Everyone having a cuppa and lie down or just cancelling culture? I see latest Stuff headline that the bozo escaping the fence is waaaaaaaaaaaay worse than National leaking confidential patient details, unless they're that opinion writers own details no doubt.
Mosa posted this excellent al Jazeera article yesterday about how the New Zealand's media's endangered the country's health in conjunction with the Natz.
The article is worthy of a post in its own right. Here Glen Johnson describes the far right posturing of the media.
At the end of the article, he asks ‘Will the media hold the National Party to account?’
Your observation of Stuff’s headlines provides the answer.
"A case can be made that the nation's media, laundering many of the opposition's attack lines and big business talking points, have repeatedly endangered public health.
This was driven not only by the country's clutch of prominent Fox News-style commentators – Mike Hosking, Heather du Plessis-Allan and Duncan Garner – each of whom hawks anger and division to drive ratings, but by senior reporters and editors."
It's a counter to the multitude of opinion articles masquerading as fact (homeless man bs etc) that do attempt to influence NZers attitudes . Those articles put immense political pressure on the govt.I'm pretty sure without them we would have moved to level 1 at the time Bloomfield recommended.If we'd done that there would have been time to get the new testing regime securely implemented .
Wayne, of course it's an opinion piece. It said on the link supplied by Ed. It says on the article when opened as well.
It's not a good line to take, to criticise something for being what it is plain it is.
What critics should do, Wayne, is critique the opinion piece. Where is it deficient, partisan to the point of error and distortion?
I read it and was quite taken with the quality of the writing- the developed argument, the use of examples as evidence, the conclusions.
It's not enough to slag something for being partisan. By definition, in a binary political world, half of partisan writing should be OK.
So, my question is, having given some reasons as to why the article should be read in terms of style and approach, what are your concerns with its content?
"Clark, the country's most effective health minister in decades" – seems incontrovertial evidence that the thing was written by a Labour partisan out of touch with reality. Totally clueless about the functional role of the fourth estate in a democracy too. Note the binary framing.
I must be nearly impossible to agree on a measure for "most effective" – no Minister works outside the context of the government of which they form part. David Clark has been part of a government that knew Health needed a lot of remedial work – and that became clearer after they were elected, but it is also clear that Clark achieved more than just the essential – see https://www.labour.org.nz/progress-list and click on Health.
To put it another way, I think it would be hard to put many ahead of Clark; King had similar challenges (Covid apart) and similar advances in the field.
Can't comment on the Herald but Stuff not only produces overtly partisan opinion pieces (not leftist!) and frequently presents news which is so slanted, it should carry an 'opinion' warning.
Marie Leadbeater has had recent opinion pieces on West Papua and I think Rimpac. The readers submitted items are on the editorial page below the cartoon, and cover a wide variety of opinion topics.
They are well read, but everyone reading them knows they are that person's opinion. The readers will agree or not agree, and of course they articles often contain interesting factual information irrespective of the opinion within the item.
As for the libertarians, I presume you are thinking of John Roughan, who is on the staff (or at least was). Probably the most significant feature opinion writer on staff is Simon Wilson. I would say he votes Green based on what he writes.
No, there are probably not many Marxists writing in the paper, but would there even be 1000 Marxists in New Zealand as a whole?
The Al Jazeera article is an important critique of the National party reaction to the pandemic, which has bff even to take any angle to attack the govt, including leaking confidential patient information. It has revealed National as having no coherent response to the health situation. Barking at every car I think it is called. The media, with one or two exceptions have been the same. This undoubtedly put pressure on the govt who had to make the most crucial decisions very rapidly. Fortunately the govt were able to hold their nerve.
nzders appear to have seen through the hysterics of National and some media and labour led by Ardern are on course for a landslide victory. Well deserved and you must know this Wayne. Nothing National have done has earned the trust of nzders. We have all met people at parties who blow themselves up “we have the best summer house, wine, etc etc etc”. Or in Nationals case the best team. Boasting about being the best isn’t a policy it’s kinda pathetic. Nzders use to associate it with American show off. I am pleased that most of us see through that crap
Wayne why not discuss the substance of the opinion piece instead of trying to deflect the discussion into "everyone does opinion pieces"? Classic diversion tactic.
It's an opinion piece critiquing news reports. It has a point though- apart from politics we have seen in the business press numerous "News articles" which have largely been industry groups, demanding that the border be opened for their favoured group of employees or customers.
The dairy industry is a good example – it has repeated employer views extensively about the lack of workers but with no push back about the terms and conditions of the jobs ( many are short duration), why the industry has previously failed to train locals, why they are so "specialised" that a short term visa worker can do it on a minimum wage , what steps they have taken to attract local labour etc. It's as if a lot of the employer and right wing are allowed to operate in a question free zone.
He doesn't have the guts to discuss the substance of the article or to respond to anything anyone says about his empty and senseless attempt at dismissing it. Spray and walk away Wayne. Total slime.
I was pointing out the absurdity of an ex-National Party minister—a notorious one at that—hurling a loaded and demeaning epithet—"partisan"—at a serious and credible piece of journalistic analysis.
I'd like to dedicate this to you and Mrs Wayne, Wayne. And tell her no need to pull out the Elna (oops the pedal powered Singer) just yet, and Mrs Wayne's tablecloths are safe SO FAR.
And now that you're down with the kids running things these days, gimmee a hint, I need an exclusive. You were never 'on' with that old trout Michelle were ya? You know there's big talk of it and if the ragdoll media keep biting – you might have to front
Whoar – tell me ya weren't tho' eh?. (And just btw – not only do I have a deal on Remdesivir for you, but there's a few of the blue left for you)
Ed said it was an excellent article. Then you come along trying to dismiss that by saying it's merely "a partisan opinion article." So what? Nobody's saying it isn't.
If you don't agree with the contents of the article why don't you say why you don't agree? You're such a snake.
It was obviously biased. I agree with the critique of the Nats, but all that crap about the media fronting for them won't fool anyone with half a brain. Some in the media do favour the right, but most try to represent the broader public. 🙄
… Fox News-style commentators – Mike Hosking, Heather du Plessis-Allan and Duncan Garner – each of whom hawks anger and division to drive ratings…
Du Plessis-Allan and Garner were the Talentless Television Twosome from Tartarus in 2015…
HEATHER DU PLESSIS-ALLAN: Bad news today Dunc—One Direction’s broken up! DUNCAN GARNER: I don’t CARE. I really don’t. HEATHER DU PLESSIS-ALLAN:[suddenly uneasy, isolated] Heh, heh….
Trust Luke Malpass , the National shill for Stuff ("Coronavirus: How isolation breach trumps National's privacy botchup") to start the day with a WTF moment! Since when did a single wandering miscreant who immediately is fronting up to the Court attracted the opprobrium of most NZers trump the criminal acts of at least three political opportunists. As for Muller, how could he have acted in any other way, and why did he not act decisively 30 hours earlier, even if it might have been 'kinda legal? Why, even the announcement of a recycled RON took precedence over dealing with a miscreant MP when he was in front of the camera for his press presentation. If Stuff want to be paid for content – they will need to get their shit together, unless they intend to be a 'Trumpian' sponsored organ of the Party of Irrelevance.
Stuff have taken it off their front page, and I don't really mind them spouting RW garbage, if they spout LW garbage too. I pay a Stuff sub so keep an eye, they're fairly even. Great piece in Al Jazeera, "partisan", ha!!! Seems pretty factual to me.
What Malpass says about the dilemma is true. In fact it's what people have been saying on The Standard for ages. The balance between legal authority and health protection is a real challenge.
One week from today, Dr Mary L Trump’s controversial book, Too Much and Never Enough, will hit store shelves. Dr Trump, a trained clinical psychologist who earned a master’s and a doctoral degree from Adelphi University, has authored a 211-page exposé of how the Trump family “created the world’s most dangerous man”…
President Trump and his brother Robert Trump have been trying to stop the book’s publication since last month, by filing lawsuits to enforce a confidentiality agreement concerning a dispute over the estate of their father (and the author’s grandfather), Fred Trump Sr. But a New York State judge has so far refused to block the book’s publisher, Simon and Schuster, from releasing it to stores.
Dr Trump has been estranged from Donald Trump for years, and is the first member of the president’s family to break ranks with him and the rest of her relatives by writing a book about them.
Dr Trump, a trained clinical psychologist, says her uncle does meet all nine criteria needed to be diagnosed as a narcissist. But she writes that his mental problems are far more complicated than mere narcissism. “The fact is,” she explains, “Donald’s pathologies are so complex and his behaviors so often inexplicable that coming up with an accurate and comprehensive diagnosis would require a full battery of psychological and neuropsychological tests that he’ll never sit for.”
