I have no doubt this has been said by other commentators on previous days, but I need to get it off my chest, so apologies for any repetition.
I am getting royally pissed off by the blatant dishonesty of the National Party, in their unrelenting criticism of the Coalition government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
We know from past experience (their slack handling of the cow disease – mico something or other) that their response to Covid-19 would have been almost identical to the Coalitions, only slower.
Imagine the cries and whining from National if the Coalition had effectively sealed off our borders (as perhaps they should have done) to all countries as soon as it was apparent the virus was spreading in an uncontrollable way.
Imagine the effect on all business in this country and how the Coalition would have got slammed for their actions.
My fear, and I believe the Natz are doing this quite deliberately, is that this negativity will have some impact on the electorate. Their policy, to paraphrase Orwell’s Animal Farm is: before 2017, all good, after 2017 all bad. [Two legs bad, four legs good].
This continued negativity, like water on a stone, will begin to leave an impression!
[Fixed white spaces; it looked like a snowy Winter land]
Fair enough. You seem to have typed two spaces between each paragraph and few at the end for good measure. If you are pasting from somewhere else those can come along for the ride.
We are basically in the same situation now as a wartime government. Today the PM offered explictly in an interview with John Campbell on TVNZ's Breakfast show for the Nats to work cooperatively on NZ's pandemic response.
Barking 'tax cuts' at passing cars starts to look really unfit for power..
I don’t really think it’s working out quite the way National (and their proxies in the media) would like though.
Aotearoa is still in Phase 1 of the epidemic curve (thanks Siouxsie Wiles for the explainer) and so far there’s no real sign of Phase 2 – a more widespread outbreak – that the Nats need to have happen if their narrative is going get traction.
The fact that National (and their friends) are almost wishing for a pandemic as a way to attack the government in an election year is beyond belief really.
It really looks like that is their plan – the worse we get it here, the more they can make political capital out of it regardless of whether there were any shortcomings in the NZ response.
It would be cool if they could bring up specifics, but they have nothing.
A bonfire of the regulations restricting workers right to strike, the ones allowing police to taser the mentally ill, and the ones allowing security services to spy on anyone National doesn't like, would be great, but I don't think those are the ones National has in mind.
Time to prepare the counter-arguments about the value of workplace protections in making sure workers come home to their families at the end of each day.
Protection is the word to emphasise, not regulation. The Nats have a history of removing protections and it leads to things like Pike River.
If work place regulations are so effective why have work place deaths increased?
[I don’t think anybody stated those words. You’re intelligent and could make at least an attempt to answer your own disingenuous question. Thus, it looks very much like you’re trolling us again, which is your MO here. You spray & walk away and usually add very little to the debate. Patience is wearing thin in election year and I have no patience for you wasting our time. Take a week off – Incognito]
Nationals promise to dump two regs for every new one brought in is bound to be a real vote catcher this election i reckon in fact were it not for a fairly deep seated distrust and general loathing for suit wearing slimeballs i'd be tempted to vote for them myself !
People just love having less protection. Why waste all that public money painting lines down the middle of the road? Think of the tax cuts we could have instead.
No doubt the full page ads they put in the papers listing all those they're getting rid of will identify all the ones brought in under their governments.
They'll probably also apologise for telling us they were right at the time they convinced us those regs were necessary when they came in came in but weren't really necessary.
I worked on a farm as a handyman gardener for a while. I remember the leading maintenance man, a painter by trade, finishing painting a one storey building roof and then stepping back to admire the job. He hit the concrete below before he realised he'd stepped off the roof, and was very fortunately uninjured. That farm was a very unsafe place, exacerbated by a culture of drinking and very 'laddish' behaviour.
When I think about some of what I observed- animal cruelty, guesswork used in estimating chemical usage, pranks like setting off detonators inside a wool-shed, turning up to drive tractors at 7.30 after drinking till 3, playing chicken with trucks, not properly obeying hand signals when using front end loaders to stack wool bales on the bed of a truck and pushing both man and bales off the side, alcoholic shepherds with stashes of booze around the farm, and finding a stick of weeping explosive in the toolbox mounted just behind the 35X tractor seat…………
Now what was that about education and the need for safety regulations again?
Very interesting – thanks.. However I was disappointed to see that the model takes no account of how tax cuts will flatten the curve. Especially if targeted at the top marginal rate. A disqualifying oversight surely? /endpisstake
We're already running trials on treatment efficacy with drugs our ancestors didn't dream of.
Multiple teams are developing vaccines.
There were multiple waves of the black death, each only slowed by isolation, each wave devastating. We're looking at a bad initial wave of a new disease, but after a year or two it probably won't be much of an issue.
We've recorded 145 different single amino acid mutations among sequenced viruses in the #COVID19 pandemic. This manuscript focuses on a particular change from leucine ("L") to serine ("S") at site 84 in the ORF-8 gene of #SARSCoV2. 2/8
Has anyone even bothered developing a vaccine for the entire selection of viruses that only cause 15% of the common cold?
I have no idea.
But I do know that we have a variety of treatments for cold symptoms that our ancestors never had – the best drugs being so awesome we're not even allowed to buy them here for fear we make something even more powerful.
btw, I thought the link was pretty funny. It’s important to keep your sense of humour in times like these.
We're already running trials on treatment efficacy with drugs our ancestors didn't dream of.
That's a reasonable possibility, but our track record with anti-virals is patchy at best.
Multiple teams are developing vaccines.
The good news here is that despite the emergence of multiple variants, most teams will be targeting highly conserved or stable parts of the RNA sequence. Hopefully one vaccine will rule them all. The bad news is that while development of candidate vaccines may well be remarkably fast, testing them to ensure they work and are safe for mass rollout across the whole human population is probably 18 months away.
We're looking at a bad initial wave of a new disease, but after a year or two it probably won't be much of an issue.
Initial reports suggest COVID 19 is somewhat more genetically stable than the common cold virus. This hopefully means that over time as more and more people develop natural antibodies from having got the illness, an increasing total herd immunity will dramatically slow down the growth rate.
If it doesn't then we could see successive waves circle the globe for years. Also we don't yet fully understand how much damage a serious case of the illness causes, and whether it leaves an individual vulnerable to a subsequent infection.
