Do either of these videos present any actual trial results with usefully large numbers of patients? Or are they just talking heads blathering about why ivermectin has theoretical reasons why it should work, and overall it's the hydroxychloroquine false hype all over again?
Ivermectin has been talked about as a potential therapy for Covid since at least April, and I've been keeping an eye out for significant useful trial results. But all I've seen so far have been results from poorly-designed small-sample trials that showed smallish improvements that overhyped the actual benefits achieved.
And no, I'm really not interested in sitting through 30 minutes of video to see if there might be some nuggets in there that could be communicated in a written article that would take no more than a couple of minutes to read.
The drug has been used on numerous Covid 19 patients in a number of different countries around the world with a 100% success rate.
[that’s a claim of fact on a serious matter and as such it needs clear backing up. Please provide that back up with a link, and a quote of the specific words you believe back it up (or a time stamp if it’s a video, but it needs to be *very clear, I don’t want to use my Saturday time chasing this up). Thanks – weka]
Oh really? Where can I find out more information about these miraculous success stories? Because the searches I'm doing using terms such as ivermectin covid trial results are only showing up those flawed small-sampled small-result trials and a lot of apparently unsupported hype.
Really? You found that "once over lightly" news clipping convincing???
I remembered what Ivermectin was, from listening to farming ads on the radio over the past decade or so:
"Invermectin, a tablet used to treat parisitic infections like head lice, scabies, river blindness, strongyloidiasis, trichuriasis, showed effective results on COVID-19 in various studies conducted by various researchers."
thanks. What I see is a single person claiming the 100% cure, but with no other information. Imo this doesn't met a standard to claim "The drug has been used on numerous Covid 19 patients in a number of different countries around the world with a 100% success rate." At best what you could say is "Thomas Barodi is saying that Ivermectin in trials is producing near 100% efficacy, here's the citation for that"
That's the claim of fact you have backed up (that this man said this), and that's all that is needed.
What we don't know is if Barodi is correct, what the facts are that led to his opinion. If he goes on to cite research, my suggestion is that you post that, because most people (myself included) aren't going to watch all that video.
From that I'm disposed to conclude that someone has gained rights to Ivermection, and is trying to expand the range of conditions for which it is prescribed. This inclines me to scepticism – for all that they at least seem to be doing trials, and to a standard that will allow peer review.
In 1987, the manufacturer of ivermectin – Merck & Co., Inc. – declared that it would donate ivermectin free of charge for as long as is needed. This unprecedented donation is administered through the Mectizan Donation Program, which works with ministries of health and other partners to distribute the drug.
It's roughly 60 patients trialling ivermectin versus 56 patients given a hydroxychloroquine regime. These are very small numbers, there was no control, it doesn't appear to be a double-blind trial, some studies suggest that use of hydroxychloroquine in fact increases the risk of death and may otherwise worsen outcomes.
The results hyped as impressive were recovery in 5.93 days and negative PCR test at 8.93 days, versus recovery in 6.99 days, negative PCR test at 9.33 days, and two deaths. That's a very small improvement in outcome, especially considering the possibility that administering hydroxychloroquine in fact worsens outcomes. Let alone the known problems in biased reporting of outcomes in trials that aren’t double-blind.
In terms of a counterview, this piece seems relevant:
The control usually isn't zero treatment, ie just park 'em in a bed and watch what happens. The control group is usually given what is currently the best known practice.
I don't know what that is at the moment, but I haven't heard of things much beyond putting patients on their stomachs, possibly medication against clotting, possibly immune-suppressants against cytokine storms, clearer guidelines on when and how to use ventilators etc.
AFAIK, everything that is directly anti-viral still definitely falls into the experimental unproven category that should be considered a trial and not a proven therapy.
That trial in India would be the basis for a larger RCT surely?
Yes, As stated in the last link. There are currently at least 18 randomized controlled studies now planned or ongoing that have been disclosed to the U.S. government alone.
Not only is this really showing good potential as a cure but it is also being touted as preventative for front-line workers.
However, there are vested interests (see links below) at play here. This would largely make the need for a vaccine null and void.
in the Waitaki electorate, a bloke is standing who quite cheerfully admits he doesn’t know anything about politics, but is keen to give it a go. His name is Daniel Shand and it seems the 37-year-old moved to Cromwell from Whanganui a few months ago.
Shand says he doesn’t have any positions on anything. He’s waiting for people to tell him and if necessary will make up something later because politicians don’t normally do what they say anyway. This is clearly a man who could go far.
Honesty is an unusual ploy for an aspiring politician but it could strike a chord amongst voters who are seeking a refreshing option.
In 2019, he ran for the local council in the Whanganui District, where he promised he'd make "everything better".
Instead of waiting for people to tell him he could look at finding ways to do a referendum of the electorate and then combine the results into a cohesive whole. If he does it well, he really will go far.
Not enough time left but I do agree in principle. If he does the door-knocking and succeeds in establishing a rapport with enough folks, he'll get a sense of the mood of the electorate fairly soon.
A clever person can rapidly synthesise a coherent package of initiatives from the process (after musing on the feedback awhile) as you suggest. I hope he has a partner to consult with about that (males are not known to be adept at emotional intelligence).
Doesn't need to do door knocking – just needs to set up a Loomio group. Still, will need to ensure that only people from the electorate are signed in which I'm pretty sure Loomio will be more than happy to help him with.
Results showed that there was no significant difference between the genders on their total score measuring emotional intelligence, but the genders did tend to differ in emotional self-awareness, interpersonal relationship, self-regard, and empathy with females scoring higher than males.
Well, that makes Iranian culture look good – or at least that tiny portion studying English at uni! I bet that similar research here would establish a "significant difference between the genders" (likewise in Oz, England). Emotional repression in male behaviour was the cultural norm when I was a kid. Showing feelings was unmanly, so boys were disciplined not to.
@ Dennis Frank (2) … living in Cromwell, I am in the Waitaki electorate and thinking of giving Daniel Shand a go. I will suss him out in person listening and hopefully having a chat. However, I'm liking what he's offering already.
With the exception of our current PM, a breath of fresh air is well overdue in our stale political system. Maybe Daniel Shand is the guy to turn the tables on what's there at present.
At age 74 and a Labour/Green voter, I'm not afraid to try something new, if I consider it's (they are) likely to be a progressive asset to NZ and future generations.
I will suss him out in person listening and hopefully having a chat. However, I'm liking what he's offering already. With the exception of our current PM, a breath of fresh air is well overdue in our stale political system. Maybe Daniel Shand is the guy to turn the tables on what's there at present.
Cool, I like your attitude. Folks look askance at anyone aspiring to be populist – understandable due to notable examples being rightist – but someone who genuinely wants to serve and enhance the common good ought to be encouraged.
I sense he's irreverent enough to tread the fine line between cynicism and authenticity, and with a humorous stance he can make that work.
My suggestion is to see if you can challenge his brain in a friendly way – like ask him how to find common ground between parties, for instance – although best if you do your own natural framing. You may already have questions & points of view in mind, but if not your interaction will work better if you head in with one or two…
"His name is Daniel Shand and it seems the 37-year-old moved to Cromwell from Whanganui a few months ago. Pity he didn’t stay in Whanganui – there’s no telling how many votes he might have got there."
Does anyone know why Shand moved from the North to the South island? IDMWALAIM (“I don’t mind where, as long as I’m Mayor“) syndrome?
"I might meet a few new people and maybe a nice girl. So if you're not interested in voting me into Parliament maybe we could go out for a coffee instead."
DMK That reminds me – another polly footloose, Michael Laws moved around being Mayor etc on the basis of looking alert and having plenty to say. So I guess, this other Whanganui guy thinks 'What a lark', get known for being a bozo, and people vote you in as they know what to expect.
…two terms as Mayor of Whanganui (2004-2010), terms as a councillor on Whanganui District Council,
So there is a precedent. More positions, seems to have no trouble beating locals to the tape.
Laws has won several political positions, including two terms as a Member of the New Zealand Parliament for the National Party (1990–96) and New Zealand First (1996),
two terms as Mayor of Whanganui (2004-2010),
terms as a councillor on Whanganui District Council, Napier City Council, and Otago Regional Council, and terms as a member of a district health board.
In Parliament he voted against his party on multiple occasions and defected to the newly founded New Zealand First party, but resigned Parliament the same year following a scandal in which he selected a company part-owned by his wife for a government contract.
Laws currently holds one political position; he is councillor and deputy chair of Otago Regional Council
Laws has also been a media personality, working as a Radio Live morning talkback host and a longstanding The Sunday Star-Times columnist. In these roles, Laws caused controversy, such as calling Governor-GeneralAnand Satyanand a "fat Indian" and comparing him to a comically obese character from Monty Python. Laws resigned all positions in 2014 to take full-time care of his youngest children, after their mother suffered a severe stroke.
The TWG framework was labelled as "useful groundwork for future work on environmental taxes" but IRD officials did raise one concern with the project. This had to do with hypothecation – "the practice of recycling revenue raised from a tax or levy toward a particular earmarked purpose or segregated fund".
"The TWG considered that hypothecation of environmental tax revenue would be useful in the medium term as it can reinforce the intent of the tax, address equity concerns, and enhance transparency. The issue of hypothecation also has close relevance to the idea of a just transition; a transition to a low carbon economy that is fair and supported by the populace," officials wrote.
"It would be useful to have an agreed Government position on when it is appropriate to hypothecate revenues raised from environmental taxes."
Rationalising what is traditionally known as ring-fencing can be better achieved by calling it purpose-driven funding. I agree that the design is sensible, but public relations is usually not achieved via gobbledygook.
Never really bothered to get a handle on the meaning of this "praxis" that's been knocking around here lately.
Feels a bit like the period a few years ago when anyone who'd watched a couple of youtube videos was claiming "autodidactic" learning that made them knowledgable about a field.
Graeme Dobell clocked up quarter of a century as parliamentary journalist & provides a primer on ` How Oz politics works' which seems valid here too…
The best list I’ve seen was written more than 20 years ago by John Kerin, who was a Labor cabinet minister for a decade:
You are always on your own.
Other people will always let you down.
You will inevitably let others down.
In the longer run, the best policies are the best politics, but do not tell the rank and file, the prime minister or the mob.
Policy analysis always beats the divining of chickens’ entrails, opinion polls or the consensus of editorials.
Some of the best policies are carried out by stealth.
The choice between seizing the moment and compromise is always vexed.
‘All political careers end in failure.’ – Enoch Powell
Dunno about policy analysis beating chickens’ entrails or opinion polls – depends on the quality of the analysis, surely?
The game hasn’t changed much, to judge from the laws of politics handed down in 2012 by another former Labor minister, Lindsay Tanner [edited]:
Everyone in politics exaggerates everything all of the time.
It’s vital not to offend anyone who matters.
No one ever complained about consultation when they liked the outcome.
The further from responsibility you are, they more left-wing you become.
There are no options allowed in politics, only announcements: when you publicly speculate about a possible policy approach, the media will treat this as a commitment to implement it.
The most important thing is to look like you’re doing something: actually doing something can be expensive, risky and annoying to other parties.
edit
Add to your comment above DF this advice on how to cope with questions in political life from me; that guy from Whanganui at No.2 who says he doesn't know anything will be set up to go to our simple No.8 wire Parliamentary System (even with MMP which was shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted).
This from DF on 7/8 OM No. 3 gives an example of one of the question diverting approaches that alert pollies can use. Asked by Corin Dann what Labour’s tax and economic policy was, given postal voting would start in just over four weeks, she pointed to the Government’s track record and its current five point plan for Covid-19 recovery, focused on retraining. “That five point plan really is giving a very strong indication of the momentum we want to maintain should we be re-elected. What we’ll be doing over this election period is yes adding some additional aspects, but I would flag to voters not to expect to see large scale manifestos that are a significant departure from what we’re doing,” Ardern said.
On the rich tax the Greens propose. How can it be ? Should I die my partner benefits from life insurance that allows for a mortgage free home in one of Auckland's burbs. Now The Greens believe that now my partner is rich: house $1.5m (yet in another centre the same functioning family house would be only 1/2 the value) so taxed $10k p.a. . Yet with a take home of $40k would entitled to WFF, 1 child at Uni would be entitled to financial assistance because their parent is considered poor and in need of govt assistance. So according to the Greens you can be poor and rich at the same time, and according to the govt the family is surviving on an income $10k less than what they consider liveable. Silly isn't it ??
Barfly is right…it is 1% of net wealth over $1 million.
I love the Green's Wealth Tax-I think they have it balanced well. If implemented it will significantly help to reduce poverty which is its purpose. Finally a party is willing to do this.
Labour will rule it out in the election debate because Labour is a pale shade of progressive.
The CGT is too complicated and will bring in less dollars. A Land Tax has potential.
Individual wealth held in trusts will be included, through a combination of ‘see through’ provisions, general anti-avoidance tax rules and a tax rate of 2% as a backstop for those unwilling to tie a trust’s assets to an individual. If a trust is clearly linked to a particular person as a beneficiary of that trust, the trust’s wealth will count towards that person’s wealth. If it is not clearly linked to anyone(for example, a discretionary trust with a large number of beneficiaries), the trust would get treated as its own person for tax purposes and taxed at 2% on all assets, with no million dollar threshold. This is similar to how trust income is already taxed at the top income tax rate by default–we are carrying this approach over for the wealth tax.
Soltka has answered Gabby. And the treatment of trusts, which I assume is the same for both domestic and overseas (trusts are always a scam) seems excellent to me.
Gabby, Gabby,Gabby…you are asking the wrong questions. You need to ask for all trusts to be included. Naturally, this will fail as every parliamentarian has such a trust and their friends own the foreign ones. So no one will shoot themselves in the foot. Whilst it is possible to put legislation through parliament in record times, this one will take decades, regardless of political hue. Don't hold your breath.
From memory, the policy includes the ability to defer paying the tax until sale of the property. Which means that on a $1.5m property (with a presumably increasing GV/market value), she would be accruing a tax payment of $5,000/yr until she sells. If she is 30 and sells the house at retirement, that's a total cost of $175,000. If she believes in the magic money tree of the growth economy and perpetually increasing house prices, this isn't so bad, she still walks away with shitloads of money when she wants to down size to a smaller house. She could probably even retire earlier than 65.
If that seems unfair, consider that if she lived in Gore instead, her house would be worth more like $200,000.
Also unfair is all the people whose partners die but who never had the ability to take out life insurance, or even save enough to get a mortgage. It's those people the Greens are trying to help, the ones who don't have enough to eat, or enough medical care, or enough lots of things.
If you want to consider unfairness in the political spectrum, I suggest taking a look at TOP's policy and see how it stacks up.
And yes, you can be poor and rich at the same time, as your example shows.
The WT will have the excellent side-effect of helping to bring down Akl property prices because owning a house worth a million will be less desirable-people will gravitate to places with cheaper houses.
From The Green’s website:
Andrew and Leilani have well-paying jobs and live in a jointly-owned, mortgage-free house worth $1.5 million with their kids. They each have around $80,000 in their Kiwisaver accounts and another $140,000 in a joint savings account. They each have a net wealth of $900,000 so are not affected by the new wealth tax.
I'm not so sure about that. If you own a $1.5m house and have a decent salary then the $5k/year can be accounted for in your financial and investment plan.
Andre is arguing that the accrual of the tax is a significant psychological pressure, so maybe that's what would make someone move. But then they buy a house in a cheaper place with their high equity and they just drive up the prices in the new place (this already happens with wealthy people migrating out of Ak to the provinces).
Imo the housing crisis cannot be solved by the market. I don't think it can be solved by building more market houses either. Only thing that will stop it now are either a massive GCF, or active, intentional govt intervention in multiple fronts eg rent control, building shitloads of community housing that sits outside of the housing market.
I'm only suggesting it will be a side-effect of the Wealth Tax.
But if some Aucklanders with average house values (Jan 2020) of $935k move to Dunedin, average house values (Jan 2020) of $515k then this will probably, gradually, change the equation to something like $860k versus $590k which seems like a better outcome to me.
it's only better if you are rich. If you're not it sucks. This is exactly how the Ak housing crisis was exported to the rest of the country. Not the only factor by any means, but cashed up immigrants will always outbid locals and the property market will just keep increasing.
I'm also doubtful that people in Ak selling up will drop prices that much.
Also, community matters. Economically enforced migration kills communities.
Knowing that there are sufficient numbers of buyers and sellers to move housing stock expediently and avoid long market listings sends a strong psychological signal to potential buyers and sellers. It creates a momentum of its own and it seems to me that this has a tendency of keeping prices relatively stable if not going up. It would be interest to track the numbers of sales and sales prices against the number of active licensed realtors.
this makes sense, although I've never understood where everyone's money comes from, some people must have had increasing incomes as well as assets.
I also can't see any significant drop in house prices so long as the middle classes are still making so much money from property. Who would want to give that up?
there are a few contributors that have commented on how the banks “creat” money. From for a simple reason. Time past the banks where able to increase the volume of money that could be loaned out. Those older than 47+ could recall the power of the bank manager and the limits of what you could borrow, and the common need for a 2nd mortgage. It was freed up so that what you could borrow is now “limitless” this with the decline of mortgage rates feom 17% in 1990 to 2.75% currently. But there are numerous other reasons for the availability of debt.😉
Some people have no to little interest in paying off (the) principal. It’s not hard for a bank to agree to the borrower paying interest-only over a five-year period. If the accruing interest is less than accumulating wealth, they win and have a good time as well. Depending on how much ‘business’ you have with one bank, you can easily negotiate a lower interest rate and other more favourable conditions. Ordinary people and wage slaves don’t generally fall in that category and don’t enjoy the special treatments that the better-heeled folks are offered by their banks. Our society and economy in many function to maintain or even increase inequality and it’s all perfectly legal.
Unless govt deals decisively with the flow of cheap (low-interest) money into NZ housing as a privileged investment class, prices will always stay high. Expect banks and their ilk to resist such policy however they can.
Although the banks cannot force people to enter the housing market, they can send their own price signals, e.g. so-called ‘mortgage wars’. We still have a FIRE economy.
Think if you examine it you will find its rather more fundamental than that….mortgage wars are simply a mechanism to obtain/retain market share… they dont determine the size (value) of the market
I mentioned that life insurance would make it mortgage free in this case.
