The 79/90 Tauranga port workers that worked on the ship should have been vaccinated months ago (or not been allowed to work on the ship). Why are the govt giving them until the end of Aug/Sep to get vaccinated when delta can come in to NZ now. Seems very risky to me. Workers if not vaccinated should be stood down.
Unfortunately it appears that the mRNA "jab" does not prevent infection and virus transfer. The "vaccinated" can transfer the virus just as easily as the untreated.
The mRNA jab makes it much much less likely a vaccinated person will become infected after an exposure, compared to an unvaccinated person.
Furthermore, for the very few vaccinated people that become infected, the disease is very likely to be mild and short, with a much shorter time of peak infectiousness compared to the unvaccinated.
Don't get taken in by the clickbait that overhypes and sensationalises the very rare breakthrough infections. It really has become a pandemic of the unvaccinated overseas.
Because if you were to tell all the people that the reason they have to get injected with an 'unknown' substance is to keep the underfunded medical system from collapsing you might find that people would be even more hesitant.
Disclaimer: I am fully vaccinated, marked by the beast, full of 5G and then some.
Preventing transfer is not the point of the vaccine. The point is to make COVID much less likely to be a serious health problem if you get it.
Precisely my point – jabbed or unjabbed would have made no difference to virus transfer from the ship. The transfer from the infected on that ship could have taken place on hands or skin with no requirement of infection. The port workers may well have been less likely to have serious health problems BUT the transfer could still take place.
But it does make a difference if you are jabbed or not when you scale the argument up to New Zealand and not just the port. If we actually had a vaccinated population we don't need to rely on riding our luck all the time least we find ourselves like Australia, where their luck has run out.
Evidence from actual people, rather than extrapolating from viral loads, suggests that breakthrough cases after vaccination are significantly less likely to infect others compared to unvaccinated cases:
Health Ministry data released in late July indicates that 80% of the vaccinated individuals who experienced breakthrough Covid infections did not infect people with whom they came in contact at public places such as concerts, restaurants, gyms or event halls.
The question stands, why is the government giving these long lead times for 'at risk' staff", but then is blaming the 'non vaccination rate' for border worker on mis-information and anti vaxx.
It however would be nice to know how many of these workers have vaccinations booked, how the booking system in the Tauranga area is working, how the overall vaccination status is for the Tauranga area, how many vaccinations centres are there, are they fully staffed all the time etc.
Btw, in Rotorua here no vaccinations on Sundays. But then in a pandemic it is important to not work on Sundays. Would that be double wage?
The question stands, why is the government giving these long lead times for 'at risk' staff", but then is blaming the 'non vaccination rate' for border worker on mis-information and anti vaxx.
Maybe the government is giving these long lead times because a more aggressive mandating of te jab could be ammo for the anti-vaxx brigade. Steering a country through a global pandemic; piece of piss, eh? We really don’t know how lucky…
Australia has reported over 300 daily new cases of Covid-19 as the seven-day rolling average of cases continues to rise.
Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, reported 283 new daily confirmed cases as infections spread from Sydney to regional areas on the East coast.
In response to a sharp rise in local transmissions, authorities have imposed strict lockdown measures upon millions of people, including military patrols in western regions of Sydney.
Australia’s largest outbreak so far this year has been driven by a low vaccination rate and the highly contagious nature of the Delta variant.
Whats the incubation period for delta? Hope we're not going to do a solitary test a couple of days after a potential exposure and say we're safe… surely we need to put exposed workers into a longer self quarantine. The stakes are very high. Paying the port workers to quarantine seems a good deal to me.
The Chinese researchers who studied viral loads in people infected with the delta variant also observed that the incubation period with delta patients was shorter compared to the original strain. With previous variants, the virus was detectable in infected individuals an average of six days after exposure, but with the delta variant, that window was shortened to four days.
The change in incubation period could indicate that the delta variant is better able to invade cells and can replicate faster than previous variants, which can help the virus spread. The shorter window also makes contact tracing even more of a challenge for public health departments that are already overburdened.
There remains a big difference in outcomes. Vaccinated people are much less likely to get severe disease. From the Harold link:
Reykjavík hospital data reveals infections remain proportionately far higher among the unvaccinated. But vaccination only offers moderate resistance to contracting the disease.
The big difference, however, is in the severity of the symptoms.
Previous outbreaks of non-Delta variants among much lower vaccination rates claimed 29 Icelandic lives. The latest outbreak – despite its size – has so far claimed none.
…
Iceland's government is not discouraged.
"Evidence shows that the vaccines used in Iceland protect about 60 per cent of those fully vaccinated against any kind of infection caused by the Delta variant of the virus and over 90 per cent against serious illnesses," director general Bryndís Kjartansdóttir said.
"About 97 per cent of those infected have mild or no symptoms."
NZ's per capita spend on public health is around the OECD average. The system is under pressure, but the service provided by NZ health workers isn't rubbish, imho.
Iceland had 55 cases and 0 deaths on the most recent data available (8 August).
With a 357,000 population, high vaccination rates and a 95% efficacy (not 100%!) its inevitable there will be cases … but of course that doesn't make such a salacious story.
You find that story "salacious"? That is pornographic, obscene, indecent, improper, indelicate, crude, lewd…
The point is, vaccinations are not enough on their own to avoid major stress on health systems. The idea we are going to throw the doors open to the world's Coronavirus carriers once we are 70% vaccinated is a very dangerous idea.
The point is, vaccinations are not enough on their own to avoid major stress on health systems.
Given that some people (including folks with a reasonable handle on what was required) didn't expect any vaccine for as much as five years, we can probably look towards some cautious optimism.
I wonder if anyone's working on a vaccine targeting delta specifically?
Covid hospitalizations surge in US south as unvaccinated urged to get shots
Louisiana now leads the nation in new Covid cases
Intensive care units near capacity in multiple locations
With just 37% of residents fully vaccinated, state data indicated that unvaccinated people accounted for 90% of hospitalizations in the state. One hundred and eighty one people died from the virus in Louisiana last week.
Similar results are being experienced in Mississippi and Alabama.
I think it is fairly clear now that whilst vaccination may not prevent an infection from the delta variant, it limits the severity. And the indications are that people with less severe symptoms are less infectious.
Of those cases and deaths, about 120,000 cases and about 660 deaths have happened since the beginning of June this year. Beginning of June being a reasonable date by which all Louisianans that wanted vaccination could have been fully vaccinated.
There's a lot more to come, since there's no sign the current wave is anywhere near its peak.
Another right wing lunatic unmasked in presumably soon to be ex-Hurricanes board member Troy Bowker. Of course he runs that symbol of neoliberal capitalism, the parasitical private equity firm. Mind you, he has invested in the Hurricanes so he clearly thinks he has purchased a certain amount of immunity from the consequences of his racist outburst.
There was quite a good paper on the whole subject and whether capitalism was much more of a driving motive behind the move.
Personally I love the fact that we don't determine ethnicity by percentage in this country. I've seen the perverse effects this has in Canada for instance where parents are classed as indigenous and have to carry a reservation card but their children are not and have to get permission to go onto a reservation.
The notion in NZ that either you whakapapa back or you don't is a much better concept and no different to me having Irish or Scottish or Welsh heritage in that respect. People generally do need a sense of belonging.
