Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike…
Each day that passes with the TPPA negotiations is another day in which the horrendous future outlined in the excellent novel
, Jennifer Government comes to pass. Western countries are states of America with smaller nations being ‘sponsored’ by conglomerates. For example, NZ is the NRA determined nation state. Monopolies run the government and no new businesses start up unless approved by Mattel, Nike and McDonald’s. Terrible future, but coming soon no doubt.
You do realise we get very very few new pharmaceuticals funded at the moment ?
While I’m sitting on the fence regarding the TPPA until it finally comes about (or doesn’t) I can’t really see how anything will change for the better or worse in relation to PHARMAC a QANGO which both of the major parties support because they actually always stay within their given budget and keep a very tight lid on access to new pharmaceuticals and take every opportunity to get savings from changing the availability from one brand to another.
[lprent: Moved to OpenMike as not being in-topic. ]
“You do realise we get very very few new pharmaceuticals funded at the moment “
Removing Pharmac’s ability to negotiate down prices of new and expensive drugs means there will be even fewer drugs available to fewer people that there are now. Because what they do get will be costlier therefore the perceived benefit to the health budget costs will be less.
What is available now has such huge hurdles for some patients to go through that only the very, very badly off (instead of just the very badly off) get them. For some diseases it’s not just swapping between brands, it’s that some drugs allow life changing improvements without side effects, whereas similar drugs do not. But I suspect you know that.
I’m quite interested to see what comes out of Pharmac’s decision criteria review [.pdf] and what sort of effect that will have on the consent for new pharmaceuticals, along with budget implications and how that works with any TPPA provision that takes away Pharmac’s negotiating position.
Sorry for the late reply Miravox these posts had been moved for some weird reason.
“Removing Pharmac’s ability to negotiate down prices of new and expensive drugs means there will be even fewer drugs available to fewer people that there are now.”
The only thing that could be removed would be PHARMAC’s exemption under the commerce act, as I said before one of PHARMAC’s most effective methods for keeping the drug budget down is stoping funded access to new medicines, this will be even more effective now that they have taken over hospital pharmaceutical purchasing. As you say we often only get access to new medicines now under very extreme restrictions when there are many less extremely unwell patients who could also benefit. quite of few ‘new’ medicines we only get access to after their patent has expired and cheaper generics are available from India or Europe.
We also have the situation where we have very limited access to different medicines within the same therapeutic area as only one or two are funded compared to the many iterations overseas and even after the patent is gone we are very unlikely to see them in NZ as the cost of registering will be prohibitive for generic suppliers.
Consent for pharmaceuticals has nothing to do with PHARMAC it is handled by the Ministry of Health. PHARMAC is only charged with purchase of subsidised pharmaceuticals by the DHBs, anyone can still purchase whatever pharmaceuticals they want (if you have a Rx) from the pharmacist – it’s just that it will have a horrendous markup on top off the full price.
this may sound like i’m having a go at PHARMAC – but not at all I think they do a fabulous job at managing the drug bill and getting lower prices out of off patent medicines compared to our neighbours across the Tasman and will do the same in coming years to equipment such as hip joints etc but they do tend to limit access to medicines which could benefit many patients and have taken the decision about what’s best out of the hands of the health professional to too great an extent in my opinion.
Last time I looked PHARMAC was staffed by health professionals.
The thing is, we don’t need access to all of the drugs available – just the ones that do the job. Having a “choice” about medicines, like much else really, just makes things more expensive.
PHARMAC is staffed by health bureaucrats not health professionals.
I don’t think anyone suggests we need access to all medications available however a wider availability would be quite beneficial across a population both in terms of increased compliance and ability to minimise side effects and tailor the best medications to individual patients.
Semantics. I’m sure many of them are trained-health professionals. It is the same inside the Ministry of Health. Technically they’re all civil servants but last time I was there, there were trained nurses, doctors, psychologists, pharmacists, pediatricians and podiatrists, etc. contributing to policy and the various programmes being run by the Ministry.
Don’t confuse PHARMAC with the other Ministry of Health entities although they report to the Minister they are quite removed with quite different objectives to many of the other departments you’d find within the MoH.
There is considerably less input from the medical (drs, nurses and pharmacists) profession both internally and externally into PHARMAC’s decisions than there is from pure functionaries (bureaucrats) and the pharmaceutical industry.
Well, that’s what I’d expect.
Pharmac is a purchasing agency, not a treatment agency. I’d imagine a medical consultation group, but surely the bulk of staff would be funders&planners and purchasing officers?
Yes absolutely in relation to the bulk of the staff.
In relation to the medical consultation group these are co-opted in by PHARMAC not employed by them and do tend to be a bit stacked in their favour although not quite as badly as ACC.
seems to be a reasonable organisational design, then.
Leave doctors to the doctorin’. Functionaries aren’t paid as much.
From what I gather the funding decisions are based on a cost/QALY calculation, so changing the model would seem to be a deviation away from the ideal outcome.
Although I must say I’m leaning towards the (Labour?) idea of a separate “low occurrence / high consequence / high cost” funding agency as a supplemental body – I can see how strict bulk “cost/QALY” analyses might have some of the faults common to purely utilitarian ethics, e.g. the “lynch an innocent man to prevent a riot” scenarios.
In relation to the QALY issue it is very complex and does tend to be used by PHARMAC in a rather negative manner compared to comparable health funders in other jurisdictions such as the UK and Australia.
More often than not to gain access to a new medication in NZ it has to pass the test of incremental benefit compared to projected cost of existing medications into the future. This is why we are increasingly only getting access to medications years after they’re available overseas and when they are just about to have there patents expire.
Still as I have said above the do a very good job with the taxpayer dollar in terms of the subsidised pharmaceutical spend – although that’s of cold comfort if you’re a patient suffering from a side effect that another medicine could remove or can’t afford to pay for a medicine that is not subsidised that could improve your condition. What’s for certain is that with an growing and ageing population there’s not going to be any let up in the rationing of access to health services and governments looking to save money wherever they can… except in election year of course !
yeah, well everyone in govt’s on a squeeze.
Personally, I reckon the government should get more income from higher earners, that way more than just Pharmac will be able to do what they do better.
“The thing is, we don’t need access to all of the drugs available – just the ones that do the job. Having a “choice” about medicines, like much else really, just makes things more expensive.”
Sometimes there are conditions where the efficacy of a drug wears off and another of a class (or brand) of that drug is required to do the job. Same with side effects – one drug will cause side effects that are serious enough for the drug not to be used by some patients, yet another in a similar class won’t cause those side effects in that patient. Pharmac processes doesn’t recognise this very well.
“Consent for pharmaceuticals has nothing to do with PHARMAC it is handled by the Ministry of Health. PHARMAC is only charged with purchase of subsidised pharmaceuticals by the DHBs”
I should have been clearer – I meant consent in terms of MoH subsidisies not consent as in the drug is safe and can be used.
“The only thing that could be removed would be PHARMAC’s exemption under the commerce act”
If that is what gives Pharmac it’s negotiating power then that’s exactly the problem – we don’t know if Pharmac’s purchasing power will be curtailed (it’s exemption removed) under the TPPA. I reckon Pharmac will make the hurdles even higher for people to access some expensive meds to make up for the higher prices. This is also one of the reasons why I’m interested in the decision criteira review – specifically whether the responders think Pharmac
should take into account the whole cost to the government of not providing a drug, rather than only the cost to the health system (e.g. will providing an expensive drug enable a patient to work).
I agree with you about limiting access is a serious issue in some cases/ for some conditions. There’s a trade-off between cost and access to new medicines and Pharmac tend to miss the importance of a variety of options to treat some conditions. I guess because Pharmac works on a ‘whole population with condition x’ basis rather than tailoring to individual needs like a medical practitioner can. This, in itself can be a cost to the health system as the efficacy of some drugs wear off and other drugs are not accessible that could prevent a patient deteriorating, and/or prevent side-effects.
And if you were actually keeping up with drug discovery and development, you’d know that the R&D companies have been hitting the wall when it comes to finding new and actually effective drugs, that have a better cost/benefit ratio to currently available ones. Along with occasional fuck ups on the clinical trials side or long term issues (hello Vioxx) that don’t show up in Phase III and so take monitoring in the population of users to pick up. Combine this with the very high price of new drugs, it’s rather rational for Pharmac to check each new drug, especially as well already have a large suite of drugs, surgical interventions and physical/mental therapies available that may end up being more cost effective than newer drugs.
I thus suggest you start keeping an eye on http://pipeline.corante.com or doing some refresher courses @uni to build yourself a better knowledge base on drug R&D.
Not that all new drugs are poo mind you, some show extremely good promise: http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/73/16/5169.full
Though this particular family of compounds might not work on chemo resistant cancers, as they have high expression/copy numbers of anti-oxidant proteins that protect those cell lines from oxygen radical-triggered apoptosis :/
“Along with occasional fuck ups on the clinical trials side or long term issues (hello Vioxx)”
I think the problem with vioxx was they hadn’t realised was that other NASIDs that have been in use since way back when also caused heart problems. Vioxx is allowed back on the market but Merck won’t do it, I guess the brand is toxic now.
I’m not suggesting vioxx is good – but now we have patients stuck on long-term NSAIDs that with probably cause stomach problems and may have cardiovascular risk and no alternative like vioxx that may causes heart problems but not stomach problems. It’s all quite unfortunate for people who need a NSAID because they can barely function without it but their stomach is not coping, and Pharmac hasn’t funded a med that will actually resolve the condition that is creating the need for the NSAID.
Lucky Pharmac funds omeprazole to be handed out like expensive lollies ae? 😉
Well, we could just legalise medical pot 😛 Far less side effects than COX-2 targeting NSAIDs.