Interesting that the 2% error was pointed out But no one wanted to address that in our situation we are considered to earn inadequate income for a family to live on- but considered rich and worth taxing- All at the same time. IMO the greens show the problem that ALL parties have in very poorly thought out policy, in this case the level that is considered to be wealthy on paper at least.
So our family is a target for living in Auckland, so then sell off all state houses in Auckland and build elsewhere and shift families to these new dwellings. Because as I read comments it is all those beneficiaries fault for being poor in AUCKLAND. They wouldn’t be so poor if they lived elsewhere logic.
Your second paragraph, I don't get what the problem is. Low income people can become *asset rich simply from owning a house and living in an area with a housing boom. This isn't hard to understand. I assume you're not suggesting govt policy deems low income not low income because of that. If you are suggesting that govt policy should not deem the same low income people asset rich, please explain why. I've already addressed how the GP policy takes into account inability to pay yearly.
Your third paragraph I can't make sense of. No-one is saying it's beneficiaries fault. Beneficiaries in NZ are poor everywhere.
Yes, policy has for ages taken into account the likes of retirees in mortgage-free valuable houses but with only superannuation income. Councils have rates deferral programmes for exactly that reason. Not hard.
Perhaps the problem is that the house is 'valued' at $1.5m – some 20 times the average wage. Instead of something reasonable like between 280k and 350k (4 to 5 times the average wage).
Years ago I posted a number of times on this aspect of house prices. In very simple terms:
1. Constrain mortgage security to the 'improved value' of the property only
2. Make all residential land 'leasehold' (instead of paying rates, you'd pay rent to the local council.
These two options eliminate land value speculation. Alternatively:
3. Instead of restricting LVR ratios, impose an upper limit on the loan to a value of about 12 times the imputed rental income
Measures like this would have to be phased in over a period of a decade or so to prevent unjust disruption, but could fundamentally reshape our housing market.
But over the years I’ve also realised there are more factors than simply banking rules involved in our housing crisis; there are many levers that need adjusting if we are to ever get back to historic income to housing cost ratios.
The value of Auckland property has not been helped by the 40,000+ movement of people into Auckland over the last 20 years, promoted by both Labour and National to import GDP and financial success. Inability for construction to keep up and the availability of plentiful and cheap debt. Freedom of movement AND money supply has a cost😉 .
Yes. That's the point of my last para; there are multiple factors involved. Bank rules are only one of them.
It's actually not an easy problem for any govt to solve; although it seems remarkably easy for them to make it worse through careless policy. The law of unintended consequence is writ large on this one.
The government knows, and must have known for decades, that banks create money when they make a loan. Considering the fact that most bank loans are for housing then pushing up house prices will push up the amount of money in circulation and thus increase spending which pushes up GDP.
And when GDP is the measure used by governments to determine if the economy is doing well or not then they're going to push things that push up GDP that they don't have to take responsibility for that also keeps government spending down.
Basically, it could be stupidity based upon today’s failed economic theory.
The value of Auckland property has not been helped by the 40,000+ movement of people into Auckland over the last 20 years, promoted by both Labour and National to import GDP and financial success. Inability for construction to keep up and the availability of plentiful and cheap debt. Freedom of movement AND money supply has a cost😉 .
A question for people to ponder: if it were conclusively shown that getting a nasty cold from known specific strains of cold coronavirus was in fact somewhat protective (say 60%) against getting sick from the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, and none of the vaccines and medicines under current development actually are successful, would you willingly get yourself inoculated with those cold coronaviruses and accept having a nasty cold for a week to get some chance of protection from COVID?
This is analogous to the first effective vaccine centuries ago, when deliberate inoculation with cowpox was done in order to protect from the much nastier smallpox.
Probably would (depending on how good the science was on it). Makes me also think that we may be in for future problems as covid responses drop the number of people getting common colds.
That's may already happening. It could explain why some people get really ill with the new virus, but most people only get a mild non-hospitalised illness or remain totally symptomless.
Recent exposure to a sufficiently similar coronavirus may be allowing the immune system to respond effectively to the novel SARS-COV-2 virus.
How long this lasts and how reliable this mechanism might be are totally open questions, as immunity to the common cold is highly variable and usually short-lived.
Probably not. I've had the flu four times in my life and while the first three I recovered well the last I seem to have some permanent damage almost 7 months later – which is interesting given this is one of the emerging aspects of COVID-19.
I'd much rather have my previously healthy self back.
It's good the Nats and exes are showing the country how they would have handled the pandemic, basically treated it like a night at the casino, so more Hooton, Brownlee, Bennett as far as I'm concerned. Cathy Cactus was basically saying Hooton should have been gagged by Nats coz he will be harmful to their chances, ha!
It looks like Jacinda has let the business people get at her and she is looking to allow in "skilled migrants". Hopefully, this means that the country of origin is going to be vitally important – the USA, Brazil, India are all basket cases, the UK has been getting better but most of Europe is heading towards a second wave as people mix together in summer. Oz has a second peak that is worse then it's first although it's mostly contained in one-two states.
Hopefully, it won't mean we get "dairy workers" from India who take the jobs off NZ share-milkers who have been getting pushed out of the industry. NZ dairy farms that would have been bought out by NZ sharemilkers are going to end up being bought by overseas entities and creating mega farms.
All these industries that needed skilled migrants – why haven't they been training NZers in the interim instead of moaning at the govt for a high risk option. Why hasn't the government been advertising for people to get into these industries citing a "NZ needs you" to work in these areas until the world gets covid under control.
Here is a graph of per capita daily cases/deaths in a range of countries I follow. We are not at any lesser risk from importing cases then any time before…
I too would love to know who these super skilled migrants are that we can't run industries without them. And how long they have been here (only around 10,000 migrants have been here more than 5 years on a mix of visa's apparently) what level of training was done and where and for how long how much did it cost.What wages are being paid. If the answer to all the above questions is largely onshore here or the training time periods are very short or the wages are low – get lost. Oh and providing some job flexibility like part time roles.
Also a number of non farming industries have made up specious justifications in the past pretending they can't access skills when they are just looking for low wage employees.
The government needs to come clean about who they are thinking of letting in and how many other jobs they support. So yes for the disclosure yes to starting training our own and yes for the advertising locally on a broad scale with appropriate places to apply (happy for a small taxpayer dob for this – it has to be cheaper than quarantine). There are likely to be a good number out there who can, but don't know where the need is or who are hanging back (older and waiting for the young ones to go first).
And why do there people get travel priority over say a local business who largely develops stuff here but then needs to go offshore for the final stages. Looking at the Lprents of the world here.
And could the news media please ask these questions.
And also about sharemilking – that was a very interesting comment about it slowly dying.
I don't know if it still is but Indian chefs were a skilled migrant class. What was wanted was that these chefs would work in existing businesses (and probably as slave labour as is done in the liquour industry) but these migrants came in and started their own businesses because Indians prefer that (I wonder why?!!!!). So now there are all these Indian restaurants dotted about – 4 within 1km of my home – which must be barely profitable.
So how is that useful to NZ or to these poor people who have uprooted their lives thinking their was gold at the end of the rainbow.
"None of our staff are on minimum wage and they get meals with every shift, even for a dishwasher … even our kitchen hands would be on around a $50,000 a year salary working full time, but we've had not one single New Zealander apply for a kitchenhand role in several years."
What are the work conditions? Employment agreement? Guaranteed hours? Is she offering a full time job? Set part time hours? All that matters.
Start as a dishwasher, remain a dishwasher and nobody will ever think of hiring you for anything else. That does seem to be the nature of NZ employers.
Changing careers appears to be something they believe nobody can do.
I was a dishwasher for a few years,,hardest job I've ever had, long lulls, then intense pressure, believe it or not the same dishes are recycled all through the night! Then have to clean the chefs mess into the early hours. The waiters, chefs etc all nutters, was fun, but no one, including chefs, last long, the pressure is horrendous.
The ones she has specifically mentioned are film industry people.
"Our film and screen sector is fully operational and in other places in some cases it won't be. There are chances here for us to build innovative sectors because we are fully functioning and so let's use that," she said. ~ Newshrub
Think Big is alive & well! Must've learnt from Muldoon. Oz stockpile somewhere between double & quadruple what went off in Beirut.
The chemical is believed to be the same that exploded in Beirut, killing at least 100 people and injuring more than 4000. Between 6000 to 12,000 tonnes is stored at Orica's Kooragang Island plant in the Port of Newcastle.
Waiting for Guy Fawkes Day, I suppose. Excellent industrial planning & foresight, and exemplary demonstration of how capitalism can provide mass extermination entertainment via lateral thinking…
Ammonium nitrate is a very common industrial chemical and when stored in purpose designed facility and managed properly the track record of accidents is very low.
The existing plant complies with all the current rules and design criteria. If however the community now deems the total hazard to be unacceptable (hazard = probability * exposure * consequence) then it should be the state who pays Orica to move it to a more remote location.
And then ban any other development within a safe radius.
The US Government has warned its citizens to be very cautious about travelling to New Zealand because of our "23 active cases" of Covid-19.
Despite the US recording more than 2 million cases and 160,000 deaths, the government is advising against travelling to New Zealand.
According to the US government's travel advice website, it called for increased caution when travelling here.
It places New Zealand at Level 2 on its travel advisory system, which asks its citizens to "exercise increased caution in New Zealand due to Covid-19".
With that level of reporting its no wonder they're going to hell in a hand-basket.
Apart from the odd exceptional circumstances (eg. the Deep Freeze contingent travelling to Antarctica via Christchurch) that's the point. The border is closed to all foreign nationals so they can't come here anyway.
In summary it’s likely the three critical minor Parties will fight over about 15% of the vote. Deduct another 3% for the other various start-ups and that leaves 82% for National and Labour to scrap over. A conceivable split is Labour 44%, National with 38% and ACT with 6%. Then if the Greens and Winston don’t make the cut it’s a hung Parliament.
He eliminated Muldoon and enabled the Lange govt by pulling 12% of the electorate in '84, so only a fool would discount his nous.
Nevertheless, if one was to bet on the outcome, it’s likely a second term for Labour for a single reason, namely Jacinda’s huge popularity.
Yeah, more likely at this stage. The x factor is the joker in the pack and Labour have it in their hand. Only thing likely to close the gap is how fast the recession hits. If Labour can keep on postponing the job losses, no problem…
I discount his “nous”, completely. Only a fool would pay attention to a fool, whose most recent achievement was suing somebody for defamation, and then giving up because he finally worked out people are legally allowed to insult him.
His predictions are worthless, linking to them is worthless, and you can quote me on that when the election results come in.
Takes one to know one, as they say. 😉 You actually don't really know why he dropped the court case, I suspect – although you could prove me wrong with a quote from him verifying that your assertion is correct.
However, I admire your tacit rejection of the conventional wisdom that a week is a long time in politics, and blind faith that nothing is going to stop a Labour victory in six weeks. Staunch heroic stands provide excellent role models.
Jones is a silly old fool. I'm sure he's only gotten crazier since his hilarious scenery-chewing performance seven years ago on the dreadful and all-but-forgotten TV3 show The Vote….
After the break, Sir Robert Jones is back on the warpath. Having failed against the woman, he sets his sights on the youthful National MP for Tamaki, Simon O’Connor….
SIR ROBERT JONES:[dyspeptic, choking on bile] He’s wearing BROWN SHOES, for God’s sake! AUDIENCE:[uneasily] Ha ha ha ha ha! SIR ROBERT JONES: You’re a thirty-five-year-old octogenarian! If you are the future of the National Party, then—- arrrrrrrggghhh! AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha! SIR ROBERT JONES: This is NONSENSE! The question is ABSURD! [choke, splutter, snarl] Arrrrrrgggghhhh. It’s ABSURD! LINDA CLARK: Pause! Just PAUSE!
Simon O’Connor still presents as Dork Major from Dorksville, but I bet you he no longer wears brown shoes!! Check it out! If I'm right, chalk one up for the canny old bugger… 😆
The problem of shortage of agricultural labour in developed countries is world-wide. Even in St Emilion in Bordeaux with the most expensive wines in the world where the harvest has been successfully bought in for hundreds of years using local labour they now have to use our system of contracted short term offshore labour and itinerant travellers and backpackers. The reason why is that the young locals have moved into HR, IT and WHY in the larger centres because it is sexier than being an agricultural worker.
Employers here know that even when a reasonable wage is offered for an unskilled starting job getting some young Kiwis even out of bed and staying on the job is almost impossible.
Before you start on shit pay, over the fence from me there is a 65 yr old Chinese immigrant grandmother on a family Reunification visa earning over 1500 bucks a week tying down grape vines. No PhD required.
The reason why is that the young locals have moved into HR, IT and WHY in the larger centres because it is sexier than being an agricultural worker.
Well, according to neo-liberal mantra, all they have to do get the workers is to pay more and local workers will be flocking to work for them.
/sarc
You'll note that the response by the brewers, despite being the most expensive wines in the world and with probably the biggest profits as well, is to bring in cheap workers from offshore. This results in lower local wages across the board and thus higher profits.
And, yeah, at the end of the day being an agricultural worker is neither interesting nor glamorous.
Employers here know that even when a reasonable wage is offered for an unskilled starting job getting some young Kiwis even out of bed and staying on the job is almost impossible.
Are you sure that its a reasonable wage?
Many, especially farm workers, are contractors and that fine sounding contract amount sounds good – until expenses, taxes and time are taken into account. Once they are then the actual amount is sub minimum wage. IIRC, Its why the last National government had to change the law for farm workers. The rules, as they were, were turning most farmers into criminals because they were consistently paying below minimum wage.
Before you start on shit pay, over the fence from me there is a 65 yr old Chinese immigrant grandmother on a family Reunification visa earning over 1500 bucks a week tying down grape vines.
Yeah, but who in their right mind actually wants that job? Its not going to help them get a better job and its got a high probability of being physically damaging. It is, quite simply, the type of job that needs to be automated ASAP.
After the orchardists have spent the last 15 years telling New Zealanders how fucking useless they are in order to justify more and more captive overseas workers why on earth would anyone in New Zealand who isn't a capitalist who thinks people are a commodity see them as an attractive employer now that they are in a self dug hole.
Wonder which orchardists were using the slaver over the way in Hawkes Bay? Paying cash they were for quite a number of years with not a care in the world – pity they were not named in the court case. Wonder how much money the orchardists get back off the wage bills they pay from the overseas workers for charging them for accommodation and food – bet that runs into a net gain of millions of dollars a season. Four to a room in bunk beds – good little cost saving on your wage bill. Can't get that back from the New Zealanders.
Agriculturalists of all people should know that you reap what you sow.
If she's earning 1500 a week she must be on piece meal, going like the clappers, breaking many of the runners, not tying securely. And you know that that job will only last a few more weeks and she wont get a job in the vineyard again til next winter as I guess picking is done by machine.
In the event that the job is done by a young kiwi who could be bothered getting out of bed, what does she/he do when the work's finished?
This is actually the correct pronunciation. Most Americans say it wrong. Thailand is pronounced phonetically. It’s “Thighland,” not “Tai-land.” https://t.co/kiQI7FveEM
In England, Australia and India it is pronounced “Thighland” and guess who invented the English language?
Never heard it pronounced as 'thighland' until Trump confirmed he can't read and speak coherently at the same time.
As for who invented the English language, a true bastard language, take a bow Angles, Saxons, Jutes, French, the need for new words arising from the industrial revolution and an empire that spanned a quarter of the globe.
Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.
Sorry, but that collection of language inventors sound horribly like a group of societies.
When Maggie Thatcher claimed that, "There is no such thing as society, " I actually wanted to ask her directly at the time: "Who created the English language then? Please name the individuals.." She would, I believe, have had to describe a society without being able to use that word because of her previous idiotic assertion.
they are indeed. And there's a case to be made for offering such work to people from countries that need income. But, we're heading for a high unemployment rate, so bringing in workers for jobs we can train for quickly doesn't make sense. The issue is still about businesses not paying good wages and offering good conditions. Now would be the time to sort that out once and for all.
Had a lovely catch up with Mr and Mrs 80+ next door. Crikey they loathe crusher and gerry. I think they invited me over just for a vent, I walked back home giggling away.
Mrs 80+ chooses who to vote for by who she thinks would be good to live with and it aint gerry and judith lololz.
Mr 80+ is full of praise for Chris Hipkins and thinks he would make a great deputy PM.
Mental health – I have been told that talking therapy is the most useful but is too costly so pills are dished out instead. I have also been told by a nurse that psychiatrists tend to go direct to pills, and none or little training is given to Jungian-type analysis, looking into reasons for stressed minds.
This Friendship Bench approach would be very helpful to people under stress and trying to battle with it, and the lack of help that results from a tight-minded, tight-purse and inhuman economy-based society. I think this is the way to go while we also try to improve on present support in NZ from medical people and the government.
So how can you help those in need if conventional medical care is not available? By utilising a large natural resource: grandmothers!
Professor Chibanda has recruited and trained hundreds of them to talk to people about their problems on 'friendship benches'. They have helped about 70,000 people already and scientific studies suggest the technique works.
Beautiful. Could we get John Key and Rob Fyfe out of the news by sticking them on Friendship Benches? We could tell them it was a Board Directorship or something. Or would they just berate people for their bad life choices and for being insufficiently asprayshunal?
Sounds good AB – we need some people of stature to tell us to pull ourselves up by our bootlaces. Berating by people who are respected can do amazing things. I remember the story of the Brit Colonel in hospital who saw one of his previous squad supposed to be dying and told him off. Smarten up and get your hair cut he addressed him, I'll be checking on you. Captain Robert Wintle it was who saved the guy who remained with him as his personal assistant for the rest of his life.
The situation is that we are not now in the economic situation that we were when old age pensions were introduced similar to now.
We are living longer, requiring more state help to do so, and it is not the short time of relaxation before we pop off after retirement age that it was.
We have to pull together now in a way we have not done for many decades. There has to be input into the welfare state by everyone to keep it going – not different strata with the over 65s doing nothing if they wish, and watching younger ones go to the wall.
Older people's wisdom and skills are needed and everyone should be putting a little into the community if they are receiving some benefit, and most are – Gold Card etc with trips to Waiheke island and other joys of retirement for instance.