Still lots to learn about this 'devil virus' as the CCP described it. Personally I'm taking it very seriously and have already made significant changes in our plans taking into account the medical and systemic risks it poses. Everything from already avoiding crowds, touching anything in public, always wearing glasses, washing hands everytime we return home, etc … right through to thinking through the consequences of being stuck in Australia if trans-Tasman travel is shut down,
I'm basically thinking only a few months ahead – longer term repercussions are too up in the air. But there might be some upcoming travel and events that need to be cancelled, impacts on business, that sort of thing in that timeframe.
I was already a bit germ-phobic about door handles etc, my fear of covid-19 was preceded by my fear of gastroenteritis lol
The successive waves of similar severity is basically the worst possible scenario, and frankly unlikely. More likely than NZ having zero fatalities, but we have more than prayer and isolation to rely on.
Bear in mind that even though we don't have actual disease cures, we do have a lot of symptom treatments.
“Thanks to Professor Gane and his international colleagues’ innovative work and perseverance, almost everyone with Hepatitis C can now be cured with a short course of tablets. The World Health Organisation recently announced that more than one million people have already been cured with these new drugs and that global eradication of Hepatitis C should now be achievable within the next 30 years.”
I'd like to say the hypocrisy is astounding but it's not because that's what we expect from Bridges and the current bunch of nats. National introduced the current Social Security Act 2018 (which the current government embraced and passed at the end of last year) which is riddled with reliance upon regulations which weren't there before, putting the lie to the rhetoric that the new legislation was both policy neutral and would simplify things. Of course what Bridges says doesn't matter because beneficiaries don't count.
I spoke to a relative this morning who lives in Italy and posited the perfect place for a flu -like outbreak is cold wet inland China and Italy's Po valley. cold, damp, foggy etc. He added another one and in his opinion the principal reason for the Italian outbreak is that Chinese companies have established very large factories in Italy assembling Chinese goods so that they can be marketed as EU and Italian made and they are staffed exclusively by Chinese workers most of whom went home for Chinese New Year and then left there early when the disease became known and were let back into Italy because the Italians are particularily slack when it comes to observing regulations etc.
An interesting observation on the map of the outbreaks is that there is very little spread in the southern hemisphere which is currently at the end of summer . I'll take a wild quess and bet that like SARS which it apparently shares about 97% similarity that Covid-9 will dry up and fade dramaticly when some heat and drying returns up north.
There are also very large numbers of Chinese workers in Iran as Iran is seen as the hub for the Belt and Road expansion. China has poured billions into Iranian construction and factories in the last few years. Ironic considering the CCPs treatment of it's own muslim communities.
Ironic considering the CCPs treatment of it's own muslim communities.
It's a bit of a paradox isn't it. The deeper explanation is that the Uighurs are culturally Turkic in origin and much of the rest of the Muslim world just doesn't give a shit.
Soimon wants renters to live in cold damp houses because landlords shouldn’t have to provide heaters. He’s got a heart of gold (oops, meant a heart of ice). Such a lovely man.
I don't mind providing good insulation and dampness management in our units; it keeps tenants happy and makes good business sense. And these are are typically fixed assets that are hard to mess with. But the first set of heat pumps I installed over 10 years ago all got either stolen or broken by tenants. Much less encouraging.
I'd love to see NZ have a housing stock that is modern, warm and dry … but we just don't. Many rentals are houses that are in the last 20% of their economic life, houses that very few people want to live in as their own home. And houses this old were built in an era where they were often very badly oriented to the sun, and were completely devoid of any details we would take for granted in a modern building. For this reason they're actually quite expensive to effectively get them up to a modern standard. Sure you can stuff in insulation to your heart's content … but they'll never really perform.
If building costs in NZ were more aligned with those in Australia, I'd be a lot keener to simply knock over these end of life units and build new.
Building costs!!!!!! I just priced a 5 metre length of 100mm x 12mm skirting board made out of recyled cardboard, MDF to you and it was $37 fucking dollars a metre or $185 a length, I only need 1.5 metres but Placemakers dont cut to length.
I'm going to use flattened gold bars in future, they are cheaper and have better residual value. Fucking thieving arseholes.
In a post based on a rant by far right-wing ex-convict Damien Grant, and in a feat of staggering hypocrisy, DFP fights what he calls "cancel culture" with – wait for it – a boycott campaign.
The drum is beating for the RB Governor to reduce the OCR down from 1 to .5% – if only to match cuts made by others so the dollar does not rise in value while exporters (loss of revenue) and importers (lack of new supply) are struggling. The problem is this will further fuel the property market.
Maybe it is time to consider Bollards idea of a mortgage surcharge – there would still be a OCR fall but the property market would be constrained by a mortgage surcharge (start at 0.25%, maybe rising to 0.5%).
The mortgage surcharge would also bring in revenue for wage subsidies and interest free loans to businesses so they can meet loan repayments during the downturn.
That might only happen if the banks pass on any cut in full, which is doubtful. While people are stocking up on toilet paper their minds might not be on investing in the property market either.
Seems to me that the purpose of the rate decrease is to stimulate the economy via corporate betting.
Thing is, the issue isn't corporate confidence in their psychological betting game, it's an actual lowering of personal consumption due to isolation and lowered incomes.
So a better way to inject money into that area would be for the govt to borrow from the RB at the lower rate (not offered to banks) and give boosts to recipients of government transfers. They're the ones who will keep the retail sector alive.
Interest rates largely don't fuel the property market. Yes, I am aware its a widely held belief but look at the actual evidence like rate of property price increase vs prevailing interest rates and you would conclude its not strongly correlated.
That's is cool the 2 million dollars of government tau toko for farmers affected by the droughts in Aotearoa.
There you go he is picking on people who can't defend themselves tipical right neck move.
The way I see it is a person can only handle so much toxic substances so the more that is consumed the faster the negative effects will start ie diabetes.
If you look around the world and see how badly Wahine are treated the #Metoo movement is overdue kia kaha.
