TVNZ scoured the country to find a hard done by granny to go on TV and found one in Huntly.
But reunifying families is not primarily what this is about.
This is a return to BAU.
Imagine Incognito, if you will, that the government instead of spending tens of millions subsidising air travel, the government as major shareholder withdrew all support and shut Air NZ down, and instead had put that eye watering amount of money into setting up a high speed ferry service to compete with the air carriers.
A high speed ferry crossing of the Tasman would take roughly 24 hours, compared to the 3 hours by air. Obviously much longer, but no longer than a transcontinental flight to Europe, which Kiwis quite regularly bear. And if the ticket on the ferry was at half the price of an airfare, it could be quite attractive to many cross Tasman families tourists included. Especially as most high speed ocean crossing ferries of the size and power needed to cross the Tasman come with a roll on cargo deck for cars.
Now imagine even further, if all the laid off Air New Zealand staff and facilities were redeployed to set up and run this service.
If not done now. Eventually this measure, or something very close to it, will have to be done by a future generation. By then, it will be too little too late.
We will never Build Back Better, we will continue to miss opportunities like this to do so. The BAU imperitive is why nothing meaningful will ever be done about climate change, condemning the coming generation to a terrible future
If it is not in the media, it doesn’t exist or is only minor!? So Zen, or so ignorant.
Your comment is just one big ‘imagine this, imagine that’, full of irrelevant reckons, but you dodged the very basic question because it didn’t suit your narrative, that much is clear.
we don't need to go back to Bau – we never left it.
cue the election promise to the national voters taht the labour party was courting.
"No increase in benefits".
The Labour Party is Party of business as usual, they are not the solution they are part of the problem, specifically the current one. It is not that they are incompetent, its that they are so full of their own horsemanure they have started to believe the crap they sprout.
And everyone but them carries the risk, loses their jobs, their businesses and their homes, and they are there and will tell you over and over like a mantra, be nice, be kind, be gentle, and above all don't bother me. Waiting for Labour to do something meaningful is like waiting on National to do something meaningful.
It certainly makes a mockery of the government's 'Gen Less' campaign to reduce consumption. I should walk to the supermarket apparently, so a bunch of woskers can fly into Queenstown.
Nope, you should walk to the supermarket because it is good for you and for the environment. Framing it at as a zero sum game and us vs. them is divisive and counter-productive.
It is us against them – thirty years of neoliberal failure sure as hell wasn't in my interests. We're poor because a bunch of totally fith economist wonks and their enabling politicians chose to make it so – and it's about time those worthless mofos were made to pay for it.
you should walk to the supermarket because it is good for you and for the environment
That depends on the geographical features of where one lives. I bet even you would be thinking twice about walking back with a load of groceries up the hill where I live.
I did not suggest it – it is the recommendation of Genless – because over the course of perhaps ten years, these pedestrian journeys will add up to enough to balance out one foreign tourist flying into Queenstown.
But Stuart, if you are REALLY so concerned about ones impact upon climate change, maybe you should practise what you preach and refrain from internet use? As per the attached article (the science on this is very clear), take just one quote:
The carbon footprint of our gadgets, the internet and the systems supporting them account for about 3.7% of global greenhouse emissions, according to some estimates. It is similar to the amount produced by the airline industry globally,
Hmm, the carbon footprint of Greta Thurnberg must be massive. Trouble is, this is all an inconvenient truth to those who preach how the rest of us should live!
It's just a matter of consistency – an overseas flight typically represents one of the largest carbon expenditures ordinary people undertake, and tourism, unlike grocery shopping, is discretionary. 11% of annual totals was the BBC estimate.
practise what you preach and refrain from internet use
I never advocated anything of the kind – but I'm sure that if you do the quality of discourse will be measurably improved.
Stuart, apologies if it seemed like I was preaching or being a smart****.
I guess my point was that tackling climate change is a very complex thing, and at the end of the day it involves many trade offs. I just get very annoyed with the hypocrisy and populist bs on this matter (not referring to you specifically, but the name 'Greta' does loom large).
Yes, tourism is discretionary, but does it add value to the world? I would have thought international tourism has done wonders for breaking down cultural bigotry and racism for example. China is a classic. 40 years ago the Chinese were largely alien to us and us to them. Has tourism not brought the people closer and broken down many barriers? I would have thought so.
I'm sure the argument can be made – though tourism is a heading covering a lot of different activities, some of which might be better avoided.
If we are serious about climate change, longer term moves to reduce the bigger impacts, like air travel, are very desirable. One of the obvious candidates is transtasman passenger shipping. Ferries like the Busan-Shimonoseki run manage a comfortable though not palatial service that is pretty economical of both cash and carbon.
I am less sanguine about tourism as a vehicle for cultural mixing – more because some kinds of tourism don't do it very much – externally hosted coach tours for example, though lots of genuine interactions occur in more backpacker formats.
I expect the govt. is reluctant to see air travel fall off, because highend perishable exports like crayfish and tyee presently depend upon it. It's a relatively poor reason to preserve a sunset industry like mass air travel, when there are other ways to ship such products, which, properly developed, would open the incalculably large Asian markets to our mussel surplus.
That bit about cutting out short car trips has two sides to it. The image shows someone with a skateboard? If these people want to really be green, they could try walking. Oh but the footpaths are full of people on skateboards going faster than walkers which makes walking stressful even hazardous. The footpaths are not places that you can safely take a quiet stroll.
Males are the biggest user of footpaths on skateboards, bikes, battery powered machines of various kinds. Walking is so last century. Now there are skateboards on person power and soon there will be a condition of assymetrical leg muscles, one riding and the other pushing forward. But the smart person just stands on something and whizzes along the footpath. There are also the bikes some as fast as cars, and without registration, and few controls if any.
So to whom it may concern, stick your great ideas up both your nostrils, and don't come up with great schemes that suit the self-involved pushy males and aggressive females in what is supposed to be a society.
Here is a nice interview with Glenn Greenwald, without doubt the most effective journalist in the world today, discussing his new book "Securing Democracy: My Fight for Press Freedom and Justice in Bolsonaro’s Brazil," and his leading role in dismantling the Bolsonaro govt and freeing the most important Left wing leader in the World Lula da Silva from prison.
His courage in doing this type of journalism just cannot be understated, he is a shining example of what can be done in journalism when it is pursued with integrity and a high social purpose as its moral guide can achieve.
