriously.
Shamubeel Eaqub guy looks like he is well paid and well fed and clothed too.
Shall we burn these guys too or only the once that dare to actually demand more from the government then what they have offered so far?
or are we to fall in lockstep and shut the fuck up? 🙂 And then the question remains, why the fuck would i vote for them?
Persons so "filthy rich" that they don't pay taxes usually keep quiet about it. Morgan speaks openly about it in order to point up the flaws in the system that allow him to get away with it. He has suggested solutions to the problems, both in his book The Big Kahuna, and also through his formation of the Opportunities Party in 2017.
Most home owners, having a vested interest in the status quo, don't see eye to eye with him.
The greedy bastards.
Sabine nowhere did we say "Burn him" He would be a Warlock by the way lol
We say be even handed. Which he is not. (Bryce)
Tell us Sabine, do you think we should let the virus in? Those wanting Private Isolation and Quarantine Hotels would end up like Victoria.
Australia has 11% unemployment currently. Covid and internal economy don't go together. I am fecking voting for the crowd keeping it out.
You don't have an economic cake with covid.
Colin James is still alive?! Apologist for 84 in the language of 35. Useful in the day. Not for 35ist NZ of course.
I really wanted to hear Bryce's breakdown of the obituries for Mike Moore, but he not around, of a sudden. The MSM describing the gent as a 'hero of the working class' on the same grounds as they could describe Bob Jones — both grew up in statehouses.
But apparently only I felt the insult. The rewriting of the reality of our history before our eyes. '1984' in front of me. It was a shock. Waiting for the utter stream of diarrhea that meets Douglas's death.
Bernard Hickey demonstrates how the PM is defining herself:
Seems she feels she must present as a reliable manager only. Transformational was 2017 – been there, done that.
Her rationalisation that high Labour polling is no basis for imagining a resilient sustainable future is obviously an attempt to ensure that centrists don't shift back to National. Presuming most centrists are too stupid to want a resilient sustainable future could be the flaw in her thinking, eh?
The flaw in your thinking is to gloss over a major global event that necessitated a change of plans. To keep the little raft called HMS Aotearoa away from the rocks is top priority. There’s plenty of policy material and detail if you open your eyes and want to see it. However, I’m sure the electorate thinks exactly like you and Bernard Hickey and is eagerly awaiting transformative policies that herald a time of unprecedented change in and of our economy and society; it’s Mass Psychology 101.
the flaw in that argument is the idea that Labour actually had the intention to do something transformational before covid hit. That's debatable.
Please – give our little raft at least the dignity of the title 'HMNZS Aotearoa'.
Means and ends. You're up with the means but the ends of those don't lead anywhere we need to go.
The centrists now constitute everyone except 4% for Act and 5% for the Greens.
You're welcome.
Exactly Ad, if one of those parties suddenly gets past the 20% then maybe the 2 big parties will change too. Labour are the only Centrist party, National are Centrist in drag, they're never honest coz they know they'd be on ACT numbers if they were.
I have a lot of time for Bernard Hickey. Bruce Edwards not so much. But all the commentators seem to have forgotten what happened the last time Ardern and Labour stuck their heads up above the parapet and offered up a far reaching policy shift in tax. They got crucified by the establishment in this country for daring to suggest we adopt a fairly standard capital gains tax. Now they are heavy favourites to win the election is it any wonder they won’t make the same mistake twice?
I favour the `enemy within' thesis to explain that cowardice. Did the first Labour govt wimp out during the depression? No, it did what was required. Same logic applies.
Difference is that unity happened back then. Nowadays I reckon there are both genuine progressives within Labour and those addicted to fakery, and the latter have the numbers to prevail currently.
I do agree it is smart politics for JA to outflank National on the right. It worked for HC, so she would be recycling a proven method. At the cost of authenticity in the minds of all genuinely progressive folks…
It's educational, informative to look at history and how things unrolled at that time. It is important to compare then and now when looking to repeat procedures and triumphs of policy. ScottGN makes the best point I think.
It seems to me that PM Ardern is doing another Helen Clark; we will have to win this election noting all the dilatory types staggering on from 20th century thinking and drag them into the forward-looking political bubble.
Yesterday I read a regular commenter from New Plymouth talking about extragavant spending there by Council, making a move towards present requirements which failed; expensive and poorly researched. This sort of thing examples the thinking of the many in positions with power to make a difference. They are just playing at facing the future, being bold and accepting new procedures, thinking is needed; their hands behind their backs with fingers crossed in childish defiance.
Agree. The commentators almost feel like they are throwing a hissy fit because there is not a raft of new details that they can attack labour on. Actually they could sit down and analyse the effects of some of the policy that is there.
Education has signaled that they want a high value overseas student sector not a visa selling rip off and the pandemic has hastened these decisions. National want to open the doors.They could sit down and analyse the economic effects of these two policies but they don't because it would call Nats plans out as rubbish.
Mostly Labour seem to be letting things (& us) settle down rather than throwing any dramatic curveballs ( Savage came in a few years after the depression had taken hold) nudging outcomes in the best direction for all of us. And they seem to be shaping their responses by all of public opinion not just the well off in the media. If they continue this step by step process of making lives better that's a direction of travel I can live with and stuff it if it doesn't make a policy filled campaign.
And when did Nact last campaign on on any public platform that they kept or reflected in their actions when in power.
_
When thinking about Michael Savage we should remember that he had to fight to get his policy through Parliament. He became ill and stuck at it; John Lee was a firebrand with strong beliefs – which were not the same as Savage's – and he was trying to get him sidelined on the grounds that the job was increasing his illness.
Savage should have had time off to tackle his cancer, I think it was, but wanted to be sure his cohort's votes and his own were there at the crucial time in Parliament. He was prepared to die and put himself last, and the policy for welfare for all first, while there was this opportunity after the Depression to concentrate people's minds and their morals on positive change.
I have read some of the history and that's my take on what Savage achieved and what he put into it. PM Jacinda is also putting aside much of her personal life for the good of the country, so there is time for some good positives too from her.
the CGT thing was before the election when Labour when it was still unclear if they could win the election. Now they're above 60%.
Best strategy for lefties who want tax reform is to vote Green. That way the Greens can do the heavy lifting on tax debate without Labour having to cop all the flack. Needs more Green MPs for that to work though.