Though I’d love to see some movement on cannabinoid receptor type 2 antagonists as they’re more suitable for people who are still working. But they don’t seem to have really gone past animal models.
Yes almost as cute as your little yellow chaps, not really age bias though just a bias against persons who think they know it all.
If you’re really interested in anything other than tr0lling perhaps you might like to look into the recent pharmaceutical advances in hepatitis C medications, biologics for lymphoma and B cell proliferative disorders for a start and then consider the utility of combination therapies and long acting formulations which we don’t have access to in NZ which would all positively impact on compliance.
Yes indeed cannabis and its derivatives look to be quite useful in the treatment of many ailments.
We already have Sativex (Cannabidiol, Tetrahydrocannabinol 27mg/mL = Cannabis sativa extract 38mg-44mg) registered and available on prescription in NZ for patients with NZ.
… and yes fair point in relation to the university lecturer thing, the 30 odd years clinical practice might be a bit more relevant…. but then again there’s people around with that amount of experience that I wouldn’t trust to look after me ……
PEOPLE – time to stand up and say “NO NO NO !” to the cruel disgrace that is ACC –
AE MARIKA! – A column published in the Northland Age by Hone Harawira MP for Te Tai Tokerau – 08 OCT 2013
” When the chairwoman of the Accident Compensation Corporation, Paula Rebstock, announced that ACC had made a $4.9 billion surplus from “better performance by its rehabilitation services returning claimants to fitness” and that ACC was in its “best shape ever” I almost cried, because of the horror stories I have heard since National decided to privatise ACC and reduce what was once a world-leading accident compensation system to a corporate entity where profits have become more important than people.
I recall a couple of years ago, helping a guy in Kaikohe after an ACC doctor had recommended he be sent back to work.
This chap, a married man with children, had suffered a serious head injury in an accident while working in the forestry. He’d been laid up for months, he’d lost much of his co-ordination, he couldn’t drive any more, he’d lost touch with his workmates, he struggled to complete even the most simple of tasks, and he’d become seriously depressed. He’d been working through rehabilitation but often got frustrated and angry with those around him when he couldn’t do what his mind said he should be able to do.
National’s new ACC focus “on investment returns on $24.6 billion reserves, higher interest rates to reduce the current value of the future cost of claims, and new investment strategies” however, meant that this poor bugger was about to get a real shock.
ACC hired private medical consultants charged with “reviewing claimant histories” who had determined (without even the decency of discussing the case in depth with his doctor, or his therapist, or his family), that although this poor chap would never be able to return to full-bodied employment, he was fit for certain types of work and therefore he could be returned to the workforce.
But what sort of work was this guy now suitable for? Carpark Attendant. Carpark Attendant … in Kaikohe for god’s sake!! Except there are no jobs for Carpark Attendants in Kaikohe – or Kaitaia, or Taipa, or Kerikeri, or Kawakawa, or Dargaville, or Whangarei, or Wellsford or Warkworth for that matter.
ACC of course, didn’t care. They’d made their assessment, the guy was “fit for work”, and he should move to where he could find work.
Great … the guy’s struggling to cope with the basics of life and they expect him to up his family and move to Auckland – pull the kids from school and away from the friends and the community they grew up with, try to sell the house, pay off any outstanding debts, organise a removal truck, find a house in Auckland they can afford to rent (yeah right), find a school for the kids, find a therapist, find out where the Carpark Attendant jobs are … and then get in line with the thousands of others lining up for the same job!
Under the 1972 Accident Compensation Act New Zealanders gave up the right to sue for personal injury, in return for a government-funded 24-hour, no-fault insurance programme, paid for by all taxpayers and employers. 40 years later, Kiwis still aren’t allowed to sue, so how come government can walk away from their part of the deal?
AE MARIKA is an article written every week by Hone Harawira, leader of the MANA Movement and Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau. You are welcome to use any of the comments and to ascribe them to Mr Harawira. The full range of Hone’s articles can be found on the MANA website at http://www.mana.net.nz. ”
QUESTION – Is it churlish to ask how much Rebstock is paid to play National’s social terrorism games ?
Thank you for sharing the article North. Like Hone I almost cried when I heard about the ACC surplus. It’s vulgar that there should be a surplus when ACC isn’t in the business of being a profit centred organisation.
I know first hand about the loss of service within ACC since National came along and fucked it up. I’ve been left with an un-diagnosed foot injury for almost two years now. They gave up on me fairly early on and my only option is to have steroid injections for the pain. Eventually the steroid breaks down the bone so you will be left with an injury with more damage than when you started. The injury has affected my fitness levels and enjoyment of living. No more long bush walks or dancing.
I’ve heard the horror stories from others too, people whose experiences are far worse than mine, who have lost mobility due to being turned down for absolutely necessary surgery. You can only hope that National and Co will lose the election next year and that service and a client centred focus will be restored to ACC, once again. Once again because almost every time National get in they come along and mess with ACC (remember the early ’90’s?) because they can’t handle that it isn’t (yet) a fully privatised provider. They are ideologically opposed to the concept of ACC and aint bovvered if people suffer while they try and dismantle it.
Once again because almost every time National get in they come along and mess with ACC (remember the early ’90′s?) because they can’t handle that it isn’t (yet) a fully privatised provider. They are ideologically opposed to the concept of ACC and aint bovvered if people suffer while they try and dismantle it.
QFT
National are always the worst thing to happen to NZ. They concentrate on destroying government service so that the private profiteers, who can’t actually compete with government efficiency, can make a profit as people lose faith in government and so move on to private providers.
Even when ACC was reasonably good, it was very much a parson’s egg situation. I waited 15 years for back surgery and then had to pay half the cost myself, which came from money I managed to save from a student loan. During that time, I knew three people who mutilated themselves expressly to get lump sum payouts, which they received relatively quickly. It never worked as well as it was intended to.
Oh, thanks, North. I usually just look at the Mana website for the latest press releases. I hadn’t realised the articles were on the site. Links down the bottom left under “Recent Pānui”
Thats easy to answer: If he loses the next election he’ll stand down/get fired
Now about Mallard not being at the labour meeting in Dunedin when everyone else was, does this mean hes close to getting the shaft and if so what will his reaction be?
Oh well in that case my socialist mates tell me Cunliffe has weeks rather than months until hes knifed especially if he continues making amateur stuff ups
@ Puckish Rogue……..what’s this smirky Shouty Hootonesque mock-pregnant crap about ? –
“So how long before T. Mallard gets his marching orders…and will there be any fallout ?”
Very tired stuff as a distraction I guess from the ludicrous spectacle of The Little Churchill ShonKey Python stroking himself as Barack Obama’s alter ego.
I tried responding twice to Jenny’s latest rant on TDB open mike today. I tried to provide some added links to add to her selective linkings, and show explanations have already been given, so why give more? Both my comments disappeared.
I may be a awful author of posts because I only seem to write text when annoyed. But at least my comments on TDB don’t get moderated. I can’t see any comments from you there unless you’re using a different handle. There are 13 sitting in moderation.
I don’t know what happened. I’m logged in. I typed, with links, clicked on post comment – long delay, finally resulting in a blank web page & know backwards recovery of what I typed.
I was trying to add these links to balance Jenny’s selective TS links:
Hmmm. I replied (politely) to Jenny’s comment this morning on TDB’s Open Mike and went to moderation, presumably because it was my first ever comment there. The comment now seems to have vanished into the ether.
Just as an aside, TDB has an awful layout. It’s a very difficult site to read and navigate. And hiding the Open Mike post down the page also strikes me as (unintentionally?) undemocratic. If TDB wants input from readers they need to publicise the fact.
All TDB comments go through moderation. But you still should be able to see your own comments while they are waiting for moderation.
I think the likes of Jenny don’t realise that a blog that allows instant commenting, like TS, requires some moderation of potential diversions, tr0lling, flaming etc. That’s not about “free speech” or ‘censorship”, but about maintaining a blog where discussion is possible. TDB goes for blanket moderation – easier for the blog managers, but acts as a dampener to discussion.
TS keeps a good balance, IMO.
Discussion in a democracy is a two-way interaction and requires some effort to understand what other people have written and to present credible and verifiable evidence for your views. That is what communication is about. The notion of individualistic, unrestrained “free speech” is overly simplistic and ignores the complexities of the real kind of dialogue that is necessary for democratic process.
It took a bit of work (and a few years) to develop a system that didn’t require people to login, mostly avoided having to enter a captcha, still caught and killed the spam, and tended to hold up for human perusal new commenters and the few comments that looked suspect.
The other side was to develop a culture where people don’t exhibit behaviours that make moderators warn of ban them.
Generally it works pretty well with a fairly light workload (except when the systems jam).
I’d expect over time that TDB will tend to loosen up as they develop their style. But as it is at present too many trolls just like attacking Martyn
To TRP: Apologies for repetition. One of the main reasons I stopped commenting on TDB was the fact that every time I would go into moderation for hours. The fastest time I have got a comment posted in was an hour. One time I was in moderation for over 7 hours. I did contact them a few times to ask why the moderation – I would like to know if I genuinely had been outside the policy – but I never got a response. In the end I couldn’t bothered mucking around.
Maybe your comment will come up in a while……check back later.
As far as I can tell everyone goes through moderation (it’s nothing to do with content), and I guess each post gets released when Bradbury or whoever has the time to read it and release it.
Hi, Rosie, it’s up now. But the delay kinda ruins the point of Open Mike, imho. It’d be much better if they allowed comments to go up immediately, then moderate en masse.
One advantage is that you don’t end up with the same person grabbing the first comment every day and posting things that create long boring threads of tedious refutal, accusation and eventually personal attacks 😉
Well as few are posting comments on TDB, Jenny is starting to claim it as her territory (see today’s open mike on DTB). Fine. Nothing wrong with putting her case re-climate etc. And less spamming and attacks going on here.