He also discusses the rise of, and destructive power of the woke liberal movement in the West, which as we know has been having an extremely corrosive effect on free discourse, but is proving to be extremely effective in creating divisiveness across all political/social spectrums.
But the buses spewing black soot, as the electrical buses were exchanged against diesel will be allowed.
Are we then enriching the parking company by having to pay astronomical amounts when leaving the car at the city limits or even parking on the city council lots around train stations when coming to Wellington from areas where a bike ride takes days?
The transport system is absolute terrible, it could well be that you are stuck in town when those unreliable buses and trains are something to go by. Better not to go at all.
Why not address the urgent items first. You know the ones we actually need to pass the test of being a civilization and pay rates that have increased by double digits?
I was extremely unhappy with the replacement of the trolley busses without having the next generation of electric busses in place beforehand. This hopefully gets changed within the next years (as well as the car issue, e-scooter issue…).
Didn't know parking in the CBD is free at the moment. So it will move from within the CBD to the CBD fringe. Taking into account a significant portion of cars simply drives through the CBD instead of doing business within the CBD, parking fees doesn't apply to those cars… maybe the introduction of a congestion charge for vehicles driving through the CBD could cover that?
I would also suggest a very frequent inner CBD free public transport, similar to Melbourne, so people don't require a car in the city at all. Some of the freed road space can be used for bicycle / e-scooter etc. to free up the footpaths for pedestrians, for example in Germany e-scooters are not allowed on footpaths.
As far as I can see there are significantly more bike going into the CBD now compared to 10 years ago, especially e-bikes. So many people moved beyond the "car über alles" sentiment we have here in NZ. Public transport will improve when more people are going to use it and public transport is not stuck within car traffic.
I also strongly believe that the road rules have to be properly enforced here, so pedestrians and bike riders can feel safe. And isn't it time to adjust road fines by at least inflation since they were set last time (late 1990s!)?
Coming from a city where you do not need a car at all – true! – with a population size half of NZ, I know that Wellington is so far behind the 8-ball it isn't funny anymore. But we have wasted so much money on stupid things that one could cry. Besides, who wants to live in a place where sewage can be your morning greeting at any minute and your drinking water is being sold rather then flowing through maintained pipes. I do not harbour any hope that this will see any improvement in the next 20-30 years.
I have moved out of Wellington and so glad I did. Perhaps a visit once or twice a year will do me just fine.
you know they are circleing the plughole when one sad entitled git writing about another sad entitled git from the same organisation is a featured headline. the herald is jumping the shark.
Not the best way to get on side with Kiwis – a Taupo boutique lodge manager complains "sorry to say, Kiwis are tight arses, to be honest" (Stuff 8 April page 13). Perhaps Kiwis are happy spending their money at a nice motel, not a hyper expensive boutique lodges, and spending their money also on experiences etc.
also go's on to say that aussies dont stay their much either. hmmm, great business plan ,if you need people to cross the equator, maybe time to lower your prices.it doesnt sound like a sustainable business, long term.
Grant Robertson really seems to be out of touch with reality and not taking advice from treasury etc. So if landlords raise rents, he said tenants should simply look elsewhere like this tenant.
By the sounds of the article she is doing exactly that and selling all five properties. Seems a bit knee jerk to me as the interest deductibility is being phased in not next tax year will only cost a bit more.
It seems to me interest deductibility is an anomaly in the Income Tax Act, so she cannot complain about its removal. However, had depreciation not become non deductible she would probably have been OK. Depreciation is a legitimate expense and, therefor removing its deductibility was, I believe, a mistake. I suspect though that margins in property investment are so low that wiping out depreciation allowances would wipe out profits altogether.
Perhaps it is time to rationalize the situation and make rental property investment tax free, and all the related expenses non deductible.
How can depreciation be a legitimate expense in this case, when property values increase ?? There is, under housing no loss in value. There are rules that the IRD follow to determine what is valid R&M verse capital cost, and R&M is a deductible expense to reduce tax.
I thought the changes to depreciation for housing was necessary.
"Depreciation is an accounting method of allocating the cost of a tangible or physical asset over its useful life or life expectancy. Depreciation represents how much of an asset's value has been used up."
I thought the changes to depreciation for housing was necessary.
It wasn't really necessary. The book value of a property equals original cost less depreciation allowed prior to sale, though depreciation is not applicable to land, only to the house. When a property is sold one would treat any difference between the sale price and the book value of the house as capital gain. After all, what would one do if the property had been sold for less than book value. Would one continue to regard depreciation as non deductible inf that situation.
In the case quoted above depreciation, being a non cash expense, might have helped to ease Ms Goodman's flow problems until the houses were sold had depreciation been deductible – even if there had been an excess depreciation claw back rule in place.
From what I understand plenty are getting out asap as they feel the market is at a peak.
Im no expert but I'm fairly worried that inflationary pressure is going to arrive and the real effects of what is a global slow down masked by printed money will hit hard.
Or Landlords are rushing to change things out of panic.
How long has she had the properties? She is getting a 12 month lead in and a staggered rate over four years, so her reasons for selling up seem political at this stage. The comment regarding double glazing shows there was no contingency fund.
Would selling 1 home pay the interest on the other homes?
At some point a landlord is going to cash up. Blaming the recent changes for not being a landlord is going to far in this case. Maybe just having the 1 home and paying off the interest on the loan could be to much once the tax deduction on interest is cut for some with a big mortgage on an investment property.
Were the sale price on a rental home start to drop will landlords cash up?
Your blaming Grant R for that? Most “business” owners have some compassion and in a case like this wouldn’t evict a terminally ill person. Shame on the landlord. Shame, shame on him
but then Grant boy will never have to go looking elsewhere should his housing costs go up as the Tax payer is paying him such a good wage that this is not one of his concerns. Like his collegues he too is well fed, well heeled, and well housed, and that is what matters.
So yeah, shame to the greedy landlord, and shame to the Finance Minister who obviously has no idea what he is talking about. But then, its on par with what someone else said a few years ago.
"I don't think the issue of someone living in a homeless situation is new – it's been there for a very long period of time. But we are there to provide support as best we can. All I can say to people if somebody is homeless they should go see Winz."
They are virtually the same comments, one in blue one in red, and both just take the piss at the misery of those that finance their lives. The citizens and taxpayers of this country.
You obviously didn't watch the video. Even the tenants were not blaming the landlord. She owns five properties and rents to low income people with pets, so I would say she's actually a pretty reasonable landlord.
Women’s health is being “held together by fax machine,” with Jacinda Ardern’s Government rejecting three years of funding requests to bring New Zealand’s cervical screening programme into the 21st century.
