And sadly, based on the evidence of the past annoying, frustrating and restrictive 14 months, it seems more likely than not a final showdown between the Olympic Games organisers and coronavirus, will end with the Gold Medal going to Covid 19.
A poll taken with 100 days to go, showed 70 per cent of Japanese don't want the Games to go ahead.
If they don’t, athletes will be gutted after giving their all, so will exhausted officials. And this Olympholic will be disappointed.
But when the three values of Olympism are excellence, friendship and respect, leaving the Japanese people in peace would exemplify those qualities better than holding the Games amid medical mayhem.
Given the headine of that opinion article, for a moment I thought it might include a suggestion that NZ should offer to host the Olympics…
Given that likely most athletes and athlete support staff are probably under 60 or 70 and generally very healthy people, with some having already been exposed to the virus in the last year and developed antibodies, the likelihood of hospitalization or death for the participants is incredibly low I think.
Even those who are young, fit, and healthy really don't want to get covid. The risks of long term damage are very high. I've got a nephew that's got long covid who is young and was fit and healthy before getting covid, and now struggles with a lot of things.
lack Caps batsman Tim Seifert has been forced to remain in India after testing positive to Covid-19 just hours before he was due to leave the virus-ravaged country.
Seifert, who represented the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, failed both his pre-departure PCR tests and as a result has been taken into quarantine. New Zealand Cricket (NZC) issued a statement saying the keeper-batsman is experiencing moderate symptoms.
NZC Players Association boss Heath Mills told Newstalk ZB that Seifert is currently in a very anxious state under what are understandably stressful circumstances.
NZC chief executive David White said Seifert had returned seven negative tests in the 10 days leading up to his pre-departure protocols, and was confident he would be receiving the best of care from his franchise.
Sydney – International Olympic Committee Vice President John Coates was adamant Saturday that nothing could stop the Tokyo Olympics from going ahead, despite ongoing risks from COVID-19.
Asked if there was any scenario in which the games, which are due to start on July 23, could be cancelled or postponed again at this late stage, he replied: “No, there’s not.”
Most Japanese citizens think it's not the best time to hold this 'unnecessary' global sports competition. Maybe they're just being selfish, but I tend to agree with them.
Beyond the ferocious difficulties of organisation, the decision to hold the games at this time makes a staggering demand on the patience, bravery and public-spiritedness of Tokyo and Japan. Without any clear commitment to fun — and the fact that this is all happening precisely because humanity thrives on the unnecessary — that demand may prove excessive.
I hazard a guess that many Japanese are not keen on a large influx of people from all over the World, literally, including Covid hot beds. Keep in mind that Japan has one of the highest-aged populations in the world, if not the highest. I couldn’t see NZ opening up its borders and rolling out the welcoming carpet but we’d expect Japan to do so!?
Oh well, the dear Minister is 'dissapointed'. I guess that counts for 'strong' language and soon ACC will see that it is at fault and will help the dear Minister to be all happy again. Right? lol Tui.
ACC paid its executives $1 million in bonuses during peak Covid-19 austerity even though it followed "pay restraint" advice for its general staff.
And the corporation hasn't ruled out continuing to pay bonuses – which top $100,000 for some – even though the government has ordered a wage freeze on executive earners across the public service.
ACC's attitude has copped it a blow from its minister Carmel Sepuloni, who has sent a clear message to the board overseeing the accident compensation provider that it needs to look again at the bonus scheme.
good grief, when calling someone to have a' look again at hte bonus scheme' is considered a blow.
I honestly can 't wait for Mrs. Sepuloni to finally leave government and get a job in the private unregulated market .Like her predecessor Mrs. Paula Benefit she surely would qualify to sell property to the highest bidder. Seriously, just leave and give the job to someone who is actually able to be more then just a quota women who does as she is told, in this case as in all the other cases nothing.
The reason they have a Board of their own is that so the Minister can only 'signal' not direct the board, who likely has a CEO with operational control over things like bonuses.
Well she is politely signalling then, at best. . But then any reason to have ones mug in the news is a good one , and one needs to appear as to actually earn their wage. 🙂
Sabine, are you familiar with the song "Flowers of Scotland" where, after the battle of Bannockburn, the Scots sent the English king homeward "tae think again."
There are degrees of asking someone to reconsider their actions and decisions………
well as far as i know the English king/queen never really left scotland. So i guess they should ask some more, and maybe the do again in the near future.
You’re right, of course. Takes more than a fine tune and a good line to persuade the English monarchy to budge.
That's the thing about the uninvited guest. They tend to return, unbidden.
As for what Minister Sepuloni can do, reminds me of David Lange bemoaning his lack of power, being, in his words, not even able to sack a couple of painters outside his window who were smoking dope.
He, at least admitted that he is powerless. What i really dislike is this 'fly swatting' that amounts to nothing more then checking a box on a sheet of paper, to be returned for review. In the end it is meaningless, and they know it. So they may as well say nothing, stay invisible, collect their cheques. But this meaningless grandstanding is grating.
“In Budget 21, we have invested up to $55.6 million in a major upgrade of the technology, and another $10 million is earmarked to match population growth and catch up on breast screens missed due to Covid-19 lockdowns.”
Another link on same story with a little more detail. Congratulations to this Government for another good evidence-based decision and funding allocation.
Easton thinks that the present possibility is of regions being drained of younger people, full of retired older people, and with insufficient income to provide the services that are needed by these, mostly, non-earners. (I am not placing any negative on that description, just a fact, and remembering that the retired are living longer, becoming more dependent, and costing more as they age under our present medical and cultural processes.)
Easton refers to the limitations of the recently employed provincial growth boost. I think that we need now to look further at what can be done to enable regions to have a vitality with employment in a range of occupations. Development theory has dealt with this and I put two links below which seem to discuss this.
I think that one problem with reversing even changing that drift to Auckland may be that if businesses in the regions develop and can operate from elsewhere, a bigger company may buy them out and shift the business to Auckland.
It seems that there must be a firm reaction to that, with regions taking shares in businesses that support employment and prosperity in their area. They must be prepared to buy remaining shares if necessary to stop ownership and control passing from the region. That will slow or stop the drain of employment-rich businesses or specialist firms or entities from being taken over, bought out and being surgically removed from the home base and even from NZ. And of course this will increase the money flow in the regional economy, with benefits from the multiplier effect.