The old have become a class of their own, and get treated differently. There is a tendency to cosset old people who are doing fine, and offer them special advantages which can be more needed by young parents. The papers are full of brochures for retirement homes with well-dressed attractive white haired people laughing in their attractive homes. There is a pervasive picture of the old as wealthy and carefree, or as rather dim and helpless with younger carers smiling around them looking after their needs. Most old people who haven't got dementia could do some helpful task, mentoring, passing on skills; they are not helpless but can be very self-centred. It seems to them that they deserve to be paid a pension and do nothing for the society that supports them, simply because of their age which they are always trying to extend.
The conditions that old age pensioners expect must be a stark contrast for young people worrying about mould and damp and rising rents and food for the family and the children's coughs. Eventually they are going to think that the old don't care about them, and cease to have respect for old people. I notice my children are beginning to do that to me, and I have heard the same from other older people.
This situation is not widely acknowledged. It is a mixed up situation where the old don't take a proper part in society which in turn then tends to treat the old as children. Which then can turn into 'learned helplessness' a term that neolib social policy regards as a slippery slide into costly welfare dependency by solo parents and which they react strongly against. I think that retired people are going to feel the callous side of officials with budgets in decreasing amounts and would do well to look at becoming part of a participatory society and government before further harsh social welfare cuts and dispositions are introduced by the charity brokers.
I see it the other way – we just need to shift the way we tax and the things we invest in to lift productivity.
The original thinking was to invest in people when they were young – free education, universal family benefit, etc and for them to repay that investment in their education and taxes when they were older and at their peak earnings in their careers.
We did the first bit well and then stopped doing the second bit as they reached their peak earnings, which then meant we stopped also doing the first. We then exacerbated the situation through tax cuts and investing in population growth, tourism, overseas students o log exporting which were low cost, low productivity, low profit, enterprises.
Re-jigging is needed for sure – taxing the higher income people more – including NZS people who work, just put stamp duty/sales tax tax on houses – much cheaper and easier to administer than all the asset testing being talked about, reduce cheap tourism that doesn't add value more than the socialised cost and so on but leave NZS alone – changing it will just cause further problems down the track. Your picture of well-off old people isn't true for lots of the population and there has been enough divide and conquer around welfare in this country. I'd argue lift the tax for those who work and get NZS and lower the age back to 60 so in fact poorer old people, and Maori in particular, can be freed up to participate in their community and be more involved in their families before they are too unwell. 60 was fine not that long ago to retire. Free up jobs for younger people. Put a compulsory retiring age at super age back into the public sector would be another good step.
All those changes like increasing the age that get suggested just has a detrimental effect on the poor – just like Labor removing including spouses in super this year. They just condemned a whole group of society on low incomes and no savings to live off at a minimum $140-00 per week less until the partner reaches 65. That ain't going to help them or society. Makes zero difference to the well off.
Party vote numbers make the headlines, but there's as much value (if not more) in the underlying trend of right/wrong track. It tells us if there is any mood for change out there:
You think? I read the Newshub live stream a while back & couldn't find anything worth reporting here. She did announce a new policy, according to the reporter, but it seemed like mere continuance of established initiatives, so no difference from coalition achievement that I could discern. But I'm not the target market, so let's hear from the converted that she was preaching to…
Would've been, had she equated that with neoliberalism. But of course she's no doubt figured out long ago that the word has too many syllables for the younger generations. And, to be fair, most older voters, if you quizzed them, would no doubt claim to have heard of it whilst also admitting that they couldn't tell you what it actually is. Life's a bitch, then you die…
Sorry but I find it odd that you, the forum's eminent centrist, is now all of a sudden critical of neoliberalism and the status quo.
I don't particularly enjoy the Labour Party moving to the centre, in fact I am on record as despising the Kiwibuild effort, and the capitulation on CGT, but I also recognise the need to win elections and to do that you need to convince a significant number of greedy right wing people to join you.
Yes, stealing Nat voters does work. Similar principle applied when the prior Greens co-leaders stole more than 5% of the electorate from Labour until Jacinda pulled them back in.
Re "all of a sudden critical of neoliberalism and the status quo", you seem not to have noticed the several dozen times I've criticised both since I began to comment here five years ago. I thought neoliberalism was a joke when the Rogernomes got started and the status quo unacceptable since I became a teenage rebel post-adolescence 1964. Do I need to explain radical centrism??
As I suspected, you do need to discover the difference: centrists are happy with the status quo, whereas radical centrists prefer to try and catalyse a better world.
I get that folks like you & Sacha prefer to avoid history, but there's a good reason that their wiki has 229 references: lotsa folk have been working in that category for a long time. Earliest one there was 1969, so the page compilers are seemingly unaware of the book Beyond Left and Right, published in '68, year of the origin of the Green movement.
Radicals in that era knew the left & right were both parts of the establishment. That's why the riots at the Democrats convention in '68 were a mass youth rebellion against LBJ. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Seven
I strongly believe we need more gender balance in our clichés. Dennis seems to think that there are only two types of commenters here: binary and non-binary thinkers. I’ll prove him wrong by transcending his binary thinking into a radical balance in the middle (‘centre’ is too loaded a word and a misunderstood concept that conjures confusion and intellectual constipation). In other words, life is a bitch that shortens your willy, then you die. I’m working on a synthesis with ‘life sucks, then you die’, but that might take another few years; that epitaph will read like a tweet.
My mum has more balls than Wimbledon and St Andrews combined, and life as a bitch, which is a bad thing I said I'd jump on yesterday, is still no match for her immense cockerny sensibilities.
But as everyone knows, size doesn't matter, until it really does. 😆
I can remember when National would announce their party list with razmattaz, parading new candidates in front of the media, with much fanfare, probably playing a bit of Eminem in the background.
Now it's Collins and Goodfellow doing a drab announcement in a drab room, timed to coincide with Labour's launch, as if they want to avoid any more damaging headlines. It's working, nobody cares.
Speaking to my Chinese friends whose parents are well conditioned to the CCP model of "vote for whomever's in power" that their parents are voting Labour this year after voting National for the past 3 elections because "Labour is the power"
I wouldn't be surprised if such thinking is endemic in Botany which does have a higher than average proportion of Asian voters. You may find that Luxon and Ross will split the right vote, allowing the Labour candidate to squeak through the middle.
2020 seems to have thrown out the rulebook, so who knows.
Yeah probably (and was no doubt anticipated) but also pretty meaningless. This time round Labour doesn’t really need the airtime the campaign launch can provide that much. The whole country is listening to every word a Labour PM says on a daily basis.
(Reuters) – The last fully intact ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic has collapsed, losing more than 40% of its area in just two days at the end of July, researchers said on Thursday.
The Milne Ice Shelf is at the fringe of Ellesmere Island, in the sparsely populated northern Canadian territory of Nunavut.
“Above normal air temperatures, offshore winds and open water in front of the ice shelf are all part of the recipe for ice shelf break up,” the Canadian Ice Service said on Twitter when it announced the loss on Sunday.
I watched the Labour campaign launch. Very proud of our PM. All the journalists were well mannered and listened intently to the after meet. The questions were about covid problems and announced policy.
Our PM is not too proud to use systems developed by earlier Governments if they are successful in helping people.
Nobody mentioned J Collins and her list. Malpass and Vance probably covered that.
Watch Chlöe Swarbrick and Nick Smith MP go head to head over recreational cannabis in our second election debate of 2020. Newshub Nation | Three | NZ On Air
Kiwi scientists tracking the origins of Covid-19 in New Zealand found most cases leading to infections came from North America, rather than Asia, where the virus first emerged.
Yeah went years ago when Big Red was there and again recently.
Would have to say it had gone backwards since my earlier visit and that assessment was before I knew it was up for sale. Was a joy to see the first time and somewhat sad the second. Between health issues, longevity, financial difficulty etc it needed an injection of replenishment. Having been to Zealandia this year it was a complete contrast. I don't mean any disrespect by what I said – the owners have done a really good job for many years and they were still absolutely lovely. It was just getting tougher for them.
Didn't do the glow-worm cave the second time. That was cool first time – even just the story behind it. Don't know if that was part of the sale.
Some areas with flooding will have to have some playground Arks, on props and when it floods, people row there and have a place to be moored safely somewhere till the water goes down. That would be good for places with little high ground.
He allowed himself to be placed in a risky AF medically induced coma to overcome his benzodiazepam habit rather than opting for the usual treatment requiring patients to confront the mental health issues behind addiction.
The controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson has contracted COVID-19, his daughter told the Sun, a tabloid newspaper in the United Kingdom.
“He’ll get better, but he’s definitely taken a step back and it’s just really unfortunate … it’s been a disaster,” Mikhaila Peterson told the newspaper.
[…]
At the time the elder Peterson was flown out of country for treatment, Mikhaila Peterson told the National Post father was put in a medically induced coma because Russian doctors have “the guts to medically detox someone from benzodiazepines.”
Mikhaila Peterson said her dad caught COVID-19 in a Serbian hospital, where he’d been recovering from treatment, and had also caught pneumonia.
JBP developed a physiological dependency to BZP, and claims it was prescribed incorrectly to deal with his anxiety. Revealing interview with his daughter here
In case anyone is still wondering what are these essential jobs that we need to open the border for one news has just advised:
Au pairs FFS. At the best of times this has always smacked of exploitation of young women for minimal income. But if your job is so important and high paid then hire somebody on a proper wage and treat them right. It can be done successfully.
And is it just my impression that most of the statements " kiwi's won't do these jobs" are delivered by those who have lived in a society with a lot of class structure and those at the bottom are expected to "know their place".
Woman wanting entry for an au pair that had been organised so they could spend more time in their businesses. Not that I will go near them.
Yes it is used for travel but so is working in pubs. Pubs pay so why should young women & childcare be exploited. Like unpaid internships it's an idea long past it's use by date and employment laws should insist it's paid properly or ditched.
WASHINGTON—A small U.S. company with ties to the U.S. defense and intelligence communities has embedded its software in numerous mobile apps, allowing it to track the movements of hundreds of millions of mobile phones world-wide, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Anomaly Six LLC a Virginia-based company founded by two U.S. military veterans with a background in intelligence, said in marketing material it is able to draw location data from more than 500 mobile applications, in part through its own software development kit, or SDK, that is embedded directly in some of the apps. An SDK allows the company to obtain the phone’s location if consumers have allowed the app containing the software to access the phone’s GPS coordinates
The incident, when empty, sounds like carelessness by the ship administration. Perhaps it was on auto-pilot!
Refresh on Rena incident off East Coast, NZ 2011. https://www.maritimenz.govt.nz/public/environment/responding-to-spills/spill-response-case-studies/rena.asp Early in the morning of 5 October 2011, the cargo vessel Rena struck Astrolabe Reef 12 nautical miles off Tauranga and grounded. The 21-year-old 236-metre Liberian-flagged cargo vessel was en route from Napier to Tauranga and travelling at around 21 knots when it struck. Its bow section was wedged on the reef, and its stern section was afloat. Two of its cargo holds flooded and several breaches were identified in the hull. There was 25 crew on board Rena at the time of the grounding.
Aftermath of Rena Oil Spill – public response largely saved the day. https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/71503076/rena-disaster-huge-but-environmental-effects-not-long-lasting A string of researchers gave presentatations on aspects of the Rena disaster to the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry's Australasia conference at the Rutherford Hotel. They concluded the area had a lucky escape, partly because of the huge public involvement in the clean-up. Lead presenter, Waikato University professor Chris Battershill, who holds the inaugural Bay of Plenty Regional Council chair in coastal science, said 8000 volunteers collected 1000 tonnes of oily waste from the Bay of Plenty coastline, "at the time the largest volunteer army every deployed" in an environmental clean-up.
They might be better to call on the services of India – perhaps with French financing. The west coast ports are not so far away, and have heavy oil handling and ship breaking expertise. Bad weather would hamper anything more than travel however.
But a new Q+A/Colmar Brunton poll suggests Jones is coming in a distant-third behind the incumbent National MP Matt King and Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime.
The poll has King on 46 per cent support for the seat vote, Prime on 31 per cent, and Jones at 15 per cent.
Labour was ahead in the party vote within the electorate at 41 per cent, with National not far behind at 38 per cent, ACT next at 8 per cent, and NZ First at 7 per cent.
At the last election in Northland the party vote was convincingly won by National, with 46 per cent support to Labour’s 30 per cent.
The poll was conducted between July 29 and August 4, with 503 eligible voters polled over landlines and online.
Basically, there isn't that much of a difference from the last election. Matt King appears to be a good solid local MP without the personal baggage that Mike Sabin carried with him. About the only thing that has been notable about him is that he is a dangerously naive scientific illiterate fool. But hey, we put up with all kinds of idiots running on faith in NZ. If he is stupid but isn't actively dangerous to others, then we tend to give them a free pass.
It makes it hard for Willow Jean Prime to overtake with the peculiar social strata of Northland – the place that time forgot in NZ.
But I have to say that this kind of result is exactly what I have come to expect from Shane Jones over the last few decades. Great promise. Poor delivery. And also idiotic screw ups on the way. For instance, I suspect that this one will be one of those.
The Government’s Provincial Growth Fund has been savaged by the auditor-general for a lack of transparency, lacklustre conflict management and operating a “fund within a fund”.
The auditor-general, Parliament’s financial watchdog, was specifically critical of a $30 million spend, authorised by Cabinet for “manifesto commitments to the regions”.
That funding was approved soon after the fund was established and soon grew to $85m. The auditor-general queried why certain projects were funded from this specific pot of money.
“It was not always clear from the documentation why certain projects were considered for funding from this part of the fund,” they said.
The report went on to say “it was difficult to find evidence of how projects had fully met the normal criteria for the fund” and that, in effect, the “manifesto commitments” pot was “operating as a fund within a fund”.
Tonight, The Civilian will be live-blogging the first of too many debates between Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and National Party leader Judith Collins, and also the last fifteen minutes of the news. Be sure to tune in from 6:45pm for regular updates, which can be accessed by refreshing this page ...
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Social Distancing Be Damned - It's Jacinda! Shortly after ascending to Labour’s leadership, Jacinda described herself as a “pragmatic idealist”. It was an inspired oxymoron – packing into just two words the essence of the social-democrat’s dilemma. It was good to know that she knew what lay ahead of her. ...
For the past decade, Australia has had a racist, anti-refugee policy. Those claiming refugee status are imprisoned without trial and left to rot in the hope they would "voluntarily" return to be tortured and murdered. When the courts have granted them visas, the government has immediately revoked them on racial ...
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Last week, major newspapers carried a full-page ad as part of the campaign for a "No" vote to the referendum question about supporting the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill. The ad was authorised by the SAM NZ Coalition, which takes its name from a controversial American anti-cannabis group and includes ...
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by Ani O’Brien In the absence of a better word with which to refer to the rabid activists who claim progressivism while demanding adherence to an increasingly prescriptive set of political beliefs, I call them “woke”. With its roots in Black American slang, the term originally denoted a person or ...
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Who's causing our skyrocketing emissions? As with most of our other problems, It's the rich: The wealthiest 1% of the world’s population were responsible for the emission of more than twice as much carbon dioxide as the poorer half of the world from 1990 to 2015, according to new ...
The border closure and resulting lack of foreign slave-workers is driving the fishing industry out of business: One fishing company is effectively out of business while others are bracing for large financial hits as the deepwater New Zealand industry, unable to get skilled foreign workers into the country, have ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... The tipping points at the heart of the climate crisisMany parts of the Earth’s climate system have been destabilised by ...
In the absence of national public opinion polls, we have had to make do in recent weeks with other guides to voter intentions. Those guides, such as the Auckland Central poll, the incidence of google enquiries and the responses to Vote Compass questions, have suggested, not unexpectedly, that Labour is ...
Crusher Collins - National Party leaderWe all know that the National Party is desperate to gain some traction during this election campaign and have been throwing pretty much everything at the Labour Party in order to try and undermine Jacinda Ardern and what the Coalition Government has achieved. But unfortunately ...
Much of the commentariat’s reporting of the most recent GDP figure was misleading and unhelpful. The prize for the stupidest remark about the GDP figure for second quarter 2020 (2020Q2) released on Thursday (17 Sept) goes to Judith Collins, whose response to Grant Robertson’s comments indicated she did not ...
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With the National Party this week announcing a new policy of tax cuts to spice up the election campagin. MyThinks went along to the launch and afterwards we spoke to the party’s finance spokesperson Paul “Golden Touch” Goldsmith. MT: Thanks for speaking to us Mr Goldsmith. PG: No. Thank you. ...
Always to islanders danger Is what comes over the seas ‘Landfall in Unknown Seas’ (Allen Curnow)Six economic issues external to New Zealand, which will greatly impact upon us. 1. The Diminishing Global Dominance of the US. Since 1941 America has dominated the world economically and politically. Probably it could ...
By Geoffrey Miller New Zealand should continue to champion human rights in Belarus amidst an ongoing crackdown on protests by the country’s regime, former Prime Minister Helen Clark says. Protests in the country often referred to as ‘Europe’s last dictatorship’ erupted after the country’s disputed presidential elections on August 9 ...
Jacqui Maguire, registered clinical psychologistThis podcast episode highlights how difficult it is to have effective conversations about euthanasia due to how polarised people’s views are. I’m a clinical psychologist, with a passion for science communication. In early 2020 I founded the podcast Mind Brew, with an aim to make psychological ...
In case anyone needed further convincing, there's another example today of why we need cameras on fishing boats: reported seabird bycatch doubled during a camera trial: Commercial fishers operating off Auckland's coast around vulnerable seabirds are twice as likely to report accidentally capturing them when cameras are on ...
In the leadup to the euthanasia referendum, an array of conservative Christian political organisations is running an expensive campaign to sow doubt about the safety of assisted dying. Graham Adams argues that these religious forces know that Christian arguments aren’t convincing the public, but that it is in the public ...
Dangerous Times: This will be the choice confronting those coming of age in the 2020s. Embrace Neoliberalism’s belief in racial and sexual equality; adopt its secular and scientific world view; and cultivate the technocratic, multicultural, global outlook required of those who keep the machinery of hyper-capitalism humming. Or, throw your ...
It would be a great time to reform the benefit system, according to former Deputy Chief Economic Advisor at the Treasury, Tony Burton. He argues the complexity of benefit system means that it’s failing to achieve its difficult three core objectives, which form an “iron triangle”.New Zealand’s benefit ...
Tax Justice UK, September 2020 Serious tax reform is on the political agenda for the first time in decades due to the coronavirus crisis. As this debate hots up it is important to understand what people think about public spending, wealth and tax. Tax Justice UK, along with Survation and ...