“Just to be clear, Jenny didn’t get banned from the standard for talking about Climate Change or politics. She got banned for ignoring multiple moderation warnings about her behaviour.
If anyone wants to know more detail, feel free to pop over to the standard and I’m sure that any number of Standardistas who are thoroughly sick of Jenny’s antics will be happy to point out what the issues were 🙂 (can’t see the point of getting into it here, not least because I don’t wish the same level of drama onto TDB’s new Open Mike).”
I generally find comments that I make on TDB released from moderation within 15 minutes; there have been occasional exceptions, yet no complaints from me. 😎
My page has reverted to normal without half of it being in bright blue and underlined but I notice a long time to get to my chosen place when I click on anything on the site especially if I want to look back on past comments. How long should I be waiting 10,20,30 seconds? Often I give up and can’t finish a piece or get information.
IRD setting up mega system and making it so big that NZ companies can’t compete. Everything must go global to get cheap except for the people running the outfit. NZ may get some small tasks thrown their way. I can’t see how these people in power think that they will have anything much of an economy to run and tax when they do this. Perhaps the idea is to run it all down and then apply for foreign aid which will be channelled through whatever government is in power. Hey I had a thought – we have something like that now.
Internal Affairs (they’re gut wrenching) have put passport controls on line and are closing more offices. Now I feel so happy that we are going to get this modern streamlined service so efficiently, just like Novopay. And so easy to tap into for Big Brother, which despite the name, hasn’t any kindly family feelings.
Hmmm. i see that Grey Lynn residents are protesting about the proposed building of a Bunnings Warehouse in their hood. I am also aware that some New Lynn residents are not happy that a Bunnings Warehouse is going to be built in new Lynn – they say that there are better uses for the land.
Shale Chambers of the Waitemata Local Board and councillor Mike Lee addressed the crowd at the edge of Aotea Square, expressing support.
Lee said Auckland had a secretive planning process where about 98 per cent of resource consent applications were non-notified.
Lee asked whether planners were public servants.
[…]
At the hearing, Alan Webb, acting for the residents, said they had not expected such an intense commercial activity on such a massive scale.
Roads would be used as Bunnings’ own private service lane, he told the independent hearing commissioners.
Webb said residents had been regarded as “little more than irritants to get around rather than having their legitimate concerns taken seriously.”
Great North Rd could become one of Auckland’s great boulevards and the residents wanted a liveable city.
The pictures of hornet stings are horrific and they are very large insects and extremely aggressive. Their venom can dissolve tissue and can produce anaphylactic shock. People have bullet wound size wounds that look as if they are necrotised. Kidneys can shut down and death occurs. Hospitals have said come in if you have more than ten stings so one imagines that they are really stretched to manage the outbreak.
The crisis has exhausted Gong Zhenghong, the spiky-haired mayor of Hongshan township in rural Ankang. Since September, Gong has spent nearly every night wandering the township exterminating nests. He says there are 248 hornet nests in Hongshan, with 175 close to schools and roads.
Gong and his team survey nests by day; once the sun sets, they dress in homemade anti-hornet suits made from rain jackets and canvas, and burn the nests with spray-can flamethrowers. “They don’t fly around at night,” he said. Sometimes the team begins work in the late evening and doesn’t finish until 2am. “We’d normally send the fire squad to do this, but this year there were too many nests….
In southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, a swarm of hornets attacked a primary school in mid-September, injuring 23 children and seven adults. The teacher, Li Zhiqiang, told pupils to hide under their desks and tried to fight the creatures off until he lost consciousness, state media reported….
The Ankang government says it has removed 710 hives and sent 7m yuan (£707,000) to help affected areas. “We’re doing everything we can, but there’s only so much we can do,” says Deng Xianghong, the deputy head of the Ankang propaganda department. “God has been unfair to us.”
And set this against the news of the trilion debt that the USA owes to China. The Chinese have not been able to apply the good practices that came from Communism together with the money that has come from capitalism to helping the farmers as was a chief communistic goal. There would have been more organisation to prevent such a high nest situation. They would be hard to eradicate but severe limitation could be achieved.
And the similar thing in the USA you can bet. They have problems that wealth should be able to deal to, but chooses not to.
Silly silly Dunajtschik, if you buy a heritage building or one that could fall under being a heritage protection, you’re buying something that you have an obligation to do work on.
Instead, he’s just going to let it rot, and another slice of NZ’s architectural will likely fall and be replaced with another glass, steel and concrete monolith.
And only a tory cabinet minister could call the owner of a multistorey central-city property (derelict or otherwise) ” this poor guy”.
And one thing I’ve thought should have been done years ago is compel owners of heritage buildings to maintain the structures. If the fuckers want to knock something down and build a utilitarian block of cubby-holes, they shouldn’t buy our heritage.
$10 mil to do up? On a building that has rates of $250k/yr?
It’s called an “investment”.
Canada has launched a direct assault on the authority of the Commonwealth secretary general, attacking him as a stooge for a Sri Lankan regime it accuses of serious human rights abuses.
On Tuesday Hugh Segal, Canada’s special envoy to the Commonwealth, accused Kamalesh Sharma of “acting as a shill [a stooge] for the Sri Lankan leadership, defending their every mistake”.
His remarks intensified the row over the Commonwealth’s decision to host its biennial heads of state meeting in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo next month. Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, announced on Monday that he would boycott the summit because of alleged human rights abuses by Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government, which until 2009 was engaged in a brutal civil war.
Meanwhile, Keys shows where human rights is situated in his priority list…
John Key, New Zealand’s prime minister, confirmed his attendance last month at a meeting in which he also asked for Sri Lanka’s support in its bid for a seat on the UN security council.
Unfortunately Stephen Harper’s swipe at Sri Lanka and the Commonwealth has little to do with human rights abuses in Sri Lanka and a lot to do with his travails at home – falling poll ratings, a reinvigorated Liberal Party under Justin Trudeau and a rapidly escalating scandal around spying involving Canada’s version of the GCSB (any of this strangely familiar?). Add to that the fact that there is around a quarter of a million Tamil voters in the Greater Toronto area.
I bet you do.
Editing Judith Collins’ face over The Captain’s when he says it would be your way of combining your preferred public policy with grade-A stroke material.
Somehoe I think you missed the point of CHL in much the same way as you missed the point of 1984.
TPPA: NZ makes it into The Guardian for all the wrong reasons
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), warmly backed by Australian prime minister Tony Abbott and New Zealand, is just the latest example of US client states allowing US multinationals far too much influence in their markets in a futile attempt to challenge ever-increasing Chinese business ties in Asia.
Stephen Franks lost for words twice in one hour
Stopped in his tracks during anti-Māori rant The Panel, Radio NZ National, Wednesday 9 October 2013
Jim Mora, Stephen Franks, Chris Wikaira
Extreme right wing Hastings journalist Mike Butler is a crony of the notoriously racist National Party activist John Ansell. This disreputable pair has been active on the fringes for a long time, publishing virulent anti-Treaty, anti-Māori diatribes in some of the scruffier provincial papers. Occasionally Ansell, being a National Party heavyweight, manages to get his ugly mug onto television; earlier this year he enjoyed several uninterrupted minutes on TV1’s Breakfast show to inform viewers why he has no respect for Māori tradition, Māori haka or Māori language. Butler, on the other hand, has largely remained under a rock, but for some reason his latest diatribe was been featured in today’s edition of the Otago Daily Times. http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/opinion/276231/opinion-ngai-tahu-should-pay-crown
Butler and Ansell are shunned by serious and moral people and their views are not respected or taken seriously by anyone with a lick of common sense. But that didn’t stop Jim Mora’s producers from hauling their foulness on to Radio New Zealand National’s Panel this afternoon. With the guests being the right wing ACT/Sensible Sentencing activist Stephen Franks and the National Party-aligned Chris Wikaira, the producers must have figured it would be another easy demolition job. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for the quality of the discussion, they evidently failed to consider two complicating factors about Chris Wikaira: although he might be a member of the National Party, he (a) is Māori and (b) has a brain….
JIM MORA: I’ll be interested to get your thoughts on THIS story: Hastings journalist Mike Butler claims the Crown should receive a refund from Ngai Tahu rather than having to pay out more and more. This is a story that is gaining more attention, particularly in the southern papers—- CHRIS WIKAIRA:[sardonically] Now THERE’s a surprise! MORA:[nervously] Ha ha ha! Yeah but he has a point, surely. Whatever happened to this idea of “full and final settlements”? STEPHEN FRANKS: Well this is what happens with these things. It never ends. The Tainui claim was settled by an emotional minister— MORA: Doug Graham. FRANKS: Yes, an emotional minister who didn’t give them something meaningful like land, but instead gave them “co-ownership” of the rivers and lakes, so that now the only way they can make their presence felt is to irritate people and make a NUISANCE of themselves whenever you want to do anything.
[As usual, Mora sits blankly and says nothing during this wandery and spurious rant. Then again, he was the one who encouraged the rant by citing the ridiculous Mike Butler article in the first place. Chris Wikaira, on the other hand, is not prepared to put up with such truculent ignorance any longer….]
CHRIS WIKAIRA: The facts are completely contrary to what you are saying. Ngai Tahu land was taken under false pretences by the government and sold to settlers without permission of the Ngai Tahu owners. Ngai Tahu were coerced into signing agreements.
……[Extended awkward silence]….
MORA: Okay, so it wasn’t all fair and above board and not everybody was happy—
CHRIS WIKAIRA: And you do know, don’t you, that all of the Treaty settlements put together amount to less than one point four billion dollars, which is a fraction of one per cent of the government’s expenditure for one year.