She, and Michael Cullen, must have known, prior to forming the TWG, that NZF would veto a CGT. Perhaps she was hoping that the group would come up with something better. Better options were available, of course, but they may have been too radical for Labour to take the initiative on.
or NZF.
Only way to know what Labour actually think is to not have NZF in govt.
for daring to suggest we adopt a fairly standard capital gains tax.
Which would have had very little effect on our dysfunctional housing market. Michael Cullen and his Tax Working Group let them down, rather, by failing to come up with something better, though better options were available.
kinder
gentler
bullshit.
that is my issue i have with the current lot. it is all just bullshit. You still get the run around if you need a benefit. You still don't get the benefit one is entitled too. But at least they offer you now a chair when you wait for an appointment filing for unemployment.
(and this is what a lot of people have voted Labour for, to reform welfare, access to needed benefits that have been paid for by the people working and paying taxes, and still nothing has changed).
Kinder
gentler
bullshit
Wasn't there a Handbrake in Govt, you know, MMP, where all parties get to decide on policies, how come you think Labour could just enforce their policies.
You only have to listen to James Shaws adjournment speech yesterday to recognise that many of the policies that would/should have been introduced were curbed by NZF, but thats how MMP works
Your views are still in the FPP days, 2 decades ago, compromise is the rule rather than the exception.
The wilful blindness is fairly widespread – see for example http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2020/08/assessing-labours-term.html
where is appears neither the Green Party nor NZ First were part of the "Labour" government.
See what she did? He asked what the policy was & she didn't tell him the answer, but instead delivered the verbal equivalent of "Hey, look over there!"
Why is it vitally important for her to mask the lack of Labour's tax and economic policy? I presume the decision was made by whoever does strategic thinking for the Labour campaign that voters are actually turned off by policy documents.
The tax policy is exactly what it is right now.
There you go.
Yeah, nice zen response, mirrors hers – deflects his request to specify the policy. I'm not ruling out the possibility that the actual policy will eventually show up in the media – just pointing out the various ruses being used to distract media/public from examining it. Smoke & mirrors do work, but often prove unsustainable.
You missed the answer, Dennis, because you weren’t listening and at the same thinking that people think like you. Your binary paranoia is clouding your mind with biased BS thoughts and the only antidote is to empty your mind of all the baggage has been accumulated and stored there over more than one life time and just observe what’s going on in the world at this very moment in time. It takes praxis to undo praxis and adopt a new praxis of disentanglement and detachment. Let it go and be free of the burden of your thinking.
All Dennis' posts basically repeat the same thing, so I suppose we just have to keep repeating the same answer:
Parliament ended yesterday. Campaigning starts today. Labour launch at the weekend. Policies will be rolled out in the same way as always … each day, to get maximum positive headlines on the campaign trail. A photo-op at a hospital = a health policy, a visit to a school = an education policy, and so on. A series of debates will feature the finance spokespeople, talking tax policy and the economy. There is a predictable timetable, including the TV leaders' debates.
This is what they do every 3 years, so why pretend to be indignant about the obvious?
I wasn't feeling indignant when I reported those views from opinion-leaders, just wanted to point out that the expectations expressed here by many in response to the pandemic in recent months are shared by influential folk in the establishment.
Yes of course Labour's pretence at being progressive is traditional. Most of us know that – have known it all our lives – so we expect the sham as usual. If they do something good, I'll happily acknowledge their temporary nonconformism! 😎
No need to waste time with "opinion-leaders"(a very debatable description). That's just talkback in text.
Go to the source:
Adjournment debate, yesterday. Start with Ardern's speech.
"when I reported those views from opinion-leaders"
screw your "opinion leaders" are you really that vacuous?
You think opinion-leaders in the media don't influence public opinion?? Judging by your comments here in the past, I wouldn't have thought you were that naive. They do. That's why news & political media have used them since forever.
and you have no problem with "news" media featuring "opinion leaders"?, you cant see the conflict of interest? , You dont get the "opinion leading" has largely replaced news on most platforms? You have no problem with this?
Oh, I see. It's true that I did feel the same as you when I first thought about it long ago. The propriety around it is murky. Columnists tend not to have a disclaimer at the top specifying who is paying them and if their contract includes editorial direction, eh?
Media were originally owned only by those who created them, and each context had different wealth & power levers to be operated by a successful entrepreneur before success was attained. Whereupon the owner eventually employed others to do the messaging, while retaining publisher's rights over the output. Later, states assumed hegemony and some produced their own media. Eventually, a pretence that such systems served the common interests of the citizens was exhibited.
So the question of conflict of interest that may arise in the minds of you & I, driven by our personal values, isn't necessarily widely shared. We don't get taught this stuff as part of our education. My insights into it came partly from my career in the media and partly from having read history as a hobby since I was a child.
Media politics, unfortunately, is not driven by shared perception of our common interests alone. It is also driven by vested interests. I'd like to see media charters that compel provision of public service instituted – but that idea has always been too radical for leftists to consider, let alone adopt.
so ,you recycled somebody elses whinge. opinion leaders? nah. get off your high horse and think for yourself, instead of recycling bulldust.
I used the method used by the essay writers onsite here. Standard practice. Try mouthing off at them for using that technique, see how far it gets you.
so now, you are retreating into whataboutism.sad
Don't cry. Be happy. 🥳
Absolutely correct. Thank you Dennis. I agree, looks like Labour is hiding policy.. yet again.
Like it was ‘hiding’ KiwiBuild, you mean? A policy so obscure that nobody has ever heard of it? Did it even exist or was it just a fidget of imagination?
Here is a fidget of information that political thinkers will enjoy. If heard before, it is ever fresh and relevant.
https://www.ngataonga.org.nz/collections/catalogue/catalogue-item?record_id=303644
[this programme is also known as The Politician’s Guide to Ducking Awkward Questions]
This is an aural instruction manual for incoming politicians giving guidance on how to answer those tricky questions from the media when you’d rather not. Using examples from the masters, including Sir Keith Holyoake, Sir Robert Muldoon, Winston Peters, Helen Clark and Jenny Shipley, the guide offers advice about giving earnest, fulsome and convincing replies without actually answering the questions. The Guide takes us through the Seven Strategies of Successful Subject-Shifting, including Answering a Slightly Different Question, the "Let-Me-Just-Say-This" Manoeuvre, Attacking the Critic and the Amazing Shipley One-Size-Fits-All Multi-Purpose Response.
retraining? To pick fruit n milk cows?
good fucking grief. Retraining….the worlds oldest bullshit rewarmed.