The question of the experiential existence of being Maori before being selected is really one for Maori to address. From an external perspective I have no problem with people who haven't had close links to their marae etc being selected – I suspect that being in that environment would likely help them along a journey of some sorts, but do not see that my opinion should really matters any more than as a non-religious person I should have an influence about how Marist teams are selected.
I remember sitting on interviews with a well respected kaumatua who when young people turned up to their interviews wearing their carved bone matau or koru or manaia asked one simple question – when were you last on a marae? Probably about 50% had never been.
In many respects I can see that too is a useful question for Maori All Black selection – not necessarily to deny people the opportunity but to understand what work may be required with that person to imbue them in the Maori All Black environment.
I suspect that the pendulum has swung back from the commodification described in this paper and that is likely a good thing. The modern Maori All Blacks I certainly view as a recognition and celebration of Maori culture and its ability to adapt- the same as kapa haka and so on. We should be mature enough to see it in that light – certainly not as an example of reverse racism.
I only wish we could get the same enthusiasm by Maori for cricket – there is so much natural talent out there and many of the best players I played with over the years were Maori – economic forces have meant that much of that talent has been lost.
And oddest of all in view of his % comments ai the fact that he donated to NZ First whose leader at the time was Winston Peters who probably could be asked about his % (sarc)
The usual way to determine if a person is Maori ie for Iwi Authorities is to accept a person who can whakapapa to an eponymous Maori ancestor. Percentages are offensive and, thankfully, a thing of the past. They give no indication if a person is Maori in their day to day life. I believe to go onto the Maori roll you aver that you are Maori.
While I know that Troy Bowker has been overseas he has been back for 8-10 years and surely this is enough time .to understand what is what here in NZ.
I wonder what he thinks of the proposal re Aotearoa and He Puapua/ Similarly enlightened as his taking on of Sir Ian Taylor I am sure.
True…..but…….how long ago was Max Bradford? How much new generation and transmission has been built since then? I mean serious generation, not a couple of wind turbines which should have backup in case (as last night) the wind doesn't blow?
Cutting it off without warning was a 'nice' touch. Can't help wondering if one or two companies thought a bit of misery in the middle of winter might be good for business.
Grid energy needs to balance instantaneously (or energy shuts off). There is almost no storage on the grid where excess can be reserved for future demand.
Perfect storm last night with the NI power outages – downed power lines, peak demand as coldest night of the winter, very still so no wind turbines operating.
the key word there is demand. Instead of increasing supply, which will then be outstripped by more demand (think perpetual growth, extreme weather events, increasing population), we can shift to steady state.
The big push removing wood burners and replacing them with heat pumps was understood at the time to be a really stupid idea.
Passive heating, localised solar and wind, super efficient wood burners, all that tech exists right now
Vehicle charging is often programmable to take advantage of cheap rates in the wee hours and avoid peak times and rates.
Vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid technologies have the potential to take the top off the peak demand. That's available now, for Leaf owners at least. And many other manufacturers are looking at it.
All parties in the electricity industry make their profits from deferred capital expenditure. Because they are "allowed" a prescribed return on investment, they just keep revaluing their assets upwards and not putting anything into future planning.
Poseidon flagged it yesterday morning in general debate, for the life of me I dont understand why we couldnt warn people via an urgent news release asking that we avoid running non essential appliances to help reduce load and avoid mass shut offs.
Not convinced demand notification can make a difference however. Brownouts are rare so the focus on this will be very occasional, and its possible to think about the brownout as a notification that grid energy balance has failed (insufficient energy is available right now).
Yet the North Island has the biggest population increase and landlords and Kianga Ora are installing electric heating at vastly over specified capacity………..of course the other option is not to reduce demand but increase supply.
The last hydro dam of any size was the Clyde Dam. Construction started in 1982 as part of the Muldoon "Think Big" projects.
Since then have had, and can validly blame, the Labour Governments of 1984-1990, that of !999-2008 and 2017 until today. The National Governments to also blame are those of 1990-1999 and 2008-2017.
There is plenty of blame to go around on both sides of politics.
I doubt if there will be sufficient wind for tonight,where there will be significant frosts.
There are tools in the emergency supply models such as operating standby generation at hospitals,prisons etc.In addition ask commercial premises to reduce vanity lighting overnight (such as skytower etc)
Look at places like Manila. Ports have links to the reticulation networks that allow ships to plug their generators into. You might be surprised how much you can get out of a container ship! Probably more efficient than burning diesel at Huntly to transport to Auckland.
Reducing demand in the NI would be the first option.
Hard to do if at the same time you want to push towards plug-in electric vehicles or even e-bikes.
The demand has been reducing rapidly in the NI anyway. My household power usage has dropped by nearly a half over the last 20 years mostly from the increases in efficiency in a electric utilities. Computers (my largest power hog), screens, lights, TV, heating, music systems, fridge, washing machine, dishwasher, dryer.
The only things that I haven’t changed for more efficient items are the stove top, oven, and range hood.
The problem is that (especially in the Auckland / Hamilton / Tauranga region that the population has also skyrocketed. That means that while individual electricity demand has dropped, the total demand has increased.
Out normal overnight temp in the well insulated apartment runs at about 20-22C. That is with a a couple of windows opened during winter for ventilation. ~5-10cm on the front window. The bathroom window open about 10cm. That provides just a little breeze overnight.
In summer of course we just open everything up to get the breeze to stop the interior temp from rising over 24C.
If I could convince my partner to look at the overnight external temp and wind forecasts and to not to open the windows when it is expected to drop below 10C overnight or the winds are going to be strong, then the usual computer generated heating is sufficient to keep the interior temp above 20C.
This is the relationship problem of an native Aucklander getting involved with a woman from Southland. At 11pm the exterior temperature is usually far higher than it is in the early morning. And I typically am in bed by 10pm reading. She goes to bed around midnight after the late night work session.
In winter this is a pain. I usually have get up at about 3-4am when I start freezing and close the bathroom door to stop the wind whistling through the apartment. At 2359, the exterior temperature may be 10C like it was on Monday. At 0400 it may be 4C like it was on Tuesday, and out interior temperature had dropped to 16.5C.
BTW I recommend fast CPUs and water coolers as convection heaters. Have a threadripper or two running in a well insulated apartment and your usual problem is how to reduce tempatures.
Will Megan Woods still be in the job? We talk about emissions from cattle and no doubt those outside my window are emitting right now. Then again a silly cow was just on the radio emitting crap, calling for the resignation of Woods. The great party conference in the weekend may have emboldened her I suppose.
… a silly cow was just on the radio emitting crap, calling for the resignation of Woods. The great party conference in the weekend may have emboldened her I suppose.
Yeah… in the Herald there's currently a sustained campaign of letters to the editor re-various minsters. They are short and always end up with a smart-arse quip denigrating the minister. The quips all have a familiar ring to them. In other words, one person is composing the letters then emailing them out to National members who are in turn submitting them to the Herald as their own work.
Its a well known political ploy the National Party in particular use extensively.