Mora begins to say something light-hearted then thinks better of it. Franks, chastened into silence, says nothing more. Interestingly, earlier in the program, Franks was unable to counter Duncan Webb’s forceful but polite demolition of some derogatory comments he (Franks) had made about the New Zealand decision to dispense with Privy Council appeals.
By politely and firmly speaking the truth in the face of one flippant and one obstinate enemy of the truth, Duncan Webb and Chris Wikaira showed us all an important truth: we should always challenge and stand up to bullies, including self-important and pompous lawyers who speak in soft voices; their outward show of power and authority is usually a flimsy covering for nothing more than pure wind.
Ansell is a sad little man, beset by sick fantasies. I was interested to note that he thanked Vinny Eastwood, of something called Guerrilla Media, for help with filming his Bay of Islands rubbish. It seems that eventually all the bullshit merchants coalesce into one putrid mass.
Love your work Morrissey. The air must be good on Northcote Point.
“…….self-important and pompous lawyers who speak in soft voices…….”
Says it all about Extreme-Right-Wing-Fantasist-Lawyer-Franks. Well, actually no Morrissey. You failed to mention the condescending cocktail party grimace “smile” which usually accompanies his generally mad utterances.
Except it’s all bullshit from Moz. Nothing in the ‘transcript’ has anything but a passing resemblance to the truth. Ok, Moz gets the names of the participants correct, but the rest is made up.
A great heap of pathetic shit from some second rate jonolist. Focused on a first rate, indeed truly phenomonal athlete, Sonny Bill Williams. I’ve no particular brief for him, admiration for his rare talents yes, but no particular brief.
What has me take up a brief, quite wholeheartedly actually, is the extraordinary bleating and clutching of the pearls as in this article when Williams starts reflecting Big Sport. Good onya Williams. Likewise the young Samoan World Cup player who basically told the IRB they’re a bunch of using, racist old dorks. And got disciplined for it. I prefer both of them to a bunch of fucked, dictatorial old fogeys sitting on the International Rugby Board in London. Also their equivalents in other codes.
Yes this is league but that’s irrelevant. I’m talking about the various oligarchies that comprise Big Sport, and the Monday morning quarterbacks of the so called sports press. Nothings trying to be something.
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
The PSA have released a survey of 4000 public service workers showing that budget cuts are taking a toll on the wellbeing of public servants and risking the delivery of essential services to New Zealanders. Economists predict that figures released this week will show continued increases in unemployment, potentially reaching ...
The Prime Minister’s speech 10 days or so ago kicked off a flurry of commentary. No one much anywhere near the mainstream (ie excluding Greens supporters) questioned the rhetoric. New Zealand has done woefully poorly on productivity for a long time and we really need better outcomes, and the sorts ...
President Trump on the day he announced tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, unleashing a shock to supply chains globally that is expected to slow economic growth and increase inflation for most large economies. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 9 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 3Politics: New Zealand Government cabinet meeting usually held early afternoon with post-cabinet news conference possible at 4 pm, although they have not been ...
Trump being Trump, it won’t come as a shock to find that he regards a strong US currency (bolstered by high tariffs on everything made by foreigners) as a sign of America’s virility, and its ability to kick sand in the face of the world. Reality is a tad more ...
A listing of 24 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 26, 2025 thru Sat, February 1, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
What seems to be the common theme in the US, NZ, Argentina and places like Italy under their respective rightwing governments is what I think of as “the politics of cruelty.” Hate-mongering, callous indifference in social policy-making, corporate toadying, political bullying, intimidation and punching down on the most vulnerable with ...
If you are confused, check with the sunCarry a compass to help you alongYour feet are going to be on the groundYour head is there to move you aroundSo, stand in the place where you liveSongwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck.Hot in the CityYesterday, ...
Shane Jones announced today he would be contracting out his thinking to a smarter younger person.Reclining on his chaise longue with a mouth full of oysters and Kina he told reporters:Clearly I have become a has-been, a palimpsest, an epigone, a bloviating fossil. I find myself saying such things as: ...
Warning: This post contains references to sexual assaultOn Saturday, I spent far too long editing a video on Tim Jago, the ACT Party President and criminal, who has given up his fight for name suppression after 2 years. He voluntarily gave up just in time for what will be a ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
COMMENTARY:By Sawsan Madina I watched US President Donald Trump’s joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week in utter disbelief. Not that the idea, or indeed the practice, of ethnic cleansing of Palestine is new. But at that press conference the mask has fallen. Recently, fascism ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will on Wednesday announce it is willing, as a last resort, to purchase the collapsed Rex Airlines, in its latest bid to prop up aviation services to regional and remote areas. As ...
Jotham Napat has been elected as the new prime minister of Vanuatu. Napat was elected unopposed in Port Vila today, receiving 50 votes with two void votes. He is the country’s fifth prime minister in four years and will lead a coalition government made up of five political parties — ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By A J Brown, Professor of Public Policy & Law, Centre for Governance & Public Policy, Griffith University Australia has turned the corner on its decade-long slide on Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), once again ranking in the top ten least ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Bridges, Senior Lecturer in Public Relations and Director of Academic Program – Communication, Creative Industries, Screen Media, Western Sydney University Stock Rocket/Shutterstock For new parents struggling with challenges such as breastfeeding and sleep deprivation, social media can be a great ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott French, Senior Lecturer in Economics, UNSW Sydney US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have stated an exemption for Australia from Trump’s executive order placing 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imported into the US is “under consideration”. ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon's attempts to turn the tables back on the Opposition at Question Time today went down like a lead balloon, Jo Moir writes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brenton Griffin, Casual Lecturer and Tutor in History, Indigenous Studies, and Politics, Flinders University American Primeval/Netflix On January 24, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon Church, penned a statement condemning the ...
It comes as Whangārei District Council is under fire from the Director General of Health Dr Diana Sarfati after it voted in December against adding fluoridation to the water. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Strangio, Emeritus Professor of Politics, Monash University Is history repeating itself in Labor’s fortress state of Victoria? At the 1990 federal election, Bob Hawke’s Labor government had a near-death experience when it lost nine seats in Victoria. A furious Hawke laid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Nissen, HERA Program Director – Health Workforce Optimisation Centre for the Business & Economics of Health, The University of Queensland Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock If you’ve tried to get an appointment to see a GP or specialist recently, you will likely have felt ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peta Ashworth, Professor and Director, Curtin Institute for Energy Transition, Curtin University Large power grids are among the most complicated machines humans have ever devised. Different generators produce power at various times and at various costs. A generator might fail and another ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Orr, Veterinarian, Southern Cross University Mitchell Orr/Unsplash Late last year, rumours swirled online that HomeSafeID, a private Australian pet microchip registry, had stopped operating. On Feburary 5 2025, a notice appeared on the HomeSafeID website, ostensibly from the site’s ...
The government is taking far too long to allocate the 1500 social homes it announced nine months ago and the hold up is stalling desperately-needed homes, says a community housing provider. ...
The agency is setting a 12-week limit on how much rent debt a tenant can accumulate as part of a change in approach that will also see almost half of the outstanding dept wiped away. ...
The media is rife with headlines about people killing animals for kicks. Please don’t.In memory of an Auckland swan, a Bay of Plenty octopus and a Taranaki striped marlin.Imagine this. It’s 7.15am. You’re paddling around on a serene lake with your sweetheart. It seems likely that she’ll give ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra US President Donald Trump has agreed to “consider” exempting Australia from the 25% tariff he has imposed on imports of steel and aluminium to the US. Trump gave the undertaking during a wide-ranging 40-minute ...
Pacific Media Watch Israeli police have confiscated hundreds of books with Palestinian titles or flags without understanding their contents in a draconian raid on a Palestinian educational bookshop in occupied East Jerusalem, say eyewitnesses. More details have emerged on the Israeli police raid on a popular bookstore in occupied East ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist China and the Cook Islands’ relationship “should not be disrupted or restrained by any third party”, says Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, as opposition leaders in Rarotonga express a loss of confidence in Prime Minister Mark Brown. In response to questions from the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Ogden, Associate Professor in Global Studies, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Donald Trump is moving rapidly to change the contours of contemporary international affairs, with the old US-dominated world order breaking down into a multipolar one with many centres of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ronnie Das, Associate Professor in Data Analytics, The University of Western Australia In the recent Border-Gavaskar series against India, Steve Smith agonisingly missed out reaching 10,000 Test runs in front of his home crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground, falling short by ...
In a brand new documentary series for The Spinoff, comedians and best friends Brynley Stent and Kura Forrester embark on a cross-country quest to find love. Bryn & Ku’s Singles Club is a brand new documentary series for The Spinoff following award-winning comedians and friends Brynley Stent and ...
🚐 Bryn and Ku pack their bags and swap the bleak dating scene of Tāmaki Makaurau for some meet and mingle events in Ōtautahi that will take them out of their comfort zone. ❣️ Bryn & Ku’s Singles Club follows comedians Brynley Stent and Kura Forrester as they head out ...
"The relationship between China and the Cook Islands does not target any third party," the Chinese Foreign Ministry says, as opposition leaders in Rarotonga plan protest. ...