Documents obtained under the Official Information Act reveal the Government has known the nationwide cervical screening programme – that is, cytology testing, or the pap smear test – is not the best way of saving lives since at least May 2016.
Doctors have had the physical ability to carry out a better test, known as the HPV viral DNA test, with at least 15 per cent more effectiveness at detecting cancer and reducing deaths, since 2008.
At least 30 cancers each year could have been prevented with a new programme using this test. A 2019 external review said the risks to women grew greater with each delay. …………………..
The National Cervical Screening Register (NCSR) was built in 1990 to receive results through fax, and doctors still have to call or fax to check on patients. Both the technology and the law currently prohibit GPs from looking up results in a centralised system.
Sources spoken to by Stuff say the ministry’s register is commonly referred to as being “held together by fax machine,” and doctors and district health boards are angry at the programme’s continual delay.
Some DHBs have offered to roll out their own self-testing programmes, recorded on Excel spreadsheets. ………………….
In June 2018, its delay was announced by the ministry’s National Screening Unit director Dr Jane O'Hallahan, who said a “fit-for-purpose IT solution,” was needed.
But sources spoken to by Stuff say attempts to get the programme funded in 2018, 2019 and again in 2020 were rejected, with those close to the process told it was because there was no money left after $197m went into bowel cancer screening.
In early 2018, the ministry told then Associate Minister Julie Anne Genter the new register would take 18 months to develop and implement once it had been funded. It was projected it could be finished by 2021.
It has still not been funded. Sources say projected costs sat between $60-$160m.
good grief. IS this a case of can't or won't?
For people like Kiri who obviously do not like anyone to poke about their business, the ability to perform a self test could have been potentially a deal breaker and rather then undergoing Stage 3 cancer treatment she would have had alternatives that would be less invasive, and lasting.
Robertson also said efforts to get more people to use screening procedures for cervical cancer and HPV were ongoing, but he was non-committal regarding the introduction of self-swabbing tests, which were supposed to be rolled out three years ago.
"I know there is some advice coming through to us on that … and that's all now part of the process that we work through with the budget," he said.
The issue was brought into focus this week with news that Conservation Minister Kiri Allan is battling stage 3 cervical cancer.
Yep, its not that they can't, they simply don't, won't and don't give no dime. Kinder gentler, Yeah, right Labour!
Nope we had no pandemic in 2017 – 2018. The health sector is so underfunded that people will die. And Kiri – who has been open about not liking to go to a OBGYN or a GP for a papsmear could have done it by herself and thus prevented the thousands upon thousands it will now cost in surgery and chemo therapy etc.
And dear Grant still gives no fuck.
It sounds like the Pandemic is to Labour what Helen Clark was to John Key.
Any encouragement to get a cervical test for a cancer or a pre cancer which has a high likely hood of being detected with a do it yourself procedure or the current method used no excuse to not fully fund it.
National are pushing the panic buttons when we need to be patient until we know that vaccines are effective against variants and safe administration is keeping an eye on adverse reactions during administration of vaccines there is no need to rush vaccine roll outs or opening borders.
Especially when countries where vast numbers of people are dying who need the vaccine more urgently reflects on National's selfishness.
Bringing people from the Pacific Islands who could be trapped here vice versa travel opening travel to Pacific islands until they are vaccinated/immunised could devistate indigenous populations who are far more susceptible to c19 as well as not having health systems that barely exist now.NZ 's health system is overloaded now with out an outbreak.
Rory Mac Illroy speaks out about voter suppression in Georgia Lee Travino boycotted the Masters at the height of his career because of the racism at the Masters.
Ah ha. Come in you rich people with great ideas that sound good to greenies, future looking, diversifying, yes you can buy our piece of land to add to your various hideouts around the world. Just get your foot in the door, and NZ will never push you out again, they aren't 'robust' enough (and always looking for a quick buck, don't be fooled by the greenwash.)
I think with cases currently nearing 100 it wont be long until we have to shut down everything again. Then we print some more money and add another 16 billion dollars to the debt mountain. niiice….
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/solar-geoengineering-climate-change_n_605c765dc5b67593e055ff9d …It is, quiteliterally, the stuff of science fiction. But on Thursday the United States inched closer to realizing what, depending on where you fall, could be considered a dream of environmental engineering or a dystopian nightmare: devising a plan to artificially cool the planet if humans fail to cut climate-changing emissions quickly enough.
In a 329-page report, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine outlined its vision for a federal program to study what’s collectively known as solar geoengineering ― a handful of techniques to reflect sunlight back into space or manipulate cloud coverage to temporarily alleviate the effects of pollution-fueled heating.…
Ju-darth's days must be numbered. Dick Prebble the other day, and now National Party embedded journalist, Claire Trevett have both begun the process of leadership change.
If the choice is between Chris Lucks-in and Soimon, or both, as Trevett suggests, then the Nats have a long, long way to go.
They may find she's as hard to be rid of as a cockroach infestation. With no plausible leaders in the offing, and a rank and file so lacking in talent it has room for Smith & Brownlee, the National Party is waiting for Godot – boredom incarnate without the redeeming literary merit.
What i would like to know is if the people that are currently not being allowed to board a plane in India will have some recompensation for their flights, and their booked isolation facilities. Will other people be allowed in on short notice to use the space up? And why are we freaking out because 100 people in isolation have covid. Are we not prepared for that number? Are our hospitals not capable now or are we still worried that our already collapsing health care system would collapse in sight of all and everyone, one year after the closure of the border.
Meh, I feel nothing but pity for the people that shelled out good money to get back here, who waited a month or several for a spot in isolation just to be fobbed of like that.
These are risky times. There’s a global pandemic raging. It is not BAU. Maybe this will act as a warning for wannabe travelers in the Oz-NZ bubble. I feel pity for people who have lost loved ones to Covid-19 but fortunately only 26 so far in NZ.
-are the travelers just to absorb the costs? a wet hand shake? uncertain times?
-will the freed up beds allocated to others who have been on the waiting line?
is our healthcare sector in such bad shape that we close to travelers who have planned this trip for the better part of the last year.
i don't care much about people coming back to the country before full vaccination but these gap stop actions are kind of rude to anyone who has put in the effort of actually getting here. Cause it ain't easy.
As i said, i don't want anyone to come before at least we have had a chances at getting the vaccines to everyone, but i guess that is going to take a bit longer for while. And yes, 2020 was rude for most of us, it helps to keep that in mind when holding awesome powers.