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. . 24 March 2020 9.46AM Number of covid19 cases in Aotearoa New Zealand: 102 . As of 11.59 on Thursday, most of New Zealand will go into “lock down”. People will be expected not to travel to work; not to socialise; and to stay home. I will not be ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections A respected research group, Project Drawdown, finds that deploying solutions consistent with meeting the Paris climate targets would cost tens of trillions of dollars globally. But crucially, those outlays would also yield long-term savings many times larger than the up-front costs. The new 2020 Drawdown ...
It will pass. What happens next? Not immediately, but longer term. There are many opinions, fewer certainties. Will it “change everything!” as many confidently, and contradictorily predict? In this post I look at how foresight can help bound some of the uncertainties so you can more objectively consider the future. ...
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has striven to provide calm, clear and consistent communication, including daily press conference updates from the Prime Minister. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world".Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...
The domestic travel ban has been lifted for stranded foreign tourists trying to get to international airports to fly home, after the Coalition Government announced a plan to help the tens of thousands of foreigners stranded here. Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters spoke with RNZ's Susie Ferguson said foreign ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters believes the country is rediscovering its resilience and self-reliance through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.He says he is heartened that the mass majority of New Zealanders are following lockdown rules and that the government looking at the future, including paying to keep much ...
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
Ground-breaking law has passed that will decriminalise abortion and ensure women and pregnant people seeking abortions have compassionate healthcare. ...
The Green Party says that the measures announced by the Government today will help families and businesses to prioritise our collective health and wellbeing in the response to COVID-19. ...
As New Zealanders brace for a global downturn due to Covid-19, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says his Coalition Government’s rescue package "more significant" than any other he's seen around the world. The Coalition is to reveal a multi-billion-dollar stimulus plan on Tuesday afternoon designed to cushion the economic blow ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
“The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
From tomorrow, Government support for farmers and growers affected by drought will be expanded and extended across the country, with access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPS) available throughout the North Island, parts of the South Island and the Chatham Islands, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced. “These challenging conditions have ...
Parliament has passed amendments to legislation that give the Secretary of Education stronger powers to act in the fight to limit the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “They are part of a suite of changes passed under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Bill,” Chris ...
Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar have joined forces with New Zealand and Singapore by committing to keep supply chains open and remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker today welcomed ...
Immediate freeze on rent increases Tenancies will not be terminated during the lock-down period, unless the parties agree, or in limited circumstances Tenants who had previously given notice can stay in their if they need to stay in the tenancy during the lock-down period Tenants will still be able to ...
As New Zealand unites to lock-down in the fight against COVID-19, the Finance Minister is urging all businesses and workers to stay connected over the next four weeks. “We understand the extreme pressure many businesses are under right now. I know most business owners think of their workers as family ...
A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country as the Government pulls out all the stops to curtail the spread of COVID-19. “Today we put in place our country’s second ever State of National Emergency as we fight a global pandemic, save New Zealanders’ lives and prevent ...
Mr Speaker I wish to make a Ministerial Statement under Standing Order 347 in relation to the recent declaration of a State of National Emergency. Having considered the advice of the Director Civil Defence Emergency Management, the Minister of Civil Defence declared a State of National Emergency for the whole of ...
People needing to travel on domestic flights, trains and Cook Strait ferries to get home before the country moves into level 4 lock-down tomorrow night will be able to continue using the passenger services until midnight on Friday, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Domestic passenger services, particularly ferries, have ...
The Government, retail banks and the Reserve Bank are today announcing a major financial support package for home owners and businesses affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. The package will include a six month principal and interest payment holiday for mortgage holders and SME customers whose incomes have been ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it's too early to claim success against the spread of Covid-19 but 11 days into lockdown, New Zealand has made a good start. ...
Sam Brooks, a lifelong Studio Ghibli fan, presents a guide to the Japanese studio’s animated films, including which ones to show your kids when.Just heard ‘Let It Go’ for the billionth time? Sick of those class-traitor dogs that make up the cast of Paw Patrol? Look no further than the ...
Alan Simmons co-leader of the NZ Outdoors Party says tensions are at breaking point around New Zealand. “I cannot keep up with the calls and messages from New Zealanders who are extremely stressed, distressed and frustrated by dramatic changes imposed ...
Welcome back to Papercuts, our monthly books podcast hosted by Louisa Kasza, Jenna Todd and Kiran Dass.Well, we’ve all said we wish we had more time to read and now we’ve got what we wished for. Jenna, Kiran and Louisa delve into some book news (that’s not too heavy for ...
The prime minister says she expects the health minister to continue doing his job, including media interviews, after he broke the lockdown rules last week to go mountain biking. ...
There have been calls for major institutions like Auckland Art Gallery to do better in identifying queer or queer-associated artists. New Auckland Art Gallery director Kirsten Paisley believes it’s ‘a conversation that needs to happen’. Writer Samuel Te Kani digs into the complications below the surface of the erasures of ...
Ardern says the role of planning for moving out of lockdown is not the Government's alone Businesses should plan how they will operate in an environment where intensive contact tracing would be needed post-lockdown, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. The Government was working on additional guidance for the move to Level 3 ...
Netflix’s four-part series Unorthodox traces a woman’s escape from a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn. Emily Writes considers the lessons we can all learn from her journey. There was a moment watching Netflix’s miniseries Unorthodox when I felt like I was actually in Berlin, where much of the show is ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...
By RNZ Pacific The number of people with Covid-19 in the Pacific continues to climb with French Polynesia hitting 40 cases, Guam now over 90 and the US state of Hawai’i suffering its third coronavirus death. In the past day, another person tested positive for Covid-19 in French Polynesia. ...
We needed a reasonable period of time to allow the recent surging wave of highly geared first home buyers to get financially comfortable. We didn’t get it, writes David Hargreaves of interest.co.nz.You know, I was really beginning to think (as well as hope) that we might just get away with it.By ‘it’ ...
Being stuck inside all day might be wearing you and your kids down, but there’s never been a better time to encourage them to pick up their musical instrument and get stuck into writing songs. Mike Chunn from Play It Strange explains how. Mums and dads and households with teenage children. ...