From tradwives to ‘petite blonde’ preferences, this season feels like a throwback for all the wrong reasons, writes Alex Casey. First of all: I know. Complaining about bad stuff on Married at First Sight Australia is like complaining that water is wet. But I’ve been bobbing around in these waters ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a public servant who’s ‘trying to get better’ explains her approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female. Age: 24. Ethnicity: Pākehā and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zena Assaad, Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering, Australian National University Ziv Lavi/Shutterstock Last week, Google quietly abandoned a long-standing commitment to not use artificial intelligence (AI) technology in weapons or surveillance. In an update to its AI principles, which were first ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brenainn Simpson, PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Florian Nimsdorf / Shutterstock About 400 kilometres northwest of Sydney, just south of Dubbo, lies a large and interesting body of rock formed around 215 million years ago by erupting volcanoes. Known as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mareike Riedel, Senior lecturer in law, Macquarie University The dramatic rise in antisemitic incidents has dominated headlines in Australia in recent months, with calls for urgent action to address what many are calling a crisis. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane McAdam, Scientia Professor and ARC Laureate Fellow, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney For a long time, it seemed refugee law had little relevance to people fleeing the impacts of climate change and disasters. Nearly 30 years ago, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maggie Kirkman, Senior Research Fellow, Global and Women’s Health, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University Krakenimages.com/Shutterstock You’ve heard of the gender pay gap. What about the gap in medical care? Cardiovascular diseases – which can lead to heart ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Iain White, Professor of Environmental Planning, University of Waikato Getty Images Urban planning has a long history of promoting visionary ideas that advocate for particular futures. The most recent is the concept of the 15-minute city, which has gained traction globally. ...
Each day that passes with the TPPA negotiations is another day in which the horrendous future outlined in the excellent novel
, Jennifer Government comes to pass. Western countries are states of America with smaller nations being ‘sponsored’ by conglomerates. For example, NZ is the NRA determined nation state. Monopolies run the government and no new businesses start up unless approved by Mattel, Nike and McDonald’s. Terrible future, but coming soon no doubt.
Chooky Another mark against Jennifer!
For those who haven’t heard of this book about dystopian world (welcome to our world,)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Government
A McDonald’s Degree?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11137075
Drive thru and begin future-proofing your NZQA records today! (complimentary dipping sauce).
Interesting article by David Byrne, lamenting the impact of the ever widening gap in wealth in New York as it relates to art and culture.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/07/new-york-1percent-stifles-creative-talent
Ahh the old PHARMAC bogey again.
You do realise we get very very few new pharmaceuticals funded at the moment ?
While I’m sitting on the fence regarding the TPPA until it finally comes about (or doesn’t) I can’t really see how anything will change for the better or worse in relation to PHARMAC a QANGO which both of the major parties support because they actually always stay within their given budget and keep a very tight lid on access to new pharmaceuticals and take every opportunity to get savings from changing the availability from one brand to another.
[lprent: Moved to OpenMike as not being in-topic. ]
Yes, the old Pharmac bogey…
“You do realise we get very very few new pharmaceuticals funded at the moment “
Removing Pharmac’s ability to negotiate down prices of new and expensive drugs means there will be even fewer drugs available to fewer people that there are now. Because what they do get will be costlier therefore the perceived benefit to the health budget costs will be less.
What is available now has such huge hurdles for some patients to go through that only the very, very badly off (instead of just the very badly off) get them. For some diseases it’s not just swapping between brands, it’s that some drugs allow life changing improvements without side effects, whereas similar drugs do not. But I suspect you know that.
I’m quite interested to see what comes out of Pharmac’s decision criteria review [.pdf] and what sort of effect that will have on the consent for new pharmaceuticals, along with budget implications and how that works with any TPPA provision that takes away Pharmac’s negotiating position.
Sorry for the late reply Miravox these posts had been moved for some weird reason.
“Removing Pharmac’s ability to negotiate down prices of new and expensive drugs means there will be even fewer drugs available to fewer people that there are now.”
The only thing that could be removed would be PHARMAC’s exemption under the commerce act, as I said before one of PHARMAC’s most effective methods for keeping the drug budget down is stoping funded access to new medicines, this will be even more effective now that they have taken over hospital pharmaceutical purchasing. As you say we often only get access to new medicines now under very extreme restrictions when there are many less extremely unwell patients who could also benefit. quite of few ‘new’ medicines we only get access to after their patent has expired and cheaper generics are available from India or Europe.
We also have the situation where we have very limited access to different medicines within the same therapeutic area as only one or two are funded compared to the many iterations overseas and even after the patent is gone we are very unlikely to see them in NZ as the cost of registering will be prohibitive for generic suppliers.
Consent for pharmaceuticals has nothing to do with PHARMAC it is handled by the Ministry of Health. PHARMAC is only charged with purchase of subsidised pharmaceuticals by the DHBs, anyone can still purchase whatever pharmaceuticals they want (if you have a Rx) from the pharmacist – it’s just that it will have a horrendous markup on top off the full price.
this may sound like i’m having a go at PHARMAC – but not at all I think they do a fabulous job at managing the drug bill and getting lower prices out of off patent medicines compared to our neighbours across the Tasman and will do the same in coming years to equipment such as hip joints etc but they do tend to limit access to medicines which could benefit many patients and have taken the decision about what’s best out of the hands of the health professional to too great an extent in my opinion.
Last time I looked PHARMAC was staffed by health professionals.
The thing is, we don’t need access to all of the drugs available – just the ones that do the job. Having a “choice” about medicines, like much else really, just makes things more expensive.
PHARMAC is staffed by health bureaucrats not health professionals.
I don’t think anyone suggests we need access to all medications available however a wider availability would be quite beneficial across a population both in terms of increased compliance and ability to minimise side effects and tailor the best medications to individual patients.
Semantics. I’m sure many of them are trained-health professionals. It is the same inside the Ministry of Health. Technically they’re all civil servants but last time I was there, there were trained nurses, doctors, psychologists, pharmacists, pediatricians and podiatrists, etc. contributing to policy and the various programmes being run by the Ministry.
Don’t confuse PHARMAC with the other Ministry of Health entities although they report to the Minister they are quite removed with quite different objectives to many of the other departments you’d find within the MoH.
There is considerably less input from the medical (drs, nurses and pharmacists) profession both internally and externally into PHARMAC’s decisions than there is from pure functionaries (bureaucrats) and the pharmaceutical industry.
Well, that’s what I’d expect.
Pharmac is a purchasing agency, not a treatment agency. I’d imagine a medical consultation group, but surely the bulk of staff would be funders&planners and purchasing officers?
Yes absolutely in relation to the bulk of the staff.
In relation to the medical consultation group these are co-opted in by PHARMAC not employed by them and do tend to be a bit stacked in their favour although not quite as badly as ACC.
seems to be a reasonable organisational design, then.
Leave doctors to the doctorin’. Functionaries aren’t paid as much.
From what I gather the funding decisions are based on a cost/QALY calculation, so changing the model would seem to be a deviation away from the ideal outcome.
Although I must say I’m leaning towards the (Labour?) idea of a separate “low occurrence / high consequence / high cost” funding agency as a supplemental body – I can see how strict bulk “cost/QALY” analyses might have some of the faults common to purely utilitarian ethics, e.g. the “lynch an innocent man to prevent a riot” scenarios.
Yes it is the correct design.
In relation to the QALY issue it is very complex and does tend to be used by PHARMAC in a rather negative manner compared to comparable health funders in other jurisdictions such as the UK and Australia.
More often than not to gain access to a new medication in NZ it has to pass the test of incremental benefit compared to projected cost of existing medications into the future. This is why we are increasingly only getting access to medications years after they’re available overseas and when they are just about to have there patents expire.
Still as I have said above the do a very good job with the taxpayer dollar in terms of the subsidised pharmaceutical spend – although that’s of cold comfort if you’re a patient suffering from a side effect that another medicine could remove or can’t afford to pay for a medicine that is not subsidised that could improve your condition. What’s for certain is that with an growing and ageing population there’s not going to be any let up in the rationing of access to health services and governments looking to save money wherever they can… except in election year of course !
yeah, well everyone in govt’s on a squeeze.
Personally, I reckon the government should get more income from higher earners, that way more than just Pharmac will be able to do what they do better.
I agree.
“The thing is, we don’t need access to all of the drugs available – just the ones that do the job. Having a “choice” about medicines, like much else really, just makes things more expensive.”
Sometimes there are conditions where the efficacy of a drug wears off and another of a class (or brand) of that drug is required to do the job. Same with side effects – one drug will cause side effects that are serious enough for the drug not to be used by some patients, yet another in a similar class won’t cause those side effects in that patient. Pharmac processes doesn’t recognise this very well.
“Consent for pharmaceuticals has nothing to do with PHARMAC it is handled by the Ministry of Health. PHARMAC is only charged with purchase of subsidised pharmaceuticals by the DHBs”
I should have been clearer – I meant consent in terms of MoH subsidisies not consent as in the drug is safe and can be used.
“The only thing that could be removed would be PHARMAC’s exemption under the commerce act”
If that is what gives Pharmac it’s negotiating power then that’s exactly the problem – we don’t know if Pharmac’s purchasing power will be curtailed (it’s exemption removed) under the TPPA. I reckon Pharmac will make the hurdles even higher for people to access some expensive meds to make up for the higher prices. This is also one of the reasons why I’m interested in the decision criteira review – specifically whether the responders think Pharmac
should take into account the whole cost to the government of not providing a drug, rather than only the cost to the health system (e.g. will providing an expensive drug enable a patient to work).
I agree with you about limiting access is a serious issue in some cases/ for some conditions. There’s a trade-off between cost and access to new medicines and Pharmac tend to miss the importance of a variety of options to treat some conditions. I guess because Pharmac works on a ‘whole population with condition x’ basis rather than tailoring to individual needs like a medical practitioner can. This, in itself can be a cost to the health system as the efficacy of some drugs wear off and other drugs are not accessible that could prevent a patient deteriorating, and/or prevent side-effects.
I mentioned pharmac as an example of a minor legislation that would require changing. If you want to argue about that, then you can do it in OpenMike.
The post is about the procedure of passing treaties rather than particular minor sections and aspects.
🙄
And if you were actually keeping up with drug discovery and development, you’d know that the R&D companies have been hitting the wall when it comes to finding new and actually effective drugs, that have a better cost/benefit ratio to currently available ones. Along with occasional fuck ups on the clinical trials side or long term issues (hello Vioxx) that don’t show up in Phase III and so take monitoring in the population of users to pick up. Combine this with the very high price of new drugs, it’s rather rational for Pharmac to check each new drug, especially as well already have a large suite of drugs, surgical interventions and physical/mental therapies available that may end up being more cost effective than newer drugs.