I think that we all have a right to be safe and if it is found that 80% of travelers from a country (any country) are arriving in NZ infected, the NZ population also has the right to say no, you have to be virus free if you come to these shores. If you look at the visitor cards for immigration, any foreign material or organism is not allowed into NZ. A carrier of a virus with such known devastating effect on health, lives and economic impact qualifies. I really don't care who these people are, everybody has a right to have predictable consequences affecting lives avoided at all costs.
I think it is to protect Border workers and quarantine from being swamped. 7×24 in a day might mean 148 in a week, or 296 in a fortnight. That is pushing the envelope. I am pleased they are alert to changes happening overseas. Most airlines are allowing rebooking. This is the new reality. Buyer beware!!
Daily new COVID-19 case numbers in India have surged in the last month (126,315 new cases on 7 April, the highest number ever reported outside the USA). In the last few days the daily new case numbers have been consistently higher than during the mid-Sept peak of India's first wave, and trending sharply upwards.
The travel ban is precautionary – wouldn’t be surprised if it is extended, and of course any disruption and grief it causes is regrettable.
Wouldn't be surprised also if some opposition National party MP pipes up soon and opines that the Government should have put this travel ban in place sooner.
"Wouldn't be surprised also if some opposition National party MP pipes up soon and opines that the Government should have put this travel ban in place sooner."
Gotta say, the opposition are fairly tragic.They make me think of one of the 5000 that were fed with five loaves and two fish that there wasn't a gluten free option.
Daily new covid cases are surging pretty much everywhere as the old variant is being replaced by the new UK variant.
And everyone who got a vaccine so far hopes and prays to any deity that wants to listen that it works.
In the meantime in NZ we still stuck at lockdown mentality cause that is all we got.
So i really hope dear leader will close the borders to Europeans, US America (75% of all cases are now the UK variant) and everywhere else where the virus is on the march again, just to fair. …..and equal, and maybe just to watch that stench of 'racism' and 'panic' of.
Again, a hundered cases in the country, non in our crumbling hospital system and they panic. How bad is our hospital system? Worse then it was before lockdown?
Ardern has just announced that there will be no entry by kiwis from India till the end of the month.
Best to fact-check Chris T's fake news. The travel ban hasn't started yet, and the intention is end the ban on 28 April (although it could be extended if necessary), so initially it’s an 18-day ban, not a 22-day ban (until the end of the month.)
Most NZers will see this as a strategic decision, courtesy of epidemiological analyses, to ensure that our much admired COVID-19 elimination strategy continues to work for the team of nearly five million.
4 pm on 11 April is 3 days on my calendar. You shortened it so much it was grossly misleading but I assume that was entirely unintentional and accidental.
Chris T, imho your sole motive for commenting here is to stir ("This will turn ugly").
You can't count well enough to tell the difference between 22 days ("till the end of the month") and 18 days (11 – 28 April) – why would anyone trust your judgement?
Poor widdle Chris T, earlier in the day he’s been whinging about the PM being too scared and running from tough questions and then our brave PM fronts the country (again) with strong and brave leadership to make an announcement to protect our country. You can't catch a break eh sweetie. She also said the delay will give them time to pass the necessary laws, I assume to cover your fear mongering yadda yadda yadda, but I’m sure you’ll be back here regularly with your Faux outrage and Chicken Little conspiracies.
All your combined comments continue to highlight your outrage my very wise and thoughtful friend. You are quite right I am very simple minded, in fact generally I'm as dumb as a box of rocks, but I know right from wrong and sincere from insincere and that keeps me a very content and happy simpleton.
The man who would be Q is a guy by the name of Ron Watkins. Ron is the son of Jim Watkins, the owner of the imageboard 8chan. They live in the Philipines and have for years. Ron is the administrator of 8kun, the successor to 8chan. Both men have been intimately involved in the spread of QAnon content on boards like 4Chan, 8chan, and 8kun, so much so that for a while the main theory for the identity of Q was one or both of the Watkinses.
The previously camera-shy Watkins — who runs 8kun alongside his father, Jim — has long been the key suspect for the identity of Q. In fact, anybody really paying attention all but knew it.
Oh, I see now, you took 2 days off at the end, not at the beginning, or maybe you did both or would it be pedantic to assume that? Your stirring is starting to waste our time here. Are you going to apologise for that too? I think you should.
I apologise for for not including the time at the beginning.
Now can I please get some apologies from all those that didn't ake into account some travellers from places in India can take over 24 hours and even more if they are travelling by boat, so these places will need to stop people leaving earlier.
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
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David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
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Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
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There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
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The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
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Yay the tourists are back.
Burn a ton of jet fuel to see the melting Tasman glaciers.
As are the happily reuniting families. Got a problem with that too?
TVNZ scoured the country to find a hard done by granny to go on TV and found one in Huntly.
But reunifying families is not primarily what this is about.
This is a return to BAU.
Imagine Incognito, if you will, that the government instead of spending tens of millions subsidising air travel, the government as major shareholder withdrew all support and shut Air NZ down, and instead had put that eye watering amount of money into setting up a high speed ferry service to compete with the air carriers.
A high speed ferry crossing of the Tasman would take roughly 24 hours, compared to the 3 hours by air. Obviously much longer, but no longer than a transcontinental flight to Europe, which Kiwis quite regularly bear. And if the ticket on the ferry was at half the price of an airfare, it could be quite attractive to many cross Tasman families tourists included. Especially as most high speed ocean crossing ferries of the size and power needed to cross the Tasman come with a roll on cargo deck for cars.
Now imagine even further, if all the laid off Air New Zealand staff and facilities were redeployed to set up and run this service.
If not done now. Eventually this measure, or something very close to it, will have to be done by a future generation. By then, it will be too little too late.
We will never Build Back Better, we will continue to miss opportunities like this to do so. The BAU imperitive is why nothing meaningful will ever be done about climate change, condemning the coming generation to a terrible future
If it is not in the media, it doesn’t exist or is only minor!? So Zen, or so ignorant.
Your comment is just one big ‘imagine this, imagine that’, full of irrelevant reckons, but you dodged the very basic question because it didn’t suit your narrative, that much is clear.
we don't need to go back to Bau – we never left it.
cue the election promise to the national voters taht the labour party was courting.
"No increase in benefits".
The Labour Party is Party of business as usual, they are not the solution they are part of the problem, specifically the current one. It is not that they are incompetent, its that they are so full of their own horsemanure they have started to believe the crap they sprout.