Siouxsie Wiles on the vitriolic correspondence she’s received since the Covid-19 outbreak struck, and the realities of communicating evidence.I recently received an email and text from someone telling me they are planning to email my boss, the University of Auckland vice chancellor. They are going to ask for me to ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, five of New Zealand’s best writers chronicle the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, Fiona Farrell.There’s a sign sticky-taped to the bakery window. Closed Until Further Notice. Stay Safe NZ and Be Kind. We will get through this!We all know where the words ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Covid-19 is a real threat to older people, but these Central Otago seniors are embracing technology, experiencing no FOMO, and finding new ways to connect and share, finds Jill Herron When the full lockdown began on March 25 it meant the end of going for a swim, spa or to ...
Former editor of the Woman's Weekly, Nicky Pellegrino, bids farewell to the magazine that brought information and fun to generations of New Zealand women. All those stories. Gone. Stories about our politics, our health, our education, our aspirations. Stories about the houses we lived in and the gardens we grew, ...
As small businesses fight for their survival in the Covid-19 lockdown, it seems one of the country’s biggest retail landlords is not keen to share the pain. On the one side, you have Jonathan*. Jonathan runs a small business out of South Auckland’s Sylvia Park - New Zealand’s biggest mall. ...
With no Covid-19 cases and its economy desperate to restart, the Chathams is keen to go fishing again, writes Jim Kayes.It shouldn’t really be a surprise. They are, after all, ahead of New Zealand by 45 minutes.And though they are part of Wellington’s Rongotai electorate, the fiercely ...
On Friday night, the government quietly laid down some lockdown rules via a legal order under the Health Act. Law professor Andrew Geddis explains what it means for all of us (including David Clark). As the first week of level four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was ...
The health and wellbeing of people working and being held inside our prisons needs to be a priority, writes JustSpeak director Tania Sawicki Mead. Kelvin Davis’s interview on The Hui last weekend made it clear that precautions taken by Corrections to stop the spread of Covid-19 will create an unprecedented restriction ...
Like countless New Zealanders stranded overseas, Wellingtonian Rosie O’Hagan will be braving authorities, airlines, airports and uncertainty to make it back from the other side of the world, writes Jim Kayes.Rosie O’Hagan hadn’t stepped outside for three weeks.When she finally did – around midnight on Friday ...
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY:By David Robie A rather beautiful Guåhan legend is rather poignant in these stressed pandemic times. It is one about survival and cooperation. In ancient times, goes the story, a giant fish was eating great chunks out of this western Pacific island. The men used muscle ...
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...
Alex Casey speaks to a dream expert about why so many people are suddenly remembering their vivid and often horrible dreams. As the days begin to blur together and the only thing we get between sleeps is unimaginably horrible news and an embarrassing tootle around the block, it’s no surprise ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...
Medical centres across the country are condensing services, moving online, and ushering in pandemic plans. Josie Adams assesses what it’s like to access and provide essential medical care under alert level four.On Monday, Sandra Russell woke up before dawn and drove to Milford to get her blood tested. She has ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, writer and doctor Glenn Colquhoun, with the second of his Letters to Hone Tūwhare and his Travelling Band of Constant Companions. ...
ANALYSIS:By Haiqing Yu of RMIT University and Michael Keane of Curtin University China has gradually emerged out of its shadow of despair as the epicentre where the coronavirus pandemic started. Now, there is face saving required – as well as agenda-setting in the global power play. China played ...
Tech giant Google has released a giant global data set which shows how different countries are locking down, and which NZ regions are most compliant with its lockdown.A giant set of reports released by Google, created using its anonymised cellphone location data reveals the scale of human behaviour change the ...
Comedian Penny Ashton writes on the necessity of the arts, especially during lockdown.On March 22, everyone’s favourite fiscal bloodhounds, the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union, sent out a tweet in response to Creative New Zealand’s announcement that it will dedicate an emergency response package to helping New Zealand’s artists, in the ...
Wellington writer Philippa Swan’s new novel TheNight of All Souls is an homage to Pulitzer-winning and all-round fabulous American writer Edith Wharton. Wharton died in 1937 but, Swan writes, she’s very much of the moment. Nobody does social distancing like Wharton did. While Wharton was still comparatively young, she created the ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford.I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...
How do you hold a funeral service with the country in lockdown? Where there’s a will – and a tech-savvy uncle – there’s a way, Erin Kavanagh-Hall discovered.I was floating somewhere in the Cook Strait when I heard my grandfather’s funeral had been cancelled.I should elaborate. It was a Monday, ...
‘Stay in your bubble’ didn’t exist 100 years ago, but our ancestors would want us to know how essential it is to do so, says Jai Breitnauer.It was a warm but slightly grey January day in 2019 when I pulled the car over to the side of SH1, just south ...
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...
Every day at 1pm New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announces precise figures on the number of confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in the country. He is working on the best information available, and during this week the level of community transmission was put at around ...
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Deery, Lecturer in Early Childhood Education, University of Melbourne “Stupid coronavirus!” I heard my six-year-old mumble while talking in her sleep. Earlier that day her swimming and basketball lessons were cancelled, a birthday party postponed, and she had to race with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University “Zoombombing” in case you haven’t heard, is the unsavoury practice of posting distressing comments, pictures or videos after gatecrashing virtual meetings hosted by the videoconferencing app Zoom. With hundreds of millions ...
Analysis - A leading epidemiologist says health authorities 'really have no idea' of the extent of community spread, Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee gets its teeth into what's going on during the lockdown and the horrendous economic imp ...
The fifth in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall, covering the Covid-19 epidemic within New Zealand. We’ll publish the latest set each day on The Spinoff.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersInformation about confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 ...
The Finance Minister says struggling companies will be able to put some debt into hibernation, under new legislation unveiled today. Watch the latest government update here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Lund, Commissioning Editor, The Conversation Editor’s note: The following is current as at April 3, 2020. Things are changing quickly so best to keep an eye on the latest information from WA Health, as well as the federal government.This article ...
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling What does the COVID-19 pandemic sound like? For this episode, Dallas Rogers – a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney – asked academic colleagues from all over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sven Gallasch, Lecturer in Law, Swinburne University of Technology “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion,” wrote Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (published in 1776), “but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the ...