Not Mucking Around: With upwards of 800 dead from the virus’s resurgence in the Australian state of Victoria, leniency is not on Premier Daniel Andrews’ agenda. The Victorian Police are cracking down hard on the protesters the Australian press has labelled "Covidiots".IMAGES OF POLICE, some in riot gear, others on ...
Although I had the fortune of being a graduate student of some of the foremost US nuclear strategists of the day (1970s) and later rubbed shoulders with Air Force and Naval officers who were entrusted with parts of the US nuclear arsenal, I seldom get to write or speak about ...
News that Zhenhua Data, an arm of China Zhenhua Electronics Group, a subsidiary of the military-connected China Electronic Information Industry Group (CETC), maintains a list of 800 New Zealanders on a “Overseas Key Information Database” that contains personal information on more than 2.4 million foreign individuals, has caused some consternation ...
Marie BecdelievreJanuary 2020. The number of news article mentioning coronavirus exploded and anxious voices whispered about a global pandemic.Whisper? To me, it was only a whisper. I tend to learn about the world through non-fiction books, conferences, and academic research rather than news and social media, so ...
Barbados is planning to remove the queen as head of state and become a republic in time for the 55th anniversary of its independence in 2021: Barbados has announced its intention to remove the Queen as its head of state and become a republic by November 2021. [...] Reading ...
At the 2017 election, the New Zealand Labour Party promised a Fees Free Policy for tertiary students. Basically, it would make the first year of university education free in 2018, with a second year in 2021, and a third in 2024. It also promised to restore Post-Graduate access to the ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhat is the impact of temperature increases in the tropics? ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons It felt like 100 degrees in my in-laws’ Grass Valley, California, kitchen, but at least the lights were on and for the moment we were safely “distanced” from the Jones Fire. We’d just finished dessert, after pizza and a movie ...
Nigel French, Massey UniversityGenome sequencing — the mapping of the genetic sequences of an organism — has helped track the spread of COVID-19 cases in Auckland, but it also plays an important role in the control of other infectious diseases in New Zealand. One example is Mycoplasma bovis, a ...
A key part of our electoral funding regime is a requirement for some transparency around donations, on the basis that if we can find out who has bought our politicians (typically after we have voted for them) then everything is alright. There are a lot of problems with that regime ...
On “In Defense of Looting” Matt Taibibi takes an entertaining look at this generation of woke activists and how they compare with Abbie Hoffman the iconic anti-Vietnam war counter-culture figure of the 1960s On Thursday, August 27th, the same day Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican nomination, National Public Radio ...
When Parliament introduced the Emissions Trading Scheme, it was worried that carbon prices might get too high. So it introduced a "fixed price option", allowing polluters to pay the government $25 in the place of surrendering credits. The result was predictable: after we were thrown out of international carbon markets ...
The government will finally be requiring large New Zealand companies to disclose their climate change risks: New Zealand finance companies will be made to report on climate change risk, Climate Change Minister James Shaw has announced. The policy will force around 200 large financial organisations in New Zealand to ...
By Claire Grant, Genomics Aotearoa Communications ManagerCommunity consultation is becoming an increasingly important aspect of research programmes in New Zealand, and with that comes the art of relationship building. Engagement between scientists and user-groups is certainly nothing new. But as stakeholder involvement becomes more of a requirement for science, ...
Rebels In A Wrong Cause: The truly frightening thing about Jami-Lee Ross’s and Billy Te Kahika’s success in persuading thousands of New Zealanders that Covid-19 is just another trick, just another way of stealing away their power, is realising just how many of them once marched at the Left’s side. ...
In a couple of months, the 53rd Parliament will meet in Wellington, and approximately 120 MPs will be sworn in, many of them for the first time.They will all have political goals, some aligning with their party platforms, some not, some complex, and some simple, but they will gain one ...
Media Statement For Immediate Release 10th September 2020 The income and wealth inequality lobby group, “Closing the Gap” thinks the Labour proposal a great start says Peter Malcolm, a spokesperson for the group. But they need to be aware of what many of the rich do and of what do ...
ACT is pushing a "no-nonsense climate change plan". What does it involve? Repealing the Zero Carbon Act and Emissions Trading Scheme, reversing the fossil-fuel exploration ban, and allowing mining on conservation land. In other words, repealing any policy which might actually reduce emissions. Which is the very definition of nonsensical. ...
This blog post is a follow up to my recap of Al Gore's Climate Reality Leadership Training I recently participated in. One of the exercises we were asked to complete was to write about our respective "Climate Story". This is a slightly updated version to the one I had submitted during ...
New Zealand’s media and online politics often reflect the values of liberal and progressive agendas. According to Liam Hehir, the current proposals to lower the voting age to 16 years – which the media overwhelming supports – is indicative of a wider mismatch with society, which is not good for ...
My wife and I, through a combination of good luck and good management, have managed to retire in comfortable circumstances. We celebrate our good fortune by making relatively small but regular donations to a range of good causes – to rescue services like the rescue helicopters, St John’s Ambulance and ...
Jacques Raubenheimer, University of SydneyIf we don’t analyse statistics for a living, it’s easy to be taken in by misinformation about COVID-19 statistics on social media, especially if we don’t have the right context. For instance, we may cherry pick statistics supporting our viewpoint and ignore statistics showing we ...
Over the weekend, Labour released its welfare policy: an increase in benefit abatement thresholds. And that's it. Faced with clear evidence of ongoing hardship among beneficiaries and a call from its on Welfare Expert Advisory Group to raise core benefits by between 12 percent and 47 percent, Labour's response is ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (Bogota; 09/11/2020) The murder of Javier Ordoñez in the neighbourhood of Villa Luz in Bogotá, Colombia at the hands of two policemen brings to the fore the issue of police violence and its function in society. First of all we should be clear that we are ...
Story of the Week... La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Humans exploiting and destroying nature on unprecedented scale – reportAnimal populations have plunged an average of 68% ...
Gabrielle Po-Ching In November 1918, the cargo and passenger ship Talune travelled to Apia, Samoa from Auckland, carrying a number of passengers who had pneumonic influenza. From these passengers stemmed the biggest pandemic Samoa had ever seen. With around 8,500 deaths, over 20% of the country’s population at the ...
Prof Nick Wilson*, Prof Michael Baker In this blog the arguments for and against shifting all COVID-19 related isolation/quarantine facilities to a single air force base at Ōhakea are considered. The main advantage would be a reduction in the risk of border control failures, which can potentially involve outbreaks ...
So the Greens co-leader James Shaw recently made a mistake. In his role as Associate Finance Minister approving funding for “shovel-ready” projects, he fought hard for a private “Green school” to get funding to expand their buildings and, therefore, their student capacity. There are many problems with what he did: ...
Over the last three years there have been growing calls for the government to provide dental services under the health system – universal free dental care. This is because at the moment there’s an anomaly in which teeth are regarded as different from the rest of the body which means ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Sep 6, 2020 through Sat, Sep 12, 2020Editor's ChoiceWith California ablaze, Newsom blasts Trump administration for failing to fight climate change Trinity River Conservation Camp crew members drown ...
Dear Sir, As we head into the run up to the upcoming election I feel it is my duty to draw your attention to the lack of fun we are currently forced to ensure by the Adern regime. In their efforts to keep the nation’s essential workers, health compromised people, ...
It finally happened: about 13 years after first watching Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” (AIT) in 2007 when it became available in Germany, I recently completed the Climate Reality Leadership Corps Training! Participating in this particular training had been on my to-do list for quite some time but it ...
Windows 95 is famous for requiring the shutting down the system by clicking ‘start, like stopping your car by turning the ignition key on. Why are so many interfaces so user-unfriendly? The Covid app to register your entering premises can be so clumsy. Sometimes I have signed in, sat down ...
Is the 2020 election result really the foregone conclusion that the polls and commentators are suggesting? Josh Van Veen suggests otherwise, pointing to some of the shortcomings of opinion polling, which could ready some politicians to say “bugger the pollsters” on election night. In November 1993, opinion polls foretold ...
Back in 2019, six select committees of the UK Parliament established a Citizen's Assembly to investigate how to respond to climate change. The Assembly's deliberations were forced online by the pandemic, but it has finally reported back, and overwhelmingly supports strong action: Taxes that increase as people fly further ...
I am feeling a bit impish today and so for no particular reason I thought I would share this thought, which I first posted over on twitter: “Hurricanes, wildfires, floods, heatwaves, street protests, armed vigilante militias, a lethal pandemic and a corrupt authoritarian using the federal government for partisan and ...
Wayne Mapp (Photo: Tsmith.nz via Wikimedia) A former Minister of Defence says the government was too slow to involve the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) in New Zealand’s response to Covid-19. But Wayne Mapp, a National MP from 1996-2011 who served as Minister of Defence for three ...
Transport is our second biggest polluter after agriculture, making up 17% of our national emissions. Cars and trucks emit 15 million tons of CO2 every year. So, if we're serious about tackling climate change, we need to eliminate this entirely. Public transport and better urban design will be a key ...
Five things we’ve learnt 1. We know where the virus ultimately came from We know that the virus originally came from bats, and most probably a species of horseshoe bat in South East Asia. However, the spike protein in SARS-CoV-2, which allows the virus to attach to cells and infect ...
The Greens' greatest disappointment while in government this term has been the failure to implement a ban on mining on conservation land. Promised by Jacinda Ardern immediately after gaining power, it had long been assumed that the problem was NZ First (who have a long history of environmental vandalism). But ...
If they get into Parliament, everyone expects the Greens to form a coalition with Labour. But James Shaw has said that that might not be the case, and that they might instead choose to sit on the cross-benches: The Greens are prepared to forego a coalition or confidence and ...
Tonight was the first Leaders’ Debate, broadcast live on TVNZ 1. It was the first time New Zealanders have seen Jacinda Ardern side-by-side Opposition Leader Judith Collins this campaign. ...
Last updated 30 July 2020. The whole world is battling with COVID-19, and no country is immune. In New Zealand, our focus is getting the latest resurgence under control and making sure we put in place immediate financial supports to cushion the economic blow.As before, the best economic response is ...
Led by Jacinda Ardern, our strong, stable government has delivered results and put people first every step of the way. In health, housing, education and more, we've got a strong track record of delivering for New Zealanders. Now, we’re continuing to put people first with our decisive response to COVID-19. ...
Labour has a strong track record of making progress on the big issues facing our country. Now, as we recover and rebuild from COVID-19, we’re rolling out our plan to grow our economy, support businesses and communities, and keep New Zealand moving. If you’re still undecided ahead of this year’s ...
The Green Party is calling for Waka Kotahi the NZ Transport Agency to convert a lane over the Auckland Harbour Bridge to bus-only and make buses free to use across the bridge until all lanes are back in operation. ...
The Green Party has released its Thriving Oceans Plan, which would dramatically increase marine protected areas and ban bottom trawling on seamounts. ...
It was another busy week out on the campaign trail, with Labour focused on jobs, training, and supporting Kiwi workers. As we continue to roll out our five-point plan for recovery, we’re investing in our people, businesses, communities and vital services, so we can keep our economy moving as we ...
Our regions are a vital part of our economic recovery plan. They’re home to innovative and creative businesses, and the backbone of our export economy - which is why Labour will continue to support our regions to grow as together, we rebuild better. ...
National’s ‘alternative budget’ that includes huge cuts to the government’s operating allowance would risk gutting critical public services, and put health, education and nature at dire risk. ...
Data released this week shows that, while New Zealand is not immune to the economic impacts of the global pandemic, our strong health response has meant we’ve been able to get our economy going faster than many other countries. ...
This year’s election is on 17 October - and it’s coming up fast! With one month to go until Election Day, we’ve come up with 17 ways you, your friends and family can get involved in our campaign and help Labour keep New Zealand moving. ...
PREFU has given a good insight into what was required to ensure New Zealanders were largely supported to continue work and remain healthy during COVID-19, but it is clear we need additional revenue raising measures ongoing, Green Party Co-leader James Shaw said today. ...
The Green Party is disappointed with the Labour Party’s decision to reverse their three free years education policy and back down on their commitment to postgraduate student allowances. ...
In the first two years of our term in Government, we gave teachers record pay rises as a way of recognising the lack of adequate adjustments over the previous decade and the significant role they play in the lives of children and young people. We also increased the number of ...
Labour has a proud history of supporting working New Zealanders, whether through the implementation of the 40hr work week or the introduction of the Working for Families package. ...
The Green Party welcome Labour’s commitment to extend the living wage to Government contractors, but will push for Fair Pay Agreements across industries in the next Government so more New Zealanders can earn a dignified income. ...
The Green Party is urging the Government to act on its commitment to te reo Māori, by making it a core subject up to year 10, and including te reo courses in the Targeted Training and Apprenticeships scheme. ...
We're officially back to the campaign for the 2020 General Election. The campaign may look a little different this year, but our candidates are still getting out and about in their communities and spreading the word about how another term of Labour will keep New Zealand moving in the right ...
You might have heard a bit of discussion about Government debt lately, as experts weigh in on the COVID-19 economic recovery. If you’re wondering why it’s such a contested topic, or even if you’re unsure of what Government debt actually is, then read on - we’ve got you covered! ...
The Green Party has released its Farming for the Future Plan, including a $297m fund to support farmers and growers to transition to climate-friendly practices. ...
We believe every New Zealander deserves the chance to make an informed decision on Election Day. We’ve answered some of the most common questions on our 2020 tax policy, including how much money will be raised from our new top tax rate, and how this will be used to control ...
The Green Party says Labour’s energy policy is a step in the right direction, but the Greens would go further and faster to meaningfully tackle the climate crisis. ...
All this tax talk leaving you a bit dazed and confused? Read below to find out more about our progressive tax system and what Labour's policy means for you. ...
We’re committed to managing the Government’s books responsibly and keeping debt under control while supporting our people and our economy through the 1-in-100 year shock caused by COVID-19. ...
The Labour Party has moved towards more progressive income tax, but is not addressing the growing wealth gap and inequality in Aotearoa. Labour’s new revenue policy also doesn’t help pay for the necessary response to the COVID-19 crisis, Green Party Co-leader James Shaw said today. ...
As New Zealanders we are proud of who we are, what we stand for, and the way we weave together different worlds and cultures to create our unique national identity. ...
It is appalling and negligent that landlords are being encouraged to keep their properties cold and damp until after the election, as advised by the NZ Property Investors Federation, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
The expanded scheme will cover: People who have COVID-19 like symptoms and meet the Ministry of Health’s criteria, and need to self-isolate while awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test. People who are directed to self-isolate by a Medical Officer of Health or their delegate or on advice of their ...
The Government is putting in place a range of immigration policy changes to help fill labour shortages in key industries while ensuring New Zealanders, who have lost jobs due to COVID-19, have the chance to find new employment. “Two key sectors we are moving to help are horticulture and wine ...
The Government has established class exceptions for border entry for a limited number of veterinarians, deep sea fishing crew, as well as agricultural and horticultural machinery operators. “Tight border restrictions remain the backbone of the Government’s border strategy to protect New Zealand against COVID-19 and ensure New Zealand citizens and ...
The Crown will not appeal the Court of Appeal decision in the Dodds v Southern Response case, Grant Robertson announced today. “Southern Response will be paying the damages awarded by the Court to Mr and Mrs Dodds shortly. The Crown was already meeting their legal costs for this appeal. “The ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing nearly $30 million in a diverse range of projects that will create immediate and long-term jobs and lift economic and social outcomes for Northland and its people. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones made the announcement today in ...
The Coalition Government has committed to invest $27 million in COVID-19 vaccine development through the global COVAX Facility, Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced today. “The COVAX Facility is a key part of our COVID-19 Vaccine Strategy to obtain safe and effective vaccines. It allows us to invest in a high-quality, ...
The Government will provide up to $1.69 million through the One Billion Trees programme to Māori landowners to make their whenua more productive through the planting of forests, both native and exotic, and improve economic and environmental outcomes, Forestry Minister Shane Jones has announced. “Around 1.5 million ha of land ...
People planning to head outdoors now have a resource that lets them know how accessible an area is for people with varying levels of mobility, Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. The Halberg Foundation, Sensibel, and the Department of Conservation (DOC) have launched Accessibel, a new tool which helps ...
One of the most significant battle sites of the 1860s Land Wars will receive $2.96 million from the Provincial Growth Fund to improve the site and help tell the New Zealand story to visitors, Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones have announced. Nanaia Mahuta ...
The journey towards recognising Māori as an official language and taonga has been captured as a web series and launched today during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, announced Associate Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni. “Te reo Māori is a living language, and understanding its significance, and pathways to ...
Today’s better-than-forecast GDP figures show the expected impact of the decision to act quickly to protect New Zealanders from the global COVID-19 pandemic. GDP fell 12.2% in the June quarter from March, reflecting decisions to close New Zealand’s borders and enter Alert Level 4. “This result was better than the ...
The Government is investing $39.7 Million over four years to support the educational needs of Pacific learners and families in the regions hardest hit by COVID-19, with Auckland getting an immediate boost, Associate Minister of Education Jenny Salesa says. “Like all New Zealanders Pacific families want learners to do well ...
New Zealand’s goal of 100,000 kiwi by 2030 is being helped by an extra $19.7 million in funding to accelerate iwi and community efforts to protect kiwi, Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced. “$19.7 million of Jobs for Nature funding is being invested in kiwi conservation activities including increased predator ...
Ensuring New Zealanders can get the best deal on their electricity takes a step in the right direction today with the South Island launch of the EnergyMate pilot run by the Electricity Retailers’ Association, says Minister of Energy and Resources, Dr Megan Woods. EnergyMate is an industry-led programme providing coaching ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter announced today that the Government has reached its target of 50 percent on women on state sector board and committees – setting a new record level of women on state sector boards. “This Government is committed to having more women in leadership roles - ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford released today the final Government Policy Statement on land transport (GPS) 2021 which outlines the planned $48 billion investment in services and infrastructure over the next decade. “The final GPS supports our Government’s five-point plan for economic recovery by confirming our record investments in transport infrastructure ...
Three ambitious and cutting-edge research programmes that will lift New Zealand’s advanced energy technology research capability over seven years, have been supported by Government today, says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods. The projects will each receive a share of $40.7 million investment from the Strategic Science Investment Fund. ...