This is some good investigative journalism for a student paper! Also gets pretty unpleasant at times, so I won't quote from all links. This one is from the accompanying guest editorial:
In this week’s issue we have two pieces that are the result of six months undercover in Action Zealandia, a neo-Nazi group with members across Aotearoa. For the investigation, I met with six different members of Action Zealandia, had voice calls with two leaders, and was in their online chats for most of this year, all while maintaining a secret identity. Pretending to be someone you’re not, particularly someone who is hateful and stands for so many things you vehemently oppose, is not something I’d recommend anyone try…
Their members are mostly incompetent, but the group is nonetheless dangerous to society. Despite their horrific beliefs and harmful actions, it is important to remember that members of Action Zealandia, or white supremacists, Nazis, and far-right extremists in general, are not ‘monsters’. They are human. I do not say this to inspire sympathy, but to avoid falling into the comforting trap of creating a level of separation between ‘us’ and ‘them’, between society and its hateful fringes…
history tells us, there isn’t a solid black and white line between “normal person in society” and “total Nazi”. Once we acknowledge that, we can see how dangerous white supremacist ideas can seep into the mainstream and become a torrent.
This is perhaps the most concerning issue – though fascists inbedded in the military, and the risk of further hate crimes are strong competition. Even if they don't succeed in complete infiltration, with enough sockpuppets and a loud enough voices, a small focused group can convince a political party that there is strong public support for a change in certain policies. Especially if they are desperate to avoid irrelevancy:
Members frequently discuss covertly influencing existing political parties to further their white nationalist agenda. They believe the Social Credit Party is their most promising option and frequently reference plans to take over the Social Credit Party. Members attended a public Social Credit Party meeting in Ashburton in May this year.
Several members also debated infiltrating and “reinventing” the National Party to spread white supremacist ideas to a greater portion of the population.
A strategy document circulated to members in July reiterated these plans and outlines several others. The document prioritises working on a new approach to spreading their message, with new platforms and multiple different websites to appeal to a broader audience. They want to encourage further audience and supporter participation. Reiterating plans for political infiltration, the document stipulated concentrating on “weak” electorates first and training specifically chosen people for these roles…
The document also provides directions for minors attempting to join Action Zealandia. “If applicant is too young, do not turn them away totally. Ensure you give them a list of directions of what they can do to help spread our message – mainly amongst their friends at school. Think about how we can make the youth help before they're old enough to join.” Previously, the leader of the Wellington chapter claimed teenagers as young as 13 had reached out to join.
On the news this morning was the release of another Climate Change report that referred to more extreme weather events – giving it appears fires in places like the USA and Greece, and perhaps cold weather without accompanying wind near Hamilton . . .
The extent to which we are getting weather events that are outside previous experience, may make it difficult to predict electricity demand at that time – doubtless there will be some changes to models.
Also on the news was the observation that SUVs now represent something like 55% of new vehicle purchases, which was reported as at least partially explained a 13% increase in vehicle emissions.
For electricity, we clearly need to investigate easing both demand (through local storage such as batteries?) and supply (by bringing back some of the wind projects that were deferred when there was talk of smelter closure, but also by better insulation of houses etc).
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The outlook does not look that promising. Forecasting an economy is a mug’s game. The database on which the forecasts are founded is incomplete, out-of-date, and subject to errors, some of which will be revised after the forecasts are published. (No wonder weather-forecasting is easier.) One often has to adopt ...
by Don Franks It seems that almost each day now another ram raid shatters someone’s shop front and loots the premises. Prestigious Queen street is not immune, while attacks on small dairies have long stopped being headline news. Those of us not directly affected are becoming numbed to this form ...
It’s hard to believe that when we created Sciblogs in 2009, the iPhone was only two years old, being a ‘Youtuber’ wasn’t really a thing and Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok didn’t exist. But Science blogging was a big thing, particularly in the United States, where a number of scientists had ...
For 13 years, Sciblogs has been a staple in New Zealand’s science-writing landscape. Our bloggers have written about a vast variety of topics from climate change to covid, and from nanotechnology to household gadgets.But sadly, it’s time to close shop. Sciblogs will be shutting down on 30 June.When ...
Radical Options: By allocating the Broadcasting portfolio to the irrepressible, occasionally truculent, leader of Labour’s Māori caucus, Willie Jackson, the Prime Minister has, at the very least, confirmed that her appointment of Kiri Allan was no one-off. There are many words that could be used to describe Ardern’s placement of ...
A Delicate Juggler? The new Chief Censor, Ms Caroline Flora, owes New Zealand a comprehensive explanation of how she sees, and how she proposes to carry out, her role. Where, for example, is her duty to respect and protect the citizen’s right to freedom of expression positioned in relation to ...
Good grief. Has foreign policy commentary really devolved to the point where our diplomatic effort is being measured by how many overseas trips have been taken by our Foreign Minister? Weird, but apparently so. All this week, a series of media policy wonks have been invidiously comparing how many trips ...
Where we've been Time flies. This coming summer will mark 15 years of Skeptical Science focusing its effort on "traditional" climate science denial. Leaving aside frivolities, we've devoted most of our effort to combatting "serious" denial falling into a handful of broad categories of fairly crisp misconceptions: "radiative physics is wrong,""geophysics is ...
Mercenary army of bogus skeptics on parade Because they're both squarely centered in the Skeptical Science wheelhouse, this week we're highlighting two articles from our government and NGO section, where we collect high-quality articles not originating in academic research but featuring many of the important attributes of journal publications. Our mission ...
In the latest episode of AVFA Selwyn Manning and I discuss the evolution of Latin American politics and macroeconomic policy since the 1970s as well as US-Latin American relations during that time period. We use recent elections and the 2022 Summit of the Americas as anchor points. ...
The Scottish government has announced plans for another independence referendum: Nicola Sturgeon plans to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence in October next year if her government secures the legal approval to stage it. Angus Robertson, the Scottish government’s constitution secretary, said that provided ample time to pass ...
So far, the closer military relationship envisaged by Jacinda Ardern and Joseph Biden at their recent White House meeting has been analysed mainly in terms of what this means for our supposedly “independent” foreign policy. Not much attention has been paid to what having more interoperable defence forces might mean ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters For those puzzling over the various hurricane computer forecast models to figure out which one to believe, the best answer is: Don’t believe any of them. Put your trust in the National Hurricane Center, or NHC, forecast. Although an individual ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Scott Denning The excellent Julia Steinberger essay posted at this site in May provides a disturbing window into the psychology of teaching climate change to young people. It’s critically important to talk with youth about hard topics: love and sex, deadly contagion, school shootings, vicious ...
By Imogen Foote (Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington) A lack of consensus among international conservation regimes regarding albatross taxonomy makes management of these ocean roaming birds tricky. My PhD research aims to generate whole genome data for some of our most threatened albatrosses in a first attempt ...
Well, if that’s “minor” I’d be interested to see what a major reshuffle looks like.Jacinda Ardern has reminded New Zealand of the steel behind the spin in her cabinet refresh announced today. While the Prime Minister stressed that the changes were “triggered” by Kris Faafoi and Trevor Mallard and their ...
A company gives a large amount of money to a political party because they are concerned about law changes which might affect their business model. And lo and behold, the changes are dumped, and a special exemption written into the law to protect them. Its the sort of thing we ...
Active Shooters: With more than two dozen gang-related drive-by shootings dominating (entirely justifiably) the headlines of the past few weeks, there would be something amiss with our democracy if at least one major political party did not raise the issues of law and order in the most aggressive fashion. (Photo ...
Going Down? Governments also suffer in recessions and depressions – just like their citizens. Slowing economic activity means fewer companies making profits, fewer people in paid employment, fewer dollars being spent, and much less revenue being collected. With its own “income” shrinking, the instinct of most government’s is to sharply ...