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Of the larger European countries, Italy is now in third place for known cases per person in the population. Spain has overtaken Switzerland for ...
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui and Te Kaahui o Rauru are celebrating the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South Taranaki Bight. The Court of Appeal found that there ...
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...
Political commentators from the left and right sides of the political divide are questioning the powers being exercised by police during the nation-wide “lockdown”. The Asian Invasion 2019 blog draws attention to the warning sounded by former UK Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Sumption when he challenged Covid-19 actions by British ...
Pacific Media Watch The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) has strongly condemned the shoot-to-kill order by President Rodrigo Duterte this week as a ‘dangerous’ opening to target and kill anyone in a public space. “We are raising the alarm in the international community on President ...
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...
Four PhD students engaged a clinical psychologist to help them navigate an uncertain time in their studies. They share their findings here.As four PhD students from Massey University’s Joint Centre for Disaster Research we, like many others, can’t stop reading and talking about the unfolding events that have gripped our ...
The SpinoffBy Ashleigh Rushton, Lisa McLaren, Marion Tan & Sara Harrison
Covid-19 testing of the wider population is on the cards as World Health Organisation research shows people are most contagious within their first few days of being infected Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says Covid-19 carriers are highly infectious when they show few signs of carrying the virus. People were ...
Z Energy is the latest company to cut its dividend payout and start talking to its banks about strengthening its finances. Chief executive Mike Bennetts said the company, the largest fuel retailer in the country, had been battered by a range of issues over the past 18 months, and was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Kang, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney Young people in Australia are among the fastest-growing group to contract COVID19. According to the Department of Health, there are now more cases in Australia among people aged 20 – 29 years than any ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Pattinson, Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Getting a good night’s sleep can be difficult at the best of times. But it can be even harder when you’re anxious or have something on your mind – a global pandemic, for example. ...
Journalist and Great Barrier Island resident Lindsay Wright reflects on outer gulf pandemic preparedness. Hardy locals can tough it out but Auckland bach owners and boaties should keep their distance. Aotea Great Barrier, the easternmost island in the Hauraki Gulf, are undergoing a Covid-19-inspired population flood. Great Barrier has scenery that makes ...
The Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand is delighted that the government has moved quickly to provide an initial financial support package for pharmacy. The $15 million package was paid this week to pharmacy contract holders. Pharmaceutical Society president ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference and are "as of 9am" of the day. There were 71 new cases of Covid-19 in ...
A new poem by Wellington poet and bookseller Ash Davida Jane. washed up! it gets tiring pushing the fire alarm every nightbut things keep catching on fireor sometimes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Open mike 09/03/2020 
As the world economy slides rapidly towards deep recession there are growing calls for a Universal Benefit coming from some leftists and rightists. Now Finance Minister Grant Robertson is saying it is on the table. This article by a French party Workers Struggle provides analysis of various forms of universal ...1 hour ago
This is the advice from the very top of the anti-fluoride movement – Paul Connett, director of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). Don’t worry about reading up on all the scientific information “You only have ... 3 hours ago
. . April 4: Day 10 of living in lock-down… I wake up to a fine Saturday morning which normally would be like an early Christmas. But it’s Day 10 of Level 4 Lock Down. What will my fellow New Zealanders be doing on a day like this – staying ...7 hours ago
Comfortably, in the very first round, with an impressive 56% of the votes.I wonder, did members of the Shadow Cabinet start tweeting their resignations during Starmer's victory speech, or is that only a trick the right pull?It is odd how all the talk of how the next leader "needs to ...9 hours ago
One of the key voices in this extraordinary time in which we live is that of University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker. Philip Matthews did an an excellent job this weekend of capturing the way he became the man for this moment in a profile for The Press.But one ...9 hours ago
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...24 hours ago
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messages from different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...1 day ago
We must root out the traitors among us! ...2 days ago
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...2 days ago
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...2 days ago
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...3 days ago
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...3 days ago
46 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Global response of evapotranspiration ratio to climate conditions and watershed characteristics in a changing environment Greenhouse effect: the relative contributions of emission height and total absorption Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Climate change induced a ...4 days ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 4 days ago
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...5 days ago
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...5 days ago
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...6 days ago
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...1 week ago
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...1 week ago
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights: In this legal blog we outline some ...1 week ago
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has striven to provide calm, clear and consistent communication, including daily press conference updates from the Prime Minister. ...2 hours ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world". Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...2 days ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...2 weeks ago
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...2 days ago
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it's too early to claim success against the spread of Covid-19 but 11 days into lockdown, New Zealand has made a good start. ...1 hour ago
Sam Brooks, a lifelong Studio Ghibli fan, presents a guide to the Japanese studio’s animated films, including which ones to show your kids when.Just heard ‘Let It Go’ for the billionth time? Sick of those class-traitor dogs that make up the cast of Paw Patrol? Look no further than the ...2 hours ago
Alan Simmons co-leader of the NZ Outdoors Party says tensions are at breaking point around New Zealand. “I cannot keep up with the calls and messages from New Zealanders who are extremely stressed, distressed and frustrated by dramatic changes imposed ...3 hours ago
Ardern says the role of planning for moving out of lockdown is not the Government's alone Businesses should plan how they will operate in an environment where intensive contact tracing would be needed post-lockdown, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. The Government was working on additional guidance for the move to Level 3 ...4 hours ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...6 hours ago
By RNZ Pacific The number of people with Covid-19 in the Pacific continues to climb with French Polynesia hitting 40 cases, Guam now over 90 and the US state of Hawai’i suffering its third coronavirus death. In the past day, another person tested positive for Covid-19 in French Polynesia. ...7 hours ago