Regions could be encouraged to embrace an appellation approach and be jealous of their good name for producing something, produce or knowledge, and look to attract more of the same if it is sustainable and healthy as a category, ie I am not keen on going nuts about smart technology such as rockets and other possible warlike or out-of-brain space ventures.
Core-periphery imbalances and regional disparities figure prominently on the agenda of several disciplines, which result from their enormous impact on economic and social development around the world. In sociology, international relations, and economics, this concept is crucial in explanations of economic exchange. There are few countries that play a dominant role in world trade (sometimes described as the “Global North”), while most countries have a secondary or even a tertiary position in world trade (the “Global South”). Moreover, when we are discussing global, continental, regional, and national economies, we can present regions and even smaller territorial units (such as subregions, provinces, districts, or counties) which have higher wages than some underdeveloped areas within the same larger area in focus.
by T Ejdemo · 2021 — These theories made analytical modeling of the growth path possible, … While this development has been important for furthering our … the different amenities that make certain regions attractive places to live in. … (2007) outline four sources of such benefits, or agglomeration … Privacy Preference Center … There has been a long debate about the role of industry structure in the literature on why some regions successfully achieve economic growth, while other regions stagnate or decline. This paper provides an empirical analysis in which we, based on a cluster analysis, develop a taxonomy for regional growth. In a second part of the study, we explore how specialization and entrepreneurship are meaningful to discriminate between the different types of regions.
Our results suggest that regional entrepreneurship and industry diversity characterized by relatedness are key elements in understanding why some regions are leading while others lag behind. The suggested taxonomy is argued to contribute with a nuanced perspective that can enhance discussions about improvements of regional development policies and to further empirical analysis on the topic.
I’ve put the text that you copied & pasted in blockquote because it was normal font and indistinguishable from your own words, especially in long comments. Please pay more attention to proper formatting next time, thanks.
One has been the lack of specific skilled immigration this past year. Previously the regions were relying on this to fill the gaps created by the usual drift of young people into the cities.
Another is paradoxically that the CBD's have become less attractive during COVID and more people are working from remote locations than ever before. This means regional towns have more people around who aren't commuting, creating more local business for cafes, pubs and so on. A real shortage of chefs and hospo workers has resulted.
Plus I think a lot of Australians have woken up to something I've mentioned before – that many of their regional towns (not all I admit) are really attractive places to live and work. Low costs and good wages make for strong business and household prosperity. Hell if you're a trusted and respected local tradie, or have a well established business in many of these towns it's likely you're doing very nicely thank you. I know it changed our life living in Ballarat for just five years.
Yes, us humans always show a herd mentality following the first sheep to the greener grass on the other side of the hill. It must be some kind of inborn instinct.
That's the whole point BG – the Brian Easton was Aucklandcentic. The word though is that in the South Island Christchurch will boom, and Queenstown will be okay while there is snow? Or does it do well most of the time. It is dependent on international tourists by air though isn't it?
The facist Israeli forces are at it again with continued abuse against Palastinians with only a little bit of lip service from the west, no sanctions of note. No they save that for Russia and China and, and, and etc.
Like the Myanma regime, the Israelis do as they want with no meaningful opposition from the 5 eyes group or any other Western powers.
Yes, all this does is show for all the world to see, the nonexistent moral compass that the US political class operate with…and NZ Labour/National as well….
125 Democrats Say Military Aid to Israel Shouldn’t Depend on Human Rights Record
Government bills undergo months (sometimes years) of development and are lovingly crafted by professional legal drafters.
Loads of work goes on behind the curtain and sometimes the step-wise improvements feel like a dance of the seven veils, which doesn’t go down well with the restless mob of moaners.
Most MPs know drafting perfect law is a tough ask – and the first draft seldom catches all the complexities of real life. Almost no law can, but they try their best.
Pull the other one, mate! How hard can it be?
When a bill passes a first reading debate in Parliament the MPs are saying ‘we think the concept for this bill is worth exploring further’.
That’s all well and good – but it’s often afterwards that MPs really earn their pay trying to make a concept, however well-intentioned, work practically and effectively in the real world.
And the best people to help with that are often us – those from ‘the real world’.
Because the real world is a complex place and nothing beats experience.
This is why people should engage more in the political and democratic processes; voting once or not even and then moaning about it 24/7 for three full years doesn’t cut it.
A very wise explanation. The older you get the less perfect you expect anything human to be – you begin to be grateful for anything that's just 'good enough', much less 'better than what came before'.
The same with our Parliamentarians. None of them are perfect either, and it's not a job I'd have the balls to tackle. Democracy is about holding their decisions and actions to account – it’s not about tearing them down and denigrating them as persons.
That comment is one of the good insightful things that show up randomly on this blog Incognito. My repeat comment is that the 20th century ended with things in a mess so we have to do better in the 21st, ie now. And I don't think very many people take a real interest in understanding the issues and thinking of the whole population to be affected by policy.
My social policy classes at Massey included a statement that often the delivery of policy does not match the politician's intention. How one can get anything done intelligently and fairly in these days is a big question.
Is anyone here tracking The Long March 5B rocket as it hurtles home?
Suggestions for an accessible and easy to interpret website would be gratefully appreciated. One report had it landing up the road at Cape Maria van Diemen…would be all kinds of awesome to see this thing.
he OPCAT reports are not public. Stuff tried to obtain them from the Children’s Commissioner in January 2019 under the Official Information Act, a request that was declined.
New Assistant Māori Commissioner for Children Glenis Philip-Barbara, who has been in the job six months, says she was “horrified” by the report’s contents.
“I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be handcuffed while heavily pregnant or in labour and being robbed of those moments after having a baby, the most powerful moments of a woman’s life,” she said. “This is totally unacceptable, and we’ve told Corrections this.
“Disturbingly, we found women who were afraid to speak out about this degrading treatment for fear of being punished or losing their babies.”
Philip-Barbara says she advocates community-based mum and baby centres outside of prison walls and culture, as outlined in Corrections’ Hōkai Rangi strategy.
Current practice was a long way off, she said. “I can’t find an alignment between handcuffing women after labour and birth and a visionary strategy for wellbeing.