In the 50 years since Norm Kirk first promised to take the bikes off the bikies, our politicians have tried again and again to win votes by promising to crack down on gangs. Canterbury University academic Jarrod Gilbert (an expert on New Zealand’s gang culture) recently gave chapter and verse ...
Misdirection: New Zealanders see burly gang members, decked out in their patches, sitting astride their deafening motorcycles, cruising six abreast down the motorway as frightened civilians scramble to get out of their way, and they think these guys are the problem. Fact is, these guys represent little more than the misdirection ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to announce its support urgently for a moratorium on deep sea mining under the high seas, after Pacific nations joined forces this week to demand change. ...
We’re committed to ensuring that there is every opportunity for women and girls to succeed in Aotearoa New Zealand, with fewer barriers. Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to support women and girls, by improving services like healthcare and tackling issues like the gender pay gap. Here are just ...
Political pressure from the Green Party has pushed the Government to supply free masks to kids and teachers in schools across Aotearoa New Zealand. ...
The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand and the European Greens have published a joint statement calling for the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement to support climate action, phase out fossil fuel subsidies, cut agriculture emissions, protect human rights, and uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to guarantee that it will complete light rail and improve walking, cycling, and bus journeys across Wellington before digging new high-carbon tunnels. ...
The Green Party is urging Oceans and Fisheries Minister David Parker to commit to stronger ocean protection around Aotearoa and on the high seas while at the United Nations Oceans Conference in Portugal this week. ...
A strong Green voice in Parliament has helped reduce the influence large secret money will have in future elections and finally ensured overseas New Zealanders will retain the right to vote even while stranded by the Pandemic. But, the Government needs to go further to ensure our democracy works for ...
A new poll shows that the majority of people back the Greens’ call on the Government to overhaul the country’s criminally punitive, anti-evidence drug law. ...
The US Supreme Court’s decision on abortion is a reminder that we must take nothing for granted in Aotearoa, the Green Party says. “Aotearoa should be a place where everyone, no matter where they are from, or who they love, can choose what is right for their body and their ...
We’re proud to have delivered on our election commitment to establish a public holiday to celebrate Matariki. For the first time this year, New Zealanders will have the chance to enjoy a mid-winter holiday that is uniquely our own. ...
Proposed new legislation to reduce the risk that timber imported into Aotearoa New Zealand is sourced from illegal logging is a positive first step but it should go further, the Green Party says. ...
On World Refugee Day, the Green Party is calling on the new Minister for Immigration, Michael Wood to make up for the support that was not provided to people forced to leave their home countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
This week, we’ve marked a major milestone in our school upgrade programme. We've supported 4,500 projects across the country for schools to upgrade classrooms, sports facilities, playgrounds and more, so Kiwi kids have the best possible environments to learn in. ...
We’ve delivered on our election commitment to make Matariki a public holiday. For the first time this year, all New Zealanders will have the chance to enjoy a mid-winter holiday that is uniquely our own with family and friends. Try our quiz below, then challenge your whānau! To celebrate, we’ve ...
The Green Party says the removal of pre-departure testing for arrivals into New Zealand means the Government must step up domestic measures to protect communities most at risk. ...
The long overdue resumption of the Pacific Access Category and Samoan Quota must be followed by an overhaul of the Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSE) scheme, says the Green Party. ...
Lessons must be learned from the Government's response to the Delta outbreak, which the Ministry of Health confirmed today left Māori, Pacific, and disabled communities at greater risk. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to withdraw the proposed Oranga Tamariki oversight legislation which strips away independence and fails to put children at the heart. ...
European Commission President von der Leyen and Prime Minister of New Zealand Ardern met in Brussels on 30 June 2022. The encounter provided an opportunity to reaffirm that the European Union and Aotearoa New Zealand are longstanding partners with shared democratic values and interests, aligned positions on key international and ...
Export revenue to the EU to grow by up to $1.8 billion annually on full implementation. Duty-free access on 97% of New Zealand’s current exports to the EU; with over 91% being removed the day the FTA comes into force. NZ exporters set to save approx. $110 million per annum ...
57,000 EVs and Hybrid registered in first year of clean car scheme, 56% increase on previous year EVs and Non Plug-in Hybrids made up 20% of new passenger car sales in March/April 2022 The Government’s Clean Car Discount Scheme has been a success, with more than 57,000 light-electric and ...
Police Minister Chris Hipkins congratulates the newest Police wing – wing 355 – which graduated today in Porirua. “These 70 new constables heading for the frontline bring the total number of new officers since Labour took office to 3,303 and is the latest mark of our commitment to the Police ...
Members with a range of governance, financial and technical skills have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Board as part of the shift to strengthen the Bank’s decision-making and accountability arrangements. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 2021 comes into force on 1 July 2022, with the establishment of ...
New Zealand to remain at Orange as case numbers start to creep up 50 child-size masks made available to every year 4-7 student in New Zealand 20,000-30,000 masks provided a week to all other students and school staff Extra funding to schools and early childhood services to supports better ...
Aotearoa New Zealand will join Ukraine’s case against Russia at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which challenges Russia’s spurious attempt to justify its invasion under international law. Ukraine filed a case at the ICJ in February arguing Russia has falsely claimed genocide had occurred in Luhansk and Donetsk regions, as ...
The Government has taken another step forward in its work to eliminate family violence and sexual violence with the announcement today of a new Tangata Whenua Ministerial Advisory Group. A team of 11 experts in whānau Māori wellbeing will provide the Government independent advice on shaping family violence and sexual ...
Te Mahere Whai Mahi Wāhine: Women’s Employment Action Plan was launched today by Minister for Women Jan Tinetti – with the goal of ensuring New Zealand is a great place for women to work. “This Government is committed to improving women’s working lives. The current reality is that women have ...
The food and fibre sector acknowledged its people and leadership at last night’s 2022 Primary Industries Good Employer Awards, a time to celebrate their passion towards supporting employees by putting their health, welfare and wellbeing first,” Acting Minister of Agriculture Meka Whairiti said. “Award winners were selected from an extraordinary ...
Kia ora koutou katoa. It is a rare thing to have New Zealand represented at a NATO Summit. While we have worked together in theatres such as Afghanistan, and have been partners for just on a decade, today represents an important moment for our Pacific nation. New Zealand is ...
Te Arataki mō te Hauora Ngākau mō ngā Mōrehu a Tū me ō rātou Whānau, The Veteran, Family and Whānau Mental Health and Wellbeing Policy Framework “We ask a lot of those who serve in the military – and we ask a lot of the families and whānau who support ...
Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs Aupito William Sio has been appointed by the United Nations and Commonwealth as Aotearoa New Zealand’s advocacy champion for Small Island States. “Aotearoa New Zealand as a Pacific country is particularly focused on the interests of Pacific Small Island Developing States in our region. “This is a ...
An estimated 100,000 low income households will be eligible for increased support to pay their council rates, with changes to the rates rebate scheme taking effect from 1 July. Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta has announced increases to both the maximum value of the rates rebate, and the income threshold ...
A long-standing physical activity programme that focuses on outcomes for Maori has been expanded to four new regions with Government investment almost doubled to increase its reach. He Oranga Poutama is managed by a combination of hapū, iwi, hauora and regional providers. An increase in funding from $1.8 million ...