Covid-19 is a real threat to older people, but these Central Otago seniors are embracing technology, experiencing no FOMO, and finding new ways to connect and share, finds Jill Herron When the full lockdown began on March 25 it meant the end of going for a swim, spa or to ...13 hours ago
Former editor of the Woman's Weekly, Nicky Pellegrino, bids farewell to the magazine that brought information and fun to generations of New Zealand women. All those stories. Gone. Stories about our politics, our health, our education, our aspirations. Stories about the houses we lived in and the gardens we grew, ...13 hours ago
As small businesses fight for their survival in the Covid-19 lockdown, it seems one of the country’s biggest retail landlords is not keen to share the pain. On the one side, you have Jonathan*. Jonathan runs a small business out of South Auckland’s Sylvia Park - New Zealand’s biggest mall. ...13 hours ago
With no Covid-19 cases and its economy desperate to restart, the Chathams is keen to go fishing again, writes Jim Kayes. It shouldn’t really be a surprise. They are, after all, ahead of New Zealand by 45 minutes. And though they are part of Wellington’s Rongotai electorate, the fiercely ...13 hours ago
Like countless New Zealanders stranded overseas, Wellingtonian Rosie O’Hagan will be braving authorities, airlines, airports and uncertainty to make it back from the other side of the world, writes Jim Kayes. Rosie O’Hagan hadn’t stepped outside for three weeks. When she finally did – around midnight on Friday ...1 day ago
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...1 day ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...1 day ago
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...2 days ago
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...2 days ago
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...2 days ago
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford. I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...2 days ago
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...2 days ago
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...2 days ago
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...2 days ago
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...2 days ago
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...2 days ago
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...2 days ago
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...2 days ago
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...2 days ago
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Z Energy is the latest company to cut its dividend payout and start talking to its banks about strengthening its finances. Chief executive Mike Bennetts said the company, the largest fuel retailer in the country, had been battered by a range of issues over the past 18 months, and was ...2 days ago
Journalist and Great Barrier Island resident Lindsay Wright reflects on outer gulf pandemic preparedness. Hardy locals can tough it out but Auckland bach owners and boaties should keep their distance. Aotea Great Barrier, the easternmost island in the Hauraki Gulf, are undergoing a Covid-19-inspired population flood. Great Barrier has scenery that makes ...2 days ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference and are "as of 9am" of the day. There were 71 new cases of Covid-19 in ...2 days ago
I have no doubt this has been said by other commentators on previous days, but I need to get it off my chest, so apologies for any repetition.
I am getting royally pissed off by the blatant dishonesty of the National Party, in their unrelenting criticism of the Coalition government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
We know from past experience (their slack handling of the cow disease – mico something or other) that their response to Covid-19 would have been almost identical to the Coalitions, only slower.
Imagine the cries and whining from National if the Coalition had effectively sealed off our borders (as perhaps they should have done) to all countries as soon as it was apparent the virus was spreading in an uncontrollable way.
Imagine the effect on all business in this country and how the Coalition would have got slammed for their actions.
My fear, and I believe the Natz are doing this quite deliberately, is that this negativity will have some impact on the electorate. Their policy, to paraphrase Orwell’s Animal Farm is: before 2017, all good, after 2017 all bad. [Two legs bad, four legs good].
This continued negativity, like water on a stone, will begin to leave an impression!
[Fixed white spaces; it looked like a snowy Winter land]
Fair enough. You seem to have typed two spaces between each paragraph and few at the end for good measure. If you are pasting from somewhere else those can come along for the ride.
We are basically in the same situation now as a wartime government. Today the PM offered explictly in an interview with John Campbell on TVNZ's Breakfast show for the Nats to work cooperatively on NZ's pandemic response.
Barking 'tax cuts' at passing cars starts to look really unfit for power..
I don’t really think it’s working out quite the way National (and their proxies in the media) would like though.
Aotearoa is still in Phase 1 of the epidemic curve (thanks Siouxsie Wiles for the explainer) and so far there’s no real sign of Phase 2 – a more widespread outbreak – that the Nats need to have happen if their narrative is going get traction.
The fact that National (and their friends) are almost wishing for a pandemic as a way to attack the government in an election year is beyond belief really.
It really looks like that is their plan – the worse we get it here, the more they can make political capital out of it regardless of whether there were any shortcomings in the NZ response.
It would be cool if they could bring up specifics, but they have nothing.
A bonfire of the regulations restricting workers right to strike, the ones allowing police to taser the mentally ill, and the ones allowing security services to spy on anyone National doesn't like, would be great, but I don't think those are the ones National has in mind.
More leaky homes and Pike Rivers, anyone?
She’ll be right, mate.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/120107398/national-to-promise-commonsense-legal-test-for-workplace-safety-rules
Time to prepare the counter-arguments about the value of workplace protections in making sure workers come home to their families at the end of each day.
Protection is the word to emphasise, not regulation. The Nats have a history of removing protections and it leads to things like Pike River.
Worm farms
For the 'making fun of them' part of the resistance, yes. #ComingUpWoodhouse
If work place regulations are so effective why have work place deaths increased?
[I don’t think anybody stated those words. You’re intelligent and could make at least an attempt to answer your own disingenuous question. Thus, it looks very much like you’re trolling us again, which is your MO here. You spray & walk away and usually add very little to the debate. Patience is wearing thin in election year and I have no patience for you wasting our time. Take a week off – Incognito]
Because the Ministry of Inaction doesn't bother enforcing them?
Whoever is the Minister of the department responsible should be sacked by Ardern then. Who is the Minister responsible?
Ardern does not sack anyone.
As a proportion of hours worked?
But if deaths are increasing does it make sense to remove the regulations Gos?
Remember the leaky buildings fiasco was down to the Nats removing rules and regulations
Cos they excluding farming
At least in part because a goddamned island blew up.
Also in part due to basic statistical variation.
See my Moderation note @ 8:53 AM.
Because they are designed to allow employers to avoid responsibility, not protect, workers.
As you would know, if you ever had a real job.
Would someone please confirm the lifting of my ban?
[Looks like the machine has let you through – MS]
I cannot confirm nor deny that your ban has expired as of this morning.
Nationals promise to dump two regs for every new one brought in is bound to be a real vote catcher this election i reckon in fact were it not for a fairly deep seated distrust and general loathing for suit wearing slimeballs i'd be tempted to vote for them myself !
People just love having less protection. Why waste all that public money painting lines down the middle of the road? Think of the tax cuts we could have instead.
exactly….and who needs buildings that are waterproof?
the poors
No doubt the full page ads they put in the papers listing all those they're getting rid of will identify all the ones brought in under their governments.