This is what I read of happening in the USA. I never thought we would adopt it here, but by hiring private firms to run our public institutions the practices that are used elsewhere are likely to be used. Meanwhile the government can say that is an operational matter, and lose all integrity on the way. How can we respect a government that runs our country in this careless way? Shameful on all of us, but good NZ people have been trying for ages to change things for the better.
Unfortunately the whole of society is in the process of being downgraded by the Masters of the Universe. It says in an old Oxfam brochure that the 80 richest people have as much as the poorest 3.5 billion. By 2016 the richest 1% will own more than all the rest and tax dodging costs poor countries $160 billion every year.
These people are essentially wards of the state, irrespecitve of who the jailor is (private prison or state run), and the state has a duty to make sure these people – men and women – will get a decent and human treatment during their time locked up for what ever reason. After all the best out come for society is to not make these people any worse but rather help them to rehabilitate so that they become decent members of society.
Shackling a women to a bed while giving birth is not decent and humane treatment. It is torture. Schackling women so they can't change their blood soaked pads, is torture and physically dangerous it can lead to sepsis, etc etc etc.
But then the buck does not stop with government, right? Someone ese must be responsible, can't be government, and it certainly can't be a labour government. But it is.
Our society is not being downgraded by the 'masters of the universe' its being downgraded by our governments that allow this shit to happen, and who wash their hands like Pontius Pilates by blaming the contractor who does the deed for them.
To blame 'masters of the universe' as if we could not name these 'masters's is a cheap cop.
Btw, this has been going on for a while now in NZ, under National and Labour. So fuck em both for that bit of 'acceptable ' torture. Cause that is what it is, torture.
Sabine, I read this too, and was horrified. The practice is illegal and immoral. Unlike Minister Sepuloni, apparently, I hope Minister Kelvin Davis is able to bring some justice to these issues because it requires more than urging "to think again'.
I was engaged In a conversation today with a racist right-winger who accused Davis of being a do nothing, I hope that both you and she are wrong in your perceptions- else we are indeed in trouble.
I'm not accusing you of anything like I heard today, but I had three otherwise objectively decent people spouting the most vile and shameless racist bilge I've ever heard. I just hope they were trying to wind me up……. that's the kindest twist I can put on their talk.
I know you have no such thinking, but I hope you are wrong about possible outcomes in this 'shackling of a woman in childbirth'. I want you to be wrong as I want these three racists to be wrong in their acceptance of even worse racial violence.
For this behaviour to be acceptable, condonable and even thinkable is beyond decent human comprehension.
Sabine I don't understand you. I was talking about what group of officials, employed and enabled by whom. actually did this. I was not debating the actual amorality of behaviour. Do you actually read things thoroughly before venting here.
Yes, indeed. It takes some very callous people to do this and given that the ministers in change don't even make any statement reveals more that one likes to know.
This is such a disturbing report that I am really aghast. The very inclination of taking such action against a women who gives birth reminds me on those nazis who believed that there is such a thing as a "undermensch".
Women, have been 'untermenschen' for the longest time. Misogyny, racism, and classism allows for this type of torture.
No kindness and gentlenessness for incarcerated pregnant, birthing, nursing women. And the little new born urchins can learn from their first breath, that if they don't toe the line they will be in here next.
Labour – like National – , does not give a flying piece of fudge about the poor. hungry, homeless, or those in prison.
Here is a recent article from a very well respected science author Nicholas Wade on potential the origins of SARS-CoV2.
Neither the natural emergence nor the lab escape hypothesis can yet be ruled out. There is still no direct evidence for either. So no definitive conclusion can be reached.
That said, the available evidence leans more strongly in one direction than the other. Readers will form their own opinion. But it seems to me that proponents of lab escape can explain all the available facts about SARS2 considerably more easily than can those who favor natural emergence.
It’s documented that researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were doing gain-of-function experiments designed to make coronaviruses infect human cells and humanized mice. This is exactly the kind of experiment from which a SARS2-like virus could have emerged. The researchers were not vaccinated against the viruses under study, and they were working in the minimal safety conditions of a BSL2 laboratory. So escape of a virus would not be at all surprising. In all of China, the pandemic broke out on the doorstep of the Wuhan institute. The virus was already well adapted to humans, as expected for a virus grown in humanized mice. It possessed an unusual enhancement, a furin cleavage site, which is not possessed by any other known SARS-related beta-coronavirus, and this site included a double arginine codon also unknown among beta-coronaviruses. What more evidence could you want, aside from the presently unobtainable lab records documenting SARS2’s creation?
And before anyone responds to this, I strongly suggest you to read the entire article and address the argument. There is a lot more detail, and good links than just the above quote. I've spent sometime reading this and it's references. Wade is a very experienced writer and would not be putting his name to this lightly.
The somewhat shocking bit of new information in this article I was not aware of previously is that these potentially dangerous experiments were being done at a very modest BSL-2 level of protection. Until now I had assumed they were using BSL-4, which did count firmly against the lab-leak hypothesis; but it turns out this was never the case.
…proponents of lab escape can explain all the available facts about SARS2 considerably more easily than can those who favor natural emergence.
Some of the very earliest analyses of the virus genome when the Chinese Government released the information to the world early last year was that it was clearly made in a laboratory. This narrative was very quickly replaced by the fantastical 'wet market' theory, and up until very recently any brave soul who has dared to venture back to that original evaluation has been immediately slapped down and accused of being a tin-foil-hat-wearing-nutbar-conspiracy theorist.
Wade is more; formally, than currently; a very well respected writer about science. He has no research background, and only a BA to back his notions up. Since 2014 he has mainly been notorious for misrepresenting others research to their great irritation.
Wade juxtaposes an incomplete and inaccurate account of our research on human genetic differences with speculation that recent natural selection has led to worldwide differences in I.Q. test results, political institutions and economic development. We reject Wade’s implication that our findings substantiate his guesswork. They do not.
We are in full agreement that there is no support from the field of population genetics for Wade’s conjectures…
This letter was submitted on behalf of more than 100 faculty members in population genetics and evolutionary biology (listed below).
So you'll have to forgive me not exposing myself to his nonsense. Because; so what?