The good news is that Americans touted their system of democracy as the best for most of the 20th century, claiming that `anyone can become president', and anyone eventually did. Donald proved them right. Mentally-ill folk have equal rights, and seeing one get the top job is a genuine thrill for all true believers in democracy! 🥳
Before we go all gleeful about rediverting the Manapouri generation, let's take a moment for the shock and devastation this will cause to those families putting dinner on the table.
We are at our lowest economic ebb in a century, and this is simply a terrible blow for the people of Bluff, Invercargill, and Southland.
That's the likely outcome, because Transpower will be able to increase their charges because of the extra investment they will have to make in the lines to move the power northwards.
On the other hand, since Transpower is wholly owned by the government, I'm kinda OK with the money from increased energy costs going to the government. Kind of a wastrel tax. As long as provision is made for those at the bottom of the income scale to help them overcome the increased burden.
Right, so let's take the opportunity to get serious about sustainable industry for Southland.
I kinda like the idea of tasking Southland Institute of Technology with developing a range of electric vehicle conversion kits – preferably with a range extender option.
In the immediate future, upgrading the transmission lines to get Manapouri's power to the Waitaki basin is going to provide a bit of a helping hand for employment and business activity in the region, if it's managed well with that as a specific goal.
It would also be great to build a southern focus around Dunedin's engineering facilities like the Hillside rail workshop, set up fully carbon-free electric-powered factories, etc.
Let's not waste the chance by just reducing the power costs for corporate dairying expanding in mismatching environments.
If ever this government needed a reminder about the parasitical nature of multinational corporations, this brutal action while our economy is weakened by the effects of COVID 19……
If a decent interviewer like Pilger or Fisk had been asking the questions, this angle would have been the focus.
Gary Tong's interview was a measured and reasonable response, Shadbolt sounded like he'd had a very heavy night before, and managed to turn it into a Penny Simmons election advertisement. About what I'd expect out of him. If I have misinterpreted that, well I did have trouble following him and I was multitasking at the time.
Agree trickle…..my understanding is that Rio Tinto have been given heavily discounted electricity…..but the deal is secret….now they are blaming electricity prices for shutting up shop I think the public is entitled to know exactly what they are paying
Rio Tinto, Gina Reinhart, the woman who makes $2.5M every hour of every day and then suggested to the Australian Govt that she should be able to import workers from China who would work for $1 an hour, saving her company a fortune in labour costs
Those thousand folks do at least have the assurance that the newly-elected National MP for Southland will be available to explain to them how National will get them new jobs via business as usual.
So they just need to organise themselves into a queue at the door of his electorate office when it opens. Call the media to show the queue on the evening tv news, then interview them after they come out from getting the MP's explanation. The pertinent question would be what day they start their new job, so the media can report whatever common pattern emerges from the answers…
Most people directly affected will most likely live in the Invercargill electorate, not Clutha Southland. Last time Invercargill voted in a Labour MP was 2002, Mark Peck held the seat for the 1993 – 2002 terms (which is kind of remarkable, a big swing in 1993, I wonder if the boundaries were redrawn, or it was a rejection of Nats doubling down on neoliberalism).
In 2017 there was only a few hundred votes between the Nat MP and the L/NZF/G ones. Will be interesting to see who Labour stands this time.
You've been here long enough to know that I don't tolerate people making shit up about my views and politics. There is absolutely nothing in my comment about the Tiwai jobs, it's a comment about southern electorates and voting. I have even less time for this shit than normal because it's election year. How you respond to my comment now will determine how I moderate you in the future.
I just find the shifting of 1000 people at the very least losing their jobs in a small region into election chances of a party a tad distasteful on the same day the the 1000 find out their life might be screwed
On the other hand, the quantity of cheap power that is about to be unleashed could power many thousands of jobs – ones that don't send the profits off-shore.
Before we go all gleeful about rediverting the Manapouri generation, let's take a moment for the shock and devastation this will cause to those families putting dinner on the table.
How about – NO!
Redundancies happen all the time and I doubt that those thousand workers gave more than a moments thought to those who suffered them.
And, yes, the freeing up of that amount of electricity and the removal of the vast subsidies to a bunch of foreign bludgers is probably going to be beneficial to NZ.
Wayne, the Al Jazeera article is pretty balanced, fair and based on facts. What is wrong with that? Refreshing to read something like that after all the trump like media stuff doing its best to discredit the government in every way possible.
How do you feel about the sleaze permeating your party? Our PM has behaved with grace always. She has had every reason to go for Muller and co and the way they operate, but has not.
If she wanted a cup of tea and a lie down, like Muller, Hosking and co would have slaughtered her if that happened but poor Toddy was feeling the strain after a torrid few days.
The reports I heard was that he was a new arrival from India.
Remember, NZ imported nearly a million migrants over a decade, mostly to replace the massive migration out of NZ after 2011, around 400,000, at that time, nearl 10% of the population.
The exact one you described, it was a news report on the radio.
It's possible the person flying in from India was originally from Ubekistan or Florida or even NZ, but the assumption was that they were from India, given the population, of 2.2 Billion, say compared to NZ of 5 million
While I understand the face displayed on billboards Just is and it is tempting to want that, I think anyone breaking quarantine could be very vulnerable to vigilantism.
He also took selfies in the aisle and made phone calls using free wi-fi before returning to the hotel and waiting for police.
He tested positive for Covid-19 yesterday morning and is now facing charges, while the supermarket has been closed for cleaning and several people, including staff, are in isolation.
The man, speaking with the NZ Herald over the phone, reportedly said he felt "totally healthy and fine" and questioned his diagnosis, saying he had been given "no evidence" of actually having the virus…
When asked why he thought it was OK to leave the hotel, he reportedly said "no one told me anything".
He told the Herald that even people with Covid-19 are human, saying, "We are also people," but he didn't respond to questions about whether he thought he had put the public at risk by leaving the hotel.
FFS what did he think was going on? That the NZ government picks up everybody from the airport complete with minders and trucks them all off to a downtown hotel and pays their accommodation bill while they trot round sightseeing? I mean really?
If he's good enough to have a debit card and work a checkout then you think he'd be smart enough to work out that something was going on and he'd better pay attention.
People are dumb and shortsighted and stupid and devious and everything.
Don't trust anyone, you don't know what their motivations are. Plan for the worst, expect even worse.
Is this it? The organisation was such that an infected person walked out of quarantine/isolation? He could have gone to a couple of clubs, got into the spirit of things and over the next couple of weeks the virus could have started spreading over the Auckland area and Auckland could have been Melbourne?
If that is the case some people are not taking things seriously. They are not taking things seriously because they are dumb or they are simply not capable.
Am I over-dramatising it suggesting that some cock up of poor planning or poor carrying out of procedures could have ended up in lives being put at risk and millions and millions of dollars being the cost?
When you think about it – we are a bit of a wild west bunch quite often. It may seem refreshing and spontaneous and giving things a go to people, and yes sometimes. But a lot of it is rebellious, childish, self-centred, and lacking in self-discipline and not appreciating that there is a greater good out there. Everything can't revolve around self and immediate self-gratification – restraint is required from people old enough to be expected to be mature adults.
But then we make little effort to help parents socialise their children, and this simplistic approach to life carries from one generation to the next. No wonder we find our country now in a mess in the natural environment and the social environment as well, and those of us who have acquired some objective view have an uphill battle showing how the problems are linked. Being thoughtful adults isn't in the experience of many family lines dating from colonial times.
This person could have NZ citizenship and lived here for a number of years, so would be able to use all things you describe.
Have you been to India in the last decade? I only ask that as you assume that cos he's arrived from India, he has no concept of modern life, ie, credit cards and using self service, I think you'll find India is not that antiquated, in fact they probably designed some of that equipment, certainly some areas and states aren't that sofisticated.
Rio Tinto has bludged cheap power for decades, while thousands of our own people live in underheated, mouldy, dumps due to the high cost of electricity from the privatised power companies. Until such obvious inequities are seriously addressed they can sod off.
Just be aware that the actual energy cost is a bit under a third of a typical residential electricity bill. Transmission and lines charges are a bit over a third, retailer charges a sixth, GST a sixth, rats and mice the rest. So Meridian could give away the Manapouri power for free and it wouldn't reduce residential electricity bills much.
A broadly similar calculation would apply to Tiwai’s power bill. The costs of supplying the electricity are a major component, especially the costs involved in enabling some backup ability.