They'll probably also apologise for telling us they were right at the time they convinced us those regs were necessary when they came in came in but weren't really necessary.
Can some reporter please ask bridges ,how many roofers have to break their back before scaffolding single story dwellings is economically worth it.
I worked on a farm as a handyman gardener for a while. I remember the leading maintenance man, a painter by trade, finishing painting a one storey building roof and then stepping back to admire the job. He hit the concrete below before he realised he'd stepped off the roof, and was very fortunately uninjured. That farm was a very unsafe place, exacerbated by a culture of drinking and very 'laddish' behaviour.
When I think about some of what I observed- animal cruelty, guesswork used in estimating chemical usage, pranks like setting off detonators inside a wool-shed, turning up to drive tractors at 7.30 after drinking till 3, playing chicken with trucks, not properly obeying hand signals when using front end loaders to stack wool bales on the bed of a truck and pushing both man and bales off the side, alcoholic shepherds with stashes of booze around the farm, and finding a stick of weeping explosive in the toolbox mounted just behind the 35X tractor seat…………
Now what was that about education and the need for safety regulations again?
Dr Siouxsie Wiles writes clearly about the shape of NZ's public health response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including handy animated illustration by Toby Morris of 'flattening the epidemic curve': https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/09-03-2020/the-three-phases-of-covid-19-and-how-we-can-make-it-manageable/
That's a good read. Here is a new 3Blue1Brown video on the underlying math. Quite easy to follow:
Very interesting – thanks.. However I was disappointed to see that the model takes no account of how tax cuts will flatten the curve. Especially if targeted at the top marginal rate. A disqualifying oversight surely? /endpisstake
Ah … that's the 'Laffer out Loud" curve you're thinking of.
Flattening the curve,is only achievable by containment ,here we are limited by technological constraints and have only one mechanism.
Well, no, that's not strictly true.
We're already running trials on treatment efficacy with drugs our ancestors didn't dream of.
Multiple teams are developing vaccines.
There were multiple waves of the black death, each only slowed by isolation, each wave devastating. We're looking at a bad initial wave of a new disease, but after a year or two it probably won't be much of an issue.
Multiple teams are developing vaccines.
For which strain
The worst strain
Will it be as successful as other coronavirus vaccines such as the common cold?
Has anyone even bothered developing a vaccine for the entire selection of viruses that only cause 15% of the common cold?
I have no idea.
But I do know that we have a variety of treatments for cold symptoms that our ancestors never had – the best drugs being so awesome we're not even allowed to buy them here for fear we make something even more powerful.
btw, I thought the link was pretty funny. It’s important to keep your sense of humour in times like these.
We're already running trials on treatment efficacy with drugs our ancestors didn't dream of.
That's a reasonable possibility, but our track record with anti-virals is patchy at best.
Multiple teams are developing vaccines.
The good news here is that despite the emergence of multiple variants, most teams will be targeting highly conserved or stable parts of the RNA sequence. Hopefully one vaccine will rule them all. The bad news is that while development of candidate vaccines may well be remarkably fast, testing them to ensure they work and are safe for mass rollout across the whole human population is probably 18 months away.
We're looking at a bad initial wave of a new disease, but after a year or two it probably won't be much of an issue.
Initial reports suggest COVID 19 is somewhat more genetically stable than the common cold virus. This hopefully means that over time as more and more people develop natural antibodies from having got the illness, an increasing total herd immunity will dramatically slow down the growth rate.
If it doesn't then we could see successive waves circle the globe for years. Also we don't yet fully understand how much damage a serious case of the illness causes, and whether it leaves an individual vulnerable to a subsequent infection.
Still lots to learn about this 'devil virus' as the CCP described it. Personally I'm taking it very seriously and have already made significant changes in our plans taking into account the medical and systemic risks it poses. Everything from already avoiding crowds, touching anything in public, always wearing glasses, washing hands everytime we return home, etc … right through to thinking through the consequences of being stuck in Australia if trans-Tasman travel is shut down,
I'm basically thinking only a few months ahead – longer term repercussions are too up in the air. But there might be some upcoming travel and events that need to be cancelled, impacts on business, that sort of thing in that timeframe.
I was already a bit germ-phobic about door handles etc, my fear of covid-19 was preceded by my fear of gastroenteritis lol
The successive waves of similar severity is basically the worst possible scenario, and frankly unlikely. More likely than NZ having zero fatalities, but we have more than prayer and isolation to rely on.
Bear in mind that even though we don't have actual disease cures, we do have a lot of symptom treatments.
'but our track record with anti-virals is patchy at best.' You haven't seen the work of the esteemed Ed Gane.
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/news-events-and-notices/news/news-2017/02/new-zealander-of-the-year-honours-for-academic-and-graduate.html
“Thanks to Professor Gane and his international colleagues’ innovative work and perseverance, almost everyone with Hepatitis C can now be cured with a short course of tablets. The World Health Organisation recently announced that more than one million people have already been cured with these new drugs and that global eradication of Hepatitis C should now be achievable within the next 30 years.”
An excellent interview that gives an Iranian professor's perspective on Syria
Thanks.
That's an excellent interview. In an hour Mohammad Marandi has described the Syrian War as no MSM outlet ever could or would ever dare.
Simon Bridges continues to borrow (or rather, steal) from his blue buddies overseas. Nothing he says is original, not even the language he uses.
If you want a laugh, just Google "bonfire of red tape [regulations]".
National: copy and paste.
With a compliant MSM willing to act as your echo chamber further scaring the punters and sowing dissent instead of providing balance why change
I'd like to say the hypocrisy is astounding but it's not because that's what we expect from Bridges and the current bunch of nats. National introduced the current Social Security Act 2018 (which the current government embraced and passed at the end of last year) which is riddled with reliance upon regulations which weren't there before, putting the lie to the rhetoric that the new legislation was both policy neutral and would simplify things. Of course what Bridges says doesn't matter because beneficiaries don't count.