Even if we concede the point; for the sake of argument, that SARS-CoV-2 was definitely genetically engineered and released by the Chinese government for some nefarious purpose (which seems unlikely – especially since their vaccines are so bad). Where does that get us in dealing with the pandemic?
But; yes, I am in full agreement that there is risky research being done with bioweapons RL. By many nations, including China (though if I was expecting them to release biological agents anywhere, it'd be; Xinjiang, rather than Wuhan). Do you think they'll stop if we ask nicely?
Or is this just more pre-preparation for a war between China and the "Anglosphere" (that word is my new pet hate).
You attack the messenger by minimising his credentials and ignoring his decades of experience.
You attack his credibility by raising a totally different issue
You fail completely to address any of the questions raised
You fail completely to propose any alternative argument to support your position
You openly admit you didn't read either the article or any of it's references.
And finally you attempt a distraction by raising the question of an intentional release of the virus of which neither Wade nor I made any mention of whatsoever.
Six serious strikes. I contemplated banning you, but consider this a final warning.
Neither the natural emergence nor the lab escape hypothesis can yet be ruled out. There is still no direct evidence for either. So no definitive conclusion can be reached.
And we may never know, leaving each 'side' to champion mutually exclusive hypotheses. But if both hypotheses are plausible, then it's common sense to consider how best to prevent a reoccurence via either hypothetical mechanism of origin.
And it's common sense for qualified scientists to continue to try to pin down the (most likely) origin of this pandemic, although some may be a bit distracted right now.
Since the publication of Wassenaar and Zou (2020) and Greger (2020), the Chinese government has banned the eating and trading of wildlife due to the coronavirus crisis. Differently from previous efforts to regulate the management of wildlife in China, the current ban is expected to have permanent effects as it becomes law in the next few months. Nevertheless, the proposed legislation has loopholes for trade in wild animals for medicinal uses (Wildlife Conservation Society, 2020). Moreover, there are many ways besides traditional Chinese medicine that humans would come in contact with bats hosting coronaviruses or other potential human pathogens.
Bat‐hosted viruses of many taxa infect wild animals, domestic animals and humans (Plowright et al., 2015). A few examples include filoviruses (Ebola and Marburg virus), henipaviruses (Hendra and Nipah virus) and coronaviruses (SARS‐CoV), all of which cause severe disease in recipient hosts and have the potential to become pandemic (Chua et al., 2000; Leroy et al., 2005; Janies et al., 2008).
Therefore, if the divergence between CoV RaTG13 and SARS‐CoV‐2 is perceived as too high to place the former as the immediate ancestor of the latter, this does not mean that the immediate ancestor of SARS‐CoV‐2 has to be a virus hosted by an animal other than a bat.
It is reasonable to assume that we have not yet identified the CoVs that are more similar to SARS‐CoV‐2 owing to sampling bias. This realizeation leads to increased demand for screening wildlife for viruses immediately associated with transmission events leading to human infections. This realization also strengthens increasing claims for more rigorous wildlife disease surveillance as a strategy to abate future zoonotic disease outbreaks (Watsa and Wildlife Disease Surveillance Focus Group, 2020). However, given that bat‐hosted viruses are frequently associated with emerging zoonoses (Plowright et al., 2015) and that SARS‐CoV‐2 is phylogenetically closer to bat‐hosted CoVs than to CoVs hosted by any other animal, we can place bats as priority targets in efforts to increase our knowledge about the world's virome in general and the emergence of SARS‐CoV‐2 in particular.
The natural emergence hypothesis should be pretty easy to confirm; after all we found the intermediate hosts for both the original SARS and MERS virus's. Considering the immense interest in doing so, the complete failure to find or confirm such a host for SARS-CoV2 after more than a year has passed is very striking indeed.
More striking is Wade's claim that SARS-Cov2 is rather feeble at infecting bats, despite it's already documented ability to leap to other species like minks with relative ease. This just adds more layers of mystery and stacks against natural emergence from bats ever further.
My conclusion, informed not just by Wade, but by numerous sources personal and scientific, is that SARS-CoV2 is exactly the kind of virus that we would expect to emerge from the Gain of Function experiments we know were being conducted at WIV. And what are we to make of data like this:
Steven Quay, a physician-researcher, has applied statistical and bioinformatic tools to ingenious explorations of the virus’s origin, showing for instance how the hospitals receiving the early patients are clustered along the Wuhan №2 subway line which connects the Institute of Virology at one end with the international airport at the other, the perfect conveyor belt for distributing the virus from lab to globe.
The moment this outbreak first became public in January 2020, an independent investigation team should have been immediately flown to Wuhan for a forensic, pockets out, in depth turning over of the books. Instead the CCP authorities have obstructed any useful investigation. Even the WHO trip early this year is widely understood to have fallen short of definitive or credible even.
Moreover a large segment of professional virologists worldwide are clearly implicated in a massive conflict of interest here; this event has the obvious potential to be a catastrophe for their profession. (Incidentally Vernor Vinge in his original Peace War trilogy written in the 80's clearly anticipated an event like this, as a result biologists were a deeply hated and outlawed group, with just a handful left driven into hiding.)
Moreover the while the US authorities were highly concerned about GoF research risks, and went to the extent of 'pausing' all such research. But the legislation had a loophole which allowed two individuals to bypass it:
This seems to mean that either the director of the NIAID, Dr. Anthony Fauci, or the director of the NIH, Dr. Francis Collins, or maybe both, would have invoked the footnote in order to keep the money flowing to Dr. Shi’s gain-of-function research.
It seems to me there's an international cast of individuals here who must know far more about what actually happened than we're being told. From the esteemed Fauci himself, through Daszak's blatant conflict of interest that he formally perjured himself about in Lancet, to Baric's professional links to Shi, through to the utterly opaque, obtuse responses from the CCP authorities, it's clear we're not getting straight answers.
And sometimes it’s the little slips that stick in my mind – right back in early January 2020 Xi XInping himself used the odd phrase “this demon virus”. And at the time I said to myself – what does he know?
Many people clearly believe that, and a subset of those people are attracted to ideas about various possible COVID-19 cover-ups and conspiracies involving the evil CCP, the conflicted Daszak, Baric and their ilk, the esteemed Drs Fauci and/or Collins, "a large segment of professional virologists worldwide", all of the above, and/or something/someone else altogether.