And everyone but them carries the risk, loses their jobs, their businesses and their homes, and they are there and will tell you over and over like a mantra, be nice, be kind, be gentle, and above all don't bother me. Waiting for Labour to do something meaningful is like waiting on National to do something meaningful.
Meanwhile Savage is spinning in his grave.
It certainly makes a mockery of the government's 'Gen Less' campaign to reduce consumption. I should walk to the supermarket apparently, so a bunch of woskers can fly into Queenstown.
Nope, you should walk to the supermarket because it is good for you and for the environment. Framing it at as a zero sum game and us vs. them is divisive and counter-productive.
It is us against them – thirty years of neoliberal failure sure as hell wasn't in my interests. We're poor because a bunch of totally fith economist wonks and their enabling politicians chose to make it so – and it's about time those worthless mofos were made to pay for it.
\shrug
That depends on the geographical features of where one lives. I bet even you would be thinking twice about walking back with a load of groceries up the hill where I live.
Clearly, it is an option for Stuart Munro otherwise he would not have suggested it, would he?
I did not suggest it – it is the recommendation of Genless – because over the course of perhaps ten years, these pedestrian journeys will add up to enough to balance out one foreign tourist flying into Queenstown.
Yippee!
But Stuart, if you are REALLY so concerned about ones impact upon climate change, maybe you should practise what you preach and refrain from internet use? As per the attached article (the science on this is very clear), take just one quote:
Hmm, the carbon footprint of Greta Thurnberg must be massive. Trouble is, this is all an inconvenient truth to those who preach how the rest of us should live!
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200305-why-your-internet-habits-are-not-as-clean-as-you-think#:~:text=Those%20scraps%20of%20energy%2C%20and,emissions%2C%20according%20to%20some%20estimates.
It's just a matter of consistency – an overseas flight typically represents one of the largest carbon expenditures ordinary people undertake, and tourism, unlike grocery shopping, is discretionary. 11% of annual totals was the BBC estimate.
practise what you preach and refrain from internet use
I never advocated anything of the kind – but I'm sure that if you do the quality of discourse will be measurably improved.
Stuart, apologies if it seemed like I was preaching or being a smart****.
I guess my point was that tackling climate change is a very complex thing, and at the end of the day it involves many trade offs. I just get very annoyed with the hypocrisy and populist bs on this matter (not referring to you specifically, but the name 'Greta' does loom large).
Yes, tourism is discretionary, but does it add value to the world? I would have thought international tourism has done wonders for breaking down cultural bigotry and racism for example. China is a classic. 40 years ago the Chinese were largely alien to us and us to them. Has tourism not brought the people closer and broken down many barriers? I would have thought so.
I'm sure the argument can be made – though tourism is a heading covering a lot of different activities, some of which might be better avoided.
If we are serious about climate change, longer term moves to reduce the bigger impacts, like air travel, are very desirable. One of the obvious candidates is transtasman passenger shipping. Ferries like the Busan-Shimonoseki run manage a comfortable though not palatial service that is pretty economical of both cash and carbon.
I am less sanguine about tourism as a vehicle for cultural mixing – more because some kinds of tourism don't do it very much – externally hosted coach tours for example, though lots of genuine interactions occur in more backpacker formats.
I expect the govt. is reluctant to see air travel fall off, because highend perishable exports like crayfish and tyee presently depend upon it. It's a relatively poor reason to preserve a sunset industry like mass air travel, when there are other ways to ship such products, which, properly developed, would open the incalculably large Asian markets to our mussel surplus.
Ta
Do you mean this?
https://genless.govt.nz/moving/lower-energy-transport/say-no-to-short-car-trips/
Yes.
Thanks for the tyee link Stuart. I'd missed reports about that. Very interesting.
That bit about cutting out short car trips has two sides to it. The image shows someone with a skateboard? If these people want to really be green, they could try walking. Oh but the footpaths are full of people on skateboards going faster than walkers which makes walking stressful even hazardous. The footpaths are not places that you can safely take a quiet stroll.
Males are the biggest user of footpaths on skateboards, bikes, battery powered machines of various kinds. Walking is so last century. Now there are skateboards on person power and soon there will be a condition of assymetrical leg muscles, one riding and the other pushing forward. But the smart person just stands on something and whizzes along the footpath. There are also the bikes some as fast as cars, and without registration, and few controls if any.
So to whom it may concern, stick your great ideas up both your nostrils, and don't come up with great schemes that suit the self-involved pushy males and aggressive females in what is supposed to be a society.
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change
Here is a nice interview with Glenn Greenwald, without doubt the most effective journalist in the world today, discussing his new book "Securing Democracy: My Fight for Press Freedom and Justice in Bolsonaro’s Brazil," and his leading role in dismantling the Bolsonaro govt and freeing the most important Left wing leader in the World Lula da Silva from prison.
His courage in doing this type of journalism just cannot be understated, he is a shining example of what can be done in journalism when it is pursued with integrity and a high social purpose as its moral guide can achieve.
He also discusses the rise of, and destructive power of the woke liberal movement in the West, which as we know has been having an extremely corrosive effect on free discourse, but is proving to be extremely effective in creating divisiveness across all political/social spectrums.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPiNIxeGZCE&t=3s
Glen Greenwald on Syria
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/glenn-greenwald-revving-us-war-machine-wont-help-syrias-suffering-civilians
Fr out this mental health hiding stats from the normal report thing is looking a bit of a joke.
Andrew Little is getting reamed on the AM show and Garner usually spends most of his interviews with this government sucking up.
I haven't seen so many bullshit excuses from a Minister in a long time.
I’m waiting for something like this for a decade now:
Wellington car-free CBD
Naturally, there will be strong opposition to the plans.
And where exactly is every on supposed to go at the end of the Motorway?
lol you're so close to understanding some of the positive flow-on effects.
But the buses spewing black soot, as the electrical buses were exchanged against diesel will be allowed.
Are we then enriching the parking company by having to pay astronomical amounts when leaving the car at the city limits or even parking on the city council lots around train stations when coming to Wellington from areas where a bike ride takes days?
The transport system is absolute terrible, it could well be that you are stuck in town when those unreliable buses and trains are something to go by. Better not to go at all.
Why not address the urgent items first. You know the ones we actually need to pass the test of being a civilization and pay rates that have increased by double digits?
I was extremely unhappy with the replacement of the trolley busses without having the next generation of electric busses in place beforehand. This hopefully gets changed within the next years (as well as the car issue, e-scooter issue…).