Having an aluminium smelter at one end of a long skinny network may not be a good idea in a post electricity reform and privatisation era.
Tiwai Point won't be paying any local distribution costs, they've got Transpower delivering right to their door. Their argument for getting reduced transmission charges from Transpower was basically that the spur line from Manapouri to Tiwai Point was just for them, so that was all they should pay for, and they didn't get much benefit from the rest of the grid so they shouldn't have to contribute to paying for it.
Some time back I had a stab at comparing their transmission bill to their electricity bill, from memory and published speculation about the various components, it appeared their transmission charges were about a quarter their electricity charges. From memory, the numbers were around a quarter billion to Meridian for the juice and 65 million to Transpower to get it to them
They also won't be paying retailer charges or GST or metering or any of the other rats and mice.
One big effect of the electricity market jiggery-pokery is over the last twenty years, the price per kWhr went from being roughly the same for residential, commercial and industrial customers, to big industrial users now paying maybe a third of what residential users pay, with commercial users somewhere in between.
edit
What about conceding a lower cost for electricity but they must accept responsibility as a company, to remove and deal with safely the Mataura and elsewhere dump of leftover stuff that produces ammonia gas if wet. They are not to offsell it to any other company, they are not to contract with some other company to remove it, they are to meet with government scientists and have big full and frank talks about the way to do this, using all known scientific information on dealing with it to cause it to be inert. This must be done within two years after discussions and satisfactory solution decided. The discussions to start from six months from now. There may be some machinery required to process the stuff and we could look at offering some assistance to pay for this, no GST something, something. We should throw ourselves into getting this done, and done right at reasonable terms and proceed apace, as the saying goes.
Get this done now while they are still here and operating, and left in a safe state. If they close down soon, it will be left sitting for us to deal with and we will never get these big boys back to the table. It is no use pontificating about what should happen, and that it isn't good environmentally.
And perhaps design some state housing that uses aluminium which is strong and light, and is going cheap at the moment on world markets, and we buy it at those prices and it is right in the country so should save some carbon costs.
Andre@6.2…
Power generation/supply/retail/wholesale is an artificial market created by National and unfortunately largely still supported by all parliamentary parties to satisfy the prevailing monetarist doctrine and structural neo liberalism NZ operates on. Meridian and the rest are creatures of legislation and prime examples of the penetration of state infrastructure by market forces and private capital.
The power companies of all stripes are essentially parasites on previously publicly owned and developed, hydro, thermal and fossil fuelled systems.
What has Rio Tinto contributed apart from environmental degradation, heavily subsidised jobs, and periodic blackmail?–even the Key Govt. gifted them further millions and Mr Key was meant to be a financial genius. Their last effort to get further concessions, despite employing a professional front organisation did not seem to get a lot of traction from locals anyway if meeting attendances and media impact are an indication.
@lprent – had a couple of comments just take a random walk into oblivion after hitting "submit comment". One just a few minutes ago in reply to Tiger Mountain just above, one last night. The one just now didn't have links or any even slightly controversial language.
edit: the redo of the reply to Tiger Mountain went through normally.
Lincoln Project: Slick about sick Trumpites and their doings and should rake in the shekels. Never ever trust them again, they say. Fair enough. But I don't trust anybody now. So what are they – hot air balloons with baskets touching the ground long enough to be filled with money which will rise and drift away for a distant destination?
Headline in today's Nelson Mail – 'Niece paints acid portrait of President'. I thought what a good art work that would be – some material with his face marked out with the facial contours sort of etched into it. It would make a good wall hanging of this epic leader, monumental. Think Han Solo Star Wars.
Yep, but fortunately for us his listener base is relatively small, for obvious reasons, he's only talking to an echo chamber, noboby with an IQ above their age listens to the Hosk.
Paddy Gower was in isolation for a day or so after using the same supermarket as the quarantine wanderer. He's tested negative and is now out and about again. What day did the dude go walk about? It seems a very short period of time for covid to develop enough to return a positive test. I think the risk is very low, but am curious how that is being managed. Is the idea that a true negative will be available within a few days?
It's a stunt caused by Gower's Loss of Relevance Condition or most likely he is even stupider than I ever thought as it's 3-4 days minimum for a conclusive test.
New Labour’s gamble that devolution would defang the independence movements in Britain’s Celtic nations seems to have dramatically backfired: instead, the result seems to be that London’s media pays far less attention to the currents threatening our union than they should. But more interesting than all of these poll results is the revelation that 27% of voters in England would back English independence from the United Kingdom.
So more than a quarter of the English electorate seem to be separatist. As political minorities go, that's substantial!
Quite apart from the defects already pointed out in the article – the only thing NZ has in quantity that Australia doesn't is snow. On the other hand they have more sun, more nightlife, more shopping , more….well everything. so why would they spend more here than we do there. Should reports like this even be issued. It doesn't reflect well on EY
Getting this ‘sponsored’ group on Facebook. Fairness in Focus.They are representing medical drug manufacturers. So why this name for a group of lobbyists?
Today's headline was "New Zealand ranks last out of 20 OECD countries for access to modern medicines."
So, how many OECD countries are there? 20? Are we bottom of the OECD countries for the number of modern medicines registered, the time it takes to access them and how many such medicines are publicly funded?
That's what they imply.
Well, folks, Colombia is number 37 to join, says Google.
It seems there are lies, damned lies and pharmaceutical statistics! Do we have fairness in Fairness in Focus's advocacy for the pharmaceutical companies?
The image gives the appearance that all those green pills are weighing the DNA down. Which may actually be close to the truth. I know DNA is twisted but that one seems to be trying to shake lose!
And what medical interventions are there to access? And which ones are available on public funds? And can we have these graded by price with their special aims and ailments listed as well? Also whether they are aids to cures, or suppressants able to prolong active life though not cure?
It might also ask what externally independently tested medications are available specialising in what afflictions? It seems like more hustling with us as chooks supposed to peck at anything the overlings choose to throw.
It is interesting that the police vetoed the request, Covid-19 reasons not referred to in this article, but because of their oft-heard wish not to allow any action that is not initiated by them, may have risk, and which does not assist them in some way.
In the April email, the New Zealand police referred to other barriers: The cost "to bring yourself from the US" and deploying a team for an "unknown length of time" with "no possible guarantee of success".
"Thank you for your kind offer, but unfortunately we cannot take you up on it," the police concluded…
The response to that was: "We're the ones saying we'll pay for it. We're not asking them to do it. I don't think he even referenced Covid – they just don't want to do it."
It is sad that these people have lost their son who is drowned at the bottom of a lake, and we are in a pandemic now, but it appears that the police are in charge of this matter and have refused the parents from ever having the right to conduct their own operation, which of course should be done in a professional manner. Something must be done further about this, rather than just an outright refusal, there should be a possibility to be reviewed every six months for three times and then finally in two years, say.
We need a Risk and Recovery Unit outside the normal policing, and with more expertise and a wider framework. People in the field may be part-time employed by a few permanent and well-experienced operations managers (no generic employees). They would be trained in what to look for that might relate to legal proceedings, but they would go beyond the police yoke that seems bounded by demands from police management following best practice guidelines.
Another thing is sad – that a number of things malfunctioned and caused this tourist's death.
Tyler Nii, 27, a tennis coach, did not survive after a double parachute failure over Lake Wakatipu in January 2018.
His lifevest also failed to inflate. The tandem-jump instructor survived…
The Nii family still do not have a death certificate. It is unclear why.
They did have a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) report, but they considered it so inept and incomplete they thought it did not deserve to be called an investigation.
It had been a long fight just to be told anything by authorities, Kevin Nii said.
Was it an avoidable disaster, and if not, why not? This is part of a line of injuries and deaths in our great outdoorsy, risky, physical-oriented tourist business. And one not set up properly and thoughtfully. It is disgraceful that we have the number of accidents and deaths that we do.
When Labour wins the election and is back in power, then we should set up an agency as part of the ACC to check how things could be run better. And restore people's right to sue with a cap, for aspects that are beyond ACC's remit.
This means that the loose way that geonet measurements of volcanic activity are graded, and that there will be controls on say the White Island tourist activities accordingly. We know that business has difficulty limiting itself and turning down the dollars in any sector. This one makes much money from taking people to a 'muttering' volcano and needs to be given definite limits.
In the meantime it would be good if these people could be asked to stay in touch and first, that the police negative be replaced by a guarded positive if possible with an unconnected expert's opinion on whether it could be done safely whether it was likely to be successful or not, and second that the situation would be looked at by some authority, perhaps tourism who would check whether there was a Covid-19 window which facilitated it. We want our tourism to continue in a better form than previously, and we do not want to lose our better-paying people because of bad reports about our being casual and unreliable.