The natural emergence hypothesis should be pretty easy to confirm; after all we found the intermediate hosts for both the original SARS and MERS virus's.
How long did it take expert scientists to identify those intermediate hosts? In the case of SARS the 2021 paper that I linked to makes it clear that there was no intermediate host involved in the primary infection of humans – SARS was transmitted directly from bats to humans.
Less than 18 months into this pandemic we are faced with numerous conspiracy theories and misinformation. Rather than accepting or rejecting either of the two theories mentioned in Wade's analysis, I believe it's prudent to wait for further investigations led by expert scientists – perhaps (in the fullness of time) something along the lines of the Rogers Commission set up to inverstigate the cause of the space shuttle Challenger disaster.
The alternative is to declare the case closed, one way or the other. It's crystal clear that Wade isn't prepared to do that. I applaud his integrity in that regard, and fully support his statement:
Neither the natural emergence nor the lab escape hypothesis can yet be ruled out. There is still no direct evidence for either. So no definitive conclusion can be reached.
I hope we can all agree on that. My personal preference is to wait until more (direct) evidence is available before 'passing judgement'. Maybe it serves some purpose not to wait, but that might have me veering into conspiracy theory territory, so I'll leave it there.
An odious step – essentially fascism – a secret collaboration between corporates and an unaccountable part of the state. That's not what we have an SIS for. Resignations in order.
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The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
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The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
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The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
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Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
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A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
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Following on from joe90's comment yesterday about the estimated under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths by country, including an estimated 10-fold under-reporting in Japan.
Given the headine of that opinion article, for a moment I thought it might include a suggestion that NZ should offer to host the Olympics…
Even though it will be a first not to have the Olympic Games due to a pandemic, the host country gets to decide as Covid is bigger than the IOC.
Given that likely most athletes and athlete support staff are probably under 60 or 70 and generally very healthy people, with some having already been exposed to the virus in the last year and developed antibodies, the likelihood of hospitalization or death for the participants is incredibly low I think.
Athletes can have fragile immune systems due to overworking their bodies.
Even those who are young, fit, and healthy really don't want to get covid. The risks of long term damage are very high. I've got a nephew that's got long covid who is young and was fit and healthy before getting covid, and now struggles with a lot of things.
https://www.sciencealert.com/young-adults-who-got-covid-19-show-lasting-cardiovascular-damage-in-study
Young athletes might only get one chance to go to the Olympics and it's the highlight of their careers. I think that is the overriding factor.
maybe ask him what he thinks about having covid as a young and healthy athlet.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/cricket-black-caps-batsman-tim-seifert-to-remain-in-india-after-testing-positive-for-covid-19/IIELVSZ72FPCDNJQUHPKXWDPGM/
Presumably the money on offer trumped any corona concerns prior to leaving for India.
Looks like we (and by ‘we‘ I mean ‘they‘) will find out.
Most Japanese citizens think it's not the best time to hold this 'unnecessary' global sports competition. Maybe they're just being selfish, but I tend to agree with them.
I hazard a guess that many Japanese are not keen on a large influx of people from all over the World, literally, including Covid hot beds. Keep in mind that Japan has one of the highest-aged populations in the world, if not the highest. I couldn’t see NZ opening up its borders and rolling out the welcoming carpet but we’d expect Japan to do so!?
Oh well, the dear Minister is 'dissapointed'. I guess that counts for 'strong' language and soon ACC will see that it is at fault and will help the dear Minister to be all happy again. Right? lol Tui.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/minister-whacks-acc-over-decision-to-pay-executives-bonuses-amidst-covid-19-austerity-moves/RXXJ75Z7TZAB2HUXORTHW7X77M/
good grief, when calling someone to have a' look again at hte bonus scheme' is considered a blow.
I honestly can 't wait for Mrs. Sepuloni to finally leave government and get a job in the private unregulated market .Like her predecessor Mrs. Paula Benefit she surely would qualify to sell property to the highest bidder. Seriously, just leave and give the job to someone who is actually able to be more then just a quota women who does as she is told, in this case as in all the other cases nothing.
Go home Mrs. Sepuloni. Just leave.
The reason they have a Board of their own is that so the Minister can only 'signal' not direct the board, who likely has a CEO with operational control over things like bonuses.
Well she is politely signalling then, at best. . But then any reason to have ones mug in the news is a good one , and one needs to appear as to actually earn their wage. 🙂
Now THAT'S the way to get round a pesky pay freeze.
+1
Sabine, are you familiar with the song "Flowers of Scotland" where, after the battle of Bannockburn, the Scots sent the English king homeward "tae think again."
There are degrees of asking someone to reconsider their actions and decisions………
well as far as i know the English king/queen never really left scotland. So i guess they should ask some more, and maybe the do again in the near future.
You’re right, of course. Takes more than a fine tune and a good line to persuade the English monarchy to budge.
That's the thing about the uninvited guest. They tend to return, unbidden.
As for what Minister Sepuloni can do, reminds me of David Lange bemoaning his lack of power, being, in his words, not even able to sack a couple of painters outside his window who were smoking dope.
He, at least admitted that he is powerless. What i really dislike is this 'fly swatting' that amounts to nothing more then checking a box on a sheet of paper, to be returned for review. In the end it is meaningless, and they know it. So they may as well say nothing, stay invisible, collect their cheques. But this meaningless grandstanding is grating.
Excellent!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/125074548/cervical-and-breast-cancer-screening-programmes-to-get-major-upgrade-with-budget-2021
Another link on same story with a little more detail. Congratulations to this Government for another good evidence-based decision and funding allocation.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/442169/long-awaited-cervical-screening-test-to-be-funded-by-govt
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/why-are-we-moving-to-auckland
Brian Easton on Stats NZ scenario that Auckland and hinterland will continue to grow in population but the other areas of NZ could remain relatively static.
Easton thinks that the present possibility is of regions being drained of younger people, full of retired older people, and with insufficient income to provide the services that are needed by these, mostly, non-earners. (I am not placing any negative on that description, just a fact, and remembering that the retired are living longer, becoming more dependent, and costing more as they age under our present medical and cultural processes.)