Didn't know parking in the CBD is free at the moment. So it will move from within the CBD to the CBD fringe. Taking into account a significant portion of cars simply drives through the CBD instead of doing business within the CBD, parking fees doesn't apply to those cars… maybe the introduction of a congestion charge for vehicles driving through the CBD could cover that?
I would also suggest a very frequent inner CBD free public transport, similar to Melbourne, so people don't require a car in the city at all. Some of the freed road space can be used for bicycle / e-scooter etc. to free up the footpaths for pedestrians, for example in Germany e-scooters are not allowed on footpaths.
As far as I can see there are significantly more bike going into the CBD now compared to 10 years ago, especially e-bikes. So many people moved beyond the "car über alles" sentiment we have here in NZ. Public transport will improve when more people are going to use it and public transport is not stuck within car traffic.
I also strongly believe that the road rules have to be properly enforced here, so pedestrians and bike riders can feel safe. And isn't it time to adjust road fines by at least inflation since they were set last time (late 1990s!)?
Coming from a city where you do not need a car at all – true! – with a population size half of NZ, I know that Wellington is so far behind the 8-ball it isn't funny anymore. But we have wasted so much money on stupid things that one could cry. Besides, who wants to live in a place where sewage can be your morning greeting at any minute and your drinking water is being sold rather then flowing through maintained pipes. I do not harbour any hope that this will see any improvement in the next 20-30 years.
I have moved out of Wellington and so glad I did. Perhaps a visit once or twice a year will do me just fine.
NZME has Soper writing about Hosk in granny.
The NZ media in a nutshell: manufacture content from within your owned media assets.
Yep just posted on it. Clearly they were after clicks.
you know they are circleing the plughole when one sad entitled git writing about another sad entitled git from the same organisation is a featured headline. the herald is jumping the shark.
Not the best way to get on side with Kiwis – a Taupo boutique lodge manager complains "sorry to say, Kiwis are tight arses, to be honest" (Stuff 8 April page 13). Perhaps Kiwis are happy spending their money at a nice motel, not a hyper expensive boutique lodges, and spending their money also on experiences etc.
it is a very rude way of saying that most Kiwis are broke as. 🙂
Agreed Sabine, made the very comment to "him indoors".
also go's on to say that aussies dont stay their much either. hmmm, great business plan ,if you need people to cross the equator, maybe time to lower your prices.it doesnt sound like a sustainable business, long term.
Grant Robertson really seems to be out of touch with reality and not taking advice from treasury etc. So if landlords raise rents, he said tenants should simply look elsewhere like this tenant.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/04/terminally-ill-woman-winz-families-asked-to-vacate-homes-by-hamilton-landlord-after-government-crackdown-on-property-investors.html
Best Ms Goodwin gets off the pot and gives someone more competent an opportunity to pee.
By the sounds of the article she is doing exactly that and selling all five properties. Seems a bit knee jerk to me as the interest deductibility is being phased in not next tax year will only cost a bit more.
It seems to me interest deductibility is an anomaly in the Income Tax Act, so she cannot complain about its removal. However, had depreciation not become non deductible she would probably have been OK. Depreciation is a legitimate expense and, therefor removing its deductibility was, I believe, a mistake. I suspect though that margins in property investment are so low that wiping out depreciation allowances would wipe out profits altogether.
Perhaps it is time to rationalize the situation and make rental property investment tax free, and all the related expenses non deductible.
How can depreciation be a legitimate expense in this case, when property values increase ?? There is, under housing no loss in value. There are rules that the IRD follow to determine what is valid R&M verse capital cost, and R&M is a deductible expense to reduce tax.
I thought the changes to depreciation for housing was necessary.
"Depreciation is an accounting method of allocating the cost of a tangible or physical asset over its useful life or life expectancy. Depreciation represents how much of an asset's value has been used up."
I thought the changes to depreciation for housing was necessary.
It wasn't really necessary. The book value of a property equals original cost less depreciation allowed prior to sale, though depreciation is not applicable to land, only to the house. When a property is sold one would treat any difference between the sale price and the book value of the house as capital gain. After all, what would one do if the property had been sold for less than book value. Would one continue to regard depreciation as non deductible inf that situation.
In the case quoted above depreciation, being a non cash expense, might have helped to ease Ms Goodman's flow problems until the houses were sold had depreciation been deductible – even if there had been an excess depreciation claw back rule in place.
She owns the houses. She can sell them whenever she likes and can also ask tenants to leave to help with doing that.
It’s been a while since I saw somebody wheel out the ‘pretty legal’ excuse here. Typically, by a simpleton or by a RW stirrer.
A panicking ninny,?
Or a scummy little right wing tool making shit up to try damage the government?
From what I understand plenty are getting out asap as they feel the market is at a peak.
Im no expert but I'm fairly worried that inflationary pressure is going to arrive and the real effects of what is a global slow down masked by printed money will hit hard.
Or Landlords are rushing to change things out of panic.
How long has she had the properties? She is getting a 12 month lead in and a staggered rate over four years, so her reasons for selling up seem political at this stage. The comment regarding double glazing shows there was no contingency fund.
Would selling 1 home pay the interest on the other homes?
At some point a landlord is going to cash up. Blaming the recent changes for not being a landlord is going to far in this case. Maybe just having the 1 home and paying off the interest on the loan could be to much once the tax deduction on interest is cut for some with a big mortgage on an investment property.
Were the sale price on a rental home start to drop will landlords cash up?
Your blaming Grant R for that? Most “business” owners have some compassion and in a case like this wouldn’t evict a terminally ill person. Shame on the landlord. Shame, shame on him
shame on the landlord.
and shame on Grant Robertson to sprout something so profoundly tone deaf and stupid and down right dumb as
but then Grant boy will never have to go looking elsewhere should his housing costs go up as the Tax payer is paying him such a good wage that this is not one of his concerns. Like his collegues he too is well fed, well heeled, and well housed, and that is what matters.
So yeah, shame to the greedy landlord, and shame to the Finance Minister who obviously has no idea what he is talking about. But then, its on par with what someone else said a few years ago.
They are virtually the same comments, one in blue one in red, and both just take the piss at the misery of those that finance their lives. The citizens and taxpayers of this country.
You obviously didn't watch the video. Even the tenants were not blaming the landlord. She owns five properties and rents to low income people with pets, so I would say she's actually a pretty reasonable landlord.