The Government is progressing a preferred option for LGWM which will see Wellington’s transport links strengthened with light rail from Wellington Station to Island Bay, a new tunnel through Mt Victoria for public transport, and walking and cycling, and upgrades to improve traffic flow at the Basin Reserve. “Where previous ...
To Provost Muniz, to the Organisers at the Instituto de Empresa buenas tardes and as we would say in New Zealand, kia ora kotou katoa. To colleagues from the State Department, from Academia, and Civil Society Groups, to all our distinguished guests - kia ora tatou katoa. It’s a pleasure ...
On June 28, 2022, a meeting took place in Madrid between the President of the Government of the Kingdom of Spain, Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, and the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, who was visiting Spain to participate in the Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as one ...
A six-fold increase in the Aotearoa New Zealand-Spain working holiday scheme gives a huge boost to the number of young people who can live and work in each other’s countries, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says. Jacinda Ardern and Spanish President Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón made the Working Holiday/Youth Mobility Scheme announcement ...
A significant barrier has been removed for people who want to stand in local government elections, with a change to the requirement to publish personal details in election advertising. The Associate Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty has taken the Local Electoral (Advertising) Amendment Bill through its final stages in Parliament ...
New financial conduct scheme will ensure customers are treated fairly Banks, insurers and non-bank deposit takers to be licensed by the FMA in relation to their general conduct Sales incentives based on volume or value targets like bonuses for selling a certain number of financial products banned The Government ...
Legislation that bans major supermarkets from blocking their competitors’ access to land to set up new stores paves the way for greater competition in the sector, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Dr David Clark said. The new law is the first in a suite of measures the Government is ...
The Government has announced an end to the requirement for border workers and corrections staff to be fully vaccinated. This will come into place from 2 July 2022. 100 per cent of corrections staff in prisons, and as of 23 June 2022 97 per cent of active border workers were ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta has concluded a visit to Rwanda reaffirming Aotearoa New Zealand’s engagement in the Commonwealth and meeting with key counterparts. “I would like to thank President Kagame and the people of Rwanda for their manaakitanga and expert hosting of this important meeting,” Nanaia Mahuta said. “CHOGM ...
Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty officially launched the new Monitoring, Alerting and Reporting (MAR) Centre at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) today. The Government has stood up the centre in response to recommendations from the 2018 Ministerial Review following the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake and 2017 Port Hills fire, ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood has welcomed the announcement that a 110km/hr speed limit has been set for the SH1 Waikato Expressway, between Hampton Downs and Tamahere. “The Waikato Expressway is a key transport route for the Waikato region, connecting Auckland to the agricultural and business centres of the central North ...
Following feedback from the sector, Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti, today confirmed that new literacy and numeracy | te reo matatini me te pāngarau standards will be aligned with wider NCEA changes. “The education sector has asked for more time to put the literacy and numeracy | te reo ...
$4.5 million to provide Ukraine with additional non-lethal equipment and supplies such as medical kit for the Ukrainian Army Deployments extended for New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) intelligence, logistics and liaison officers in the UK, Germany, and Belgium Secondment of a senior New Zealand military officer to support International ...
Changes to electoral law announced by Justice Minister Kiri Allan today aim to support participation in parliamentary elections, and improve public trust and confidence in New Zealand’s electoral system. The changes are targeted at increasing transparency around political donations and loans and include requiring the disclosure of: donor identities for ...
The Labour government has announced a significant investment to prevent and minimise harm caused by gambling. “Gambling harm is a serious public health issue and can have a devastating effect on the wellbeing of individuals, whānau and communities. One in five New Zealanders will experience gambling harm in their lives, ...
The Government has widened access to free flu vaccines with an extra 800,000 New Zealanders eligible from this Friday, July 1 Children aged 3-12 years and people with serious mental health or addiction needs now eligible for free flu dose. From tomorrow (Tuesday), second COVID-19 booster available six months ...
The Government is investing to create new product categories and new international markets for our strong wool and is calling on Kiwi businesses and consumers to get behind the environmentally friendly fibre, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said today. Wool Impact is a collaboration between the Government and sheep sector partners ...
At today’s commemoration of the start of the Korean War, Veterans Minister Meka Whaitiri has paid tribute to the service and sacrifice of our New Zealand veterans, their families and both nations. “It’s an honour to be with our Korean War veterans at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park to commemorate ...
Minister of Tourism Stuart Nash and Associate Minister of Tourism Peeni Henare announced the sixth round of recipients of the Government’s Tourism Infrastructure Fund (TIF), which supports local government to address tourism infrastructure needs. This TIF round will invest $15 million into projects around the country. For the first time, ...
Matariki tohu mate, rātou ki a rātou Matariki tohu ora, tātou ki a tātou Tīhei Matariki Matariki – remembering those who have passed Matariki – celebrating the present and future Salutations to Matariki I want to begin by thanking everyone who is here today, and in particular the Matariki ...
Oho mai ana te motu i te rangi nei ki te hararei tūmatanui motuhake tuatahi o Aotearoa, Te Rā Aro ki a Matariki, me te hono atu a te Pirīmia a Jacinda Ardern ki ngā mahi whakanui a te motu i tētahi huihuinga mō te Hautapu i te ata nei. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister David Parker will represent Aotearoa New Zealand at the second United Nations (UN) Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, which runs from 27 June to 1 July. The Conference will take stock of progress and aims to galvanise further action towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14, to "conserve and sustainably use ...
The Government is boosting its partnership with New Zealand’s dairy sheep sector to help it lift its value and volume, and become an established primary industry, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “Globally, the premium alternative dairy category is growing by about 20 percent a year. With New Zealand food ...
The Government is continuing to support the Buller district to recover from severe flooding over the past year, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today during a visit with the local leadership. An extra $10 million has been announced to fund an infrastructure recovery programme, bringing the total ...
“The Government has undertaken preparatory work to combat new and more dangerous variants of COVID-19,” COVID-19 Response Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall set out today. “This is about being ready to adapt our response, especially knowing that new variants will likely continue to appear. “We have undertaken a piece of work ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh White, Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University Testing Washington: Chinese President Xi Jinping. Li Gang/Xinhua via AP How can Australia navigate the tough and dangerous strategic environment in Asia today with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Kaufman, Research Fellow, Vaccine Uptake Group, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Engin Akyurt/Unsplash The federal government has released a new A$11 million ad campaign urging Australians to “take on winter” by getting COVID boosters and influenza vaccines, as well as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Macintosh, Professor and Director of Research, ANU Law School, Australian National University Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen is today expected to announce a much anticipated review of Australia’s carbon credit scheme, known as the Emissions Reduction Fund. In March, we exposed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Esmé Louise James, Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Melbourne Netflix After a month of waiting, the season finale of Stranger Things season 4 has almost arrived on Netflix. This season, along with the nightmarish arch-villain Vecna, we have been ...
More than 91 percent of tariffs will be removed the day the deal comes into effect, while the value of NZ exports to the EU are estimated to increase by $1.8b a year by 2035. ...
RNZ News New Zealand has designated US groups the Proud Boys and The Base as terrorist entities. Set down in the government’s official journal of record — the Gazette — last Monday, 20 June, it was published publicly a week later but with no wider dissemination. The move — authorised ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra David Pocock, the progressive independent who broke the Liberals’ stranglehold on one of the two ACT Senate seats, wouldn’t have expected to find himself allied with Pauline Hanson before even being sworn in. But, ...