Easton refers to the limitations of the recently employed provincial growth boost. I think that we need now to look further at what can be done to enable regions to have a vitality with employment in a range of occupations. Development theory has dealt with this and I put two links below which seem to discuss this.
I think that one problem with reversing even changing that drift to Auckland may be that if businesses in the regions develop and can operate from elsewhere, a bigger company may buy them out and shift the business to Auckland.
It seems that there must be a firm reaction to that, with regions taking shares in businesses that support employment and prosperity in their area. They must be prepared to buy remaining shares if necessary to stop ownership and control passing from the region. That will slow or stop the drain of employment-rich businesses or specialist firms or entities from being taken over, bought out and being surgically removed from the home base and even from NZ. And of course this will increase the money flow in the regional economy, with benefits from the multiplier effect.
Regions could be encouraged to embrace an appellation approach and be jealous of their good name for producing something, produce or knowledge, and look to attract more of the same if it is sustainable and healthy as a category, ie I am not keen on going nuts about smart technology such as rockets and other possible warlike or out-of-brain space ventures.
There is theory on this in Development Studies. This is an introduction to a piece on Core-Periphery Model from SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-319-74336-3_320-1
A second piece from SpringerLink on Development theory. https://innovation-entrepreneurship.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s13731-021-00146-8
Exploring a leading and lagging regions dichotomy: does …
by T Ejdemo · 2021 — These theories made analytical modeling of the growth path possible, … While this development has been important for furthering our … the different amenities that make certain regions attractive places to live in. … (2007) outline four sources of such benefits, or agglomeration … Privacy Preference Center …
There has been a long debate about the role of industry structure in the literature on why some regions successfully achieve economic growth, while other regions stagnate or decline. This paper provides an empirical analysis in which we, based on a cluster analysis, develop a taxonomy for regional growth. In a second part of the study, we explore how specialization and entrepreneurship are meaningful to discriminate between the different types of regions.
Our results suggest that regional entrepreneurship and industry diversity characterized by relatedness are key elements in understanding why some regions are leading while others lag behind. The suggested taxonomy is argued to contribute with a nuanced perspective that can enhance discussions about improvements of regional development policies and to further empirical analysis on the topic.
I’ve put the text that you copied & pasted in blockquote because it was normal font and indistinguishable from your own words, especially in long comments. Please pay more attention to proper formatting next time, thanks.
Thanks Incognito. Thought I had – in a bit of a rush so missed some. I'm always pressing the wrong button lately.
Don’t press the belly button too soon 😉
That's a very Hawkes Bay policy concept you have there. 🙂
Is it working for them? Can it be done elsewhere that you can think of? How hard is it to get off the ground?
Sorry, I was just being sarcastic about branding knowledge by region.
Interestingly here in Australia the opposite is happening right now – the regions are booming and experiencing real skill shortages.
Why's that RL? Can you put your finger on the main reasons.?
Several.
One has been the lack of specific skilled immigration this past year. Previously the regions were relying on this to fill the gaps created by the usual drift of young people into the cities.
Another is paradoxically that the CBD's have become less attractive during COVID and more people are working from remote locations than ever before. This means regional towns have more people around who aren't commuting, creating more local business for cafes, pubs and so on. A real shortage of chefs and hospo workers has resulted.
Plus I think a lot of Australians have woken up to something I've mentioned before – that many of their regional towns (not all I admit) are really attractive places to live and work. Low costs and good wages make for strong business and household prosperity. Hell if you're a trusted and respected local tradie, or have a well established business in many of these towns it's likely you're doing very nicely thank you. I know it changed our life living in Ballarat for just five years.
At least that's my sense of it for the moment.
Yes, us humans always show a herd mentality following the first sheep to the greener grass on the other side of the hill. It must be some kind of inborn instinct.
The inborn instinct is fear of unknown experiences,such as plants (especially kale and brussel sprouts)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010027713001807
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/12/why-babies-fear-plants/281954/
Doesn’t explain dating apps 😉
Very Auckland-centric post Grey…..the Queenstown Lakes district population is going bananas…..too far south to count?
That's the whole point BG – the Brian Easton was Aucklandcentic. The word though is that in the South Island Christchurch will boom, and Queenstown will be okay while there is snow? Or does it do well most of the time. It is dependent on international tourists by air though isn't it?
The facist Israeli forces are at it again with continued abuse against Palastinians with only a little bit of lip service from the west, no sanctions of note. No they save that for Russia and China and, and, and etc.
Like the Myanma regime, the Israelis do as they want with no meaningful opposition from the 5 eyes group or any other Western powers.
Yes, all this does is show for all the world to see, the nonexistent moral compass that the US political class operate with…and NZ Labour/National as well….
125 Democrats Say Military Aid to Israel Shouldn’t Depend on Human Rights Record
https://truthout.org/articles/125-democrats-say-military-aid-to-israel-shouldnt-depend-on-human-rights-record/
Loads of work goes on behind the curtain and sometimes the step-wise improvements feel like a dance of the seven veils, which doesn’t go down well with the restless mob of moaners.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-house/audio/2018794581/public-help-makes-good-bills-great-law
Pull the other one, mate! How hard can it be?![cheeky cheeky](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/tongue_smile.png)
This is why people should engage more in the political and democratic processes; voting once or not even and then moaning about it 24/7 for three full years doesn’t cut it.
A very wise explanation. The older you get the less perfect you expect anything human to be – you begin to be grateful for anything that's just 'good enough', much less 'better than what came before'.![devil devil](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/devil_smile.png)
The same with our Parliamentarians. None of them are perfect either, and it's not a job I'd have the balls to tackle. Democracy is about holding their decisions and actions to account – it’s not about tearing them down and denigrating them as persons.
That comment is one of the good insightful things that show up randomly on this blog Incognito. My repeat comment is that the 20th century ended with things in a mess so we have to do better in the 21st, ie now. And I don't think very many people take a real interest in understanding the issues and thinking of the whole population to be affected by policy.
My social policy classes at Massey included a statement that often the delivery of policy does not match the politician's intention. How one can get anything done intelligently and fairly in these days is a big question.
We're still in the game.