Pilot Arthur Dovey escaped unharmed, but a wing on his World War II Yak-3 aircraft was destroyed after hitting one of the cherry pickers during landing in 2018…
The repair bill for the destroyed wing was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and Dovey wanted to recover those costs from show organisers.
Why should he have to go to High Court to get this paid for when it is obviously the Warbirds organisers at fault?
And is our self-congratulatory attitude undeserved about everything? Winning a farming award, and calling his animals bitches – how's that?
(Recently I read of a farmer who commented on how great cows were as animals, very patient, and docile, and they were all named. Still had to be culled in rotation, but there was one who had such a personality that she had acquired a special rating as hostess to visitors.)
Especially after we have to build high fences around all the facilities and have 24/7 police available to deal with those entitled individuals (luckily, there are not many yet, but surely the number is going to rise).
If this is a longer term thing, we should set up camp on an island for the new arrivals.
Now the police union are criticising the Govt because they have to guard these people in quarantine. They kinda have a point, why should the police guard these people? But maybe because all the fearmongering in the media the Govt has turned the level right up to 11?
NSW used the police and defence staff. Victoria used outsourced contractors. Look who has the massive outbreak and why.
We are using a mix of outsourced, defence and police. Oh and IIRC there was a comment for a security company spokesperson complaining about those people being low paid. Maybe the industry could fix that themselves.
Why can't the police work with the community instead of deciding who they want to protect and who not? Should we call in the Army?
I question why hospitals have to hire security guards? Protecting our public workers and places should be police work. Private people's cars and property should be protected but it seems that people anywhere generally seem to be down the list.
Wow, that guy sounds deranged. He's a republican though, so it's not surprising he knows nothing about the progressive wing of the Dems. He even names Harris and Warren as patron saints of progressives… what a joke.
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
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Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
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Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
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Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
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The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
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Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
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Everyone having a cuppa and lie down or just cancelling culture? I see latest Stuff headline that the bozo escaping the fence is waaaaaaaaaaaay worse than National leaking confidential patient details, unless they're that opinion writers own details no doubt.
Is "White Jesus" an example of "cancel culture"? White washing Jesus?
Mosa posted this excellent al Jazeera article yesterday about how the New Zealand's media's endangered the country's health in conjunction with the Natz.
The article is worthy of a post in its own right. Here Glen Johnson describes the far right posturing of the media.
At the end of the article, he asks ‘Will the media hold the National Party to account?’
Your observation of Stuff’s headlines provides the answer.
"A case can be made that the nation's media, laundering many of the opposition's attack lines and big business talking points, have repeatedly endangered public health.
This was driven not only by the country's clutch of prominent Fox News-style commentators – Mike Hosking, Heather du Plessis-Allan and Duncan Garner – each of whom hawks anger and division to drive ratings, but by senior reporters and editors."
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/zealand-media-endangered-public-health-200707103532946.html
Brutal. Enjoyed that, thanks.
This is exactly the type of piece parts of our MSM should be creating but it's all owned.
Over to you labour, grow a pair and fix it !
I would reform the media as a top priority.
At present New Zealanders are subjected almost totally to the views of the billionaire class.
The Jazeera link (which I have read) is not remotely a news item. It is a partisan opinion article.
The Herald always has opinion articles submitted by readers from right across the political spectrum. They are what they are and readers know that.
It's a counter to the multitude of opinion articles masquerading as fact (homeless man bs etc) that do attempt to influence NZers attitudes . Those articles put immense political pressure on the govt.I'm pretty sure without them we would have moved to level 1 at the time Bloomfield recommended.If we'd done that there would have been time to get the new testing regime securely implemented .
+1 Well said
Pity the corporate media never airs that view.
Instead it trots out the partisan view its sponsors want them to say.
The view of the deathcult called neoliberalism.
[Fixed error in user name]
Wayne, of course it's an opinion piece. It said on the link supplied by Ed. It says on the article when opened as well.
It's not a good line to take, to criticise something for being what it is plain it is.
What critics should do, Wayne, is critique the opinion piece. Where is it deficient, partisan to the point of error and distortion?
I read it and was quite taken with the quality of the writing- the developed argument, the use of examples as evidence, the conclusions.
It's not enough to slag something for being partisan. By definition, in a binary political world, half of partisan writing should be OK.
So, my question is, having given some reasons as to why the article should be read in terms of style and approach, what are your concerns with its content?
"Clark, the country's most effective health minister in decades" – seems incontrovertial evidence that the thing was written by a Labour partisan out of touch with reality. Totally clueless about the functional role of the fourth estate in a democracy too. Note the binary framing.
Let’s have a look a the list, shall we?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minister_of_Health_(New_Zealand)
Let's take decades to mean </= to 30 years in this instance.
The statement that "Clark, the country's most effective health minister in decades" is risible.
😀
Yeah, and the bloody media kept it a secret from us the whole time.
Past three decades, since 1990.
5 Ministers of Health over 30 months tenure- Coleman 36 months, Ryall 59 m., King 59 m., Shipley 36 m. David Clark 32 m.
4 with 20-30 months tenure- Helen Clark 20 m., Hodgson 25 m., English 26 m., Upton 29 m.
There's the field for thirty years. Who was the most effective Minister of Health?
Fine with me, but the original Q who was the country's most effective health minister in decades.
I must be nearly impossible to agree on a measure for "most effective" – no Minister works outside the context of the government of which they form part. David Clark has been part of a government that knew Health needed a lot of remedial work – and that became clearer after they were elected, but it is also clear that Clark achieved more than just the essential – see https://www.labour.org.nz/progress-list and click on Health.
To put it another way, I think it would be hard to put many ahead of Clark; King had similar challenges (Covid apart) and similar advances in the field.
Your comment is risible!
Never seen opinion pieces from marxists in the Herald. Plenty of shrieking libertarians. They even get regular columns.
…across the right of the political spectrum
Can't comment on the Herald but Stuff not only produces overtly partisan opinion pieces (not leftist!) and frequently presents news which is so slanted, it should carry an 'opinion' warning.
Marie Leadbeater has had recent opinion pieces on West Papua and I think Rimpac. The readers submitted items are on the editorial page below the cartoon, and cover a wide variety of opinion topics.
They are well read, but everyone reading them knows they are that person's opinion. The readers will agree or not agree, and of course they articles often contain interesting factual information irrespective of the opinion within the item.
As for the libertarians, I presume you are thinking of John Roughan, who is on the staff (or at least was). Probably the most significant feature opinion writer on staff is Simon Wilson. I would say he votes Green based on what he writes.
No, there are probably not many Marxists writing in the paper, but would there even be 1000 Marxists in New Zealand as a whole?
Where do you see Damian Grant, Wayne?
act party meetings?
The Al Jazeera article is an important critique of the National party reaction to the pandemic, which has bff even to take any angle to attack the govt, including leaking confidential patient information. It has revealed National as having no coherent response to the health situation. Barking at every car I think it is called. The media, with one or two exceptions have been the same. This undoubtedly put pressure on the govt who had to make the most crucial decisions very rapidly. Fortunately the govt were able to hold their nerve.
nzders appear to have seen through the hysterics of National and some media and labour led by Ardern are on course for a landslide victory. Well deserved and you must know this Wayne. Nothing National have done has earned the trust of nzders. We have all met people at parties who blow themselves up “we have the best summer house, wine, etc etc etc”. Or in Nationals case the best team. Boasting about being the best isn’t a policy it’s kinda pathetic. Nzders use to associate it with American show off. I am pleased that most of us see through that crap
Wayne why not discuss the substance of the opinion piece instead of trying to deflect the discussion into "everyone does opinion pieces"? Classic diversion tactic.
It's an opinion piece critiquing news reports. It has a point though- apart from politics we have seen in the business press numerous "News articles" which have largely been industry groups, demanding that the border be opened for their favoured group of employees or customers.
The dairy industry is a good example – it has repeated employer views extensively about the lack of workers but with no push back about the terms and conditions of the jobs ( many are short duration), why the industry has previously failed to train locals, why they are so "specialised" that a short term visa worker can do it on a minimum wage , what steps they have taken to attract local labour etc. It's as if a lot of the employer and right wing are allowed to operate in a question free zone.
He doesn't have the guts to discuss the substance of the article or to respond to anything anyone says about his empty and senseless attempt at dismissing it. Spray and walk away Wayne. Total slime.
Do you imagine Wayne, that the Herald would remotely consider publishing an opinion piece such as the excellent Eljazeera column? Really?