Where I live during the great depression men cycled 15 kms on gravel rds to swing shovels and picks building rds for a pennies a day .
So yip if picking or milking cows is all that going in these tough times ,get off your fucking arse and go do it . Even if it means relocating.
Sitting on your arse whinging about how it should be is dumb arse shit .
Perhaps sabine you think that there will be many good jobs working on the AI controlled air cargo flights being developed in Nelson? Nothing like machines to take over human jobs.
What if we get to the stage where we are shown unmistakably by machine-collected data that we are utterly unwanted in this place. Then maybe babies get drowned in buckets as was said to have happened somewhere in China under their one child policy (as reported by Readers Digest, practically an agent for USA hegemony and propaganda.)
Those kind machines will build us a nice orbital out amongst the stars furnished with all the bells and whistles and we can lounge our little lives away .
There were a couple of accounts on radio this morning about that sort of stuff – you know "unemployed pilot now milking cows" sort of stories.
It happens. I'm trying to work out how that's the "worlds oldest bullshit rewarmed."
It sounded to me like people retraining out of necessity for jobs they didn't originally see themselves doing.
Cowshit yes, bullshit no.
She decided not to explain why, and issued a compliment to mask her evasion, then positioned Labour as staunch adherents to neoliberal austerity doctrine. The necessity of fronting as the high priestess of neoliberalism escapes me. Perhaps someone else can explain it?? The doctrine became trendy post-gfc to get govts out of deep shit – but her govt is flush, so economics can't explain her stance.
… because she believes in it?
She can believe what she wants, the question is do we need to borrow more? Should she borrow more? Can the country afford it.
I belive a lot of things, very earnestly too, but then time change and believes changes. So currently i don't give a fuck what she believes or not, i want to know what they are planning for the next three years so as to see if i will vote for them or humpty dumpty. Because there is always Humpty Dumpty.
"…currently i don't give a fuck what she [PM Ardern] believes…" "Because there is always Humpty Dumpty."? Brownlee trying to put ChCh back together again?
NO humpty dumpty as in anyone else but. Your choice to go for brownlee, i would go for the socialists if we had any in this country.
Thanks for the clarification Sabine – Brownlee was my (best)
choiceguess.it seems that the binary choice of NZ – red vs blue seems to affect many. I.e. if one does not go for the red choice it must be blue. The way i see it is that Labour is purple, and way to blue for me. I will vote for them if i have too, but i take no joy in it. Nor do i feel that our current lot did anything spectacular. I feel they did what they ought to do, keep the country safe and stable. So no extra cookies from me for doing a job they wanted to do when running.
But this shooting down people that don't totally walk lockstep is annoying as heck. We all have priorities in live, and often we base our votes around our priorities. And to ask what are the policies, what are the economic plans in place, to ask when will the kinder gentler bullshit be rolled out to the least looked after population in our country is not 'against' labour, it should be done by all who want to vote.
Yet, it seems that if one is not a hundred percent happy with the current lot that they should get burned.
I have never voted for national, in fact if you go back to my comments to the time of the hairpuller you will see that i am an equal opportunist when it comes to our selected suits in parliament. I dislike all of them, i consider all of them civilian failures for whom parliament is the best earning option without ever having to actually achieve something.
But i do want to know what Labour has planned and it seems they are reluctant to let us know. It is ok, considering that Covid makes planning a bit hard, but take for example 'retraining' of our current and future unemployed. What would she like us to retrain too? Where would she like us to retrain? Vs, i would like to know if early retirement would be an option for people mid – fifties and older rather then unemployment? Increase in base benefits for unemployed as they stand a chance of being long term unemployed et.
And frankly that is fair and should not lead to howls of discontent by others.
Political parties plan out the release of policy during their campaign. It's unfortunate if that timing does not suit us or the media who want answers today.
i don't give a fuck about the media, and i don't think i have ever commented on the media or its bobble heads, as i neither watch tv nor listen to radio, i consider both a waste of time. But i read a lot, and having a shop i talk to a lot of people.
So yes, i would like to know a few things, and i think it is fair to ask about it. At some stage i and others will cast our votes and chances are i do so early as always. So why should i vote for a party that is reluctant to even hint at what they are going to do. And considering the times we live in why not now?
And the two points that i listed imo are points that they could actually talk about. What happens with another outbreak, consider that Bloomfield started that discussion yesterday with his 'not if, but when' comment. What happens to those to old to be retrained and to old to be hired easily? Will unemployment benefits be increased to cope with higher cost of living. All of this is something they can start talking anytime they seem fit or after tea.
Labour can start talking or it won't. In the meantime all the other parties are talking. Go figure. Because as i stated, the No mates Party has its policies on their billboards while Labour tells us to 'keep moving'. Where too was the question i asked my Labour candidate wannabe. I got no answer, cause that would be 'policy'. Now why would i vote for the candidate or the party?
Yes, and there is just over a month until advance voting starts. Parliament only ended yesterday.
"socialists if we had any in this country."
Try Social Credit
https://www.socialcredit.nz/
Thanks for that. I will check these guys out.
The egg was pushed.
So you're basically saying you'll vote for something that's Unknown (Humpty Dumpty) rather than for a political party with a century of experience and a distinct Social policy that's been part of the party for, well, forever.
Good luck with Humpty Dumpty then, certainly hope he spouts some policies over the next few weeks for you to consider.
No i did not, it is just what you understood.
Because a large segment of the voting public is uncomfortable about the idea of building massive debt and wants the government to try to be fiscally prudent. If nothing else, it's very sound politics to position as careful around fiscal management, rather than 'we'll borrow whatever we feel like to have a good time'.
Because the section of voters who might also vote for the Nats is uncomfortable. Others of us want more boldness and are willing to back what's needed to achieve that.
Indeed. But it's the segment who might also vote for the Nats that end up swinging the election one way or the other. Hence the pandering to them.
And hence the need for the rest of us to vote for a left-leaning counterweight.