I spoke to a relative this morning who lives in Italy and posited the perfect place for a flu -like outbreak is cold wet inland China and Italy's Po valley. cold, damp, foggy etc. He added another one and in his opinion the principal reason for the Italian outbreak is that Chinese companies have established very large factories in Italy assembling Chinese goods so that they can be marketed as EU and Italian made and they are staffed exclusively by Chinese workers most of whom went home for Chinese New Year and then left there early when the disease became known and were let back into Italy because the Italians are particularily slack when it comes to observing regulations etc.
An interesting observation on the map of the outbreaks is that there is very little spread in the southern hemisphere which is currently at the end of summer . I'll take a wild quess and bet that like SARS which it apparently shares about 97% similarity that Covid-9 will dry up and fade dramaticly when some heat and drying returns up north.
heres hoping.
There are also very large numbers of Chinese workers in Iran as Iran is seen as the hub for the Belt and Road expansion. China has poured billions into Iranian construction and factories in the last few years. Ironic considering the CCPs treatment of it's own muslim communities.
Ironic considering the CCPs treatment of it's own muslim communities.
It's a bit of a paradox isn't it. The deeper explanation is that the Uighurs are culturally Turkic in origin and much of the rest of the Muslim world just doesn't give a shit.
Soimon wants renters to live in cold damp houses because landlords shouldn’t have to provide heaters. He’s got a heart of gold (oops, meant a heart of ice). Such a lovely man.
I don't mind providing good insulation and dampness management in our units; it keeps tenants happy and makes good business sense. And these are are typically fixed assets that are hard to mess with. But the first set of heat pumps I installed over 10 years ago all got either stolen or broken by tenants. Much less encouraging.
I'd love to see NZ have a housing stock that is modern, warm and dry … but we just don't. Many rentals are houses that are in the last 20% of their economic life, houses that very few people want to live in as their own home. And houses this old were built in an era where they were often very badly oriented to the sun, and were completely devoid of any details we would take for granted in a modern building. For this reason they're actually quite expensive to effectively get them up to a modern standard. Sure you can stuff in insulation to your heart's content … but they'll never really perform.
If building costs in NZ were more aligned with those in Australia, I'd be a lot keener to simply knock over these end of life units and build new.
Building costs!!!!!! I just priced a 5 metre length of 100mm x 12mm skirting board made out of recyled cardboard, MDF to you and it was $37 fucking dollars a metre or $185 a length, I only need 1.5 metres but Placemakers dont cut to length.
I'm going to use flattened gold bars in future, they are cheaper and have better residual value. Fucking thieving arseholes.
Farrar watch:
In a post based on a rant by far right-wing ex-convict Damien Grant, and in a feat of staggering hypocrisy, DFP fights what he calls "cancel culture" with – wait for it – a boycott campaign.
The drum is beating for the RB Governor to reduce the OCR down from 1 to .5% – if only to match cuts made by others so the dollar does not rise in value while exporters (loss of revenue) and importers (lack of new supply) are struggling. The problem is this will further fuel the property market.
Maybe it is time to consider Bollards idea of a mortgage surcharge – there would still be a OCR fall but the property market would be constrained by a mortgage surcharge (start at 0.25%, maybe rising to 0.5%).
The mortgage surcharge would also bring in revenue for wage subsidies and interest free loans to businesses so they can meet loan repayments during the downturn.
That might only happen if the banks pass on any cut in full, which is doubtful. While people are stocking up on toilet paper their minds might not be on investing in the property market either.
Seems to me that the purpose of the rate decrease is to stimulate the economy via corporate betting.
Thing is, the issue isn't corporate confidence in their psychological betting game, it's an actual lowering of personal consumption due to isolation and lowered incomes.
So a better way to inject money into that area would be for the govt to borrow from the RB at the lower rate (not offered to banks) and give boosts to recipients of government transfers. They're the ones who will keep the retail sector alive.
Interest rates largely don't fuel the property market. Yes, I am aware its a widely held belief but look at the actual evidence like rate of property price increase vs prevailing interest rates and you would conclude its not strongly correlated.
Hands up if you had "I'm Nero" on your Drumpf Batshittery Bingo card.
No? Too much? Me neither.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-nero-meme_n_5e658685c5b68d61645632c2
Kia Te Ao Maori News.
Rangitane Iwi lost heaps of whenua hope the crown does the correct thing.
I think there should be more architectural mahi done on old Maori sites before they lost forever.
That's the way American indigenous Wahine ambassador championing their cultures plight from their system.
Kia Kaha to all the Wahine around the world and in Mexico for there protest on Sunday.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora The Am Show.
if people get more putea they can spend more in business so in my view the mimimum wage increase is a win win???
If the walk is only 10 minutes I can't see what's wrong with that exercise and lowering ones negative impact on the future by walking to mahi.
Music to my ears all these song being translated into Te reo Maori.
Good to see you again Rawdon.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Newshub.
There is another subject Eco Maori has had a win on but Te kaumara never tells how sweet it is.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
I say our government is doing great mahi with the virus.
Take me to the Awa is going to be sung in Te reo Māori Ka pai.
Good to see the Marae including their church in their new Carving.
Mana Wahine that's the way Wahine Shearing Sheep.
Awsome that university celebrateing the difference cultures they have their in Hawaii
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
That's is cool the 2 million dollars of government tau toko for farmers affected by the droughts in Aotearoa.
There you go he is picking on people who can't defend themselves tipical right neck move.
The way I see it is a person can only handle so much toxic substances so the more that is consumed the faster the negative effects will start ie diabetes.
If you look around the world and see how badly Wahine are treated the #Metoo movement is overdue kia kaha.
Yes absolutely power corupts.?????.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
I put my Kiwisaver into low risk funds a little while ago.
Our government helping our farmers who are the back bone of Aotearoa is great during this drought.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Kia Kaha Pahui hope fully tangata will give heaps to your givealittle page.
Festpack in Hawaii looked like the event would have been awesome mate wa.
Some tangata pay rates and get little returns from the charges
That's is awesome Ahurri Treaty Settlement bill being passed by the government.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora The Am Show.
Big NO things have not changed still people using bulling and intimidating tactics on .
Online extremism how does one know who these people are and who they work for.????.
Prejudice is still a big part of Aotearoa SYSTEM.
Cash is King.
I userly have a good vegetable garden can you guess why I don't any more.
Ka kite Ano