Tabloid Jubi The Civil Organisations Solidarity for Papua Land has condemned Indonesia’s Papua expansion plan of forming three new provinces risks causing new social conflicts. And the group has urged President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to cancel the plan, according to a statement reports Jubi. The group — comprising the Papua ...
RNZ Pacific Palau, Fiji, and Samoa have announced their opposition to deep-sea mining, calling for a moratorium on the emerging industry amid growing fears it will destroy the seafloor and damage biodiversity. The alliance was announced just as a United Nations Oceans Conference began in Portugal this week. The moratorium ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has just spoken to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky by phone, expressing solidarity and support for his country. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis B Desmond, Lecturer, Cyberintelligence and Cybercrime Investigations, University of the Sunshine Coast Sashenka Gutierrez/EPA The art of concealing or misrepresenting one’s identity in the physical world has long been practised by spies engaged in espionage. In response, intelligence agencies ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND Homeowners will face mortgage rates near 5.5% in a little over a year, according to a survey of 22 leading Australian economists. The ...
Guest column by Nicholas Kerr Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s comments about the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling on abortion inadvertently help explain why the court was right to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the issue to the states. She noted that New Zealand ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mona Nikidehaghani, Lecturer in Accounting, University of Wollongong From Monday July 4 2022, Australian job seekers face a new social security system to police eligibility for support payments. It replaces the “Jobactive” system that required the “mutual obligation” of applying for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn Gulliver, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of Queensland A man who drove through a climate protest blocking the Harbour Tunnel this week has copped a A$469 fine, while multiple members of the activist group were arrested. The protest was among a ...
“Less than a month ago Floyd Du Plessis, the President of the Corrections Association (CANZ), wrote a letter to the Chief Executive warning of more assaults against prison officers if things didn’t change,” says Darroch Ball Leader of Sensible Sentencing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ritesh Chugh, Associate Professor – Information and Communications Technology, CQUniversity Australia Shutterstock While manufacturers have successfully increased the water-repelling nature of smartphones, they are still far from “waterproof”. A water-resistant product can usually resist water penetration to some extent, but ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suze Wilson, Senior Lecturer, School of Management, Massey University Phil Walter/Getty Images The US Supreme Court’s recent ruling to throw out Roe v Wade is an issue of relevance to political leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand. The decision was ...
New Zealand will present its legal view on Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations' international court, contesting the Kremlin's claim of genocide. ...
Buzz from the Beehive The Government has declared or reiterated three bold ambitions, one of them (the elimination of family violence) probably unachievable. Whether progress is being made towards the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Price, Team Leader / Senior Research Officer, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Shutterstock Most new parents and caregivers will know the phrase “put your baby down when drowsy but awake”. But some parents may find this just doesn’t work for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Stavrou, English Language Instructor, University of Cyprus, and PhD Graduate, Charles Sturt University Traditional approaches to adult language teaching often use resources such as textbooks and generic learning materials that are less than inspiring for learners. New research shows ...
Accompanied by a giant albatross sculpture made of reclaimed plastic bottles, Greenpeace has delivered a 100,000-strong petition to parliament calling on the Government to ban single-use plastic bottles and incentivise reusable and refillable alternatives. ...
Covid-19 Response Minister Ayesha Verrall says the country needs to remain at the orange traffic light setting as case numbers are starting to "creep up". ...
Our Annual plan 2022/23 was presented to the House of Representatives today. This annual plan is a key accountability document for our Office. It describes the discretionary work we consider will help us to achieve our ultimate outcome – that Parliament ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Director, Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre; Associate Professor of Criminology, Faculty of Arts, Monash University AAP Image/Supplied by Department of Justice In 2020 the killing of Hannah Clarke and her three children – Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Anne Kenny, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch University The election of the Albanese Labor government brings an opportunity to end one of the most detrimental elements of Australian refugee law and policy in the past decade: the use of temporary ...
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions has welcomed the launch of the Te Mahere Whai Mahi Wāhine: Women's Employment Action Plan today. For too long, women have been disadvantaged in the world of work. While many improvements have been made over ...
The experimental weekly series provides an early indicator of employment and labour market changes in a more timely manner than the monthly employment indicators series. Key facts The 6-day series includes jobs with a pay period equal to or less than ...
Statement from Auckland Transport Interim Chief Executive Mark Lambert: Auckland Transport is proud to support the New Statement of Ambition being launched tonight by the Climate Leaders Coalition. We’re delighted that AT’s work to achieve the ...
Greenpeace Aotearoa, SAFE, Animals Aotearoa, SPCA, and the New Zealand Animal Law Association have joined forces to call for an end to intensive winter grazing through the Government’s Dairy Cattle Code of Welfare review. The coalition says that as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Swift, Educational Experiences team lead (Senior Lecturer), ANU School of Cybernetics, Australian National University Shutterstock I love writing code to make things: apps, websites, charts, even music. It’s a skill I’ve worked hard at for more than 20 years. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Baillie, Professor of Allied Health, University of Sydney Shutterstock COVID might be the largest mass casualty event in Australian history. And with one in 20 people with COVID still experiencing symptoms three months later, long COVID might even become Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick O’Connor, Associate Professor, University of Adelaide A tiny parasitic mite that lives on the European honeybee (Apis mellifera) has breached Australia’s border quarantine and been detected in managed bee hives in New South Wales. This is bad news for Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Main, Visiting Scholar, Australian National University Shutterstock The COVID pandemic slowed mining activity across the Pacific. But as economic activity returns, an Australia-based company is poised to pursue what would be the largest mine in Papua New Guinea’s history. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachele Sloane, Graduate Researcher and Tutor – Master of Education, Student Wellbeing Specialisation (MGSE), The University of Melbourne Shutterstock New Child Safe Standards come into effect in Victoria this Friday, July 1. The set of 11 standards builds on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Morag Kobez, Associate lecturer, Queensland University of Technology shutterstock When the temperature drops in the southern hemisphere, you might like to stave off the chill with a big steaming pot of mulled wine, and fill your home with the comforting aroma ...
Russia's actions in Ukraine are an affront to the world but mustn't be allowed to create a more polarised, dangerous world, the prime minister says. ...
Russia's actions in Ukraine are an affront to the world but mustn't be allowed to create a more polarised, dangerous world, the prime minister says. ...
EDITORIAL:Bythe Rappler teamWe will continue bringing you the news, holding the powerful to account for their actions and decisions, calling attention to government lapses that further disempower the disadvantaged. We will hold the line. Dear readers and viewers, We thought this day would never come, even as ...
ANALYSIS:By Gavin Ellis The Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media Bill — introduced to Parliament this week — will have a long journey before it is fit for purpose. The Bill gives effect to the government’s plan to replace TVNZ and RNZ with a new entity designed for the digital ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caleb Goods, Senior Lecturer – Management and Organisations, UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia Uber Australia has struck a historic agreement with the Transport Workers’ Union – a statement of principles that re-regulate work in the Australian rideshare and food ...
Today the signatures of 72 Mayors, Deputy Mayors, Councillors, Local board members, and the LGNZ Young Elected Members Committee will be handed to the Government in support of making the voting age 16 via an open letter organised by Make It 16. “Young ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Grogan, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, The Daffodil Centre, University of Sydney E-cigarettes and vape products are illegally imported into Australia. Some claim not to contain nicotine, but do.Simon Collins/Shutterstock ABC TV’s Four Corners this week reported how unlawful sale of e-cigarettes ...