I thus suggest you start keeping an eye on http://pipeline.corante.com or doing some refresher courses @uni to build yourself a better knowledge base on drug R&D.
Not that all new drugs are poo mind you, some show extremely good promise:
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/73/16/5169.full
Though this particular family of compounds might not work on chemo resistant cancers, as they have high expression/copy numbers of anti-oxidant proteins that protect those cell lines from oxygen radical-triggered apoptosis :/
“Along with occasional fuck ups on the clinical trials side or long term issues (hello Vioxx)”
I think the problem with vioxx was they hadn’t realised was that other NASIDs that have been in use since way back when also caused heart problems. Vioxx is allowed back on the market but Merck won’t do it, I guess the brand is toxic now.
I’m not suggesting vioxx is good – but now we have patients stuck on long-term NSAIDs that with probably cause stomach problems and may have cardiovascular risk and no alternative like vioxx that may causes heart problems but not stomach problems. It’s all quite unfortunate for people who need a NSAID because they can barely function without it but their stomach is not coping, and Pharmac hasn’t funded a med that will actually resolve the condition that is creating the need for the NSAID.
Lucky Pharmac funds omeprazole to be handed out like expensive lollies ae? 😉
Actually PHARMAC is now thinking of funding celecoxib now that the patent has expired.
You’re also absolutely correct in relation to rofecoxib in relation to older NSAIDs.
Well, we could just legalise medical pot 😛 Far less side effects than COX-2 targeting NSAIDs.
Though I’d love to see some movement on cannabinoid receptor type 2 antagonists as they’re more suitable for people who are still working. But they don’t seem to have really gone past animal models.
Thanks for the tip Nic, however, I do think that the lectures I give at uni probably require me to be reasonably up to date in this area.
And yet your post showed rather a lot of ignorance on the current state of the drug market.
And judging by yours you’re expecting to get pubic hair sometime soon.
🙄
Say something ignorant, expect to get the #cluebat and perhaps you’d like to try a more substantial reply or is that just a mite to hard for your ego?
And the age bias is oh so “cute”.
Yes almost as cute as your little yellow chaps, not really age bias though just a bias against persons who think they know it all.
If you’re really interested in anything other than tr0lling perhaps you might like to look into the recent pharmaceutical advances in hepatitis C medications, biologics for lymphoma and B cell proliferative disorders for a start and then consider the utility of combination therapies and long acting formulations which we don’t have access to in NZ which would all positively impact on compliance.
why is it either/or doc..?
..i am a recent beneficiary of those advances in hep c cures..(thank you very much..)
..and as you lecture @ university..on this subject..?
..surely you must be aware of the advances on so many fronts in research into the medical uses for cannabis..?
..you aren’t just stuck up a narrow intellectual alleyway are you..?
..and i was lectured to by so many idiots when @ university..(hi steve..!..)
..that the title of university-lecturer doesn’t easily fill me with respectful/deferential awe..
..eh..?
..phillip ure..
Yes indeed cannabis and its derivatives look to be quite useful in the treatment of many ailments.
We already have Sativex (Cannabidiol, Tetrahydrocannabinol 27mg/mL = Cannabis sativa extract 38mg-44mg) registered and available on prescription in NZ for patients with NZ.
… and yes fair point in relation to the university lecturer thing, the 30 odd years clinical practice might be a bit more relevant…. but then again there’s people around with that amount of experience that I wouldn’t trust to look after me ……
PEOPLE – time to stand up and say “NO NO NO !” to the cruel disgrace that is ACC –
AE MARIKA! – A column published in the Northland Age by Hone Harawira MP for Te Tai Tokerau – 08 OCT 2013
” When the chairwoman of the Accident Compensation Corporation, Paula Rebstock, announced that ACC had made a $4.9 billion surplus from “better performance by its rehabilitation services returning claimants to fitness” and that ACC was in its “best shape ever” I almost cried, because of the horror stories I have heard since National decided to privatise ACC and reduce what was once a world-leading accident compensation system to a corporate entity where profits have become more important than people.
I recall a couple of years ago, helping a guy in Kaikohe after an ACC doctor had recommended he be sent back to work.
This chap, a married man with children, had suffered a serious head injury in an accident while working in the forestry. He’d been laid up for months, he’d lost much of his co-ordination, he couldn’t drive any more, he’d lost touch with his workmates, he struggled to complete even the most simple of tasks, and he’d become seriously depressed. He’d been working through rehabilitation but often got frustrated and angry with those around him when he couldn’t do what his mind said he should be able to do.
National’s new ACC focus “on investment returns on $24.6 billion reserves, higher interest rates to reduce the current value of the future cost of claims, and new investment strategies” however, meant that this poor bugger was about to get a real shock.
ACC hired private medical consultants charged with “reviewing claimant histories” who had determined (without even the decency of discussing the case in depth with his doctor, or his therapist, or his family), that although this poor chap would never be able to return to full-bodied employment, he was fit for certain types of work and therefore he could be returned to the workforce.
But what sort of work was this guy now suitable for? Carpark Attendant. Carpark Attendant … in Kaikohe for god’s sake!! Except there are no jobs for Carpark Attendants in Kaikohe – or Kaitaia, or Taipa, or Kerikeri, or Kawakawa, or Dargaville, or Whangarei, or Wellsford or Warkworth for that matter.
ACC of course, didn’t care. They’d made their assessment, the guy was “fit for work”, and he should move to where he could find work.
Great … the guy’s struggling to cope with the basics of life and they expect him to up his family and move to Auckland – pull the kids from school and away from the friends and the community they grew up with, try to sell the house, pay off any outstanding debts, organise a removal truck, find a house in Auckland they can afford to rent (yeah right), find a school for the kids, find a therapist, find out where the Carpark Attendant jobs are … and then get in line with the thousands of others lining up for the same job!
Under the 1972 Accident Compensation Act New Zealanders gave up the right to sue for personal injury, in return for a government-funded 24-hour, no-fault insurance programme, paid for by all taxpayers and employers. 40 years later, Kiwis still aren’t allowed to sue, so how come government can walk away from their part of the deal?
AE MARIKA is an article written every week by Hone Harawira, leader of the MANA Movement and Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau. You are welcome to use any of the comments and to ascribe them to Mr Harawira. The full range of Hone’s articles can be found on the MANA website at http://www.mana.net.nz. ”
QUESTION – Is it churlish to ask how much Rebstock is paid to play National’s social terrorism games ?
Government Mercenaries home and imported –
1 Paula Rebstock
2 Margaret Bazley
3 David Caygill
4 All ACT
Others? Can’t recall names just now.
Thank you for sharing the article North. Like Hone I almost cried when I heard about the ACC surplus. It’s vulgar that there should be a surplus when ACC isn’t in the business of being a profit centred organisation.
I know first hand about the loss of service within ACC since National came along and fucked it up. I’ve been left with an un-diagnosed foot injury for almost two years now. They gave up on me fairly early on and my only option is to have steroid injections for the pain. Eventually the steroid breaks down the bone so you will be left with an injury with more damage than when you started. The injury has affected my fitness levels and enjoyment of living. No more long bush walks or dancing.
I’ve heard the horror stories from others too, people whose experiences are far worse than mine, who have lost mobility due to being turned down for absolutely necessary surgery. You can only hope that National and Co will lose the election next year and that service and a client centred focus will be restored to ACC, once again. Once again because almost every time National get in they come along and mess with ACC (remember the early ’90’s?) because they can’t handle that it isn’t (yet) a fully privatised provider. They are ideologically opposed to the concept of ACC and aint bovvered if people suffer while they try and dismantle it.
QFT
National are always the worst thing to happen to NZ. They concentrate on destroying government service so that the private profiteers, who can’t actually compete with government efficiency, can make a profit as people lose faith in government and so move on to private providers.
Even when ACC was reasonably good, it was very much a parson’s egg situation. I waited 15 years for back surgery and then had to pay half the cost myself, which came from money I managed to save from a student loan. During that time, I knew three people who mutilated themselves expressly to get lump sum payouts, which they received relatively quickly. It never worked as well as it was intended to.
Nobody says that it was perfect but commercialising it has made it worse.
Oh, thanks, North. I usually just look at the Mana website for the latest press releases. I hadn’t realised the articles were on the site. Links down the bottom left under “Recent Pānui”
Here’s the link to the article above.
I regularly get Hone stuff, press releases, articles etc by email. Can’t recall how I subscribed. Sign-up’s probably available on the Mana website.
/shudder
Bring on the court cases and the harrowing of the minister responsible for this shit.
So much for our loving liberation of Libya.
thanks 4 the link..
..i’ll use it tomorrow morn..
..what fucken america..(with the support of far too many local leftists..)
..what america destroyed..
..america..that sick/corrupt dystopia…
..phillip ure..
So how long before T. Mallard gets his marching orders…and will there be any fallout?
DFTT
Good call, Paul. A different matter and far more relevant if PR had asked ‘how long before John Key gets his marching orders …’
Thats easy to answer: If he loses the next election he’ll stand down/get fired
Now about Mallard not being at the labour meeting in Dunedin when everyone else was, does this mean hes close to getting the shaft and if so what will his reaction be?
That’s not what my Tory mates tell me. Weeks, rather than months. That noise you hear is knives being sharpened.
Oh well in that case my socialist mates tell me Cunliffe has weeks rather than months until hes knifed especially if he continues making amateur stuff ups
Gotta be true
Yeah, leaders always get the boot when they’re rising in the polls 🙄
@ Puckish Rogue……..what’s this smirky Shouty Hootonesque mock-pregnant crap about ? –
“So how long before T. Mallard gets his marching orders…and will there be any fallout ?”