If you're ok with said counterweight's package and positioning and they don't come out with dealbreaker brainfarts.
Or we could stay at home and let the drift rightwards continue.
Why settle for the lesser evil?
quite a few currently would like to know if in another lockdown occures if there will be another wage subsidy.
quite a few currently would like to know how to pay mortgages now that the Missus lost her job and chances are she won't be finding a new one – even with retraining as a fruit picker or a cow milker or a stop/go sign roadworker.
quite a few currently would like to know how to live on unemployment benefits that were already outdated under the last National government but that are still current.
so yes, quite a few people would like to know things, and it is up to the incumbent to let the voting public know what on earth they have planned.
Cause their 'keep moving' Billboars are bullshit. It sounds a bit like 'move along dear' nothing to see nothing to hear.
Compare this with Nationals Billboards : Jobs. 'Support local buisnesses' 'support your community'.
Even NZFirst, Maori, Vision billboards are more informative then the Labour ones.
Can't comment on the Greens, they obviously are not running here according to the complete lack of advertisment for them.
And again, these are the billboards in Rotorua. Keep moving vs Support local businesses. Maybe like Kiwis the Labour party is getting a bit smug 'having beaten covid (until the next outbreak) and think its all done and we can go back to usual, doing fuck all until we have too.
But the " massive debt" is comparable to Keys heavy borrowing, the difference is, Key was responsible for the economic failure that led to the BORROWING (tax cuts), where as the current situation is caused by a reaction to Global Pandemic.
Risk/reward
The current low interest rates are not universal.
And the key word is current
https://www.global-rates.com/en/interest-rates/central-banks/central-banks.aspx
Public perception. Some seem to think that running the Government books is like running a household or business. For example, what do people do when they see their neighbours, friends, and family borrow up large against the house to a ‘afford’ big spendings and lavish overseas holidays twice a year? It rubs off, doesn’t it? Don’t think like Dennis, think like somebody else for a change.
oh Jesus really we have spent $30billion and counting in four months, are still rolling out hundreds of millions more per week on projects, and the moisties still accuse us of some shock doctrine or other.
Give yourself a weekend reading Acemoglu and come back.
We're about to drop another $30b next year without so much as blinking an eye.
Fortunately we have positioned for a natural disaster, and it has helped us deal with one coming from off shore. We had small debt compared to most countries so are not crippled by the amounts needed for this.
A number of talking heads want us to believe the right would do better.
How they would do better without the risk of allowing the virus in to decimate our economy is never explained, just hubris and "allow more over the borders".
To hear Judith Collins, " she never fudged Police Stats, she crushed lots of cars and never lost one prisoner." So she and Gerry are far better managers (sarc) MY eyebrows are raised!!
When did "managing" become a dirty word? We have been fortunate in the management of the virus threat here thanks to the WHO epidemiologists the Public Service and the Government that has protected lives and jobs.
The alternative is starkly obvious in Victoria the GDP of the USA and Britain is a guide for what would happen here should the virus get away.
Attacks come in a variety of forms. " Freedom" has been threatened according to some. The Government is using covid for "Politics." The Government hasn't "delivered" Finally it is "Where is the Policy?" Read the Budget 2020.
We knew Dirty Politics would start with the campaign, but the outright lies and statements which are patently untrue is breathtaking. I guess the Right feel they have nothing to lose.
There is a sense there is a campaign to break up the team of 5 million for political gain. The new understanding about mask wearing has become the latest lever.
No one blinked an eye when Key borrowed $120B to pay for the tax cuts, $65B was still owing when National lost the last election.
It's OK for National to borrow heavily to cover up an economic fuckup but its a problem for Labour to borrow to get the country through the worst Global event in our lifetimes.
and this is very very true and the Labour party can change that standard procedure any day now. Cause the old days are gone forever.
But the $30B is a quarter of what Key borrowed in 2011, over $60B was still owing when he left office, no one cared, but now we have a major Global event that is demolishing most western Economies and you complain, NZ is in a much better economic position than any other western economy right now cos we're all back at work, going to the footy and shopping at will.
Would you rather have the USA experience, over 40 million unemployed, 70 thousand new virus cases a day and averaging more than a thousand deaths daily, what is the real Cost of those policies.
A careful dissection of where that money is going would not reveal any departure from the cult neoliberalism that has impoverished so many of us. Time was we earned decent money, rather than waiting for government largesse. But governments decided to sell our industries, and the promised economic benefits never materialised.
Roll on the day they break out of the fiscal death spiral – but they will never do so without an existential threat, for it would require them to admit that they were wrong. Good governance is hostage to their egos, and escape is a forlorn hope.
Austerity docterines became trendy following the GFC and the release of the Reinhart and Rogoff paper on growth rates and public debt. Unfortunately that paper collapsed and was demonstrated to be ridden with basic errors and ideological bias (after the harm was done and it became trendy already).
In practice austerity helped zero countries and hurt many. Some examples, the UK went through a (predicted) double/tripple dip recession following its national Austerity turn. Only the first dip was attributable to the GFC in any way. Greece lost 20% of its GDP as a result of externally imposed Austerity policies. The forecast which accompanied the policies had been for growth to occur almost immediately. Australia sailed through the GFC but following the successful stimulus took an austerity turn. By 2020 Australias economy had worse unemployment than New Zealand with GDP matching this trend. In late 2019 Japan implemented the latest in a series of sales tax hike induced economic contractions. These are usually short lived due to the obvious causality involved.
If only, Blinglish understood Economics, even a little bit.
There were plenty of economists involved in the austerity drives I described. Including Reinhardt and Rogoff.
Paul Samuelson explained quite clearly why this behaviour is religiously rather than economically justified,
https://larspsyll.wordpress.com/2019/02/08/paul-samuelson-an-economist-in-the-business-of-dishonesty/
This is why the low level of public debt doesn't in any way alter the policy relative to other countries.
Maybe she thinks that centrists might shift back to National on the back of some sensationalised nonscandal petroled on the slow burning election by someone like J Collins assisted by someone like D Garner.
Judging what percentage of centrists are in that band that don't want triflings like a resilient sustainable future to inhibit their jumping on some hysterical righteous bandwagon is the challenge.
Hooton back in the Herald already. No pen-name there of course.
'RaTitanic' would have been good to see.
herald really has no clothes, er ,shame.expect them to disinter boag.