The critical area for forensic examination known as Pit Bottom in Stone has been reached in what is a major milestone for the Pike River re-entry project, Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little announced. “The infrastructure located in Pit Bottom in Stone is of very significant interest in ...
The Government is working on how New Zealand’s retirement income policies and settings can best support Kiwis in light of the COVID-19 economic recovery, with the help of the Retirement Commissioner’s latest review, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said. “The Retirement Commissioner’s three-yearly review into New Zealand’s retirement ...
A new digital hub and development centre in Murupara will be instrumental in growing the region’s productivity, said Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau at the official opening of two community initiatives today. “I’m pleased to be here celebrating a significant milestone for two projects set to make a ...
PREFU shows economy doing better than forecast Unemployment to peak at 7.8%, down from 9.8% forecast in the Budget Year-to-June accounts show tax revenue, debt and OBEGAL better than forecast Global forecast downgraded as COVID-19 second waves and uncertainty grows Balanced plan to support critical public services, manage debt and ...
The Kāpiti Coast town of Ōtaki will receive $1.4 million in Government funding for two projects providing scores of jobs for locals while improving community facilities, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Māoriland Charitable Trust will receive a $900,000 Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) grant to upgrade the ...
The Provincial Growth Fund will provide $11.88 million to fund fencing and waterway projects nationwide that will improve the environment and create jobs in their communities, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. “These projects will create more than 100 jobs nationwide with work starting within the next couple ...
As part of the COVID-19 recovery, the Government has strengthened its procurement rules to ensure its annual $42 billion spend creates more jobs, uses more sustainable construction practices and results in better outcomes for Māori and Pasifika, Government Ministers announced today. Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford says the $42 ...
The Government is supporting a major upgrade of Timaru’s iconic Theatre Royal and the construction of a new connected Heritage Facility museum and exhibition space with $11.6 million from the Government’s Infrastructure Fund, Jacinda Ardern announced today. “We heard the call from the community and the council. The Theatre Royal ...
Chrissy Montague (formerly Armstrong), barrister of Auckland has been appointed as a District Court Judge with Family Court jurisdiction to be based in Wellington, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Ms Montague commenced practice in Auckland in 1987 and went into general practice dealing with Wills, Estates, Trusts, Conveyancing, Relationship Property ...
A Proposal to provide for the development and operation of commercial film and video production facilities in areas of Christchurch has been given the go ahead. Hon Poto Williams, Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, has approved the Proposal, which was prepared and submitted by Regenerate Christchurch. Minister Williams ...
As part of the Government’s focus on building closer partnerships with Māori and enhancing the quality of, and access to, Māori medium education, a payment of $8 million will be made to Te Wānanga o Raukawa in partial recognition of its Waitangi Tribunal claim (WAI 2698), Associate Education Minister Kelvin ...
The Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage has announced a $19 million investment over four years in an important forest restoration project involving a partnership between the Department of Conservation, iwi/hapū, the Bay of Plenty and Waikato Regional Councils, community conservation groups and organisations such as Forest and Bird across the ...
New Zealand will be the first country in the world to require the financial sector to report on climate risks, the Minister for Climate Change James Shaw announced today. The changes build on the huge progress this Government has made to tackle the climate crisis. “Today is another step on ...
Economic activity across the Auckland region and the country bounced back to levels experienced under Alert Level 1 following Auckland’s move out of Alert Level 3, analysis in the Treasury’s latest Weekly Economic Update shows. The analysis of economic data since Auckland’s move out of Level 3 shows: Auckland card ...
Takiri mai te ata, ka ao, ka ao, ka awatea, tihei mauriora! Tātou katoa ngā iwi o Aotearoa, tēnā koutou! Tēnā tātou e whakanuia ana i te wiki nei, te wiki o te reo Māori Greeting to you all from Otepoti, Dunedin. This week is the Māori Language week and ...
More mental health and addiction services are available for young New Zealanders in Rotorua and Taupō, Wairarapa, South Canterbury, Dunedin and Southland from next month, Health Minister Chris Hipkins and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter say. “The Government is serious about making sure New Zealanders struggling with mental health ...
The Manuherekia catchment in Central Otago is the third exemplar catchment to be targeted as part of the Government’s plan to clean up waterways by supporting community-led programmes. Environment Minister David Parker said the Manuherekia catchment is vitally important to the people of Central Otago. “The Manuherekia rises in the ...
The Government has agreed on a preferred design for the new Dunedin Hospital featuring two separate buildings, and has provided funding for the next stages of work. Minister of Health Chris Hipkins says Cabinet has approved in principle the detailed business case for the new hospital, giving people in ...
New Zealanders across the country are set to mark history as part of the Māori Language Week commemorations led by Te Taura Whiri i te reo Māori this year. Māori Development Minister, Nanaia Mahuta says the initiative will mark history for all the right reasons including making te reo Māori ...
More than 1000 teachers, support staff and school leaders have graduated from a programme designed to grow their capability to use te reo Māori in their teaching practice, as part of the Government’s plan to integrate te reo Māori into education, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Being trialled ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio, says the Toloa Tertiary Scholarships which aims to encourage more Pacific student numbers participating and pursuing STEM-related studies in 2021, are now open. “These tertiary scholarships are administrated by the Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP), and are part of MPP’s overall Toloa ...
Four Bay of Plenty timber businesses will receive investments totalling nearly $22 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to boost the local economy and create jobs, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Rotorua-based sawmill Red Stag Wood Solutions will receive a $15 million loan to develop an engineered ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced that New Zealand is exploring the viability of working with partners to conduct a search for the black box on the Gulf Livestock 1. “We know how much it would mean to the families of those on the ship to understand more about ...
The first leaders' debate lacked stand-out moments, but covered a wide range of topics plaguing the country as New Zealand feels the pain of the Covid recession. Laura Walters reports. Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins have gone head-to-head on inequality, infrastructure, jobs, environment and the Covid-19 border response in the first ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Duncan, Associate Professor for the School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University Prime Minister and Labour leader Jacinda Ardern and National Party leader Judith Collins have met for the first televised debate of the 2020 election campaign. With the results ...
Analysis - Riding high on the back of a stellar public poll, ACT leader David Seymour was the standout performer at the finance debate in Queenstown tonight. ...
Who came out on top in tonight’s leaders’ debate? Here are our debate watchers’ verdicts. A bit knackeredGiven that most of the country, most of the Covid-battered world, is basically just knackered, is it any surprise that tonight’s opening debate felt a bit knackered, tooWhether it was in an attempt to ...
Labour leader Jacinda Ardern and National leader Judith Collins are facing off in their first televised election debate at 7pm, with a new poll out at 6pm. Follow live updates here. ...
The first leader debate begins at 7pm on TVNZ 1. Ready your pencils.Judith Collins, Jacinda Ardern and John Campbell all want you to have a good time during tonight’s first leader debate for election 2020. And so do we.That’s why we (well, Toby Morris mostly) have conjured up a bingo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Harry Al-Wassiti, Bioengineer and Research Fellow, Monash University On Sunday, the Australian government announced it would put A$6 million towards the research and development of three local COVID-19 vaccine candidates, via the Medical Research Future Fund. The three candidates to share this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Larkins, Professor Emeritus and Former Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Melbourne Australian university research funding is made up of discretionary income that comes from various sources, including international student fees. This is additional to the funding, including government grants, specifically received ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Larkins, Professor Emeritus and Former Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Melbourne Australian university research funding is made up of discretionary income that comes from various sources, including international student fees. This is additional to the funding, including government grants, specifically received ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Haskell-Dowland, Associate Dean (Computing and Security), Edith Cowan University Plot twists in the TikTok saga continue to emerge daily, with a proposed deal to secure the future of the video sharing platform in the United States now in doubt. Under the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Greg Raymond, Lecturer, Australian National University Thousands of Thai students turned out over the weekend to protest in Bangkok — the latest gathering in a long-simmering movement against the power structures that hold sway in Thailand. The three core demands of students ...
Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods has spoken about the government's decision not to appeal a landmark court case against Southern Response. ...
Dunedin general election candidates will take part in a My Votes Count forum event on 29 September organised by the Dunedin and Districts Disabled Persons Assembly (DPA) alongside Disability Information Service, People First, Blind Citizens New ...
Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods has spoken about the government's decision not to appeal a landmark court case against Southern Response. ...
Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods is speaking to media after the government revealed it has decided not to appeal a landmark court case. ...
What happened to the bridge, when will it be fixed, are we ever getting another harbour crossing – and how long will it take to get home tonight?Few of us remember a time before the bridge. Its eight glorious lanes run from St Mary’s Bay across the Waitematā harbour to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Axel Bruns, Professor, Creative Industries, Queensland University of Technology Google’s role in delivering audiences to news outlets has been under scrutiny of late. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s initiative to redirect advertising revenue from Google and Facebook to news publishers has ...
Discriminatory laws that place unreasonable hurdles to increased Māori participation in local government need to be urgently reformed, says Nelson Mayor Rachel Reese. In a Nelson City Council meeting held on Tuesday, 22 September, Council resolved ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vivienne Skinner, Industry/Professional Fellow, School of the Built Environment, University of Technology Sydney Australia’s six-month moratorium on evictions is due to end soon. Somestates have extended the moratorium, but when it ends that’s likely to force even more Australians into housing ...
On Thursday night the arts, culture and heritage spokespeople from Labour, National and the Greens will have a conversation on arts policy, facilitated by Miriama Kamo. We’ve got all their policies here, so you know who stands for what.Earlier this year, Ben Thomas wrote for The Spinoff about why politicians ...
Responding to reports that Cr Catherine Chu failed to attend over half of Christchurch City Council briefings since October , the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union says the revelation is proof elected local councillors must refuse their salaries while they ...
From next week, the scheme will cover people who have symptoms of the coronavirus and need to self-isolate while waiting for the results of a test. ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk The Tabernacle Bible Church of Indonesia’s congregation from the Intan Jaya regency in Papua has fled into the forests in fear after the killing of a pastor at the weekend, allegedly by the military, reports CNN Indonesia. The church (GKII) says it believes Rev Yeremia Zanambani ...
When we first checked the Beehive website for press statements this morning, we found just one announcement – from the Deputy PM – had been posted since September 19. His news was that the Coalition Government has committed to invest $27 million in Covid-19 vaccine development through the global COVAX ...
The government’s decision today to slightly loosen border entry restrictions to allow in certain specialised staff crucial to the agriculture and fishing industries is excellent news, Federated Farmers says. "Feds has been strongly advocating ...
We recently built our own members platform so that readers can donate to and support our journalism in a more direct way. If you’re a Spinoff Member, here’s how it affects you. At the end of last year, our team was fortunate to receive a grant that allowed us to ...
Keep New Zealand Beautiful are excited to announce that three New Zealand students have won awards at the 2020 Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) International competition. These three students were all winners from the national New Zealand ...
The government has announced more border exemptions and visa changes to help get specialised workers in the country and fill labour shortages in key sectors. ...
The National Party leader tells Duncan Greive what conviction means to her, and why she thinks she gets a different treatment to Jacinda Ardern.The first time I saw Judith Collins at close quarters, she was moving through what was inelegantly billed as the “National stakeholder party” held at parliament last ...
Being in the midst of a global pandemic does funny things to you, finds Michelle Langstone as she gives in to an overwhelming urge to return to the Auckland amusement park of her youth. I don’t know if it’s nostalgia working, but my husband and I had an overwhelming urge ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Blair Williams, Associate Lecturer, School of Political Science and International Relations, Australian National University The grand final of Plate of Origin will air on on Channel Seven tonight. Like other blockbuster cooking shows (think MasterChef, My Kitchen Rules), Plate of Origin is ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has released a list of questions that should be asked at tonight’s TVNZ leaders' debate – and at tonight’s separate finance debate in Queenstown. Questions for Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins: Is tax theft ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Barrett, Senior Lecturer in Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington The conservative tax policies proposed by Labour and National ahead of next month’s election are hard to distinguish in substance, with each party offering no more than a ...
Judith Collins says she'll be pointing out a "lack of follow-through" by the Labour leader while for Jacinda Ardern it is less about "sparring" than "directly communicating". ...
National wants to boost the capacity of managed isolation facilities by allowing private accommodation providers to join the government-controlled network and charge what they like. ...
National wants to boost the capacity of managed isolation facilities by allowing private accommodation providers to join the government-controlled network and charge what they like. ...
Covid-19 will not be going away any time soon and the National Party says we should team up with the private sector to let more workers and tourists in safely National have announced that, if elected, they will ramp up the private provision of quarantine to allow workers and long-term tourists ...
A joint statement by the national leaders of most New Zealand church denominations We urge the people of Aotearoa New Zealand to vote very cautiously in the two Referendums, because both decisions carry the risk of inflicting serious long-term damage on our ...
A celebration of 35 years working with whānau in the Heretaunga community was celebrated with a short history lesson, waiata and the cutting of the cake this morning. Iwi chair Ngahiwi Tomoana provided the history of the kaupapa Māori organisation which ...
Fonterra CEO Miles Hurrell says 2019/20 was a good year for the co-op, with profit up, debt down and a strong milk price. The result, a profit of $659m, may have brought a cheer from the co-op’s farmer-suppliers and Hurrell deserves a cheer, too, for succeeding in turning around the ...
Three weeks ago, the NZ Parliament enacted new Water Laws. The WHO says 1.1 levels Nitrogen for rivers is OK. We are already at 0.6. The new Law (The Greens) wants 0.1 Nitrogen, this is impossible and absolutely ridiculous! ...
Too much news? Welcome to the only round-up you need.The election was supposed to be over by now. We were all supposed to be free but instead we’re back talking about fiscal holes and house prices. Bit of housekeeping: there’ll be no more yes, no, huh? in this column as ...
In a time of growing ideological conformity within the New Zealand media, a backlash from the public has seen media outlets seeking to proclaim themselves as the arbiters of truth. The New Zealand media industry, once renowned for impartial journalism, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katherine Wynn, Lead Economist, CSIRO Futures, CSIRO Over the next few years, science and technology will have a vital role in supporting Australia’s economy as it strives to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. At Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, we’ve identified opportunities ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yun Jiang, Senior Research Officer, Australian National University Last month, the University of New South Wales came under harsh criticism after its media team deleted an article and tweet in which Elaine Pearson, the Australia director of Human Rights Watch, expressed concern ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Theodore E. (Ted) Zorn, Professor of Organisational Communication and Head of Massey Executive Development, Massey University When New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was named the “world’s most eloquent leader” last month it raised the question of just how important eloquence is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle Coffee is regularly in the news for its potential health benefits and drawbacks. A review of the research found drinking a few cups of coffee a day was associated with a lower ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bryan Fry, Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland Funnel webs are considered one of Australia’s most fearsome spiders, but their ability to kill humans is by accident rather than design, our new research shows. In findings published today, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Muir, Associate Professor in Mathematics Education, University of Tasmania Parents and carers were responsible for overseeing their children’s learning during the first wave of COVID restrictions in Australia. Many parents in Melbourne and some in regional Victoria will still be doing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marilyn Lake, Professorial Fellow in History, University of Melbourne Review: Vida: A Woman for Our Time, published by Penguin (Viking imprint) Australian women were not the first to win the right to vote in national elections. That world-historic distinction belongs to New ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 22, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other NZ news. The essential campaign dates are here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Country outside Auckland now at level one, previewing the first major leader debate, and another error found in National’s costings.The alert levels will shift down around the country this week, with most of the country moving back into level one. Our live ...
Our Seas Our Future (OSOF) is encouraged by the Green Party’s marine policy to protect and restore our seas and oceans, as outlined in its Thriving Oceans Plan. OSOF representative, Noel Jhinku, says that the policy recognises the need to address ...
In an extraordinary exchange during a recent press conference our Finance Minister, when asked why the Reserve Bank does not write off the Covid19 debt, said “it isn’t the way we manage monetary and fiscal policy”. He did not say that it is not technically ...
“ACT has a plan to lift the restrictions holding back the tourism sector and give operators the tax relief they need after being hammered by Covid,” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “I’ve travelled from Northland to Southland talking to tourism ...
With voting set to begin in under two weeks, the Howick Youth Council’s interactive candidate forums have been the first successful community meetings held virtually in the Botany and Pakuranga electorates for the 2020 general election. The youth-led ...
New Zealand is already taking risks allowing Kiwis to return, so why not rich Americans, ACT says. A Southland tourism operator says it's a bold move, but won't get the industry back on its feet. ...
We continue our week-long series on an extraordinary book of essays by Ghazaleh Golbakhsh with a memoir of the author from Golriz Ghahrman My friend Ghazaleh Golbakhsh is a film-maker, a writer, actor, Iranian, Kiwi, woman of colour, citizen of the world, and wild dreamer. Her new book of essays ...
Angela Merkel’s response to the latest refugee crisis only makes sense in an ideal world - in the real world it is dividing the EU and encouraging human traffickers, says Oliver Hartwich ...
While Covid-19 put the airline’s passenger business into a steep dive the airline’s cargo business has been climbing. It is now referred to as Air New Zealand’s green shoot.Mark Jennings reports. Aside from a massive one day sale of low priced domestic seats there’s not been a lot of good ...
Stephen Hoadley provides some context around US President Donald Trump's claimed successes in the Middle East On September 15, 2020, President Trump hosted leaders from Israel, UAE, and Bahrain at the White House. The event was the signing of agreements in which UAE and Bahrain normalised diplomatic relations with Israel. Trump characterised this ...
Kanyon Paul will wear the Warriors jersey in next month's NRL women's championship with the blessing of her late grandfather - who helped her make the decision to cross the Tasman to play. Kanyon Paul wasn’t meant to play for the Warriors women’s team this season. But her league-loving grandfather ...
The West Coast was promised $140 million from the provincial growth fund. David Williams asks how much has been spent The need is great, and it has been for years. The Pancake Rocks, at Dolomite Point, the foot of the Paparoa National Park, is a must-see natural attraction for tourists ...
Wealthy people’s money grows at a faster rate than the economy, like a dam hoarding water while the city below grows thirsty. To conserve our way of life, we need to ensure wealth flows between the top and the bottom, writes Tax Justice's Louise Delaney Now both major parties have ...
On Saturday four parties that believe Covid-19 is being used by the government to impose social control put their differences aside to share a stage. Alex Braae went to Nelson to see where they were coming from. “If you question the government, you get called a conspiracy theorist. Why? And ...