Very tired stuff as a distraction I guess from the ludicrous spectacle of The Little Churchill ShonKey Python stroking himself as Barack Obama’s alter ego.
“I AM Kaiser Bill’s Bat(Shit)Man !” Hahaha.
Its too early to be drinking
I tried responding twice to Jenny’s latest rant on TDB open mike today. I tried to provide some added links to add to her selective linkings, and show explanations have already been given, so why give more? Both my comments disappeared.
Maybe it’s for the best.
I may be a awful author of posts because I only seem to write text when annoyed. But at least my comments on TDB don’t get moderated. I can’t see any comments from you there unless you’re using a different handle. There are 13 sitting in moderation.
Oh – there are a couple from earlier today.
I don’t know what happened. I’m logged in. I typed, with links, clicked on post comment – long delay, finally resulting in a blank web page & know backwards recovery of what I typed.
I was trying to add these links to balance Jenny’s selective TS links:
http://thestandard.org.nz/rob-gilchrist-on-sunday/#comment-706150
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-061013/
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-05102013/#comment-705913
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-07102013/
http://thestandard.org.nz/policy/#banning
PS: You mean a couple from me?
Oh sorry. You’re right – they have older dates. I did a comment seach at the backend on TDB for “karol”
Hmmm. I replied (politely) to Jenny’s comment this morning on TDB’s Open Mike and went to moderation, presumably because it was my first ever comment there. The comment now seems to have vanished into the ether.
Just as an aside, TDB has an awful layout. It’s a very difficult site to read and navigate. And hiding the Open Mike post down the page also strikes me as (unintentionally?) undemocratic. If TDB wants input from readers they need to publicise the fact.
All TDB comments go through moderation. But you still should be able to see your own comments while they are waiting for moderation.
I think the likes of Jenny don’t realise that a blog that allows instant commenting, like TS, requires some moderation of potential diversions, tr0lling, flaming etc. That’s not about “free speech” or ‘censorship”, but about maintaining a blog where discussion is possible. TDB goes for blanket moderation – easier for the blog managers, but acts as a dampener to discussion.
TS keeps a good balance, IMO.
Discussion in a democracy is a two-way interaction and requires some effort to understand what other people have written and to present credible and verifiable evidence for your views. That is what communication is about. The notion of individualistic, unrestrained “free speech” is overly simplistic and ignores the complexities of the real kind of dialogue that is necessary for democratic process.
My comment, and a few others, have just been published. I guess I’m just used to the immediacy of TS.
It took a bit of work (and a few years) to develop a system that didn’t require people to login, mostly avoided having to enter a captcha, still caught and killed the spam, and tended to hold up for human perusal new commenters and the few comments that looked suspect.
The other side was to develop a culture where people don’t exhibit behaviours that make moderators warn of ban them.
Generally it works pretty well with a fairly light workload (except when the systems jam).
I’d expect over time that TDB will tend to loosen up as they develop their style. But as it is at present too many trolls just like attacking Martyn
To TRP: Apologies for repetition. One of the main reasons I stopped commenting on TDB was the fact that every time I would go into moderation for hours. The fastest time I have got a comment posted in was an hour. One time I was in moderation for over 7 hours. I did contact them a few times to ask why the moderation – I would like to know if I genuinely had been outside the policy – but I never got a response. In the end I couldn’t bothered mucking around.
Maybe your comment will come up in a while……check back later.
As far as I can tell everyone goes through moderation (it’s nothing to do with content), and I guess each post gets released when Bradbury or whoever has the time to read it and release it.
Hi, Rosie, it’s up now. But the delay kinda ruins the point of Open Mike, imho. It’d be much better if they allowed comments to go up immediately, then moderate en masse.
Yeah, everyone was writing as if there were no other comments, but now there are. Weird.
wtf’s the point of having an Open Mike (sic) post where all of the comments are moderated?
One advantage is that you don’t end up with the same person grabbing the first comment every day and posting things that create long boring threads of tedious refutal, accusation and eventually personal attacks 😉
You dear weka, are obviously a climate change denier 😈
Ach, been found out at last!
Well as few are posting comments on TDB, Jenny is starting to claim it as her territory (see today’s open mike on DTB). Fine. Nothing wrong with putting her case re-climate etc. And less spamming and attacks going on here.
first in, first served 😉
Yes well. If you remember r0b started Open Mike several years after starting the site…. I damn near dumped it to moderation a few times since then.
Here you go 08/10/09
47 pages of it
http://thestandard.org.nz/media/the-standard-media/open-mike/page/47/
http://thestandard.org.nz/media/the-standard-media/open-mike/page/46/
http://thestandard.org.nz/media/the-standard-media/open-mike/page/45/
…
lol – there were some great comments back in those days and great to see many of the same people back there still here today.
There seems to be something wrong with the thumbs up/down on TDB. It gives a +1 for a thumb down, and -1 for thumb up.
Those thumbs up/thumbs down, I find them so…………teen-aged.
+1
Sorry, couldn’t help myself
I’ve posted there now too.
“Just to be clear, Jenny didn’t get banned from the standard for talking about Climate Change or politics. She got banned for ignoring multiple moderation warnings about her behaviour.
If anyone wants to know more detail, feel free to pop over to the standard and I’m sure that any number of Standardistas who are thoroughly sick of Jenny’s antics will be happy to point out what the issues were 🙂 (can’t see the point of getting into it here, not least because I don’t wish the same level of drama onto TDB’s new Open Mike).”
Here’s the thread if anyone else wants to follow it
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/10/09/open-mike-wednesday-9th-october
Well said, weka. And the other commenters. Thanks. Better than my lost comments.
I generally find comments that I make on TDB released from moderation within 15 minutes; there have been occasional exceptions, yet no complaints from me. 😎
My page has reverted to normal without half of it being in bright blue and underlined but I notice a long time to get to my chosen place when I click on anything on the site especially if I want to look back on past comments. How long should I be waiting 10,20,30 seconds? Often I give up and can’t finish a piece or get information.
IRD setting up mega system and making it so big that NZ companies can’t compete. Everything must go global to get cheap except for the people running the outfit. NZ may get some small tasks thrown their way. I can’t see how these people in power think that they will have anything much of an economy to run and tax when they do this. Perhaps the idea is to run it all down and then apply for foreign aid which will be channelled through whatever government is in power. Hey I had a thought – we have something like that now.
Internal Affairs (they’re gut wrenching) have put passport controls on line and are closing more offices. Now I feel so happy that we are going to get this modern streamlined service so efficiently, just like Novopay. And so easy to tap into for Big Brother, which despite the name, hasn’t any kindly family feelings.
not Calling Me Lissa Lee
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11137350
Why are you pointing us to a film about ACT voters?
Calling Don Brash?
Wooah – the comments are something else though.
Hmmm. i see that Grey Lynn residents are protesting about the proposed building of a Bunnings Warehouse in their hood. I am also aware that some New Lynn residents are not happy that a Bunnings Warehouse is going to be built in new Lynn – they say that there are better uses for the land.
So what’s going on? The NZ Herald article on Grey Lynn protests, says:
http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/privy-council-accepts-media-argument-that-overturning-lundy-conviction-would-provide-much-needed-news-event/?utm_source=feedly
– Hes quite clever this guy
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/03/world/asia/hornet-attack-china/index.html
Shaanxi in China is in the news with about 42 recent deaths. Climate change is having an effect on large hornets which are breeding more rapidly without cold winters to control them.
The pictures of hornet stings are horrific and they are very large insects and extremely aggressive. Their venom can dissolve tissue and can produce anaphylactic shock. People have bullet wound size wounds that look as if they are necrotised. Kidneys can shut down and death occurs. Hospitals have said come in if you have more than ten stings so one imagines that they are really stretched to manage the outbreak.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/killer-hornets-chinese-city-living-in-fear
A Chinese mayor ans his local helpers are true humanitarians and heroes.
The crisis has exhausted Gong Zhenghong, the spiky-haired mayor of Hongshan township in rural Ankang. Since September, Gong has spent nearly every night wandering the township exterminating nests. He says there are 248 hornet nests in Hongshan, with 175 close to schools and roads.
Gong and his team survey nests by day; once the sun sets, they dress in homemade anti-hornet suits made from rain jackets and canvas, and burn the nests with spray-can flamethrowers. “They don’t fly around at night,” he said. Sometimes the team begins work in the late evening and doesn’t finish until 2am. “We’d normally send the fire squad to do this, but this year there were too many nests….
In southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, a swarm of hornets attacked a primary school in mid-September, injuring 23 children and seven adults. The teacher, Li Zhiqiang, told pupils to hide under their desks and tried to fight the creatures off until he lost consciousness, state media reported….
The Ankang government says it has removed 710 hives and sent 7m yuan (£707,000) to help affected areas. “We’re doing everything we can, but there’s only so much we can do,” says Deng Xianghong, the deputy head of the Ankang propaganda department. “God has been unfair to us.”
And set this against the news of the trilion debt that the USA owes to China. The Chinese have not been able to apply the good practices that came from Communism together with the money that has come from capitalism to helping the farmers as was a chief communistic goal. There would have been more organisation to prevent such a high nest situation. They would be hard to eradicate but severe limitation could be achieved.
And the similar thing in the USA you can bet. They have problems that wealth should be able to deal to, but chooses not to.
I heard about this at the weekend on the radio. The hornets are 5 cm long, just awful.
David Cunliffe speaking to the Combined Trade Unions Conference today,
”Immediately raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour”,
”Support the ‘Living Wage”,
”Paid Parental Leave up from 14 weeks to 26”
”Scrap all National’s unfair employment law changes within 100 days”,
”A RED Labour Party rather than a pale blue one”,
Gleaned from the Herald online,(there is probably a live stream somewhere)…
good start
Thanks. Found it. Will add it to my insecure work/precariat post.