Opining obviously has an easier commute than actually doing.
Nat candidate for Ak Central challenges alleged dirty tactics by other people in her party, including one of the other candidates. https://www.newsroom.co.nz/legal-threats-over-nats-auckland-central-selection
They may as well have put out a skywriter up with "I Give Up"
Strong Team.
A big fragile Ego; she’ll go far in the world.
Good on her for not taking it lying down.
Any more than the drama when Mark Mitchell got to be candidate in Rodney?
[Deleted superfluous text from user name]
Sounds suspiciously similar. Is Lusk a current Nat party member?
[Deleted superfluous text from user name]
Last night a good friend of ours found herself back in Victoria found herself back in another 14 day iso after a possible workplace exposure. She sent us this message:
"Things are going a bit stir crazy around here, this old house has lots of character, but now it's talking to me. I was just having a chat with the microwave and toaster while having a coffee, and they agreed it was getting bad. I didn't mention anything to the washing machine as she always puts her own spin on everything. The fridge is acting cold and distant, but the iron straightened things out nicely. Always finds his own wrinkle on things, no situation is too pressing for a chat.
The vacuum was very unsympathetic, basically said just to suck it up, and the kitchen fan said it was all overblown nonsense. The toilet just looked embarrassed, didn't say anything and came over all flushed, but the door knob told me to get a grip … haha.
I thought maybe I should get some fresh air, but the front door told me I was unhinged, and the living room curtains piped up that, you guessed it, that I should pull myself together. This place is far too crowded and noisy; I need to go somewhere more …. isolated."
We're going to check back with her this morning.
Mate set up a regular Zoom-drinks every 48 hours.
Full lockdown here was pretty bad here and the walls of the study felt really high after a day on perpetual meetings.
The mental health measures are really, really important. It can get desperate.
I was in Melbourne for the first wave and my mental health really did suffer. I am very glad I came back home when I did.
You may not need to – she may have 'zoomed' right into your living room.
She sounds like shes one hell of a laugh. If she isnt a writer she should be.
Good guess.
Shrooms? Sounds like shrooms.
Crusher saying if you want things done Gerry and me get things done.
The bungled houses Gerry built in ChCh $1 billion plus of dodgy repairs cutting Mental Health funding at the time of the Earth quakes.
Collins no cars crushed police funding cut.sacked by Key.
Dodgy deals done dirt cheap.
I've yet to hear but the Brownlee RNZ interview is getting a lot of laughs on Twittersphere.
It was a hoot. Gerry simultaneously argued two contradictory positions on the call for people to have a supply of masks at home:
Apart from the pure idiocy of it, he sounded petulant and irritated about not being in charge – which in his mind is the natural order of things. My partner was going to text something to RNZ about Gerry surely understanding the need for belt and braces – but decided against the body-shaming.
Agree AB…Brownlee seems to sound irritated and pissed-off even when he is making a half-decent point, which isn't often.
It is this vibe that the public will pick up on.
Gerry's like Slater in the ring.
on a donut cushion
He was hurt, deeply hurt, by the suggestion he was scaremongering. He was just relating stuff he'd heard. It was the other lot scaremongering by preparing for bad stuff, and the bad stuff is going to happen because of their shambolicness, mark my words! We're dooomed.
Peter Dunnes take on the Greens and NZFs chances of getting back into parliament, he paints a very negative picture for both.
Interestingly, he leaves out ACT who haven't made the 5% threshold yet as he assumes Remuera is theirs.
He also suggests that Labour would prefer the Greens to not be a partner in Govt, based on historical outcomes.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/the-sadness-of-a-support-partner-as-the-axe-looms
dunne has been to more parties than paris hilton. apparentley he is the new sage on minor parties.
I don't think anyone ever worked out what Peter Dunne ever stood for.
He only ever made up numbers in Parliament to form Govt, it didn't seem to matter which one, as long as he had his snout in the trough.
Not knowing what he stands for (the scourge of synthetics aside), that's the beauty of flexible principles.
Which is by definition, not having any to start with.
He stood for himself. Like so many others in parliament. i hear the pay and perks are very very good and you don't have to achieve a single thing to earn them.
He stood for the buffet. The rest was table service. 🙂
Dunne summed it up when he said, in reference to being with National, Willing buyer, Willing seller.
Dunne was always the seller and he got the best price for him – just like any mercenary.
woodart – nice jibe.
Dunne is a Green hater.
Having once been Labour, by the time he ignominiously gave up at the last election, refusing to contest Ohariu, he was closer to ACT than National in his outlook.
Yes, he never did like increasing taxes, even if they were to fund more public services.
My personal view is that he's IRRELEVANT, he never achieved anything meaningful in all the yrs he sat on the Govt benches
A freeloader, moving from supporting one political party to another with completely different ideologys.
Everyone should re-read fully this account from 2013 before considering the latest sage opinion from Peter Dunne. I can't believe how short people's memories are.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/8769623/Peter-Dunne-resigns-in-spy-leak-fallout.
Chris Trotter asks the right question…but provides no answer.
"Why are the nation’s two largest political parties no longer up to the task of fulfilling one of their principal functions? It was once an axiom of representative government that the primary responsibility for contributing the ideas and programmes advanced by political parties rested with their members. The larger the parties, the more comprehensive and unconstrained its policy debates, the more likely it was that their respective manifestoes would accurately reflect the aspirations of society’s key sectional interests."
https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/106396/chris-trotter-takes-look-lack-policy-offer-two-main-political-parties-september-19
Trotsker disappointed Labour won't at least announce the collectivisation of agriculture on the eve of the election.
Are you a kulak?
Has Trotsker demanded that Labour announce plans to exterminate the kulaks?
Not yet – it's a challenge to phrase it poetically.
Surely Theucydides opined something apposite.
Cathy on Hooton, a good read https://asianinvasion2019.blogspot.com/2020/08/hooton-should-be-benched-for-rest-of.html?m=1
I would normally not touch Odgers with a bargepole but that post is a pretty straight take on his trajectory:
the fact that hooten was able to slide straight back into being a mouthpiece at the herald says alot about heralds ethics and journo standards. would like to know how many suckers actually pay to get past heralds paywall. would think its very few.