It is a partisan opinion article.
Thus speaketh an ex-National Party minister.
This is not robust debate, this is pathetic 🙁
I was pointing out the absurdity of an ex-National Party minister—a notorious one at that—hurling a loaded and demeaning epithet—"partisan"—at a serious and credible piece of journalistic analysis.
We could not have done without your help so a Bigly thanks to you 😉
No, it's thanks to you, my friend. You're correct in assessing my initial comment as a tad pathetic.
Respect!
serious and credible
Oh, I suspect the author was indeed serious about trying to con readers into believing it was a valid critique – but credible only to the credulous… 😉
Colour me "credulous" Dennis – you can lead a horse to water…
Dennis wasn’t fooled.
"right across the political spectrum"..from light blue to dark blue?
I'd like to dedicate this to you and Mrs Wayne, Wayne. And tell her no need to pull out the Elna (oops the pedal powered Singer) just yet, and Mrs Wayne's tablecloths are safe SO FAR.
Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag
And smile, smile, smile,
While you've a lucifer to light your fag,
Smile, boys, that's the style.
What's the use of worrying?
It never was worth while
So pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag
And smile, smile, smile.
And now that you're down with the kids running things these days, gimmee a hint, I need an exclusive. You were never 'on' with that old trout Michelle were ya? You know there's big talk of it and if the ragdoll media keep biting – you might have to front
Whoar – tell me ya weren't tho' eh?. (And just btw – not only do I have a deal on Remdesivir for you, but there's a few of the blue left for you)
Ed said it was an excellent article. Then you come along trying to dismiss that by saying it's merely "a partisan opinion article." So what? Nobody's saying it isn't.
If you don't agree with the contents of the article why don't you say why you don't agree? You're such a snake.
Thanks for that
Really good article
It was obviously biased. I agree with the critique of the Nats, but all that crap about the media fronting for them won't fool anyone with half a brain. Some in the media do favour the right, but most try to represent the broader public. 🙄
Still battling for the underdog, eh Dennis – onya!
"Will the media hold the National Party to account?"
… Fox News-style commentators – Mike Hosking, Heather du Plessis-Allan and Duncan Garner – each of whom hawks anger and division to drive ratings…
Du Plessis-Allan and Garner were the Talentless Television Twosome from Tartarus in 2015…
Trust Luke Malpass , the National shill for Stuff ("Coronavirus: How isolation breach trumps National's privacy botchup") to start the day with a WTF moment! Since when did a single wandering miscreant who immediately is fronting up to the Court attracted the opprobrium of most NZers trump the criminal acts of at least three political opportunists. As for Muller, how could he have acted in any other way, and why did he not act decisively 30 hours earlier, even if it might have been 'kinda legal? Why, even the announcement of a recycled RON took precedence over dealing with a miscreant MP when he was in front of the camera for his press presentation. If Stuff want to be paid for content – they will need to get their shit together, unless they intend to be a 'Trumpian' sponsored organ of the Party of Irrelevance.
Stuff have taken it off their front page, and I don't really mind them spouting RW garbage, if they spout LW garbage too. I pay a Stuff sub so keep an eye, they're fairly even. Great piece in Al Jazeera, "partisan", ha!!! Seems pretty factual to me.
A lot of comments on a headline, but no link to the piece under it. Do people actually read the content before sounding off?
It is hardly an attack on the government. It provides context to the isolation problem.
What Malpass says about the dilemma is true. In fact it's what people have been saying on The Standard for ages. The balance between legal authority and health protection is a real challenge.
We now have an inside psych diagnosis of the Donald, from within his family: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/mary-trump-book-niece-summary-highlights-too-much-and-never-enough-a9606671.html
The good news is that Americans touted their system of democracy as the best for most of the 20th century, claiming that `anyone can become president', and anyone eventually did. Donald proved them right. Mentally-ill folk have equal rights, and seeing one get the top job is a genuine thrill for all true believers in democracy! 🥳
Rio Tinto smelter in Bluff to go.
1000 jobs on the line.
Before we go all gleeful about rediverting the Manapouri generation, let's take a moment for the shock and devastation this will cause to those families putting dinner on the table.
We are at our lowest economic ebb in a century, and this is simply a terrible blow for the people of Bluff, Invercargill, and Southland.
After that, a fantastic opportunity to put a seventh of our national electricity supply to better use.
Bring on fully electrified public transport etc. If our govt finds a way past the last one's part-privatisation of the system.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300052786/tiwai-point-to-close-1000-jobs-to-go
Guarantee if the price of power shifts it will be upwards.
If we let our broken 'market' have its way, yes.
That's the likely outcome, because Transpower will be able to increase their charges because of the extra investment they will have to make in the lines to move the power northwards.
On the other hand, since Transpower is wholly owned by the government, I'm kinda OK with the money from increased energy costs going to the government. Kind of a wastrel tax. As long as provision is made for those at the bottom of the income scale to help them overcome the increased burden.
More of a kinda poor people tax. Bloody wastrels, heating their kids' rooms.
Gotta harden 'em up for their walk to and from the mines. In the snow. Uphill both ways. With a howling gale right in their faces.
They have already had 3 years.
There is a limit on blaming not doing anything on the last lot.
I'd welcome them announcing de-privatisation of our electricity system. That might be what it would take, as the Nats knew.
Right, so let's take the opportunity to get serious about sustainable industry for Southland.
I kinda like the idea of tasking Southland Institute of Technology with developing a range of electric vehicle conversion kits – preferably with a range extender option.
In the immediate future, upgrading the transmission lines to get Manapouri's power to the Waitaki basin is going to provide a bit of a helping hand for employment and business activity in the region, if it's managed well with that as a specific goal.
The Southland Regional Development Agency is the primary conduit for the concepts.
They have representation from SRC, Invercargill Council, Gore, the two Trusts, Chamber of Commerce, the Polytech, and others.
It's not like they haven't seen it coming
It would also be great to build a southern focus around Dunedin's engineering facilities like the Hillside rail workshop, set up fully carbon-free electric-powered factories, etc.
Let's not waste the chance by just reducing the power costs for corporate dairying expanding in mismatching environments.
Sacha, it takes people and Governments to have the "vision" to believe it's possible and then make it happen.
The problem with today's world is that People with a vision are considered "Dreamers"
And Corin Dann fails to ask any tough questions of their spokesperson.
Predictable.
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Please add a link for those of us who missed the interview.
Link to the interview.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018754179
If ever this government needed a reminder about the parasitical nature of multinational corporations, this brutal action while our economy is weakened by the effects of COVID 19……
If a decent interviewer like Pilger or Fisk had been asking the questions, this angle would have been the focus.
Gary Tong's interview was a measured and reasonable response, Shadbolt sounded like he'd had a very heavy night before, and managed to turn it into a Penny Simmons election advertisement. About what I'd expect out of him. If I have misinterpreted that, well I did have trouble following him and I was multitasking at the time.
Shortages of labour on dairy farms in Southland workers will have to find new jobs.
Aluminium demand will stay depressed for many years the aircraft manufacturing industry will take years to recover.
So no future for Tiwae but Rio Tinto are blaming electricity prices.
Very good opinion Trickle.
Agree trickle…..my understanding is that Rio Tinto have been given heavily discounted electricity…..but the deal is secret….now they are blaming electricity prices for shutting up shop I think the public is entitled to know exactly what they are paying
Not secret. Criminally low. No time to find links right now but easy enough to find.
Rio Tinto, Gina Reinhart, the woman who makes $2.5M every hour of every day and then suggested to the Australian Govt that she should be able to import workers from China who would work for $1 an hour, saving her company a fortune in labour costs
Outright Greed.
Rio Tinto smelter in Bluff to go… 1000 jobs
Those thousand folks do at least have the assurance that the newly-elected National MP for Southland will be available to explain to them how National will get them new jobs via business as usual.
So they just need to organise themselves into a queue at the door of his electorate office when it opens. Call the media to show the queue on the evening tv news, then interview them after they come out from getting the MP's explanation. The pertinent question would be what day they start their new job, so the media can report whatever common pattern emerges from the answers…
Most people directly affected will most likely live in the Invercargill electorate, not Clutha Southland. Last time Invercargill voted in a Labour MP was 2002, Mark Peck held the seat for the 1993 – 2002 terms (which is kind of remarkable, a big swing in 1993, I wonder if the boundaries were redrawn, or it was a rejection of Nats doubling down on neoliberalism).
In 2017 there was only a few hundred votes between the Nat MP and the L/NZF/G ones. Will be interesting to see who Labour stands this time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invercargill_(New_Zealand_electorate)#Election_results
So the 1000 job loses and the rest directly working around the smelter aren't that big a deal?