Covid alert Levels 3 and 2.5 in Auckland impact credit card spending in Auckland, but our international online spend-up continues - plus Queensland hotels and apartments face empty summer ...
Open mike 08/08/2020 
Tonight, The Civilian will be live-blogging the first of too many debates between Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and National Party leader Judith Collins, and also the last fifteen minutes of the news. Be sure to tune in from 6:45pm for regular updates, which can be accessed by refreshing this page ...5 hours ago
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Good news on a potential Covid 19 cure
Do either of these videos present any actual trial results with usefully large numbers of patients? Or are they just talking heads blathering about why ivermectin has theoretical reasons why it should work, and overall it's the hydroxychloroquine false hype all over again?
Ivermectin has been talked about as a potential therapy for Covid since at least April, and I've been keeping an eye out for significant useful trial results. But all I've seen so far have been results from poorly-designed small-sample trials that showed smallish improvements that overhyped the actual benefits achieved.
And no, I'm really not interested in sitting through 30 minutes of video to see if there might be some nuggets in there that could be communicated in a written article that would take no more than a couple of minutes to read.
The drug has been used on numerous Covid 19 patients in a number of different countries around the world with a 100% success rate.
[that’s a claim of fact on a serious matter and as such it needs clear backing up. Please provide that back up with a link, and a quote of the specific words you believe back it up (or a time stamp if it’s a video, but it needs to be *very clear, I don’t want to use my Saturday time chasing this up). Thanks – weka]
Oh really? Where can I find out more information about these miraculous success stories? Because the searches I'm doing using terms such as ivermectin covid trial results are only showing up those flawed small-sampled small-result trials and a lot of apparently unsupported hype.
mod note for you TC.
From 1.31 in on the first link.
So, nothing written anywhere? Just a snippet from the video you posted?
For your reading pleasure.
https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-up-govt-directs-use-of-drug-ivermectin-for-treatment-of-covid-19-patients-to-replace-hcq-2836390
Really? You found that "once over lightly" news clipping convincing???
I remembered what Ivermectin was, from listening to farming ads on the radio over the past decade or so:
"Invermectin, a tablet used to treat parisitic infections like head lice, scabies, river blindness, strongyloidiasis, trichuriasis, showed effective results on COVID-19 in various studies conducted by various researchers."
My confidence in your claims is not high.
I'm not making the claims. The medical professionals are. As shown in the links provided.
thanks. What I see is a single person claiming the 100% cure, but with no other information. Imo this doesn't met a standard to claim "The drug has been used on numerous Covid 19 patients in a number of different countries around the world with a 100% success rate." At best what you could say is "Thomas Barodi is saying that Ivermectin in trials is producing near 100% efficacy, here's the citation for that"
That's the claim of fact you have backed up (that this man said this), and that's all that is needed.
What we don't know is if Barodi is correct, what the facts are that led to his opinion. If he goes on to cite research, my suggestion is that you post that, because most people (myself included) aren't going to watch all that video.
Here is more written info
https://www.trialsitenews.com/icmr-indias-national-research-agency-investigating-ivermectin-doxycycline-as-potential-treatment-for-covid-19/
thanks TC, that's the kind of link that makes the debate much more productive.
Looking for more trials on this I came across a study on Ivermectin in The Lancet, which claimed results for treating malaria.
From that I'm disposed to conclude that someone has gained rights to Ivermection, and is trying to expand the range of conditions for which it is prescribed. This inclines me to scepticism – for all that they at least seem to be doing trials, and to a standard that will allow peer review.
Availability
In 1987, the manufacturer of ivermectin – Merck & Co., Inc. – declared that it would donate ivermectin free of charge for as long as is needed. This unprecedented donation is administered through the Mectizan Donation Program, which works with ministries of health and other partners to distribute the drug.
https://www.who.int/apoc/cdti/ivermectin/en/
Interesting – and goes some way to explaining its popularity.
Here's the most factual report I've found of what appears to be the Bangladesh trial that Borody apparently hyped as the most impressive:
https://www.trialsitenews.com/ivermectin-study-reveals-fantastic-results-100-of-60-patients-better-in-an-average-of-just-under-6-days/
It's roughly 60 patients trialling ivermectin versus 56 patients given a hydroxychloroquine regime. These are very small numbers, there was no control, it doesn't appear to be a double-blind trial, some studies suggest that use of hydroxychloroquine in fact increases the risk of death and may otherwise worsen outcomes.
The results hyped as impressive were recovery in 5.93 days and negative PCR test at 8.93 days, versus recovery in 6.99 days, negative PCR test at 9.33 days, and two deaths. That's a very small improvement in outcome, especially considering the possibility that administering hydroxychloroquine in fact worsens outcomes. Let alone the known problems in biased reporting of outcomes in trials that aren’t double-blind.
In terms of a counterview, this piece seems relevant:
https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/ivermectin-and-covid-19-venezuelan-doctor-uncovers-fraud
that trial in India would be the basis for a larger RCT surely?
Not sure of the ethics of a trial that had an untreated control.
The control usually isn't zero treatment, ie just park 'em in a bed and watch what happens. The control group is usually given what is currently the best known practice.
I don't know what that is at the moment, but I haven't heard of things much beyond putting patients on their stomachs, possibly medication against clotting, possibly immune-suppressants against cytokine storms, clearer guidelines on when and how to use ventilators etc.
AFAIK, everything that is directly anti-viral still definitely falls into the experimental unproven category that should be considered a trial and not a proven therapy.
yep. Haven't looked in the past month or so, but was under the impression that they're still trying to figure out treatments.
It's pretty clear that all the initial experimentation started and continues on the wards. This is war zone stuff.
Yes, As stated in the last link. There are currently at least 18 randomized controlled studies now planned or ongoing that have been disclosed to the U.S. government alone.
Not only is this really showing good potential as a cure but it is also being touted as preventative for front-line workers.
However, there are vested interests (see links below) at play here. This would largely make the need for a vaccine null and void.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/25/business/coronavirus-vaccine-profits-vaxart.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/health/coronavirus-vaccine-czar.html
Deep south insurgent:
Honesty is an unusual ploy for an aspiring politician but it could strike a chord amongst voters who are seeking a refreshing option.
Instead of waiting for people to tell him he could look at finding ways to do a referendum of the electorate and then combine the results into a cohesive whole. If he does it well, he really will go far.
Not enough time left but I do agree in principle. If he does the door-knocking and succeeds in establishing a rapport with enough folks, he'll get a sense of the mood of the electorate fairly soon.
A clever person can rapidly synthesise a coherent package of initiatives from the process (after musing on the feedback awhile) as you suggest. I hope he has a partner to consult with about that (males are not known to be adept at emotional intelligence).
Doesn't need to do door knocking – just needs to set up a Loomio group. Still, will need to ensure that only people from the electorate are signed in which I'm pretty sure Loomio will be more than happy to help him with.
Does Emotional Intelligence Depend on Gender? A Study on Undergraduate English Majors of Three Iranian Universities
Are some local campaigns using Loomio?
Not as far as I know which is a pity. Used well it could transform our democracy.
Well, that makes Iranian culture look good – or at least that tiny portion studying English at uni! I bet that similar research here would establish a "significant difference between the genders" (likewise in Oz, England). Emotional repression in male behaviour was the cultural norm when I was a kid. Showing feelings was unmanly, so boys were disciplined not to.
@ Dennis Frank (2) … living in Cromwell, I am in the Waitaki electorate and thinking of giving Daniel Shand a go. I will suss him out in person listening and hopefully having a chat. However, I'm liking what he's offering already.
With the exception of our current PM, a breath of fresh air is well overdue in our stale political system. Maybe Daniel Shand is the guy to turn the tables on what's there at present.
At age 74 and a Labour/Green voter, I'm not afraid to try something new, if I consider it's (they are) likely to be a progressive asset to NZ and future generations.
I will suss him out in person listening and hopefully having a chat. However, I'm liking what he's offering already. With the exception of our current PM, a breath of fresh air is well overdue in our stale political system. Maybe Daniel Shand is the guy to turn the tables on what's there at present.
Cool, I like your attitude. Folks look askance at anyone aspiring to be populist – understandable due to notable examples being rightist – but someone who genuinely wants to serve and enhance the common good ought to be encouraged.
I sense he's irreverent enough to tread the fine line between cynicism and authenticity, and with a humorous stance he can make that work.
My suggestion is to see if you can challenge his brain in a friendly way – like ask him how to find common ground between parties, for instance – although best if you do your own natural framing. You may already have questions & points of view in mind, but if not your interaction will work better if you head in with one or two…
Does anyone know why Shand moved from the North to the South island? IDMWALAIM (“I don’t mind where, as long as I’m Mayor“) syndrome?
DMK That reminds me – another polly footloose, Michael Laws moved around being Mayor etc on the basis of looking alert and having plenty to say. So I guess, this other Whanganui guy thinks 'What a lark', get known for being a bozo, and people vote you in as they know what to expect.
…two terms as Mayor of Whanganui (2004-2010), terms as a councillor on Whanganui District Council,
So there is a precedent. More positions, seems to have no trouble beating locals to the tape.
Laws has won several political positions, including two terms as a Member of the New Zealand Parliament for the National Party (1990–96) and New Zealand First (1996),
two terms as Mayor of Whanganui (2004-2010),
terms as a councillor on Whanganui District Council, Napier City Council, and Otago Regional Council, and terms as a member of a district health board.
In Parliament he voted against his party on multiple occasions and defected to the newly founded New Zealand First party, but resigned Parliament the same year following a scandal in which he selected a company part-owned by his wife for a government contract.
Laws currently holds one political position; he is councillor and deputy chair of Otago Regional Council
Laws has also been a media personality, working as a Radio Live morning talkback host and a longstanding The Sunday Star-Times columnist. In these roles, Laws caused controversy, such as calling Governor-General Anand Satyanand a "fat Indian" and comparing him to a comically obese character from Monty Python. Laws resigned all positions in 2014 to take full-time care of his youngest children, after their mother suffered a severe stroke.
Sounds like Mike.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300076049/election-2020-former-horowhenua-mayor-michael-feyen-standing-for-nz-public-party
Internal Revenue officials are moving ahead with plans to consult on and, eventually, adopt recommendations from the Tax Working Group on environmental taxes, Marc Daalder reports here https://www.newsroom.co.nz/greenroom/ird-planning-consultation-on-green-taxes
I don't like bureaucrats who attempt to bamboozle the public with obscure long words. It seems to be a legal concept: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothecation
Rationalising what is traditionally known as ring-fencing can be better achieved by calling it purpose-driven funding. I agree that the design is sensible, but public relations is usually not achieved via gobbledygook.
In praxis, what is your objection to bamboozling people with bafflegab, and will it manifest itself in axis any time soon?
long words bad. you not use big words to mess up my head! it hurt brain cells.
it hurt discussion
Never really bothered to get a handle on the meaning of this "praxis" that's been knocking around here lately.
Feels a bit like the period a few years ago when anyone who'd watched a couple of youtube videos was claiming "autodidactic" learning that made them knowledgable about a field.
You're doing well with this example, especially using 'praxis' .
Graeme Dobell clocked up quarter of a century as parliamentary journalist & provides a primer on ` How Oz politics works' which seems valid here too…
Dunno about policy analysis beating chickens’ entrails or opinion polls – depends on the quality of the analysis, surely?
https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/oz-politics-works/
edit
Add to your comment above DF this advice on how to cope with questions in political life from me; that guy from Whanganui at No.2 who says he doesn't know anything will be set up to go to our simple No.8 wire Parliamentary System (even with MMP which was shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted).
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-07-08-2020/#comment-1738178 Thanks nga taonga radionz.
This from DF on 7/8 OM No. 3 gives an example of one of the question diverting approaches that alert pollies can use.
Asked by Corin Dann what Labour’s tax and economic policy was, given postal voting would start in just over four weeks, she pointed to the Government’s track record and its current five point plan for Covid-19 recovery, focused on retraining. “That five point plan really is giving a very strong indication of the momentum we want to maintain should we be re-elected. What we’ll be doing over this election period is yes adding some additional aspects, but I would flag to voters not to expect to see large scale manifestos that are a significant departure from what we’re doing,” Ardern said.
See what she did? He asked what the policy was & she didn’t tell him the answer, but instead delivered the verbal equivalent of “Hey, look over there!”
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/pro/a-2nd-term-pm-for-crises-and-the-status-quo
On the rich tax the Greens propose. How can it be ? Should I die my partner benefits from life insurance that allows for a mortgage free home in one of Auckland's burbs. Now The Greens believe that now my partner is rich: house $1.5m (yet in another centre the same functioning family house would be only 1/2 the value) so taxed $10k p.a. . Yet with a take home of $40k would entitled to WFF, 1 child at Uni would be entitled to financial assistance because their parent is considered poor and in need of govt assistance. So according to the Greens you can be poor and rich at the same time, and according to the govt the family is surviving on an income $10k less than what they consider liveable. Silly isn't it ??
I thought it was 1% over 1 million and 2% over 2 million
"now my partner is rich: house $1.5m……. so taxed $10k p.a"
1% of 500k = 5k not 10k
Barfly is right…it is 1% of net wealth over $1 million.
I love the Green's Wealth Tax-I think they have it balanced well. If implemented it will significantly help to reduce poverty which is its purpose. Finally a party is willing to do this.
Labour will rule it out in the election debate because Labour is a pale shade of progressive.
The CGT is too complicated and will bring in less dollars. A Land Tax has potential.
Are they looking at wealth held in foreign trusts?
(page 13) https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/beachheroes/pages/12689/attachments/original/1594876918/Poverty_Action_Plan_policy_document_screen-readable.pdf?1594876918
Soltka has answered Gabby. And the treatment of trusts, which I assume is the same for both domestic and overseas (trusts are always a scam) seems excellent to me.
Gabby, Gabby,Gabby…you are asking the wrong questions. You need to ask for all trusts to be included. Naturally, this will fail as every parliamentarian has such a trust and their friends own the foreign ones. So no one will shoot themselves in the foot. Whilst it is possible to put legislation through parliament in record times, this one will take decades, regardless of political hue. Don't hold your breath.
A cgt is very simple if you put it on all property and shares and just make it 3-5% .
Including the main family residence? You are a brave person.
Either that, or have people lose their houses, cars because they get cancer or whatever, and cannot work.
Certain sectors of society have had it way too good for too long, while others constantly struggle.
From memory, the policy includes the ability to defer paying the tax until sale of the property. Which means that on a $1.5m property (with a presumably increasing GV/market value), she would be accruing a tax payment of $5,000/yr until she sells. If she is 30 and sells the house at retirement, that's a total cost of $175,000. If she believes in the magic money tree of the growth economy and perpetually increasing house prices, this isn't so bad, she still walks away with shitloads of money when she wants to down size to a smaller house. She could probably even retire earlier than 65.
If that seems unfair, consider that if she lived in Gore instead, her house would be worth more like $200,000.
Also unfair is all the people whose partners die but who never had the ability to take out life insurance, or even save enough to get a mortgage. It's those people the Greens are trying to help, the ones who don't have enough to eat, or enough medical care, or enough lots of things.
If you want to consider unfairness in the political spectrum, I suggest taking a look at TOP's policy and see how it stacks up.
And yes, you can be poor and rich at the same time, as your example shows.
What is unfair Weka is people living in poverty.
The WT will have the excellent side-effect of helping to bring down Akl property prices because owning a house worth a million will be less desirable-people will gravitate to places with cheaper houses.
From The Green’s website:
Andrew and Leilani have well-paying jobs and live in a jointly-owned, mortgage-free house worth $1.5 million with their kids. They each have around $80,000 in their Kiwisaver accounts and another $140,000 in a joint savings account. They each have a net wealth of $900,000 so are not affected by the new wealth tax.
I'm not so sure about that. If you own a $1.5m house and have a decent salary then the $5k/year can be accounted for in your financial and investment plan.
Andre is arguing that the accrual of the tax is a significant psychological pressure, so maybe that's what would make someone move. But then they buy a house in a cheaper place with their high equity and they just drive up the prices in the new place (this already happens with wealthy people migrating out of Ak to the provinces).
Imo the housing crisis cannot be solved by the market. I don't think it can be solved by building more market houses either. Only thing that will stop it now are either a massive GCF, or active, intentional govt intervention in multiple fronts eg rent control, building shitloads of community housing that sits outside of the housing market.
I'm only suggesting it will be a side-effect of the Wealth Tax.
But if some Aucklanders with average house values (Jan 2020) of $935k move to Dunedin, average house values (Jan 2020) of $515k then this will probably, gradually, change the equation to something like $860k versus $590k which seems like a better outcome to me.
it's only better if you are rich. If you're not it sucks. This is exactly how the Ak housing crisis was exported to the rest of the country. Not the only factor by any means, but cashed up immigrants will always outbid locals and the property market will just keep increasing.
I'm also doubtful that people in Ak selling up will drop prices that much.
Also, community matters. Economically enforced migration kills communities.
A ‘dynamic’ housing market sends a price signal of and on its own.
how do you mean?
Knowing that there are sufficient numbers of buyers and sellers to move housing stock expediently and avoid long market listings sends a strong psychological signal to potential buyers and sellers. It creates a momentum of its own and it seems to me that this has a tendency of keeping prices relatively stable if not going up. It would be interest to track the numbers of sales and sales prices against the number of active licensed realtors.
this makes sense, although I've never understood where everyone's money comes from, some people must have had increasing incomes as well as assets.
I also can't see any significant drop in house prices so long as the middle classes are still making so much money from property. Who would want to give that up?
Well where does the money come from ?
there are a few contributors that have commented on how the banks “creat” money. From for a simple reason. Time past the banks where able to increase the volume of money that could be loaned out. Those older than 47+ could recall the power of the bank manager and the limits of what you could borrow, and the common need for a 2nd mortgage. It was freed up so that what you could borrow is now “limitless” this with the decline of mortgage rates feom 17% in 1990 to 2.75% currently. But there are numerous other reasons for the availability of debt.😉
Some people have no to little interest in paying off (the) principal. It’s not hard for a bank to agree to the borrower paying interest-only over a five-year period. If the accruing interest is less than accumulating wealth, they win and have a good time as well. Depending on how much ‘business’ you have with one bank, you can easily negotiate a lower interest rate and other more favourable conditions. Ordinary people and wage slaves don’t generally fall in that category and don’t enjoy the special treatments that the better-heeled folks are offered by their banks. Our society and economy in many function to maintain or even increase inequality and it’s all perfectly legal.