It's another reminder that there is little correlation between somebody's high media profile (and self-importance) as a commentator, and their abilities as a staffer/adviser.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who would struggle to name members of the PM's team. Andrew Campbell I think, and a bunch of others like the chief of staff who 99% of voters wouldn't pick in a line-up.
As opposed to Hooton, Janet Wilson and the A Team.
sounds like classic Hooton. Still think the left still underestimates him.
I think the left over-estimates Hooton, if anything.
heck, Hooton overestimates Hooton.
and yet here he is, landing on his feet.
Lol, just seen his NZH piece is taking a whack at Collins.
the headline at least, haven't read it.
The comfy cushion of establishment favouritism. Same one that protected Garrick Tremain for decades.
But now we have some real-world evidence of Hooten's abilities. Even if he has any actual skill at lining his pockets, he couldn't do a damned thig for the nats.
I don't understand why people have been thinking this is about trying to get National to win the election though. Hooton fucked up. Or maybe shit went down we don't know about. Or maybe someone or some people have the long game in mind.
And maybe trying to increase the popularity of a national party under Muller or Collins was always a "stop the sinking" rather than "pump the water out" situation.
But the short tenure suggests that he didn't appreciate some aspect of the job. Maybe it really was the commute. But if National continue at this level in the polls, one might well query what impact Hooten managed to have.
Would totally love the inside story. Maybe someone will write a book, lol.
Is it out of character for Hooton to have fucked up this much?
"But the short tenure suggests that he didn't appreciate some aspect of the job."
Could also be internal politics. Imagine working for the National Party, holy fuck.
re hooten's track record:
dunno. Part of privilege is that your failures are never recognised, while your successes are always assumed.
re: internal politics:
Yeah, but you'd expect a DP alumni to be able to weather it for more than a couple of months. He wasn't born evil yesterday, lol
Hooton resurrecting his career.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/07-08-2020/election-live-august-7-new-face-mask-advice-out-of-the-blue-brownlee/
heh – failure is an orphan, and all that.
Hey if his real client turns out to be Luxon, he's earning every cent so far.
Probably my favourite theory tbh.
Nothing would surprise me anymore. Utter clownshow.
Fair call on the Luxon plan, but wouldn't they want their saboteur throwing the game closer to the election? Doing the job "just good enough" to be in a position to really bugger things up ten days or so out from polling day?
might be harder to achieve without being spotted though. Also, this way Bridges, Muller, and probably Collins are all taken out. Nifty.
Straightest item in a tory's toolbox is the shiv.
Brownlee making a fool of himself again on Morning Report (8m) https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018758380/gerry-brownlee-questions-timing-of-mask-advice-changes
Yes, We're very lucky hes the deputy of leader, shows the depth and Intelligence currently available in the Nat party
The debates are gonna be … illuminating.
It's all on your stance in politics
Lucky we have Joe 😆
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2OZpH8bVcE
New York Attorney General declares war on the NRA
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/us/ny-nra-lawsuit-letitia-james.html
Good luck with that….
I agree CT, best of luck with that.
I actually seriously wish them well, as I think the NRA has turned into an evil institution, but I really can't see them losing any battles anytime soon.
Too entrenched into a lot of Americans way of thinking.
They are a terrorist organisation, problem is that half of the American police are also NRA gun nuts
Strewth! He really is barking mad. What's the matter with the Yanks? They could have removed him on so many grounds including insanity.
A summary of the case against the NRA here:
Now that evidence has come out that NRA leadership bilked its membership for tens of millions, they may start to regret the fact that their membership is heavily armed.
Just saying.
Oh Dear, no policies they cry, well wail on.
There will be lots and lots of policy for the right to moan about for the next nine years or more, because after Labour has won this coming election and has a free hand to rebuild this lovely land that has been crying for years for some love and attention. National only loves the land to be sold to some rich exploiters from yankeeland. So suck it up you right wing commentators haha your truly screwed. Get a proper job or piss off to a country who may agree with you.
Are you saying you don't think knowing policy before voting is important?
There has been policy coming out,there has been clues as to what policy to expect and it is all about rebuilding infrastructure, reinvesting in apprenticeships etc etc, are you just looking for promises.
I think Labour will be avoiding any promises this time, given the last terms ones.
Yeah the media fools and the National party idiots have this problem with lead times and project management.
If you give them a 10 year objective then they will all divide it by 10 and say that you didn’t achieve a first year target. While this is laudable in that they have mastered division on a calculator. However it does point to some issues with their mathematical and business education past primary school.
Just as a quick check – what is your understanding about how you measure progress on decade length infrastructural projects. Just so we know how you’d measure Nationals progress on their roads. Not to mention Bridge’s northland bridges.
It's like planting a tree for fruit. Nothing at all at first, but buying the land, fertilising it, weeding it, digging the holes, then staking, training, pruning, spraying, and then a few fruit and then finally full production in a few year's time.
Then you have to find and train the pickers, house them and pay them a decent wage, treat them properly.
Then there's the transport of the crop, its sale and storage, its marketing and its acceptance by the buying public.
That's a farmer's metaphor so the Nats can understand it.
Speaking of which, the billion trees by 2028 still seems to be well on track.
asking for the plan of the next three years is not 'looking for promises', it is asking the candidate what they plan to do next.
Infrastructre is nice, but when 90% of the last unemployment numbers are women it is meaningless as Infrastructure is a male dominated industry.
So what are the plans for the unemployed women?
Re-investing in apprenticeships is great. Who is going to train these youngsters?, Are they receiving a wage from the company they work for while being apprenticed , or will they have to get a studentloan of sorts in order to pay their living costs while being trained and work for free?
Oh i am asking for details. Gosh Darn it. Don't i know that i should just shut up and vote.
You underestimate women if you think there is no place for women in infrastructure in a modern world where woman can do anything.
The infrastructure programmes are good for those that currently working in the field as it will keep them employed and provide employment for those that are not coming out of the training/study pipeline be they men or women.
But it will do nothing for unemployed people of a certain age where physical work is an issue, nor will it work for all the women who have lost their jobs recently.
So what i am talking about is this current need that can not wait for some women who lost her job to get trained to be available as a hammer hand on a building site.
and i really would like to know what the government has planned for these women other then the kinder gentler same as bullshit at Winz and a life of no income and dependence on welfare or the generosity of a partner.