Cool.
Great to see your priorities.
You weren't considerate to all the families directly/indirectly supported by a 5* hotel hosting returning kiwis in quarantine.
Priorities, you say. Have you checked for yours behind your fake outrage?
There's a thought.
Maybe they can convert the smelter to a 5 star hotel.
Heating wouldn't be an issue.
You've been here long enough to know that I don't tolerate people making shit up about my views and politics. There is absolutely nothing in my comment about the Tiwai jobs, it's a comment about southern electorates and voting. I have even less time for this shit than normal because it's election year. How you respond to my comment now will determine how I moderate you in the future.
I just find the shifting of 1000 people at the very least losing their jobs in a small region into election chances of a party a tad distasteful on the same day the the 1000 find out their life might be screwed
next time say that instead of making up shit about my beliefs.
Fair call. Will do.
ta.
Bro. I was about to say don't put your hand in the cage.
Yeah. Worked it out.
Just shows @ Ad. The gNatz should have gone to Specsavers. Woodhouse might have got himself a Musk instead of a Thiel. At least he does stuff.
On the other hand, the quantity of cheap power that is about to be unleashed could power many thousands of jobs – ones that don't send the profits off-shore.
How about – NO!
Redundancies happen all the time and I doubt that those thousand workers gave more than a moments thought to those who suffered them.
And, yes, the freeing up of that amount of electricity and the removal of the vast subsidies to a bunch of foreign bludgers is probably going to be beneficial to NZ.
Wayne, the Al Jazeera article is pretty balanced, fair and based on facts. What is wrong with that? Refreshing to read something like that after all the trump like media stuff doing its best to discredit the government in every way possible.
How do you feel about the sleaze permeating your party? Our PM has behaved with grace always. She has had every reason to go for Muller and co and the way they operate, but has not.
If she wanted a cup of tea and a lie down, like Muller, Hosking and co would have slaughtered her if that happened but poor Toddy was feeling the strain after a torrid few days.
This latest escapee from Isolation needs to be made an example of, bring the full force of the Law on him, 6 months in jail, no questions.
Make an example of him so that others may be deterred from attempting the same thing.
I'd like to say he was ignorant, but he new what he was doing. foreigners who simply don't give a shit.
If he was in managed isolation rather than quarantine, has to be an NZ citizen or resident rather than a foreigner.
Yes, but that doesn't mean he was born here.
The reports I heard was that he was a new arrival from India.
Remember, NZ imported nearly a million migrants over a decade, mostly to replace the massive migration out of NZ after 2011, around 400,000, at that time, nearl 10% of the population.
What reports did you hear?
Are you suggesting that only people born in New Zealand are New Zealanders?
No, you've misunderstood, NZ citizens, today, aren't necessarily born in NZ, you know, migrants gaining citizenship after meeting the criteria.
Yep
This person flew in from India. What report have you seen that suggest he is a migrant, and if he is what is your point?
The exact one you described, it was a news report on the radio.
It's possible the person flying in from India was originally from Ubekistan or Florida or even NZ, but the assumption was that they were from India, given the population, of 2.2 Billion, say compared to NZ of 5 million
How long after moving to NZ does someone stop being a 'foreigner'?
When they’re sixth generation or older.
Then 1 yrs community service in hospitals.
Yep, and his face displayed on massive billboards so Everyone knows who he is.
While I understand the face displayed on billboards Just is and it is tempting to want that, I think anyone breaking quarantine could be very vulnerable to vigilantism.
No let him do some time in jail. And a fine.
Agreed.
Still annoyed though.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. ~~ Albert Einstein.
Well said
Ha ha this is funny but sad. 32 year old man not grown out of stupid childhood, or perhaps reached his peak already and on the way down.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/man-escaped-auckland-isolation-says-hes-now-feeling-stressed-questions-positive-covid-19-test
He also took selfies in the aisle and made phone calls using free wi-fi before returning to the hotel and waiting for police.
He tested positive for Covid-19 yesterday morning and is now facing charges, while the supermarket has been closed for cleaning and several people, including staff, are in isolation.
The man, speaking with the NZ Herald over the phone, reportedly said he felt "totally healthy and fine" and questioned his diagnosis, saying he had been given "no evidence" of actually having the virus…
When asked why he thought it was OK to leave the hotel, he reportedly said "no one told me anything".
He told the Herald that even people with Covid-19 are human, saying, "We are also people," but he didn't respond to questions about whether he thought he had put the public at risk by leaving the hotel.
Self-pitying, self-centred juvenile twat.
Much, but that's how I interpreted his actions in the first place.
Before going into Isolation, the Govt officials make it Very Clear What the Responsibilities are, there is NO EXCUSE
Well he might be mentally challenged.
Nobody told him anything?
FFS what did he think was going on? That the NZ government picks up everybody from the airport complete with minders and trucks them all off to a downtown hotel and pays their accommodation bill while they trot round sightseeing? I mean really?
If he's good enough to have a debit card and work a checkout then you think he'd be smart enough to work out that something was going on and he'd better pay attention.
[Fixed error in e-mail address]
People are dumb and shortsighted and stupid and devious and everything.
Don't trust anyone, you don't know what their motivations are. Plan for the worst, expect even worse.
Is this it? The organisation was such that an infected person walked out of quarantine/isolation? He could have gone to a couple of clubs, got into the spirit of things and over the next couple of weeks the virus could have started spreading over the Auckland area and Auckland could have been Melbourne?
If that is the case some people are not taking things seriously. They are not taking things seriously because they are dumb or they are simply not capable.
Am I over-dramatising it suggesting that some cock up of poor planning or poor carrying out of procedures could have ended up in lives being put at risk and millions and millions of dollars being the cost?
When you think about it – we are a bit of a wild west bunch quite often. It may seem refreshing and spontaneous and giving things a go to people, and yes sometimes. But a lot of it is rebellious, childish, self-centred, and lacking in self-discipline and not appreciating that there is a greater good out there. Everything can't revolve around self and immediate self-gratification – restraint is required from people old enough to be expected to be mature adults.
But then we make little effort to help parents socialise their children, and this simplistic approach to life carries from one generation to the next. No wonder we find our country now in a mess in the natural environment and the social environment as well, and those of us who have acquired some objective view have an uphill battle showing how the problems are linked. Being thoughtful adults isn't in the experience of many family lines dating from colonial times.
👍 Yes
Also, the escapee should be Billed for his Isolation, the estimated cost of $4000 plus the cost of Police time identifying potential victims
Send them a message.
AND countdown should sue him for the cost of the cleaning and shut down.
Yes, make them responsible for their actions, this applies to everything in life.
Foreigners aren't necessarily the best at not giving a shit. We can do as well without even trying, often!
Yes, in fact, probably worse
What makes you think he's a foreigner, he knows how to use a self service checkout and obviously has a debit card, you won't find either in India.
This person could have NZ citizenship and lived here for a number of years, so would be able to use all things you describe.
Have you been to India in the last decade? I only ask that as you assume that cos he's arrived from India, he has no concept of modern life, ie, credit cards and using self service, I think you'll find India is not that antiquated, in fact they probably designed some of that equipment, certainly some areas and states aren't that sofisticated.
A Kiwi mate. Makes it worse.
Yes and No, being classified as a Kiwi today doesn't mean you born here.
Nearly 20% of Kiwi citizens today weren't born here, that's the result of a decade of high immigration.
Nothing new then.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/maori-and-european-population-numbers-1838–1901
Rio Tinto has bludged cheap power for decades, while thousands of our own people live in underheated, mouldy, dumps due to the high cost of electricity from the privatised power companies. Until such obvious inequities are seriously addressed they can sod off.
does the govt hold any sort of bond to sort out the toxic waste
here is link from 2017.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/344491/toxic-smelter-waste-must-go-campaigner
Just be aware that the actual energy cost is a bit under a third of a typical residential electricity bill. Transmission and lines charges are a bit over a third, retailer charges a sixth, GST a sixth, rats and mice the rest. So Meridian could give away the Manapouri power for free and it wouldn't reduce residential electricity bills much.
https://www.meridianenergy.co.nz/your-home/pricing-and-rates/more-about-electricity-pricing
A broadly similar calculation would apply to Tiwai’s power bill. The costs of supplying the electricity are a major component, especially the costs involved in enabling some backup ability.
Having an aluminium smelter at one end of a long skinny network may not be a good idea in a post electricity reform and privatisation era.
No.
