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?
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.
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”.
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Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
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Good news on a potential Covid 19 cure
https://youtu.be/F6A6RFDprIs
https://youtu.be/BvASitqCsPk
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.
https://thestandard.org.nz/the-housing-bubble/#comment-801049
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….
https://twitter.com/DineshDSouza/status/1291518591393656837
https://twitter.com/DineshDSouza/status/1291564123545907200
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.
https://twitter.com/RobertMaguire_/status/1291794194537811970
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!
https://www.facebook.com/NewshubNationNZ/videos/2575837389393164/
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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sfeIoNGq2k&feature=emb_title
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
https://youtu.be/HLWgVpmo1e0
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.
https://twitter.com/huggins_pm/status/1292025739030618112?s=20
Lolz!!
https://twitter.com/danxduran/status/1289390478249431040?s=20
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..
https://twitter.com/NZAHParallels/status/1292031921946365953
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 🙄