Unless govt deals decisively with the flow of cheap (low-interest) money into NZ housing as a privileged investment class, prices will always stay high. Expect banks and their ilk to resist such policy however they can.
In addition to a properly designed tax.
a momentum that requires facilitation by the banks….the real custodians of real estate value
Although the banks cannot force people to enter the housing market, they can send their own price signals, e.g. so-called ‘mortgage wars’. We still have a FIRE economy.
Think if you examine it you will find its rather more fundamental than that….mortgage wars are simply a mechanism to obtain/retain market share… they dont determine the size (value) of the market
Consider yourself well-off if you live in Auckland in a mortgage-free home and don’t have to pay exorbitant rent every week.
I mentioned that life insurance would make it mortgage free in this case.
Interesting that the 2% error was pointed out But no one wanted to address that in our situation we are considered to earn inadequate income for a family to live on- but considered rich and worth taxing- All at the same time. IMO the greens show the problem that ALL parties have in very poorly thought out policy, in this case the level that is considered to be wealthy on paper at least.
So our family is a target for living in Auckland, so then sell off all state houses in Auckland and build elsewhere and shift families to these new dwellings. Because as I read comments it is all those beneficiaries fault for being poor in AUCKLAND. They wouldn’t be so poor if they lived elsewhere logic.
Your second paragraph, I don't get what the problem is. Low income people can become *asset rich simply from owning a house and living in an area with a housing boom. This isn't hard to understand. I assume you're not suggesting govt policy deems low income not low income because of that. If you are suggesting that govt policy should not deem the same low income people asset rich, please explain why. I've already addressed how the GP policy takes into account inability to pay yearly.
Your third paragraph I can't make sense of. No-one is saying it's beneficiaries fault. Beneficiaries in NZ are poor everywhere.
Yes, policy has for ages taken into account the likes of retirees in mortgage-free valuable houses but with only superannuation income. Councils have rates deferral programmes for exactly that reason. Not hard.
Perhaps the problem is that the house is 'valued' at $1.5m – some 20 times the average wage. Instead of something reasonable like between 280k and 350k (4 to 5 times the average wage).
this.
Years ago I posted a number of times on this aspect of house prices. In very simple terms:
1. Constrain mortgage security to the 'improved value' of the property only
2. Make all residential land 'leasehold' (instead of paying rates, you'd pay rent to the local council.
These two options eliminate land value speculation. Alternatively:
3. Instead of restricting LVR ratios, impose an upper limit on the loan to a value of about 12 times the imputed rental income
Measures like this would have to be phased in over a period of a decade or so to prevent unjust disruption, but could fundamentally reshape our housing market.
But over the years I’ve also realised there are more factors than simply banking rules involved in our housing crisis; there are many levers that need adjusting if we are to ever get back to historic income to housing cost ratios.
The value of Auckland property has not been helped by the 40,000+ movement of people into Auckland over the last 20 years, promoted by both Labour and National to import GDP and financial success. Inability for construction to keep up and the availability of plentiful and cheap debt. Freedom of movement AND money supply has a cost😉 .
Yes. That's the point of my last para; there are multiple factors involved. Bank rules are only one of them.
It's actually not an easy problem for any govt to solve; although it seems remarkably easy for them to make it worse through careless policy. The law of unintended consequence is writ large on this one.
Unintended consequences or unspoken policy?
Why the assumption any Gov wishes to solve it…if not encourage it?
While only the naive would rule out malice as the explanation for things going wrong, usually it's good old entropy that's the best explanation.
Would it be malice though?
The government knows, and must have known for decades, that banks create money when they make a loan. Considering the fact that most bank loans are for housing then pushing up house prices will push up the amount of money in circulation and thus increase spending which pushes up GDP.
And when GDP is the measure used by governments to determine if the economy is doing well or not then they're going to push things that push up GDP that they don't have to take responsibility for that also keeps government spending down.
Basically, it could be stupidity based upon today’s failed economic theory.
Who said anything about malice….there are multiple self justifying arguments that can be applied.
The value of Auckland property has not been helped by the 40,000+ movement of people into Auckland over the last 20 years, promoted by both Labour and National to import GDP and financial success. Inability for construction to keep up and the availability of plentiful and cheap debt. Freedom of movement AND money supply has a cost😉 .
[Fixed typo in user name]
[Fixed typo in user name]
A question for people to ponder: if it were conclusively shown that getting a nasty cold from known specific strains of cold coronavirus was in fact somewhat protective (say 60%) against getting sick from the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, and none of the vaccines and medicines under current development actually are successful, would you willingly get yourself inoculated with those cold coronaviruses and accept having a nasty cold for a week to get some chance of protection from COVID?
I would. No question.
https://www.sciencealert.com/common-colds-may-have-primed-some-people-s-immune-systems-for-covid-19
This is analogous to the first effective vaccine centuries ago, when deliberate inoculation with cowpox was done in order to protect from the much nastier smallpox.
Probably would (depending on how good the science was on it). Makes me also think that we may be in for future problems as covid responses drop the number of people getting common colds.
That's may already happening. It could explain why some people get really ill with the new virus, but most people only get a mild non-hospitalised illness or remain totally symptomless.
Recent exposure to a sufficiently similar coronavirus may be allowing the immune system to respond effectively to the novel SARS-COV-2 virus.
How long this lasts and how reliable this mechanism might be are totally open questions, as immunity to the common cold is highly variable and usually short-lived.
Probably not. I've had the flu four times in my life and while the first three I recovered well the last I seem to have some permanent damage almost 7 months later – which is interesting given this is one of the emerging aspects of COVID-19.
I'd much rather have my previously healthy self back.
https://www.health.com/condition/cold-flu-sinus/flu-long-term-effects
Them pesky Russians, ready to register a vaccine for Covid.
https://sptnkne.ws/Dp9H
It's good the Nats and exes are showing the country how they would have handled the pandemic, basically treated it like a night at the casino, so more Hooton, Brownlee, Bennett as far as I'm concerned. Cathy Cactus was basically saying Hooton should have been gagged by Nats coz he will be harmful to their chances, ha!
It looks like Jacinda has let the business people get at her and she is looking to allow in "skilled migrants". Hopefully, this means that the country of origin is going to be vitally important – the USA, Brazil, India are all basket cases, the UK has been getting better but most of Europe is heading towards a second wave as people mix together in summer. Oz has a second peak that is worse then it's first although it's mostly contained in one-two states.
Hopefully, it won't mean we get "dairy workers" from India who take the jobs off NZ share-milkers who have been getting pushed out of the industry. NZ dairy farms that would have been bought out by NZ sharemilkers are going to end up being bought by overseas entities and creating mega farms.
All these industries that needed skilled migrants – why haven't they been training NZers in the interim instead of moaning at the govt for a high risk option. Why hasn't the government been advertising for people to get into these industries citing a "NZ needs you" to work in these areas until the world gets covid under control.
Here is a graph of per capita daily cases/deaths in a range of countries I follow. We are not at any lesser risk from importing cases then any time before…
http://shorturl.at/sPRSU
I too would love to know who these super skilled migrants are that we can't run industries without them. And how long they have been here (only around 10,000 migrants have been here more than 5 years on a mix of visa's apparently) what level of training was done and where and for how long how much did it cost.What wages are being paid. If the answer to all the above questions is largely onshore here or the training time periods are very short or the wages are low – get lost. Oh and providing some job flexibility like part time roles.
Also a number of non farming industries have made up specious justifications in the past pretending they can't access skills when they are just looking for low wage employees.
The government needs to come clean about who they are thinking of letting in and how many other jobs they support. So yes for the disclosure yes to starting training our own and yes for the advertising locally on a broad scale with appropriate places to apply (happy for a small taxpayer dob for this – it has to be cheaper than quarantine). There are likely to be a good number out there who can, but don't know where the need is or who are hanging back (older and waiting for the young ones to go first).
And why do there people get travel priority over say a local business who largely develops stuff here but then needs to go offshore for the final stages. Looking at the Lprents of the world here.
And could the news media please ask these questions.
And also about sharemilking – that was a very interesting comment about it slowly dying.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122380097/tick-tick-podcast-jacinda-ardern-says-border-may-open-for-essential-skilled-migrants
Bar managers apparently.
You are joking??
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018758522/restaurants-bars-call-for-kiwi-workers-as-borders-stay-shut
& chefs etc…
I don't know if it still is but Indian chefs were a skilled migrant class. What was wanted was that these chefs would work in existing businesses (and probably as slave labour as is done in the liquour industry) but these migrants came in and started their own businesses because Indians prefer that (I wonder why?!!!!). So now there are all these Indian restaurants dotted about – 4 within 1km of my home – which must be barely profitable.
So how is that useful to NZ or to these poor people who have uprooted their lives thinking their was gold at the end of the rainbow.
What are the work conditions? Employment agreement? Guaranteed hours? Is she offering a full time job? Set part time hours? All that matters.
Can young people see a satisfying career path in the industry beyond one good employer?
No. They see a dead end.
Start as a dishwasher, remain a dishwasher and nobody will ever think of hiring you for anything else. That does seem to be the nature of NZ employers.
Changing careers appears to be something they believe nobody can do.
People have jobs, very few have careers.
It is easy to say $50,000 per year without detailing the hours and working conditions.
According to careers.govt.nz kitchen hands typically get $18-00 to $20-00 an hour.
https://www.careers.govt.nz/jobs-database/hospitality-tourism-and-recreation/hospitality/kitchenhand/
A standard 40 week would come to $41,600.
The website notes:
Working conditions
Kitchenhands:
So no real recompense in that $50,000 for the long hours – no time and a half for weekend and after 5:00 work and so on.
All that and the possibility of split shifts. A 'break', up to 6 hours in the middle of yr day,
would have been nice if RNZ asked all these questions.
I was a dishwasher for a few years,,hardest job I've ever had, long lulls, then intense pressure, believe it or not the same dishes are recycled all through the night! Then have to clean the chefs mess into the early hours. The waiters, chefs etc all nutters, was fun, but no one, including chefs, last long, the pressure is horrendous.
The ones she has specifically mentioned are film industry people.
"Our film and screen sector is fully operational and in other places in some cases it won't be. There are chances here for us to build innovative sectors because we are fully functioning and so let's use that," she said. ~ Newshrub
Aussies plan Big Bang: https://www.9news.com.au/national/calls-for-newcastle-ammonium-nitrate-stockpile-to-be-reduced-or-moved-away-after-beirut-blast/8d35a6c5-7d96-4487-b499-0b48f2e39020
Think Big is alive & well! Must've learnt from Muldoon. Oz stockpile somewhere between double & quadruple what went off in Beirut.
Waiting for Guy Fawkes Day, I suppose. Excellent industrial planning & foresight, and exemplary demonstration of how capitalism can provide mass
exterminationentertainment via lateral thinking…Ammonium nitrate is a very common industrial chemical and when stored in purpose designed facility and managed properly the track record of accidents is very low.
The existing plant complies with all the current rules and design criteria. If however the community now deems the total hazard to be unacceptable (hazard = probability * exposure * consequence) then it should be the state who pays Orica to move it to a more remote location.
And then ban any other development within a safe radius.
With that level of reporting its no wonder they're going to hell in a hand-basket.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=12354666
Sounds like sour grapes. Having to put their spooks on the diplomatic payroll must be cutting into the political reward gravy train.
As it stands, NZ shouldn't allowing anybody in from the US.
Apart from the odd exceptional circumstances (eg. the Deep Freeze contingent travelling to Antarctica via Christchurch) that's the point. The border is closed to all foreign nationals so they can't come here anyway.
Sir Bob the Jones (as opposed to Sir Bob the Harvey) takes an off-the-wall punt & comes up with a hung Parliament: https://thebfd.co.nz/2020/08/08/the-minor-parties/
He eliminated Muldoon and enabled the Lange govt by pulling 12% of the electorate in '84, so only a fool would discount his nous.
Yeah, more likely at this stage. The x factor is the joker in the pack and Labour have it in their hand. Only thing likely to close the gap is how fast the recession hits. If Labour can keep on postponing the job losses, no problem…
“Only a fool would discount his nous.”
I discount his “nous”, completely. Only a fool would pay attention to a fool, whose most recent achievement was suing somebody for defamation, and then giving up because he finally worked out people are legally allowed to insult him.
His predictions are worthless, linking to them is worthless, and you can quote me on that when the election results come in.
Takes one to know one, as they say. 😉 You actually don't really know why he dropped the court case, I suspect – although you could prove me wrong with a quote from him verifying that your assertion is correct.
However, I admire your tacit rejection of the conventional wisdom that a week is a long time in politics, and blind faith that nothing is going to stop a Labour victory in six weeks. Staunch heroic stands provide excellent role models.
Of course there isn't a quote from him saying "I know I lost". He doesn't say things like that. So you look at the evidence.
Jones paid the costs. In a court case, that is defeat.
http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=126381
Jones is a silly old fool. I'm sure he's only gotten crazier since his hilarious scenery-chewing performance seven years ago on the dreadful and all-but-forgotten TV3 show The Vote….
Simon O’Connor still presents as Dork Major from Dorksville, but I bet you he no longer wears brown shoes!! Check it out! If I'm right, chalk one up for the canny old bugger… 😆
For the record, this writer, i.e. moi, shares the estimable Sir Robert's views on Simon O'Connor.
We have so much to thank him for, eh.
Well, that's what we thought at the time. 🙁
The problem of shortage of agricultural labour in developed countries is world-wide. Even in St Emilion in Bordeaux with the most expensive wines in the world where the harvest has been successfully bought in for hundreds of years using local labour they now have to use our system of contracted short term offshore labour and itinerant travellers and backpackers. The reason why is that the young locals have moved into HR, IT and WHY in the larger centres because it is sexier than being an agricultural worker.
Employers here know that even when a reasonable wage is offered for an unskilled starting job getting some young Kiwis even out of bed and staying on the job is almost impossible.
Before you start on shit pay, over the fence from me there is a 65 yr old Chinese immigrant grandmother on a family Reunification visa earning over 1500 bucks a week tying down grape vines. No PhD required.
There is a good reason why a 65 year old is willing to make vine tying her career.
If there was a career structure or a path to farm/orchard/vinyard ownership then an 18 year old might be more interested in doing grunt-work.
Well, according to neo-liberal mantra, all they have to do get the workers is to pay more and local workers will be flocking to work for them.
/sarc
You'll note that the response by the brewers, despite being the most expensive wines in the world and with probably the biggest profits as well, is to bring in cheap workers from offshore. This results in lower local wages across the board and thus higher profits.
And, yeah, at the end of the day being an agricultural worker is neither interesting nor glamorous.
Are you sure that its a reasonable wage?
Many, especially farm workers, are contractors and that fine sounding contract amount sounds good – until expenses, taxes and time are taken into account. Once they are then the actual amount is sub minimum wage. IIRC, Its why the last National government had to change the law for farm workers. The rules, as they were, were turning most farmers into criminals because they were consistently paying below minimum wage.
Yeah, but who in their right mind actually wants that job? Its not going to help them get a better job and its got a high probability of being physically damaging. It is, quite simply, the type of job that needs to be automated ASAP.
After the orchardists have spent the last 15 years telling New Zealanders how fucking useless they are in order to justify more and more captive overseas workers why on earth would anyone in New Zealand who isn't a capitalist who thinks people are a commodity see them as an attractive employer now that they are in a self dug hole.
Wonder which orchardists were using the slaver over the way in Hawkes Bay? Paying cash they were for quite a number of years with not a care in the world – pity they were not named in the court case. Wonder how much money the orchardists get back off the wage bills they pay from the overseas workers for charging them for accommodation and food – bet that runs into a net gain of millions of dollars a season. Four to a room in bunk beds – good little cost saving on your wage bill. Can't get that back from the New Zealanders.
Agriculturalists of all people should know that you reap what you sow.
If she's earning 1500 a week she must be on piece meal, going like the clappers, breaking many of the runners, not tying securely. And you know that that job will only last a few more weeks and she wont get a job in the vineyard again til next winter as I guess picking is done by machine.
In the event that the job is done by a young kiwi who could be bothered getting out of bed, what does she/he do when the work's finished?
The right's leading….
D'Souza has possibly less credibility than Trump.
He probably pronounces Trump as Thrump.
We can imagine how they both say Phuket
Never heard it pronounced as 'thighland' until Trump confirmed he can't read and speak coherently at the same time.
As for who invented the English language, a true bastard language, take a bow Angles, Saxons, Jutes, French, the need for new words arising from the industrial revolution and an empire that spanned a quarter of the globe.
History of the English language
The cult of tRump.
Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.
― George Orwell, 1984
Sorry, but that collection of language inventors sound horribly like a group of societies.
When Maggie Thatcher claimed that, "There is no such thing as society, " I actually wanted to ask her directly at the time: "Who created the English language then? Please name the individuals.." She would, I believe, have had to describe a society without being able to use that word because of her previous idiotic assertion.
In Inkland, Injure and a Stroller, Dinesh d'Souza is pronounced Lying Shitweasel.
Anyone know what essential skilled migrants Labour thinks NZ needs in order to open the borders for them?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122380097/tick-tick-podcast-jacinda-ardern-says-border-may-open-for-essential-skilled-migrants
Maybe Dr's and nurses etc, at a guess.
That would make sense. I'm also guessing fruit pickers.
RSE workers are awesome.
they are indeed. And there's a case to be made for offering such work to people from countries that need income. But, we're heading for a high unemployment rate, so bringing in workers for jobs we can train for quickly doesn't make sense. The issue is still about businesses not paying good wages and offering good conditions. Now would be the time to sort that out once and for all.
Anyone the cheap business people want.
That sucks.
Had a lovely catch up with Mr and Mrs 80+ next door. Crikey they loathe crusher and gerry. I think they invited me over just for a vent, I walked back home giggling away.
Mrs 80+ chooses who to vote for by who she thinks would be good to live with and it aint gerry and judith lololz.
Mr 80+ is full of praise for Chris Hipkins and thinks he would make a great deputy PM.
"Mrs 80+ chooses who to vote for by who she thinks would be good to live with "
Not even double-bunking with Jude in the local Corrections facility?