IS there anything this government actually likes to fund? I mean seriously, why is this not funded?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300271227/womens-health-held-together-by-fax-machine-as-ardern-govt-fails-to-fund-modern-hpv-testing
good grief. IS this a case of can't or won't?
For people like Kiri who obviously do not like anyone to poke about their business, the ability to perform a self test could have been potentially a deal breaker and rather then undergoing Stage 3 cancer treatment she would have had alternatives that would be less invasive, and lasting.
yeah, and Grant boy answered the Question, its We Won't.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/woman-battling-cancer-has-to-pay-64k-for-drug-cytoxan-theyre-making-money-out-of-me-dying/LORD6PAJSPWOZKG5RJXOZILSI4/
Yep, its not that they can't, they simply don't, won't and don't give no dime. Kinder gentler, Yeah, right Labour!
They gave an extra 800 000 000 to health.. what have the DHBs done with it? Raised
pay? Hired specialists? Being DHBs your guess is as good as mine.
Could be the little matter of the Pandemic elimination strategy?
Nope we had no pandemic in 2017 – 2018. The health sector is so underfunded that people will die. And Kiri – who has been open about not liking to go to a OBGYN or a GP for a papsmear could have done it by herself and thus prevented the thousands upon thousands it will now cost in surgery and chemo therapy etc.
And dear Grant still gives no fuck.
It sounds like the Pandemic is to Labour what Helen Clark was to John Key.
Is another Cartwright inquiry needed?
Any encouragement to get a cervical test for a cancer or a pre cancer which has a high likely hood of being detected with a do it yourself procedure or the current method used no excuse to not fully fund it.
National are pushing the panic buttons when we need to be patient until we know that vaccines are effective against variants and safe administration is keeping an eye on adverse reactions during administration of vaccines there is no need to rush vaccine roll outs or opening borders.
Especially when countries where vast numbers of people are dying who need the vaccine more urgently reflects on National's selfishness.
Bringing people from the Pacific Islands who could be trapped here vice versa travel opening travel to Pacific islands until they are vaccinated/immunised could devistate indigenous populations who are far more susceptible to c19 as well as not having health systems that barely exist now.NZ 's health system is overloaded now with out an outbreak.
Rory Mac Illroy speaks out about voter suppression in Georgia Lee Travino boycotted the Masters at the height of his career because of the racism at the Masters.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/440003/hollywood-director-james-cameron-s-enviro-farm-turns-to-dairy-cow-grazing
Ah ha. Come in you rich people with great ideas that sound good to greenies, future looking, diversifying, yes you can buy our piece of land to add to your various hideouts around the world. Just get your foot in the door, and NZ will never push you out again, they aren't 'robust' enough (and always looking for a quick buck, don't be fooled by the greenwash.)
My pick is hes tired of topping up his project with his movie money and has decided to be economic he needs to go conventional.
Yes I'll bet he had that up his sleeve. Organic (enviro?) farming isn't exciting enough for a movie man.
Pop
https://twitter.com/minhealthnz/status/1379927454479904769
Oh dear, here we go again. So this is what we learn from the 1pm press conference
1. the border work was not vaccinated
2. they didn’t refuse the vaccine but
3. there were “logistical” issues.
Where have we heard this before? Maybe the PPE saga, the we’re doing weekly tests / no we’re not saga, the MIQ escape saga …
MOH makes the policy,the DHB implements the policy.
Ask the DHB why not.
I think with cases currently nearing 100 it wont be long until we have to shut down everything again. Then we print some more money and add another 16 billion dollars to the debt mountain. niiice….
Paul Crutzen – one of today's great people. Now RIP though – since 28 January 2021.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-29/the-scientist-who-warned-of-ozone-hole-then-named-our-climate-age
https://www.mpg.de/16360356/obituary-paul-j-crutzen –
.
(Max Planck Institute – https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bpplan.html)
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/solar-geoengineering-climate-change_n_605c765dc5b67593e055ff9d
…It is, quite literally, the stuff of science fiction. But on Thursday the United States inched closer to realizing what, depending on where you fall, could be considered a dream of environmental engineering or a dystopian nightmare: devising a plan to artificially cool the planet if humans fail to cut climate-changing emissions quickly enough.
In a 329-page report, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine outlined its vision for a federal program to study what’s collectively known as solar geoengineering ― a handful of techniques to reflect sunlight back into space or manipulate cloud coverage to temporarily alleviate the effects of pollution-fueled heating.…
Ju-darth's days must be numbered. Dick Prebble the other day, and now National Party embedded journalist, Claire Trevett have both begun the process of leadership change.
If the choice is between Chris Lucks-in and Soimon, or both, as Trevett suggests, then the Nats have a long, long way to go.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/claire-trevett-is-a-simon-bridges-christopher-luxon-leadership-ticket-on-the-cards/DSCBWYHFH2CGYCA3ONHAFOMDHE/
They may find she's as hard to be rid of as a cockroach infestation. With no plausible leaders in the offing, and a rank and file so lacking in talent it has room for Smith & Brownlee, the National Party is waiting for Godot – boredom incarnate without the redeeming literary merit.
Ardern has just announced that there will be no entry by kiwis from India till the end of the month.
This will turn ugly
In what way do you mean 'will turn ugly'?
It will start arguments about it being against international law……yadda yadda yadda.
At leat she was at pains to highlight the “temporarily” bit, so may not be that bad.
That and they look a bit stupid given Megan Woods comments the other day when Hamish Walker moaned about Indians going into MIQ down south.
"“I think it’s disgraceful and reprehensible. It’s scaremongering and frankly it’s racist,”"
Lol
You seem to be having a great time!?
What international laws are you talking about? Sounds like you’re making it up as you go, which wouldn’t be the first time. Therefore, I add this:
[link required]
there is a right to return in NZ, but as expected this can be stopped or amended to protect the people here. From AUT here https://news.aut.ac.nz/news/the-legal-rights-of-kiwis-coming-home
What i would like to know is if the people that are currently not being allowed to board a plane in India will have some recompensation for their flights, and their booked isolation facilities. Will other people be allowed in on short notice to use the space up? And why are we freaking out because 100 people in isolation have covid. Are we not prepared for that number? Are our hospitals not capable now or are we still worried that our already collapsing health care system would collapse in sight of all and everyone, one year after the closure of the border.
Meh, I feel nothing but pity for the people that shelled out good money to get back here, who waited a month or several for a spot in isolation just to be fobbed of like that.