2:02pm NZT (2:02am UT) – Portugal, Lisbon
2:08pm NZT (2:08am UT) – Italy, Sicily
2:11pm NZT (2:11am UT) – Israel, Tel Aviv
2:11pm NZT (2:11am UT) – Saudi Arabia, Riyadh
2:14pm NZT (2:14am UT) – Australia, W.A Perth region
2:52pm NZT (2:52am UT) – New Zealand, North Island, Wellington
3:02pm NZT (3:02am UT) – Eastern Pacific (Forecast)
3:17pm NZT (3:17am UT) – Mexico, near Mexico City
3:22pm NZT (3:22am UT) – U.S.A, Florida near Orlando
3:37pm NZT (3:37am UT) – Portugal near Lisbon
3:39pm NZT (3:39am UT) – Morocco / Algeria border
3:45pm NZT (3:45am UT) – Libya, desert
3:47pm NZT (3:47am UT) – Sudan near Khartoum
3:50pm NZT (3:50am UT) – Ethiopia, near Addis Ababa
3:51pm NZT (3:51am UT) – Somalia, near Mogadishu
4:17pm NZT (4:17am UT) – Australia, northern Tasmania
4:20pm NZT (4:20am UT) – New Zealand, North Island, Northland.
4:48pm NZT (4:48am UT) – Mexico, near La Paz
4:52pm NZT (4:52am UT) – U.S.A, Texas, near Dallas
4:55pm NZT (4:55am UT) – U.S.A, Tennessee, Nashville
4:57pm NZT (4:57am UT) – U.S.A, Washington DC
https://www.haurakigulfweather.com/space
https://twitter.com/hashtag/LongMarch5B
edit: https://orbit.ing-now.com/satellite/48275/2021-035B/CZ-5B/
Is anyone here tracking The Long March 5B rocket as it hurtles home?
Suggestions for an accessible and easy to interpret website would be gratefully appreciated. One report had it landing up the road at Cape Maria van Diemen…would be all kinds of awesome to see this thing.
Cross posted…
https://twitter.com/SpaceTrackOrg/status/1391128833877626880
Just south of melbourne now,gaining 2km of altitude crossing Australia (363km)
Just past NZ at 366km altitude (41.2 s)
that is just shameful
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300300660/women-are-being-forced-to-give-birth-in-handcuffs-with-prison-officers-in-the-room
This is what I read of happening in the USA. I never thought we would adopt it here, but by hiring private firms to run our public institutions the practices that are used elsewhere are likely to be used. Meanwhile the government can say that is an operational matter, and lose all integrity on the way. How can we respect a government that runs our country in this careless way? Shameful on all of us, but good NZ people have been trying for ages to change things for the better.
Unfortunately the whole of society is in the process of being downgraded by the Masters of the Universe. It says in an old Oxfam brochure that the 80 richest people have as much as the poorest 3.5 billion. By 2016 the richest 1% will own more than all the rest and tax dodging costs poor countries $160 billion every year.
Nope, this has nothing to do with private firms.
These people are essentially wards of the state, irrespecitve of who the jailor is (private prison or state run), and the state has a duty to make sure these people – men and women – will get a decent and human treatment during their time locked up for what ever reason. After all the best out come for society is to not make these people any worse but rather help them to rehabilitate so that they become decent members of society.
Shackling a women to a bed while giving birth is not decent and humane treatment. It is torture. Schackling women so they can't change their blood soaked pads, is torture and physically dangerous it can lead to sepsis, etc etc etc.
But then the buck does not stop with government, right? Someone ese must be responsible, can't be government, and it certainly can't be a labour government. But it is.
Our society is not being downgraded by the 'masters of the universe' its being downgraded by our governments that allow this shit to happen, and who wash their hands like Pontius Pilates by blaming the contractor who does the deed for them.
To blame 'masters of the universe' as if we could not name these 'masters's is a cheap cop.
Btw, this has been going on for a while now in NZ, under National and Labour. So fuck em both for that bit of 'acceptable ' torture. Cause that is what it is, torture.
Sabine, I read this too, and was horrified. The practice is illegal and immoral. Unlike Minister Sepuloni, apparently, I hope Minister Kelvin Davis is able to bring some justice to these issues because it requires more than urging "to think again'.
I was engaged In a conversation today with a racist right-winger who accused Davis of being a do nothing, I hope that both you and she are wrong in your perceptions- else we are indeed in trouble.
I'm not accusing you of anything like I heard today, but I had three otherwise objectively decent people spouting the most vile and shameless racist bilge I've ever heard. I just hope they were trying to wind me up……. that's the kindest twist I can put on their talk.
I know you have no such thinking, but I hope you are wrong about possible outcomes in this 'shackling of a woman in childbirth'. I want you to be wrong as I want these three racists to be wrong in their acceptance of even worse racial violence.
For this behaviour to be acceptable, condonable and even thinkable is beyond decent human comprehension.
I'm deeply unimpressed myself – this needs some real strong sunlight shone on it.
Sabine I don't understand you. I was talking about what group of officials, employed and enabled by whom. actually did this. I was not debating the actual amorality of behaviour. Do you actually read things thoroughly before venting here.
Hi Sabine
Yes, indeed. It takes some very callous people to do this and given that the ministers in change don't even make any statement reveals more that one likes to know.
This is such a disturbing report that I am really aghast. The very inclination of taking such action against a women who gives birth reminds me on those nazis who believed that there is such a thing as a "undermensch".
Women, have been 'untermenschen' for the longest time. Misogyny, racism, and classism allows for this type of torture.
No kindness and gentlenessness for incarcerated pregnant, birthing, nursing women. And the little new born urchins can learn from their first breath, that if they don't toe the line they will be in here next.
Labour – like National – , does not give a flying piece of fudge about the poor. hungry, homeless, or those in prison.
An oldie but a goodie. The difference in accountability between the public and private sectors.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/ieditoriali-were-safer-if-jobs-are-on-the-line/TTOVRK6MC44V4XOVANZGYN26MA/
Here is a recent article from a very well respected science author Nicholas Wade on potential the origins of SARS-CoV2.
And before anyone responds to this, I strongly suggest you to read the entire article and address the argument. There is a lot more detail, and good links than just the above quote. I've spent sometime reading this and it's references. Wade is a very experienced writer and would not be putting his name to this lightly.