Why on earth should taking a test be optional and so infrequent (3 weeks) in the border staff situation? I would also support higher pay and reductions in total work hours to lessen the stress on staff as well. There should also be a steady withdrawal of outsourced contracts – we need the best job not the cheapest. The costs of it getting out are far beyond any of this expenditure
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300075002/leaked-covid19-report-warns-border-isolation-and-quarantine-staff-carry-the-highest-risk-of-causing-an-outbreak
Outright racism, unafraid of authority descending on landlord for blatant vilification. This sort of thing has to be stopped.
What could be done is that their is an agency that tenants can opt to be connected to that keeps a record of their tenancies and sets them on a coloured star list based on results of approvals from landlords. Then a landlord can see from their rating level, and have no excuse for refusing people on race or looks or whatever.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/07/m-ori-woman-says-christchurch-landlord-told-her-he-didn-t-want-her-sort-in-his-house.html
Nah, how about an agency that rates landlords? Or better yet, regulates them.
+1
Yes Sacha. A Landlord rating system with Govt inspectors
There are some excellent Landlords who would benefit from such a list. Those who were on the tail would be inspected more often. Good idea.
sacha – Both i think would be excellent. People would be encouraged to be good tenants and say look at my record now let me have this rental. Landlords won't be able to tapdance a flamenco as many do now, there would be no fleet of foot for those rentiers any more.
But tenants already have to provide references. Up to three sometimes four.
A tenant however can not ask for several reference to prove that they landlord/rental manager are decent.
Well Sacha says an agency to rate landlords. That would be good. You are getting into an angry negative mode Sabine. As there isn't much good news around you could find yourself in a spiral.
neither angry nor negative, but i accept that i am not forcibly a people pleaser, nor do i want to be.
But you must not have seen my +1 supporting the idea of the landlord rating agency.
How about just getting rid of private landlords?
Massive government housing that ensures everyone has a place to live.
edit
Yes, fairly simple stuff but adequate, state housing, staaattte housssiing dah de dah, tweedle de dee, what about a house for me, and you, and them, or a flat not too far off the ground. There must be a song about that. I see that the removal of some controls somewhere means that places more than 6 stories can be built. Don't let us see tower blocks please you Council people and politicians. Next thing we are into Grenfell as in London. We have had some officials in NZ look and find the same cladding. Take our eyes off the developers and it will be replaced with something as bad. 6 stories limit eh, with a lift after 3 stories high.
Here is lovely Graham Nash talking about homes and the Crosby – CSNY song 'Our House' –
I’ve just remembered. Talking to someone with a Swiss wife. Some of the apartments over there are interesting – I think might go up to 6 floors with stairs all the way. And the stairway is not blocked off from the flats, one on each floor. As you walk up at the end of their living space you say hello or give a wave and up to the next floor the same. The only one that is entirely private is at the top. They seem to get on okay with that. It’s a new idea to me.
National is one hell of a Problem
When you look back on what the National party has achieved you arrive in nothing but a vacuum.
For it is but a bunker for the Wealthy. A group which does nothing for New Zealand.
It builds its massive money bags, by paying working citizens very low wages. Year after year, after year.
It has continued its behaviour since the 1930's. It has now happily arrived determinedly, at a situation where it builds no Houses for its people.
They have deliberately denied housing. Numerous get it tough. Families sleep in cars and vans. Landlords and Lawyers exert their vicious greed on thousands of NZeders.
Some Good people in cities give and share food – and in rural areas too. Bless them.
The wealthy as usual are in their counting rooms counting out their money,
As we move towards the Year 2020, please remember the foreign banks; the callous Wealthy and the cruel Landlords.
The retched National Party exists only for itself . They are not Kiwis.
They are Kiwis. Greedy kiwis. But Kiwis they are and they get voted in by Kiwis every now and then. Generally when Labour looses the plot and has nothing to offer.
I don't disagree with you on your description of the No Mates Party. But they are Kiwis. They are Kiwi as.
They may be New Zealanders by accident of birth but they have no loyalty to the idea of Aotearoa as a decent, fair, democratic nation. The Nats loyalty is to themselves first, and if that means selling out NZ (public assets, taonga, and people) to the whims of global capitalism, then so be it.
Of course they claim a homey "Kiwi" persona but it's fake. The 0.01% cares nothing for borders or the lives of ordinary people. They are the TransNational party
I thought the emergency housing list has tripled under Labour.
The emergency food grants grown massively.
Forgive me if I am wrong.
But wasn't that people transitioning from sleeping on the streets and in cars, you know, NZ had the highest rate of homelessness per capita in the OECD when the Coalition took office, just another hangover from Key and English.
Not sure on the exact figures, but that's what happens in a pandemic, people lose their incomes and need help.
It's shocking in the USA, there will be massive homeless and hungry people there soon, maybe in the tens of millions. It's awful for them.
The emergency housing numbers and food grants were ballooning before Covid
Where can one find these numbers chris?
I thought people got the funny idea they didn't just have to find a garage or a doorway. Forgive me if I'm mistaken.
Earlier this morning Judith Collins was in the Waikato. Stuff reporter Libby Wilson was there.
Speaking to a farming crowd in the Waikato on Friday, Collins repeatedly said National would scrap the RMA.
It would go “out the back in the old oil drum and it’s going to be burnt”, she said.
Farmers must be sick of being told what to do on their own land, she said, and no-one told her dad he couldn’t chop down a pine tree.
She spoke to a crowd of about 200 in a Waikato agricultural contractor’s shed.
National’s support for farmers was the main thrust of her speech, but she also announced National’s intention to put $20m into more testing for gynaecological cancers, so they can be picked up early.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300076186/live-dr-ashley-bloomfield-answers-questions-on-covid19?cid=app-android
Her 'farmers' are most welcome to keep all their pollution on their own land as well. Righto.
It's the 'on the fly' made up last night policy dropped at the end.
An important announcement to make in a farm shed.
I suppose one of Collins family or friends had gynaelogical? cancer and so that gets priority in the to-do list for Gnats.
Despite us now having a proper evidence-based national cancer agency to decide where funds are best spent.
Being prepared is not a conspiracy theory, after all we are happy as to put together a kit for a natural disaster. 🌋 The kids are happy as to wear a mask, 😷 they think it's cool. It's the grown up's with the issues. Weird huh?