These are risky times. There’s a global pandemic raging. It is not BAU. Maybe this will act as a warning for wannabe travelers in the Oz-NZ bubble. I feel pity for people who have lost loved ones to Covid-19 but fortunately only 26 so far in NZ.
the questions raised still stand tho.
-are the travelers just to absorb the costs? a wet hand shake? uncertain times?
-will the freed up beds allocated to others who have been on the waiting line?
i don't care much about people coming back to the country before full vaccination but these gap stop actions are kind of rude to anyone who has put in the effort of actually getting here. Cause it ain't easy.
"-are the travelers just to absorb the costs? a wet hand shake? uncertain times?"
They could start by talking to their travel insurance company.
"-will the freed up beds allocated to others who have been on the waiting line?"
Maybe the beds stay empty and the workers can have a break.
I think it’ll depend on insurance and refund policies of airlines, et cetera.
I’d assume any freed-up empty beds will be put to good use.
The temporary measures are to protect both travellers and MIQ facilities.
Is it considered rude to protect people and others from catching Covid-19? If so, 2020 was the ‘rudest’ year on record.
Nobody has said it is easy!
As i said, i don't want anyone to come before at least we have had a chances at getting the vaccines to everyone, but i guess that is going to take a bit longer for while. And yes, 2020 was rude for most of us, it helps to keep that in mind when holding awesome powers.
Somehow, I don’t think “rude’ is the word you’re looking for.
I think that we all have a right to be safe and if it is found that 80% of travelers from a country (any country) are arriving in NZ infected, the NZ population also has the right to say no, you have to be virus free if you come to these shores. If you look at the visitor cards for immigration, any foreign material or organism is not allowed into NZ. A carrier of a virus with such known devastating effect on health, lives and economic impact qualifies. I really don't care who these people are, everybody has a right to have predictable consequences affecting lives avoided at all costs.
They gave an extra 800 000 000 to health.. what have the DHBs done with it? Raised
pay? Hired specialists? Being DHBs your guess is as good as mine.
Could be the little matter of the Pandemic elimination strategy?
I think it is to protect Border workers and quarantine from being swamped. 7×24 in a day might mean 148 in a week, or 296 in a fortnight. That is pushing the envelope. I am pleased they are alert to changes happening overseas. Most airlines are allowing rebooking. This is the new reality. Buyer beware!!
Daily new COVID-19 case numbers in India have surged in the last month (126,315 new cases on 7 April, the highest number ever reported outside the USA). In the last few days the daily new case numbers have been consistently higher than during the mid-Sept peak of India's first wave, and trending sharply upwards.
The travel ban is precautionary – wouldn’t be surprised if it is extended, and of course any disruption and grief it causes is regrettable.
Wouldn't be surprised also if some opposition National party MP pipes up soon and opines that the Government should have put this travel ban in place sooner.
"Wouldn't be surprised also if some opposition National party MP pipes up soon and opines that the Government should have put this travel ban in place sooner."
Gotta say, the opposition are fairly tragic.They make me think of one of the 5000 that were fed with five loaves and two fish that there wasn't a gluten free option.
Daily new covid cases are surging pretty much everywhere as the old variant is being replaced by the new UK variant.
And everyone who got a vaccine so far hopes and prays to any deity that wants to listen that it works.
In the meantime in NZ we still stuck at lockdown mentality cause that is all we got.
So i really hope dear leader will close the borders to Europeans, US America (75% of all cases are now the UK variant) and everywhere else where the virus is on the march again, just to fair. …..and equal, and maybe just to watch that stench of 'racism' and 'panic' of.
Again, a hundered cases in the country, non in our crumbling hospital system and they panic. How bad is our hospital system? Worse then it was before lockdown?
Please inform yourself before you comment here, thanks.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/124786540/covid19-what-the-numbers-say-about-the-india-travel-ban
Best to fact-check Chris T's fake news. The travel ban hasn't started yet, and the intention is end the ban on 28 April (although it could be extended if necessary), so initially it’s an 18-day ban, not a 22-day ban (until the end of the month.)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/440052/new-zealand-temporarily-suspending-travel-from-india-pm-jacinda-ardern
Collins can only hope.
Most NZers will see this as a strategic decision, courtesy of epidemiological analyses, to ensure that our much admired COVID-19 elimination strategy continues to work for the team of nearly five million.
Oh my god! I shorten it by 2 days to make it easier to write!
4 pm on 11 April is 3 days on my calendar. You shortened it so much it was grossly misleading but I assume that was entirely unintentional and accidental.
Chris T, imho your sole motive for commenting here is to stir ("This will turn ugly").
You can't count well enough to tell the difference between 22 days ("till the end of the month") and 18 days (11 – 28 April) – why would anyone trust your judgement?
Poor widdle Chris T, earlier in the day he’s been whinging about the PM being too scared and running from tough questions and then our brave PM fronts the country (again) with strong and brave leadership to make an announcement to protect our country. You can't catch a break eh sweetie. She also said the delay will give them time to pass the necessary laws, I assume to cover your fear mongering yadda yadda yadda, but I’m sure you’ll be back here regularly with your Faux outrage and Chicken Little conspiracies.
Where have I been outraged over it my simple minded friend?
I agree with doing it.
All your combined comments continue to highlight your outrage my very wise and thoughtful friend. You are quite right I am very simple minded, in fact generally I'm as dumb as a box of rocks, but I know right from wrong and sincere from insincere and that keeps me a very content and happy simpleton.
Just don't mention Greta.
Or the mental health report on here and expect justification for it's "tinkering"
https://twitter.com/Shayan86/status/1378916248063463428
https://www.themarysue.com/did-q-really-out-himself-we-investigate/
https://mashable.com/article/q-identity-revealed-hbo-documentary/
I deeply apologise for any offence I may have caused by saying end of month and not 2 days before the end of the month.
But if we are going to get pedantic about it, some flights from India take 24 hours, so presumably they will stop them going 24 hours before
Oh, I see now, you took 2 days off at the end, not at the beginning, or maybe you did both or would it be pedantic to assume that? Your stirring is starting to waste our time here. Are you going to apologise for that too? I think you should.
Of course.
I apologise for for not including the time at the beginning.
Now can I please get some apologies from all those that didn't ake into account some travellers from places in India can take over 24 hours and even more if they are travelling by boat, so these places will need to stop people leaving earlier.
Thanks in advance
Fact is, people traveling from India are not doing enough to protect New Zealand from Covid.
This is one of the best things JA has done all year. Sends a message.