However, more work is needed to understand the cost of rolling out a new approach to disability support, Minister for Disability Issues Poto Williams says. ...
Hospitality New Zealand is calling for MPs across Parliament to send ACT MP Chris Baillie’s Member’s Bill on repealing Easter trading restrictions to a select committee so hospitality businesses can have their say on whether to stay open or ...
On 1 July an exciting new Ministry for Disabled People – will come into being to lead much-needed change. There is nothing that people will need to do on day one to continue receiving disability support services. “Many disabled people and whānau ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra As well as her interviews with politicians and experts, Politics with Michelle Grattan includes “Word from The Hill”, where she discusses the news with members of The Conversation politics team. Michelle and Peter Browne from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra Shutterstock “Stagflation” is an ugly word for an ugly situation – the unpleasant combination of economic stagnation and inflation. The last time the world experienced ...
The Ardern government has done it again, announcing a grandiose plan to reform Wellington’s transport system. The plan includes a long-overdue duplicate Mt Victoria tunnel, a rearrangement of the road around the Basin Reserve and a light rail operation from the city centre to the south coast, all in the ...
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The 79/90 Tauranga port workers that worked on the ship should have been vaccinated months ago (or not been allowed to work on the ship). Why are the govt giving them until the end of Aug/Sep to get vaccinated when delta can come in to NZ now. Seems very risky to me. Workers if not vaccinated should be stood down.
Unfortunately it appears that the mRNA "jab" does not prevent infection and virus transfer. The "vaccinated" can transfer the virus just as easily as the untreated.
The mRNA jab makes it much much less likely a vaccinated person will become infected after an exposure, compared to an unvaccinated person.
Furthermore, for the very few vaccinated people that become infected, the disease is very likely to be mild and short, with a much shorter time of peak infectiousness compared to the unvaccinated.
https://www.statnews.com/2021/07/30/what-delta-has-changed-in-the-covid-pandemic-and-what-it-hasnt/
Don't get taken in by the clickbait that overhypes and sensationalises the very rare breakthrough infections. It really has become a pandemic of the unvaccinated overseas.
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/566900-confused-about-covid-too-many-news-outlets-prioritize-hype-over-accuracy
Jab does not prevent infection and virus transfer
This is a point made several times on TS the past few days to which I ask myself so what?
Preventing transfer is not the point of the vaccine. The point is to make COVID much less likely to be a serious health problem if you get it.
Because if you were to tell all the people that the reason they have to get injected with an 'unknown' substance is to keep the underfunded medical system from collapsing you might find that people would be even more hesitant.
Disclaimer: I am fully vaccinated, marked by the beast, full of 5G and then some.
Gee sabine you managed to get a vaccine in the 3rd world hell hole that nz is lucky you
I did not 'manage' anything. I literally got told to show up and get one. 🙂
As per the government grouping and roll out i did not expect to get vaccinated / invited anytime before October/ Nov.
So indeed i was 'lucky' to be invited by the Maori Authority that ran the vaccinations here in nowhere NuZillind as 'wider' whanau. Thanks Te Arawa!
Preventing transfer is not the point of the vaccine. The point is to make COVID much less likely to be a serious health problem if you get it.
Precisely my point – jabbed or unjabbed would have made no difference to virus transfer from the ship. The transfer from the infected on that ship could have taken place on hands or skin with no requirement of infection. The port workers may well have been less likely to have serious health problems BUT the transfer could still take place.
But it does make a difference if you are jabbed or not when you scale the argument up to New Zealand and not just the port. If we actually had a vaccinated population we don't need to rely on riding our luck all the time least we find ourselves like Australia, where their luck has run out.
Evidence from actual people, rather than extrapolating from viral loads, suggests that breakthrough cases after vaccination are significantly less likely to infect others compared to unvaccinated cases:
And who cares really?
The question stands, why is the government giving these long lead times for 'at risk' staff", but then is blaming the 'non vaccination rate' for border worker on mis-information and anti vaxx.
It however would be nice to know how many of these workers have vaccinations booked, how the booking system in the Tauranga area is working, how the overall vaccination status is for the Tauranga area, how many vaccinations centres are there, are they fully staffed all the time etc.
Btw, in Rotorua here no vaccinations on Sundays. But then in a pandemic it is important to not work on Sundays. Would that be double wage?
Maybe the government is giving these long lead times because a more aggressive mandating of te jab could be ammo for the anti-vaxx brigade. Steering a country through a global pandemic; piece of piss, eh? We really don’t know how lucky…
Free from Covid-19, New Zealand plans border reopening amid labour shortage
then no one should complain about the people not being currently vaccinated.
That is actually all i am saying. 🙂
Chance would be a fine thing
Well, yes it does. Just not perfectly, and not always.
But nobody ever said vaccines would be 100%. That's just a little bit of interpretation from the quack brigade.
Whats the incubation period for delta? Hope we're not going to do a solitary test a couple of days after a potential exposure and say we're safe… surely we need to put exposed workers into a longer self quarantine. The stakes are very high. Paying the port workers to quarantine seems a good deal to me.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/delta-variant-viral-load-scientists-are-watching-covid-pandemic-rcna1604
Still unloading on friday/sat i think so will need another round of tests at least
Uh oh.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid-19-coronavirus-iceland-deals-with-growing-delta-problem/POBMY237SUXMD46PHFEZ3OU2BA/
There remains a big difference in outcomes. Vaccinated people are much less likely to get severe disease. From the Harold link:
The UK is showing the same thing. The virus is still contracted but people who are vaccinated are much less likely to die or be hospitalised.
That is good but throwing the gates open severely impacts the health system, even in populations fully vaccinated.
Our health system is rubbish because rich people refuse to pay the required tax.
NZ's per capita spend on public health is around the OECD average. The system is under pressure, but the service provided by NZ health workers isn't rubbish, imho.
Public and private per capita health expenditure in selected countries in 2018
Iceland had 55 cases and 0 deaths on the most recent data available (8 August).
With a 357,000 population, high vaccination rates and a 95% efficacy (not 100%!) its inevitable there will be cases … but of course that doesn't make such a salacious story.
You find that story "salacious"? That is pornographic, obscene, indecent, improper, indelicate, crude, lewd…
The point is, vaccinations are not enough on their own to avoid major stress on health systems. The idea we are going to throw the doors open to the world's Coronavirus carriers once we are 70% vaccinated is a very dangerous idea.
Given that some people (including folks with a reasonable handle on what was required) didn't expect any vaccine for as much as five years, we can probably look towards some cautious optimism.
I wonder if anyone's working on a vaccine targeting delta specifically?
Meanwhile in the southern US states..
Similar results are being experienced in Mississippi and Alabama.
I think it is fairly clear now that whilst vaccination may not prevent an infection from the delta variant, it limits the severity. And the indications are that people with less severe symptoms are less infectious.
Louisiana has a population about the same as NZ.
Half a million cases, eleven thousand deaths.
Of those cases and deaths, about 120,000 cases and about 660 deaths have happened since the beginning of June this year. Beginning of June being a reasonable date by which all Louisianans that wanted vaccination could have been fully vaccinated.