Yeah and NO post on here about what he said and even more noticeable is NO mention at all on Prime/Skynews.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9262148/Cunliffe-lays-out-Labours-plans
Lolz, bit of a ‘jenny ses’ there…
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/jubilation-and-dismay-historic-building-saved-5624286
/sigh
Silly silly Dunajtschik, if you buy a heritage building or one that could fall under being a heritage protection, you’re buying something that you have an obligation to do work on.
Instead, he’s just going to let it rot, and another slice of NZ’s architectural will likely fall and be replaced with another glass, steel and concrete monolith.
And only a tory cabinet minister could call the owner of a multistorey central-city property (derelict or otherwise) ” this poor guy”.
And one thing I’ve thought should have been done years ago is compel owners of heritage buildings to maintain the structures. If the fuckers want to knock something down and build a utilitarian block of cubby-holes, they shouldn’t buy our heritage.
$10 mil to do up? On a building that has rates of $250k/yr?
It’s called an “investment”.
Commonwealth chief is stooge of Sri Lanka regime – Canadian envoy
Meanwhile, Keys shows where human rights is situated in his priority list…
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/08/commonwealth-chief-stooge-sri-lanka-claims-canada
A shinning light.
/
http://www.nwac.ca/inter-american-commission-human-rights-holds-hearing-disappearances-and-murders-aboriginal-women-and
http://www.nwac.ca/search/node/human%20rights
Indeed. Canada has much to be ashamed of, including it’s opposition to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
It’s what happens when you transform into a petrostate.
I had the idea that Canada had a long-term right wing government which was settling into ‘conservatism’ rather than people friendly policies.
Indeed. As I said, it’s what happens when you transform into a petrostate.
because it wasn’t ignoring the rights of indigenous peoples before oil was discovered?
Hey mate.
Unfortunately Stephen Harper’s swipe at Sri Lanka and the Commonwealth has little to do with human rights abuses in Sri Lanka and a lot to do with his travails at home – falling poll ratings, a reinvigorated Liberal Party under Justin Trudeau and a rapidly escalating scandal around spying involving Canada’s version of the GCSB (any of this strangely familiar?). Add to that the fact that there is around a quarter of a million Tamil voters in the Greater Toronto area.
Cameron=Harper=Key. They’re all sweet buddies and rapists of their respective fiefdoms. Wadya expect ?
“What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate
Some men you just can’t reach…” -Axel
I prefer Cool Hand Luke myself…
I bet you do.
Editing Judith Collins’ face over The Captain’s when he says it would be your way of combining your preferred public policy with grade-A stroke material.
Somehoe I think you missed the point of CHL in much the same way as you missed the point of 1984.
not Long John Silver?
“Nah, calling it your job don’t make it right Boss”.
TPPA: NZ makes it into The Guardian for all the wrong reasons
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/09/mass-spying-pacific-prism
lol
http://thepointman.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/russia-2-greenpeace-1/
– An interesting view indeed
Stephen Franks lost for words twice in one hour
Stopped in his tracks during anti-Māori rant
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Wednesday 9 October 2013
Jim Mora, Stephen Franks, Chris Wikaira
Extreme right wing Hastings journalist Mike Butler is a crony of the notoriously racist National Party activist John Ansell. This disreputable pair has been active on the fringes for a long time, publishing virulent anti-Treaty, anti-Māori diatribes in some of the scruffier provincial papers. Occasionally Ansell, being a National Party heavyweight, manages to get his ugly mug onto television; earlier this year he enjoyed several uninterrupted minutes on TV1’s Breakfast show to inform viewers why he has no respect for Māori tradition, Māori haka or Māori language. Butler, on the other hand, has largely remained under a rock, but for some reason his latest diatribe was been featured in today’s edition of the Otago Daily Times.
http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/opinion/276231/opinion-ngai-tahu-should-pay-crown
Butler and Ansell are shunned by serious and moral people and their views are not respected or taken seriously by anyone with a lick of common sense. But that didn’t stop Jim Mora’s producers from hauling their foulness on to Radio New Zealand National’s Panel this afternoon. With the guests being the right wing ACT/Sensible Sentencing activist Stephen Franks and the National Party-aligned Chris Wikaira, the producers must have figured it would be another easy demolition job. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for the quality of the discussion, they evidently failed to consider two complicating factors about Chris Wikaira: although he might be a member of the National Party, he (a) is Māori and (b) has a brain….
JIM MORA: I’ll be interested to get your thoughts on THIS story: Hastings journalist Mike Butler claims the Crown should receive a refund from Ngai Tahu rather than having to pay out more and more. This is a story that is gaining more attention, particularly in the southern papers—-
CHRIS WIKAIRA: [sardonically] Now THERE’s a surprise!
MORA: [nervously] Ha ha ha! Yeah but he has a point, surely. Whatever happened to this idea of “full and final settlements”?
STEPHEN FRANKS: Well this is what happens with these things. It never ends. The Tainui claim was settled by an emotional minister—
MORA: Doug Graham.
FRANKS: Yes, an emotional minister who didn’t give them something meaningful like land, but instead gave them “co-ownership” of the rivers and lakes, so that now the only way they can make their presence felt is to irritate people and make a NUISANCE of themselves whenever you want to do anything.
[As usual, Mora sits blankly and says nothing during this wandery and spurious rant. Then again, he was the one who encouraged the rant by citing the ridiculous Mike Butler article in the first place. Chris Wikaira, on the other hand, is not prepared to put up with such truculent ignorance any longer….]
CHRIS WIKAIRA: The facts are completely contrary to what you are saying. Ngai Tahu land was taken under false pretences by the government and sold to settlers without permission of the Ngai Tahu owners. Ngai Tahu were coerced into signing agreements.
……[Extended awkward silence]….
MORA: Okay, so it wasn’t all fair and above board and not everybody was happy—
CHRIS WIKAIRA: And you do know, don’t you, that all of the Treaty settlements put together amount to less than one point four billion dollars, which is a fraction of one per cent of the government’s expenditure for one year.
Mora begins to say something light-hearted then thinks better of it. Franks, chastened into silence, says nothing more. Interestingly, earlier in the program, Franks was unable to counter Duncan Webb’s forceful but polite demolition of some derogatory comments he (Franks) had made about the New Zealand decision to dispense with Privy Council appeals.
By politely and firmly speaking the truth in the face of one flippant and one obstinate enemy of the truth, Duncan Webb and Chris Wikaira showed us all an important truth: we should always challenge and stand up to bullies, including self-important and pompous lawyers who speak in soft voices; their outward show of power and authority is usually a flimsy covering for nothing more than pure wind.
—————————————————————————————
Have a look at this site to get an idea of the mischief Butler and Ansell get up to….
http://treatygate.wordpress.com/category/politics/treaty-of-waitangi/
Ansell is a sad little man, beset by sick fantasies. I was interested to note that he thanked Vinny Eastwood, of something called Guerrilla Media, for help with filming his Bay of Islands rubbish. It seems that eventually all the bullshit merchants coalesce into one putrid mass.
Love your work Morrissey. The air must be good on Northcote Point.
“…….self-important and pompous lawyers who speak in soft voices…….”
Says it all about Extreme-Right-Wing-Fantasist-Lawyer-Franks. Well, actually no Morrissey. You failed to mention the condescending cocktail party grimace “smile” which usually accompanies his generally mad utterances.
Cheers Muzza and important to record.
Except it’s all bullshit from Moz. Nothing in the ‘transcript’ has anything but a passing resemblance to the truth. Ok, Moz gets the names of the participants correct, but the rest is made up.
The actual recording here: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2572169/the-panel-with-stephen-franks-and-chris-wikaira-part-2
Except it’s all bullshit from Moz. Nothing in the ‘transcript’ has anything but a passing resemblance to the truth.
Really? Then you will point out for us what errors there are. Thanks for that.
Ok, Moz gets the names of the participants correct, but the rest is made up.
I made up none of it, and you know it.
The actual recording here…
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2572169/the-panel-with-stephen-franks-and-chris-wikaira-part-2
Thanks for that. Anybody who has the patience to sit through that dismal show will appreciate just how accurate my dramatisation is.
For the 1st time in my life (66+) I have just been polled on my landline.
Must be a new poll coming out.
It all went the Left way. Hope it helps.
A great heap of pathetic shit from some second rate jonolist. Focused on a first rate, indeed truly phenomonal athlete, Sonny Bill Williams. I’ve no particular brief for him, admiration for his rare talents yes, but no particular brief.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/assignments/is-sonny-bill-williams-really-all-that/9262391/SBW-all-style-no-substance
What has me take up a brief, quite wholeheartedly actually, is the extraordinary bleating and clutching of the pearls as in this article when Williams starts reflecting Big Sport. Good onya Williams. Likewise the young Samoan World Cup player who basically told the IRB they’re a bunch of using, racist old dorks. And got disciplined for it. I prefer both of them to a bunch of fucked, dictatorial old fogeys sitting on the International Rugby Board in London. Also their equivalents in other codes.
Yes this is league but that’s irrelevant. I’m talking about the various oligarchies that comprise Big Sport, and the Monday morning quarterbacks of the so called sports press. Nothings trying to be something.
HERES WHAT THE GUARDIAN HAS TO SAY ABOUT CREEPY KEYS SPYING AND THE TPPA:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/09/mass-spying-pacific-prism?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2&et_cid=52057&et_rid=seanrkearney@yahoo.com.au&Linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.theguardian.com%2fcommentisfree%2f2013%2foct%2f09%2fmass-spying-pacific-prism
thanks 4 the link..
.i’ll use it 2morrow morn..
phillip ure..