Tiwai Point won't be paying any local distribution costs, they've got Transpower delivering right to their door. Their argument for getting reduced transmission charges from Transpower was basically that the spur line from Manapouri to Tiwai Point was just for them, so that was all they should pay for, and they didn't get much benefit from the rest of the grid so they shouldn't have to contribute to paying for it.
Some time back I had a stab at comparing their transmission bill to their electricity bill, from memory and published speculation about the various components, it appeared their transmission charges were about a quarter their electricity charges. From memory, the numbers were around a quarter billion to Meridian for the juice and 65 million to Transpower to get it to them
They also won't be paying retailer charges or GST or metering or any of the other rats and mice.
One big effect of the electricity market jiggery-pokery is over the last twenty years, the price per kWhr went from being roughly the same for residential, commercial and industrial customers, to big industrial users now paying maybe a third of what residential users pay, with commercial users somewhere in between.
edit
What about conceding a lower cost for electricity but they must accept responsibility as a company, to remove and deal with safely the Mataura and elsewhere dump of leftover stuff that produces ammonia gas if wet. They are not to offsell it to any other company, they are not to contract with some other company to remove it, they are to meet with government scientists and have big full and frank talks about the way to do this, using all known scientific information on dealing with it to cause it to be inert. This must be done within two years after discussions and satisfactory solution decided. The discussions to start from six months from now. There may be some machinery required to process the stuff and we could look at offering some assistance to pay for this, no GST something, something. We should throw ourselves into getting this done, and done right at reasonable terms and proceed apace, as the saying goes.
Get this done now while they are still here and operating, and left in a safe state. If they close down soon, it will be left sitting for us to deal with and we will never get these big boys back to the table. It is no use pontificating about what should happen, and that it isn't good environmentally.
And perhaps design some state housing that uses aluminium which is strong and light, and is going cheap at the moment on world markets, and we buy it at those prices and it is right in the country so should save some carbon costs.
Andre@6.2…
Power generation/supply/retail/wholesale is an artificial market created by National and unfortunately largely still supported by all parliamentary parties to satisfy the prevailing monetarist doctrine and structural neo liberalism NZ operates on. Meridian and the rest are creatures of legislation and prime examples of the penetration of state infrastructure by market forces and private capital.
The power companies of all stripes are essentially parasites on previously publicly owned and developed, hydro, thermal and fossil fuelled systems.
What has Rio Tinto contributed apart from environmental degradation, heavily subsidised jobs, and periodic blackmail?–even the Key Govt. gifted them further millions and Mr Key was meant to be a financial genius. Their last effort to get further concessions, despite employing a professional front organisation did not seem to get a lot of traction from locals anyway if meeting attendances and media impact are an indication.
@lprent – had a couple of comments just take a random walk into oblivion after hitting "submit comment". One just a few minutes ago in reply to Tiger Mountain just above, one last night. The one just now didn't have links or any even slightly controversial language.
edit: the redo of the reply to Tiger Mountain went through normally.
The Lincoln Project are going hard after vulnerable senators, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vZp3FAQZvU
Lincoln Project: Slick about sick Trumpites and their doings and should rake in the shekels. Never ever trust them again, they say. Fair enough. But I don't trust anybody now. So what are they – hot air balloons with baskets touching the ground long enough to be filled with money which will rise and drift away for a distant destination?
Headline in today's Nelson Mail – 'Niece paints acid portrait of President'. I thought what a good art work that would be – some material with his face marked out with the facial contours sort of etched into it. It would make a good wall hanging of this epic leader, monumental. Think Han Solo Star Wars.
(https://www.flickr.com/photos/coffeego/11303417565
But…but..affirmative something…
https://twitter.com/nick_kapur/status/1280150555667632129
ah yes the meritocracy
See Winston is in hospital for emergency surgery.
Too many dead rats?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12346737
Having his spleen vented?
Cute.
Florida man.
https://twitter.com/KwCongressional/status/1280816785827258368
https://twitter.com/KwCongressional/status/1280641525483999238
"KPop Agents" hyuck!!!! I see a new character for Sacha Baron Cohen coming up…
When the US stops interfering in other nations governance is when they can complain about other nations interfering in theirs.
I often have to edit away a couple of &nsp or something that produce double spacing each – lots of empty space at end. Why does it creep in so often?
I don’t know but in the comment above @ 11, there are 16 non-breaking spaces!!
Posted late last night so for those who missed reading this excellent story from Aljazeera.
" How New Zealand's media endangered public health "
This report from Glen Johnson of Aljazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/zealand-media-endangered-public-health-200707103532946.html
Thank you mosa.
Excellent article. I posted it earlier today and acknowledged your discovery of it the day before.
I'm the treasurer of the Whangaparaoa Labour Party LEC. A real battle in a blue electorate to drive up the party vote.
We are having a campaign launch dinner and fundraiser on 1 August. Link below.
https://tinyurl.com/y85txx9d
If you would like to help us increase the % of the party vote which we have in the last 2 elections, we would love to see you.
Mods, if this is inappropriate feel free to delete.
Sounds good. Not deletable surely, more delectable! Kia kaha.
Go well Stephen D!…I was once in charge of Whangaparaoa/Orewa end of what was then Rodney electorate,and acknowledge your situation.
Just found this interview with John Cambell, well worth the watch, relevent to the upcoming Cannabis Referendum.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/nationals-paula-bennett-greens-chl-e-swarbrick-go-head-over-cannabis-referendum
And here's another one on the same subject, but…
A warning, it's a Hosking rant
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?objectid=12344874&&ref=recommended
If that guy had a brain he'd be dangerous
Actually, he has a mouth and a megaphone, and he knows how to use these very well.
Yep, but fortunately for us his listener base is relatively small, for obvious reasons, he's only talking to an echo chamber, noboby with an IQ above their age listens to the Hosk.
Dirty Dairying is ruining this country
“If this farmer is the best of the best, the reputation of the dairy industry and New Zealand are in serious trouble.”
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2007/S00126/new-zealand-share-farmer-of-the-year-winner-a-profane-industry-poster-boy.htm
Bertie must be going for Arsehole of the Year as well.
He's got some stiff competition for that title.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KBZpBJhW6g4/WZ6s1NVYTVI/AAAAAAAALqQ/BzPalgGWRkI5NlW8DRoBwtQSTjkZaD6aQCLcBGAs/s1600/John%2BBanks%2BAsshole.jpg
https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/l/f/i/z/s/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.1240×700.1lfi0o.png/1504501119377.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Woodhouse#/media/File:Michael_Woodhouse.jpg
Paddy Gower was in isolation for a day or so after using the same supermarket as the quarantine wanderer. He's tested negative and is now out and about again. What day did the dude go walk about? It seems a very short period of time for covid to develop enough to return a positive test. I think the risk is very low, but am curious how that is being managed. Is the idea that a true negative will be available within a few days?
It's a stunt caused by Gower's Loss of Relevance Condition or most likely he is even stupider than I ever thought as it's 3-4 days minimum for a conclusive test.
lol. I haven't kept up on the testing regime, but there does seem to be a lot of confusion out there about it.
Yep saw the article yesterday and wondered how Gower managed to get tested and recieve the results in the same day, how long was he in Isolation?
I'd like to see him in isolation for the full 2 wks just to drive home it's not acceptable to flaunt the rules for a story
Perhaps he is one of those exceptional accelerate students, and he achieved his 2 weeks' isolation in a matter of mere hours…
Think the media are classed as essential workers, so presumably would have been fast tracked.
probably found out he was in the supermarket before the iso-jumper even got there.
Or the test came back "yeah, nah, you're just a bit of a drama queen".
Anticipating the Exit, in which England declares independence from the UK… https://unherd.com/thepost/english-nationalism-the-dog-that-is-starting-to-bark/
So more than a quarter of the English electorate seem to be separatist. As political minorities go, that's substantial!
Well given that 54% of 33% is decisive, it's overwhelming! eh.
An attempt at analysis, at least.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/122073190/fact-check-could-a-transtasman-bubble-really-raise-nzs-gdp-by-88b-by-christmas
They're still counting the wrong things I see.
Bean counters only see beans, heaps of beans.
Neolib bean counters only see monsanto-ed, monoculture soy beans.
GM beans are the best!
everyone will starve and civilisation will collapse without them.
Quite apart from the defects already pointed out in the article – the only thing NZ has in quantity that Australia doesn't is snow. On the other hand they have more sun, more nightlife, more shopping , more….well everything. so why would they spend more here than we do there. Should reports like this even be issued. It doesn't reflect well on EY
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Ha! Only Hooton, bailing frantically but in vain, is missing (in action.)