Yeah, nah 🙂 hehehe
bet Collins snores
Mental health – I have been told that talking therapy is the most useful but is too costly so pills are dished out instead. I have also been told by a nurse that psychiatrists tend to go direct to pills, and none or little training is given to Jungian-type analysis, looking into reasons for stressed minds.
This Friendship Bench approach would be very helpful to people under stress and trying to battle with it, and the lack of help that results from a tight-minded, tight-purse and inhuman economy-based society. I think this is the way to go while we also try to improve on present support in NZ from medical people and the government.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018758577/dixon-chibanda-on-his-revolutionary-mental-health-intervention
So how can you help those in need if conventional medical care is not available? By utilising a large natural resource: grandmothers!
Professor Chibanda has recruited and trained hundreds of them to talk to people about their problems on 'friendship benches'.
They have helped about 70,000 people already and scientific studies suggest the technique works.
Beautiful. Could we get John Key and Rob Fyfe out of the news by sticking them on Friendship Benches? We could tell them it was a Board Directorship or something. Or would they just berate people for their bad life choices and for being insufficiently asprayshunal?
Sounds good AB – we need some people of stature to tell us to pull ourselves up by our bootlaces. Berating by people who are respected can do amazing things. I remember the story of the Brit Colonel in hospital who saw one of his previous squad supposed to be dying and told him off. Smarten up and get your hair cut he addressed him, I'll be checking on you. Captain Robert Wintle it was who saved the guy who remained with him as his personal assistant for the rest of his life.
John Key et al don't measure up.
Well if they are going to try this here – I'd expect payment for the grandmothers. Or are old women expected to work for free.
Remember reading about this a few years back.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181015-how-one-bench-and-a-team-of-grandmothers-can-beat-depression
I thought it was really interesting how the local language described depression.
"No one knows how many Zimbabweans suffer from kufungisisa, the local word for depression (literally, “thinking too much” in Shona)."
Communal village bread baking was another means of fending off that sense of isolation and loneliness that has been proposed.
http://www.oldandinteresting.com/communal-bread-ovens.aspx
National and Labour would see it as an "obligation" and stop their NZS if they didn't.
edit
That is 20th century thinking RedBaronCV
The situation is that we are not now in the economic situation that we were when old age pensions were introduced similar to now.
We are living longer, requiring more state help to do so, and it is not the short time of relaxation before we pop off after retirement age that it was.
We have to pull together now in a way we have not done for many decades. There has to be input into the welfare state by everyone to keep it going – not different strata with the over 65s doing nothing if they wish, and watching younger ones go to the wall.
Older people's wisdom and skills are needed and everyone should be putting a little into the community if they are receiving some benefit, and most are – Gold Card etc with trips to Waiheke island and other joys of retirement for instance.
The old have become a class of their own, and get treated differently. There is a tendency to cosset old people who are doing fine, and offer them special advantages which can be more needed by young parents. The papers are full of brochures for retirement homes with well-dressed attractive white haired people laughing in their attractive homes. There is a pervasive picture of the old as wealthy and carefree, or as rather dim and helpless with younger carers smiling around them looking after their needs. Most old people who haven't got dementia could do some helpful task, mentoring, passing on skills; they are not helpless but can be very self-centred. It seems to them that they deserve to be paid a pension and do nothing for the society that supports them, simply because of their age which they are always trying to extend.
The conditions that old age pensioners expect must be a stark contrast for young people worrying about mould and damp and rising rents and food for the family and the children's coughs. Eventually they are going to think that the old don't care about them, and cease to have respect for old people. I notice my children are beginning to do that to me, and I have heard the same from other older people.
This situation is not widely acknowledged. It is a mixed up situation where the old don't take a proper part in society which in turn then tends to treat the old as children. Which then can turn into 'learned helplessness' a term that neolib social policy regards as a slippery slide into costly welfare dependency by solo parents and which they react strongly against. I think that retired people are going to feel the callous side of officials with budgets in decreasing amounts and would do well to look at becoming part of a participatory society and government before further harsh social welfare cuts and dispositions are introduced by the charity brokers.
I see it the other way – we just need to shift the way we tax and the things we invest in to lift productivity.
The original thinking was to invest in people when they were young – free education, universal family benefit, etc and for them to repay that investment in their education and taxes when they were older and at their peak earnings in their careers.
We did the first bit well and then stopped doing the second bit as they reached their peak earnings, which then meant we stopped also doing the first. We then exacerbated the situation through tax cuts and investing in population growth, tourism, overseas students o log exporting which were low cost, low productivity, low profit, enterprises.
Re-jigging is needed for sure – taxing the higher income people more – including NZS people who work, just put stamp duty/sales tax tax on houses – much cheaper and easier to administer than all the asset testing being talked about, reduce cheap tourism that doesn't add value more than the socialised cost and so on but leave NZS alone – changing it will just cause further problems down the track. Your picture of well-off old people isn't true for lots of the population and there has been enough divide and conquer around welfare in this country. I'd argue lift the tax for those who work and get NZS and lower the age back to 60 so in fact poorer old people, and Maori in particular, can be freed up to participate in their community and be more involved in their families before they are too unwell. 60 was fine not that long ago to retire. Free up jobs for younger people. Put a compulsory retiring age at super age back into the public sector would be another good step.
All those changes like increasing the age that get suggested just has a detrimental effect on the poor – just like Labor removing including spouses in super this year. They just condemned a whole group of society on low incomes and no savings to live off at a minimum $140-00 per week less until the partner reaches 65. That ain't going to help them or society. Makes zero difference to the well off.
Party vote numbers make the headlines, but there's as much value (if not more) in the underlying trend of right/wrong track. It tells us if there is any mood for change out there:
When only one voter in 5 says "wrong track", the opposition is in trouble.
Good launch, Prime Minister.
You think? I read the Newshub live stream a while back & couldn't find anything worth reporting here. She did announce a new policy, according to the reporter, but it seemed like mere continuance of established initiatives, so no difference from coalition achievement that I could discern. But I'm not the target market, so let's hear from the converted that she was preaching to…
Or you could just watch it, available all over on this here internet.
– Jacinda Ardern
Worth the price you paid, surely?
Would've been, had she equated that with neoliberalism. But of course she's no doubt figured out long ago that the word has too many syllables for the younger generations. And, to be fair, most older voters, if you quizzed them, would no doubt claim to have heard of it whilst also admitting that they couldn't tell you what it actually is. Life's a bitch, then you die…
Sorry but I find it odd that you, the forum's eminent centrist, is now all of a sudden critical of neoliberalism and the status quo.
I don't particularly enjoy the Labour Party moving to the centre, in fact I am on record as despising the Kiwibuild effort, and the capitulation on CGT, but I also recognise the need to win elections and to do that you need to convince a significant number of greedy right wing people to join you.
Dennis has his own definition of terms like 'centrist' and 'mainstream'. If only the rest of us would come around to them.
Yes, stealing Nat voters does work. Similar principle applied when the prior Greens co-leaders stole more than 5% of the electorate from Labour until Jacinda pulled them back in.
Re "all of a sudden critical of neoliberalism and the status quo", you seem not to have noticed the several dozen times I've criticised both since I began to comment here five years ago. I thought neoliberalism was a joke when the Rogernomes got started and the status quo unacceptable since I became a teenage rebel post-adolescence 1964. Do I need to explain radical centrism??
No. All centrists are extremists as far as I'm concerned.
Extremely dull, that is.
As I suspected, you do need to discover the difference: centrists are happy with the status quo, whereas radical centrists prefer to try and catalyse a better world.
I get that folks like you & Sacha prefer to avoid history, but there's a good reason that their wiki has 229 references: lotsa folk have been working in that category for a long time. Earliest one there was 1969, so the page compilers are seemingly unaware of the book Beyond Left and Right, published in '68, year of the origin of the Green movement.
Radicals in that era knew the left & right were both parts of the establishment. That's why the riots at the Democrats convention in '68 were a mass youth rebellion against LBJ. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Seven
Knowing history is not the same as living in the past.
There are different types of centrist?!?
I thought beige obstructionist was beige obstructionist.
only a select few can be badgers
Life is like a willy: too short, then you die.
Too little information lol
I strongly believe we need more gender balance in our clichés. Dennis seems to think that there are only two types of commenters here: binary and non-binary thinkers. I’ll prove him wrong by transcending his binary thinking into a radical balance in the middle (‘centre’ is too loaded a word and a misunderstood concept that conjures confusion and intellectual constipation). In other words, life is a bitch that shortens your willy, then you die. I’m working on a synthesis with ‘life sucks, then you die’, but that might take another few years; that epitaph will read like a tweet.
My mum has more balls than Wimbledon and St Andrews combined, and life as a bitch, which is a bad thing I said I'd jump on yesterday, is still no match for her immense cockerny sensibilities.
But as everyone knows, size doesn't matter, until it really does. 😆
I expect mickysavage will deliver unto us a post sometime this weekend.
With the NZF ‘handbrake’ off and instead of cruising downhill to 19 September, they could floor it now. Makes you think, doesn’t it?
I can remember when National would announce their party list with razmattaz, parading new candidates in front of the media, with much fanfare, probably playing a bit of Eminem in the background.
Now it's Collins and Goodfellow doing a drab announcement in a drab room, timed to coincide with Labour's launch, as if they want to avoid any more damaging headlines. It's working, nobody cares.
I'm curious about Luxon though. I thought he was supposed to be National's great hope, he's #61.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/423072/national-unveils-party-list-for-2020-election
Just a ruse weka. So some people can be ranked higher even though they're not going to make the cut if the polls are anything to go by.
Luxon is going to romp home in Botany so doesn't need a high placing.
I wouldn't be so sure that Luxon will "romp home"
Speaking to my Chinese friends whose parents are well conditioned to the CCP model of "vote for whomever's in power" that their parents are voting Labour this year after voting National for the past 3 elections because "Labour is the power"
I wouldn't be surprised if such thinking is endemic in Botany which does have a higher than average proportion of Asian voters. You may find that Luxon and Ross will split the right vote, allowing the Labour candidate to squeak through the middle.
2020 seems to have thrown out the rulebook, so who knows.
Thank-you for that JT. It's a possibility although my instincts tell me JLR is going to bomb out badly.
It will be one of the fascinating electorates to watch on Election night.
Oh it'll be a fascinating night all around regardless.
The only question remaining is just how much Labour will win by 🙂
It was a pathetic attempt at upstaging the PM's campaign launch.
#Dirty Politics.
Well, Labour will have the opportunity to do it back to them next week-end by announcing a major new policy. 😉
Yeah probably (and was no doubt anticipated) but also pretty meaningless. This time round Labour doesn’t really need the airtime the campaign launch can provide that much. The whole country is listening to every word a Labour PM says on a daily basis.
The combined firepower of three present and past Leaders in the top 10 sure is impressive. What could go wrong with the ‘dream team’?
oh yay
(Reuters) – The last fully intact ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic has collapsed, losing more than 40% of its area in just two days at the end of July, researchers said on Thursday.
The Milne Ice Shelf is at the fringe of Ellesmere Island, in the sparsely populated northern Canadian territory of Nunavut.
“Above normal air temperatures, offshore winds and open water in front of the ice shelf are all part of the recipe for ice shelf break up,” the Canadian Ice Service said on Twitter when it announced the loss on Sunday.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-canada-idUSKCN2523JH
I watched the Labour campaign launch. Very proud of our PM. All the journalists were well mannered and listened intently to the after meet. The questions were about covid problems and announced policy.
Our PM is not too proud to use systems developed by earlier Governments if they are successful in helping people.
Nobody mentioned J Collins and her list. Malpass and Vance probably covered that.
Jeepers, Chloe is smart!
You should see her in person at an event some time. Sheer political talent.
I'll try to be there.
Bad news for local racists.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300077513/coronavirus-new-research-reveals-how-covid19-came-to-new-zealand
Did you all go to Owlcatraz? Wish I had.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018758576/ross-and-janette-campbell-escape-from-owlcatraz
I did. Bought 4 owls.
Yeah went years ago when Big Red was there and again recently.
Would have to say it had gone backwards since my earlier visit and that assessment was before I knew it was up for sale. Was a joy to see the first time and somewhat sad the second. Between health issues, longevity, financial difficulty etc it needed an injection of replenishment. Having been to Zealandia this year it was a complete contrast. I don't mean any disrespect by what I said – the owners have done a really good job for many years and they were still absolutely lovely. It was just getting tougher for them.
Didn't do the glow-worm cave the second time. That was cool first time – even just the story behind it. Don't know if that was part of the sale.
Some areas with flooding will have to have some playground Arks, on props and when it floods, people row there and have a place to be moored safely somewhere till the water goes down. That would be good for places with little high ground.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/423069/floods-strike-cook-islands-rarotonga
He allowed himself to be placed in a risky AF medically induced coma to overcome his benzodiazepam habit rather than opting for the usual treatment requiring patients to confront the mental health issues behind addiction.
The controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson has contracted COVID-19, his daughter told the Sun, a tabloid newspaper in the United Kingdom.
“He’ll get better, but he’s definitely taken a step back and it’s just really unfortunate … it’s been a disaster,” Mikhaila Peterson told the newspaper.
[…]
At the time the elder Peterson was flown out of country for treatment, Mikhaila Peterson told the National Post father was put in a medically induced coma because Russian doctors have “the guts to medically detox someone from benzodiazepines.”
Mikhaila Peterson said her dad caught COVID-19 in a Serbian hospital, where he’d been recovering from treatment, and had also caught pneumonia.
https://leaderpost.com/news/things-are-not-good-right-now-jordan-peterson-battling-covid-19-u-k-paper-reports/wcm/d92a4fac-8f07-4bd4-aefe-954644a6881d
JBP developed a physiological dependency to BZP, and claims it was prescribed incorrectly to deal with his anxiety. Revealing interview with his daughter here
Oh, so not his fault, eh.
/
In case anyone is still wondering what are these essential jobs that we need to open the border for one news has just advised:
Au pairs FFS. At the best of times this has always smacked of exploitation of young women for minimal income. But if your job is so important and high paid then hire somebody on a proper wage and treat them right. It can be done successfully.
And is it just my impression that most of the statements " kiwi's won't do these jobs" are delivered by those who have lived in a society with a lot of class structure and those at the bottom are expected to "know their place".
the amount of NZ women I've met who did au pair work in Europe is staggering, but I think they just used the job as a way to travel.
Without seeing the story, I would not be surprised if any au pairs were already attached to the few whole families given entry like the yachties.
Woman wanting entry for an au pair that had been organised so they could spend more time in their businesses. Not that I will go near them.
Yes it is used for travel but so is working in pubs. Pubs pay so why should young women & childcare be exploited. Like unpaid internships it's an idea long past it's use by date and employment laws should insist it's paid properly or ditched.
That does not stack up – be different if there was already a relationship with the children.
But TikTok.
/
WASHINGTON—A small U.S. company with ties to the U.S. defense and intelligence communities has embedded its software in numerous mobile apps, allowing it to track the movements of hundreds of millions of mobile phones world-wide, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Anomaly Six LLC a Virginia-based company founded by two U.S. military veterans with a background in intelligence, said in marketing material it is able to draw location data from more than 500 mobile applications, in part through its own software development kit, or SDK, that is embedded directly in some of the apps. An SDK allows the company to obtain the phone’s location if consumers have allowed the app containing the software to access the phone’s GPS coordinates
http://archive.li/CCwFN
Oil spill off Mauritius. There go our fish they will be thinking, our tourism – look at beaches after Rena below.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/423079/mv-wakashio-ship-aground-off-mauritius-begins-leaking-oil
…The ship – owned by a Japanese company but registered in Panama – was empty when it ran aground, but had some 4000 tonnes of fuel aboard.
The incident, when empty, sounds like carelessness by the ship administration. Perhaps it was on auto-pilot!
Refresh on Rena incident off East Coast, NZ 2011.
https://www.maritimenz.govt.nz/public/environment/responding-to-spills/spill-response-case-studies/rena.asp
Early in the morning of 5 October 2011, the cargo vessel Rena struck Astrolabe Reef 12 nautical miles off Tauranga and grounded.
The 21-year-old 236-metre Liberian-flagged cargo vessel was en route from Napier to Tauranga and travelling at around 21 knots when it struck. Its bow section was wedged on the reef, and its stern section was afloat. Two of its cargo holds flooded and several breaches were identified in the hull. There was 25 crew on board Rena at the time of the grounding.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rena_oil_spill
Aftermath of Rena Oil Spill – public response largely saved the day.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/71503076/rena-disaster-huge-but-environmental-effects-not-long-lasting
A string of researchers gave presentatations on aspects of the Rena disaster to the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry's Australasia conference at the Rutherford Hotel. They concluded the area had a lucky escape, partly because of the huge public involvement in the clean-up.
Lead presenter, Waikato University professor Chris Battershill, who holds the inaugural Bay of Plenty Regional Council chair in coastal science, said 8000 volunteers collected 1000 tonnes of oily waste from the Bay of Plenty coastline, "at the time the largest volunteer army every deployed" in an environmental clean-up.
They might be better to call on the services of India – perhaps with French financing. The west coast ports are not so far away, and have heavy oil handling and ship breaking expertise. Bad weather would hamper anything more than travel however.
Art.
Lolz!!
That’s my Taxpayer’s money and I want it spent on roads, beautiful bigly roads.
for galloping unicorns
Marama's riding side-saddle – such a Lady!
Parallels, you say..
Stuff looking at the Northland seat "Shane Jones a distant third in Northland poll, meaning NZ First could leave Parliament".
Basically, there isn't that much of a difference from the last election. Matt King appears to be a good solid local MP without the personal baggage that Mike Sabin carried with him. About the only thing that has been notable about him is that he is a dangerously naive scientific illiterate fool. But hey, we put up with all kinds of idiots running on faith in NZ. If he is stupid but isn't actively dangerous to others, then we tend to give them a free pass.
It makes it hard for Willow Jean Prime to overtake with the peculiar social strata of Northland – the place that time forgot in NZ.
But I have to say that this kind of result is exactly what I have come to expect from Shane Jones over the last few decades. Great promise. Poor delivery. And also idiotic screw ups on the way. For instance, I suspect that this one will be one of those.
"Auditor-general takes Provincial Growth Fund's 'fund within a fund' to task"
Matt King is well spoken, he was at Horeke (up in the Hokianga) a few years back, along with Kelvin Davis and Mayor John Carter.
King is against rail in Northland, had a twitter argument about it 🙄