The somewhat shocking bit of new information in this article I was not aware of previously is that these potentially dangerous experiments were being done at a very modest BSL-2 level of protection. Until now I had assumed they were using BSL-4, which did count firmly against the lab-leak hypothesis; but it turns out this was never the case.
…proponents of lab escape can explain all the available facts about SARS2 considerably more easily than can those who favor natural emergence.
Some of the very earliest analyses of the virus genome when the Chinese Government released the information to the world early last year was that it was clearly made in a laboratory. This narrative was very quickly replaced by the fantastical 'wet market' theory, and up until very recently any brave soul who has dared to venture back to that original evaluation has been immediately slapped down and accused of being a tin-foil-hat-wearing-nutbar-conspiracy theorist.
As for the less than optimal laboratory security…https://www.the-scientist.com/the-nutshell/moratorium-on-gain-of-function-research-36564… there was a very good reason why the US government banned (in the US, anyhoo) the type of research that cold have led to the development of our Corona…
Hoping that one day our own Nicky Hager will write the book…
Wade is more; formally, than currently; a very well respected writer about science. He has no research background, and only a BA to back his notions up. Since 2014 he has mainly been notorious for misrepresenting others research to their great irritation.
https://cehg.stanford.edu/letter-from-population-geneticists
So you'll have to forgive me not exposing myself to his nonsense. Because; so what?
Even if we concede the point; for the sake of argument, that SARS-CoV-2 was definitely genetically engineered and released by the Chinese government for some nefarious purpose (which seems unlikely – especially since their vaccines are so bad). Where does that get us in dealing with the pandemic?
But; yes, I am in full agreement that there is risky research being done with bioweapons RL. By many nations, including China (though if I was expecting them to release biological agents anywhere, it'd be; Xinjiang, rather than Wuhan). Do you think they'll stop if we ask nicely?
Or is this just more pre-preparation for a war between China and the "Anglosphere" (that word is my new pet hate).
In this response:
Six serious strikes. I contemplated banning you, but consider this a final warning.
Moderation warning read.
What has Wade to say about yanker involvement in this germ lab?
Just a few things, e.g. a whole section has been dedicated to this:
4. The US Role in Funding the Wuhan Institute of Virology
Why don’t you read the linked article before you ask questions that can be answered simply by reading the linked article?
And we may never know, leaving each 'side' to champion mutually exclusive hypotheses. But if both hypotheses are plausible, then it's common sense to consider how best to prevent a reoccurence via either hypothetical mechanism of origin.
And it's common sense for qualified scientists to continue to try to pin down the (most likely) origin of this pandemic, although some may be a bit distracted right now.
Researchers analyze the host origins of SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses
Here's a link to the source paper:
The natural emergence hypothesis should be pretty easy to confirm; after all we found the intermediate hosts for both the original SARS and MERS virus's. Considering the immense interest in doing so, the complete failure to find or confirm such a host for SARS-CoV2 after more than a year has passed is very striking indeed.
More striking is Wade's claim that SARS-Cov2 is rather feeble at infecting bats, despite it's already documented ability to leap to other species like minks with relative ease. This just adds more layers of mystery and stacks against natural emergence from bats ever further.
My conclusion, informed not just by Wade, but by numerous sources personal and scientific, is that SARS-CoV2 is exactly the kind of virus that we would expect to emerge from the Gain of Function experiments we know were being conducted at WIV. And what are we to make of data like this:
The moment this outbreak first became public in January 2020, an independent investigation team should have been immediately flown to Wuhan for a forensic, pockets out, in depth turning over of the books. Instead the CCP authorities have obstructed any useful investigation. Even the WHO trip early this year is widely understood to have fallen short of definitive or credible even.
Moreover a large segment of professional virologists worldwide are clearly implicated in a massive conflict of interest here; this event has the obvious potential to be a catastrophe for their profession. (Incidentally Vernor Vinge in his original Peace War trilogy written in the 80's clearly anticipated an event like this, as a result biologists were a deeply hated and outlawed group, with just a handful left driven into hiding.)
Moreover the while the US authorities were highly concerned about GoF research risks, and went to the extent of 'pausing' all such research. But the legislation had a loophole which allowed two individuals to bypass it:
It seems to me there's an international cast of individuals here who must know far more about what actually happened than we're being told. From the esteemed Fauci himself, through Daszak's blatant conflict of interest that he formally perjured himself about in Lancet, to Baric's professional links to Shi, through to the utterly opaque, obtuse responses from the CCP authorities, it's clear we're not getting straight answers.
And sometimes it’s the little slips that stick in my mind – right back in early January 2020 Xi XInping himself used the odd phrase “this demon virus”. And at the time I said to myself – what does he know?
Many people clearly believe that, and a subset of those people are attracted to ideas about various possible COVID-19 cover-ups and conspiracies involving the evil CCP, the conflicted Daszak, Baric and their ilk, the esteemed Drs Fauci and/or Collins, "a large segment of professional virologists worldwide", all of the above, and/or something/someone else altogether.
How long did it take expert scientists to identify those intermediate hosts? In the case of SARS the 2021 paper that I linked to makes it clear that there was no intermediate host involved in the primary infection of humans – SARS was transmitted directly from bats to humans.
Less than 18 months into this pandemic we are faced with numerous conspiracy theories and misinformation. Rather than accepting or rejecting either of the two theories mentioned in Wade's analysis, I believe it's prudent to wait for further investigations led by expert scientists – perhaps (in the fullness of time) something along the lines of the Rogers Commission set up to inverstigate the cause of the space shuttle Challenger disaster.
The alternative is to declare the case closed, one way or the other. It's crystal clear that Wade isn't prepared to do that. I applaud his integrity in that regard, and fully support his statement:
I hope we can all agree on that. My personal preference is to wait until more (direct) evidence is available before 'passing judgement'. Maybe it serves some purpose not to wait, but that might have me veering into conspiracy theory territory, so I'll leave it there.
SIS to share data with selected private sector companies | RNZ News
An odious step – essentially fascism – a secret collaboration between corporates and an unaccountable part of the state. That's not what we have an SIS for. Resignations in order.
NZ Feminism background by Sue Kedgley. Details that a lot of people would not know, or may have forgotten.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018794740/sue-kedgley-50-years-at-the-feminist-coalface