✂️ Use a breathable natural fabric if possible, but not wool it's too itchy, check out your linen cupboard, or get some old cotton shirts from the recycle centre. Soft cotton/hemp blends are fantastic. The tighter the weave of the fabric the better.
🕯️ Not sure of the fibre content, do a flame test, if it melts don't use it, you're looking for a dusty ash.
👚 Instead of elastic to use over the ears, use stretch fabric, it's softer and more comfortable. Cut strips off the bottom of an old t-shirt and stretch it as far as it can go. Make your ear loops adjustable for extra comfort, just slide the loose ends through one well fitting bead. Hair ties for over ear loops can often be too small or tight and uncomfortable.
😷 Masks with pockets for filters (a filter could be a folded up tissue) are more effective. Single layer masks are less effective.
📎 A fitted mask is best, you don't want a gap over the bridge of your nose. Make a casing for the bridge of the nose and insert a piece of wire, like an unfolded paper clip. Use some pliers to curl over the ends of the wire, so you don't get poked in the nose.
🧵 Top stitching might look nice, but, the more sewing holes in the mask the less effective it will be. Try not to top stitch your mask.
Good pattern
Instructions
Creativity
Basic 5 min how to video.
Cinny that is so good of you. Helpful and worthwhile to do as I bought a pack from the pharmacy and for a 5 pack it was $13. For a family the cost mounts up. I am planning to wear and air in sun after so that I can reuse, for a time anyway. Not sure how many wears would be too much.
Sweet as, had a tinker with making face masks during lockdown and am a sewer so thought I'd share my findings.
There are others on the TS who have sewn masks, would love to hear their tips as well.
Greywarshark, I’d wash after every use. Airing in the sun is great and so is hanging them on the line when there is a frost.
Just Is, imagine if NZ grew fibre and manufactured textiles for masks, now that would be awesome. Most textiles come from offshore.
Just made me think of hemp – any time something is mentioned, someone says 'Hemp's good for that'. Though I think it might be a bit scratchy. But if it had enough 'TLC' it could be bearable and bring a smile.
Back then we replaced the rubber bands with elastic or hair ties and used 3 ply paper towels with an extra layer of dried (fragrance free) baby wipes.
Close fitting…to the point that after dong the during lockdown grocery shop at paknspend just about needed O2. As it is with the highly expensive N95 masks.
We removed the elastic for reuse….Spotlight having run out of the stuff very early on.
Going to try the sock mask as well…someone here posted a video a coupe of weeks ago.
Sounds like a wonderful Business Opportunity for enterprising individuals with some time on their hands, we could export them to the rest of the world.
Already has been a good business opportunity, you can by them online from Made Gallery. Raglan NZ https://www.facebook.com/madegalleryraglan/, and various other places and they have been offered since lockdown Level 3. I got a whole bunch for the hairdressers next to me for opening day on Lockdown L2. We looked outstanding in our colorful masks. 🙂
Gloves, Masks and sanitizer by now should be a stable in every household.
added link and disclaimer these are friends who run this little place.
Just use your favourite pair of undies.
Now I really do think people returning home to NZ should have had a negative result test just prior to flying to NZ . "Two people who recently returned from overseas are in managed isolation at their own house in a suburb in South Auckland." ( NZ Herald ) No wonder they are telling us to worry about a second wave hitting our shores.
"She (A spokeswoman for Managed Isolation and Quarantine) acknowledged that such exemptions were given only under strict conditions or compassionate reasons – in this case, a medical reason.
It was allowed when those needing to stay in 14-day managed isolation could not have their health needs met in a hotel."
Can you tell us what the medical situation is? Can you tell us how the way they are being monitored is less strict that in the hotels?
who are you quoting there? A link please.
People are entitled to medical privacy.
What makes you think the monitoring is less?
Here
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12354576
The risks from monitoring and health checks will be higher at a home,then at a managed hotel where such as changing facilities for health staff,clothing being a significant transfer mechanism.
If they have health needs that would otherwise mean going into a shared hospital outpatient setting (eg: regular dialysis) then arranging that to be provided at their home poses much less overall risk.
False negative rate is way too high at that stage, which is why they wait until day 3.
They should still go into quarantine for 2 weeks … but at least it is one way to lower the risk to the people who have to process them once they are in NZ
It gives only false reassurance of lowered risk, so is actually more dangerous than not doing it. Need to trust the public health officials who make these decisions. Deadly serious business.
Yes. The woman who escaped through a fence in Auckland, and the man who went to get beer in Hamilton, and the family that wanted to go to the funeral, had all returned a negative test (in NZ isolation).
An earlier negative test, from another country's health system, would only encourage more to break the rules ("it was negative, so what's the big deal?").
Trotter poses rhetorical question: http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2020/08/does-left-know-how-to-fix-capitalism.html
Yeah, the left do seem to be a constantly shrinking microcosm of the people. Trotter spends a lot of time circumnavigating the problem and very little in an attempt to get to the crux.
Doing what the situation requires takes intellectual endeavour. Leftists prefer to live on trickle-down from capitalists than co-create an alternative system. Trotter fails to explain that bit. He also fails to attempt the task himself.
Few are capable of conceiving and designing innovative social projects, but that's the easier bit. Recruiting others in collaborative teams to make them work is harder.
For the left as a political project, those who seek a better system are ever opposed by those who prefer to use the current system. Teamwork is stymied by this internal schism. Trotter, of course, fails to identify this as crux of the problem…
[Citation needed]
right under the picture on the post linked in Dennis comment.
I mean citation for the claim, not for Trotter's expression of it.
I presume he wrote that in his belief that he doesn't need to cite political science research? Just guessing. I agree it is a worthy topic for political scientists to investigate. They would probably raise the funding question in response…
Fiction is no basis for an argument. Pathetic.
a bit more on the NRA and abuse and theft of Membership fees. It is a very entertaining twitter feed.
https://twitter.com/igorvolsky/status/1291538070366572549
Cancel culture.
"please stop punishing me for my ignorance, please stop telling me to commit suicide"
(read the whole thread for context)
The strip club industry have retained a QC to fight accusations they were associated with the National Party.
A party source told the Herald today: The Auckland Central situation is not our finest hour … this has become a messy affair."