Maybe Hooten has jumped overboard and is swimming for his life Drowsy.
rats leaving a sinking ship and all that
Great! Cartoonists are better than journalists.
Very apt, one of things I like about this cartoonist is that he has no political bias, he makes fun of whoever gives him the opportunity.
Getting this ‘sponsored’ group on Facebook. Fairness in Focus.They are representing medical drug manufacturers. So why this name for a group of lobbyists?
Today's headline was "New Zealand ranks last out of 20 OECD countries for access to modern medicines."
So, how many OECD countries are there? 20? Are we bottom of the OECD countries for the number of modern medicines registered, the time it takes to access them and how many such medicines are publicly funded?
That's what they imply.
Well, folks, Colombia is number 37 to join, says Google.
It seems there are lies, damned lies and pharmaceutical statistics! Do we have fairness in Fairness in Focus's advocacy for the pharmaceutical companies?
For more information visit: https://www.fairnessinfocus.co.nz/…
Misleading propaganda.
They only looked at 20 countries, for starters. I have no time now to discuss the report. Maybe Stunned Mullet has something useful to add?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/114928875/new-zealands-access-to-funded-medicines-well-behind-the-rest-of-the-world–report
https://www.medicinesnz.co.nz/fileadmin/user_upload/IQVIA_ICOMM_Report__August_2019___1_.pdf
The image gives the appearance that all those green pills are weighing the DNA down. Which may actually be close to the truth. I know DNA is twisted but that one seems to be trying to shake lose!
And what medical interventions are there to access? And which ones are available on public funds? And can we have these graded by price with their special aims and ailments listed as well? Also whether they are aids to cures, or suppressants able to prolong active life though not cure?
It might also ask what externally independently tested medications are available specialising in what afflictions? It seems like more hustling with us as chooks supposed to peck at anything the overlings choose to throw.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/420829/californian-family-s-bid-to-recover-son-s-body-from-nz-lake-rejected
It is interesting that the police vetoed the request, Covid-19 reasons not referred to in this article, but because of their oft-heard wish not to allow any action that is not initiated by them, may have risk, and which does not assist them in some way.
In the April email, the New Zealand police referred to other barriers: The cost "to bring yourself from the US" and deploying a team for an "unknown length of time" with "no possible guarantee of success".
"Thank you for your kind offer, but unfortunately we cannot take you up on it," the police concluded…
The response to that was: "We're the ones saying we'll pay for it. We're not asking them to do it. I don't think he even referenced Covid – they just don't want to do it."
It is sad that these people have lost their son who is drowned at the bottom of a lake, and we are in a pandemic now, but it appears that the police are in charge of this matter and have refused the parents from ever having the right to conduct their own operation, which of course should be done in a professional manner. Something must be done further about this, rather than just an outright refusal, there should be a possibility to be reviewed every six months for three times and then finally in two years, say.
We need a Risk and Recovery Unit outside the normal policing, and with more expertise and a wider framework. People in the field may be part-time employed by a few permanent and well-experienced operations managers (no generic employees). They would be trained in what to look for that might relate to legal proceedings, but they would go beyond the police yoke that seems bounded by demands from police management following best practice guidelines.
Another thing is sad – that a number of things malfunctioned and caused this tourist's death.
Tyler Nii, 27, a tennis coach, did not survive after a double parachute failure over Lake Wakatipu in January 2018.
His lifevest also failed to inflate. The tandem-jump instructor survived…
The Nii family still do not have a death certificate. It is unclear why.
They did have a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) report, but they considered it so inept and incomplete they thought it did not deserve to be called an investigation.
It had been a long fight just to be told anything by authorities, Kevin Nii said.
Was it an avoidable disaster, and if not, why not? This is part of a line of injuries and deaths in our great outdoorsy, risky, physical-oriented tourist business. And one not set up properly and thoughtfully. It is disgraceful that we have the number of accidents and deaths that we do.
When Labour wins the election and is back in power, then we should set up an agency as part of the ACC to check how things could be run better. And restore people's right to sue with a cap, for aspects that are beyond ACC's remit.
This means that the loose way that geonet measurements of volcanic activity are graded, and that there will be controls on say the White Island tourist activities accordingly. We know that business has difficulty limiting itself and turning down the dollars in any sector. This one makes much money from taking people to a 'muttering' volcano and needs to be given definite limits.
In the meantime it would be good if these people could be asked to stay in touch and first, that the police negative be replaced by a guarded positive if possible with an unconnected expert's opinion on whether it could be done safely whether it was likely to be successful or not, and second that the situation would be looked at by some authority, perhaps tourism who would check whether there was a Covid-19 window which facilitated it. We want our tourism to continue in a better form than previously, and we do not want to lose our better-paying people because of bad reports about our being casual and unreliable.
That is a sad tale. And great ideas.
Thanks I feel love
Yes sad. Good if we can smarten up in our approach to all sorts of things.
Now looking at another sort of botch up – to a vintage plane this time. On Radionz.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/420846/warbirds-over-wanaka-head-grilled-in-high-court-over-crash
Pilot Arthur Dovey escaped unharmed, but a wing on his World War II Yak-3 aircraft was destroyed after hitting one of the cherry pickers during landing in 2018…
The repair bill for the destroyed wing was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and Dovey wanted to recover those costs from show organisers.
Why should he have to go to High Court to get this paid for when it is obviously the Warbirds organisers at fault?
And is our self-congratulatory attitude undeserved about everything? Winning a farming award, and calling his animals bitches – how's that?
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2007/S00126/new-zealand-share-farmer-of-the-year-winner-a-profane-industry-poster-boy.htm
(Recently I read of a farmer who commented on how great cows were as animals, very patient, and docile, and they were all named. Still had to be culled in rotation, but there was one who had such a personality that she had acquired a special rating as hostess to visitors.)
I'm confused as to why the cops can apparently stop people boating on Lake Wakatipu and deploying an underwater drone.
Australia is looking at capping arrivals and charging for quarantine stays.
https://www.theguardian.com./australia-news/2020/jul/09/nsw-may-cap-numbers-of-people-arriving-in-australia-and-charge-for-hotel-quarantine
This will provide cover for the same move here.
Especially after we have to build high fences around all the facilities and have 24/7 police available to deal with those entitled individuals (luckily, there are not many yet, but surely the number is going to rise).
If this is a longer term thing, we should set up camp on an island for the new arrivals.
Now the police union are criticising the Govt because they have to guard these people in quarantine. They kinda have a point, why should the police guard these people? But maybe because all the fearmongering in the media the Govt has turned the level right up to 11?
NSW used the police and defence staff. Victoria used outsourced contractors. Look who has the massive outbreak and why.
We are using a mix of outsourced, defence and police. Oh and IIRC there was a comment for a security company spokesperson complaining about those people being low paid. Maybe the industry could fix that themselves.
Why can't the police work with the community instead of deciding who they want to protect and who not? Should we call in the Army?
I question why hospitals have to hire security guards? Protecting our public workers and places should be police work. Private people's cars and property should be protected but it seems that people anywhere generally seem to be down the list.
Music to clippity-clopp ears.
/
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/505924-judd-gregg-the-coming-biden-coup
Wow, that guy sounds deranged. He's a republican though, so it's not surprising he knows nothing about the progressive wing of the Dems. He even names Harris and Warren as patron saints of progressives… what a joke.
Talking points are out.
https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1281039709683187714
Kia Ora
The Am Show.
There is no mystery its dirty politics the underbelly is shining in Aotearoa.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora
Newshub.
That's the way charge the fools who are putting the whole of Aotearoa at risk of the virus.
That's good news people going on holiday in small towns in Aotearoa.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
Te Ao Maori Marama.
That's is good to see some putea going to Wahine who have been negatively affected by the virus.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora
Newshub.
That's is great heaps of mahi for tradies.
A sugar tax is needed.
Ka kite Ano.
How exacrlty would a sugar tax help currently?
(Just curious)
Not curious just lazy Chris T.
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
Kia Ora
Newshub.
Election time in Aotearoa.
Racist attacks on people by idiotic fools.
The Electric car market is going good.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
The Am Show.
It would be awesome to see Aotearoa stop burning coal and change to renewable energy.
Solar power installation subsidies would be great to.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
Newshub.
Yes vegetables are expensive.
Mystery creek field days is online That's the way of the future the Internet.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
Te Ao Maori Marama.
Yes Maori need to train for high paying mahi in the system minority cultures will be last unless the employer is Maori or of minority culture Pukana.
That's the way having cardiac arrests defibrillator on Te Marae.
We must remember what our Tipuna has achieved.
Ka kite Ano.