There's a lot more to come, since there's no sign the current wave is anywhere near its peak.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/louisiana/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/126017658/what-percentage-mori-are-you-businessman-troy-bowker-asks-sir-ian-taylor
Another right wing lunatic unmasked in presumably soon to be ex-Hurricanes board member Troy Bowker. Of course he runs that symbol of neoliberal capitalism, the parasitical private equity firm. Mind you, he has invested in the Hurricanes so he clearly thinks he has purchased a certain amount of immunity from the consequences of his racist outburst.
Unbelievable.
How difficult would it be to kick him off the Hurricanes board if he is also an owner as his Linked in profile says:
Part Owner / Board Member
Hurricanes
Mar 2018 – Present3 years 6 months
Wellington & Wairarapa, New Zealand
Since when do we go around asking people what % they are of a race?
Didn't that question tend to come up for Paul Tito as a Maori All Black representative?
Aye and Christian Cullen.
There was quite a good paper on the whole subject and whether capitalism was much more of a driving motive behind the move.
Personally I love the fact that we don't determine ethnicity by percentage in this country. I've seen the perverse effects this has in Canada for instance where parents are classed as indigenous and have to carry a reservation card but their children are not and have to get permission to go onto a reservation.
The notion in NZ that either you whakapapa back or you don't is a much better concept and no different to me having Irish or Scottish or Welsh heritage in that respect. People generally do need a sense of belonging.
The question of the experiential existence of being Maori before being selected is really one for Maori to address. From an external perspective I have no problem with people who haven't had close links to their marae etc being selected – I suspect that being in that environment would likely help them along a journey of some sorts, but do not see that my opinion should really matters any more than as a non-religious person I should have an influence about how Marist teams are selected.
I remember sitting on interviews with a well respected kaumatua who when young people turned up to their interviews wearing their carved bone matau or koru or manaia asked one simple question – when were you last on a marae? Probably about 50% had never been.
In many respects I can see that too is a useful question for Maori All Black selection – not necessarily to deny people the opportunity but to understand what work may be required with that person to imbue them in the Maori All Black environment.
I suspect that the pendulum has swung back from the commodification described in this paper and that is likely a good thing. The modern Maori All Blacks I certainly view as a recognition and celebration of Maori culture and its ability to adapt- the same as kapa haka and so on. We should be mature enough to see it in that light – certainly not as an example of reverse racism.
I only wish we could get the same enthusiasm by Maori for cricket – there is so much natural talent out there and many of the best players I played with over the years were Maori – economic forces have meant that much of that talent has been lost.
https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10523/5178/Hokowhitu_7.pdf?sequence=5
Hurricanes management do not support MR Bowker's comments
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/126017658/hurricanes-do-not-support-bowkers-sucking-up-to-mori-comments
And oddest of all in view of his % comments ai the fact that he donated to NZ First whose leader at the time was Winston Peters who probably could be asked about his % (sarc)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/416012/foundation-donations-not-named-on-nz-first-electoral-return
just to round things out for Mr Bowker.
He has apparently donated to Stuart Nash
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/politics/labour-mp-receives-99k
He's an odd one all right. All that money and it still does not stop him putting his big foot in his own mouth.
The usual way to determine if a person is Maori ie for Iwi Authorities is to accept a person who can whakapapa to an eponymous Maori ancestor. Percentages are offensive and, thankfully, a thing of the past. They give no indication if a person is Maori in their day to day life. I believe to go onto the Maori roll you aver that you are Maori.
While I know that Troy Bowker has been overseas he has been back for 8-10 years and surely this is enough time .to understand what is what here in NZ.
I wonder what he thinks of the proposal re Aotearoa and He Puapua/ Similarly enlightened as his taking on of Sir Ian Taylor I am sure.
The ghost of Max Bradford and his 1990 electricty reforms came back to haint us last night.
Who else had their power cut off last night?
True…..but…….how long ago was Max Bradford? How much new generation and transmission has been built since then? I mean serious generation, not a couple of wind turbines which should have backup in case (as last night) the wind doesn't blow?
Cutting it off without warning was a 'nice' touch. Can't help wondering if one or two companies thought a bit of misery in the middle of winter might be good for business.
Grid energy needs to balance instantaneously (or energy shuts off). There is almost no storage on the grid where excess can be reserved for future demand.
Perfect storm last night with the NI power outages – downed power lines, peak demand as coldest night of the winter, very still so no wind turbines operating.
the key word there is demand. Instead of increasing supply, which will then be outstripped by more demand (think perpetual growth, extreme weather events, increasing population), we can shift to steady state.
The big push removing wood burners and replacing them with heat pumps was understood at the time to be a really stupid idea.
Passive heating, localised solar and wind, super efficient wood burners, all that tech exists right now
If the grid is so strained now what effect will much larger numbers of plug in cars have? They'll load the system en masse after the evening commute.
Vehicle charging is often programmable to take advantage of cheap rates in the wee hours and avoid peak times and rates.
Vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid technologies have the potential to take the top off the peak demand. That's available now, for Leaf owners at least. And many other manufacturers are looking at it.
https://www.racv.com.au/royalauto/moving/news-information/bidirectional-charging-explained.html
Cheap rates (such as ripple controlled circuits) are the first to be cut off – that's why they are cheap!
Not really a problem if the car only charges after midnight though.
All parties in the electricity industry make their profits from deferred capital expenditure. Because they are "allowed" a prescribed return on investment, they just keep revaluing their assets upwards and not putting anything into future planning.
Agree, that always struck me as a stupid ratchet effect – increase rate of return, revalue assets upwards accordingly, then repeat the steps…
Poseidon flagged it yesterday morning in general debate, for the life of me I dont understand why we couldnt warn people via an urgent news release asking that we avoid running non essential appliances to help reduce load and avoid mass shut offs.
Wouldn't say that post is related. The demand spike highlighted is for a different time period from last night.
Not convinced demand notification can make a difference however. Brownouts are rare so the focus on this will be very occasional, and its possible to think about the brownout as a notification that grid energy balance has failed (insufficient energy is available right now).
The situation today is unchanged,the peak consumption period tonight is at risk.
https://www.transpower.co.nz/sites/default/files/interfaces/can/CAN%20Low%20Residual%20Situation%204028274213.pdf
Today we are using the emergency peakers for generation ( diesel and oil) .
Huntly three is yet to operate as there appears to be insufficient coal reserves.
They are supposed to cover the peak, are they not? And are more expensive (all of real, nominal and environmental terms) rather than typical though.
What should be supplying instead, tonight? And why?
There is an absence of wind generation in the NI,the only wind seemed to come from Woods/Ardern at the press conference.
Reducing demand in the NI would be the first option.
Yet the North Island has the biggest population increase and landlords and Kianga Ora are installing electric heating at vastly over specified capacity………..of course the other option is not to reduce demand but increase supply.
Failure to address infrastructure while at the same time massively increasing population goes back to the last National govt possibly earlier.
Its why housing, hospitals,public transport even the national grid are fast becoming a shit show.
We really need govt both national and local to really focus on getting these core responsibilities caught up.
Yet the legislating of minimum heating requirements came from Labour with apparently no consideration of the supply side consequences.
"the last National govt possibly earlier".
Both earlier and later, I would suggest.
The last hydro dam of any size was the Clyde Dam. Construction started in 1982 as part of the Muldoon "Think Big" projects.
Since then have had, and can validly blame, the Labour Governments of 1984-1990, that of !999-2008 and 2017 until today. The National Governments to also blame are those of 1990-1999 and 2008-2017.
There is plenty of blame to go around on both sides of politics.
What do you propose if there is not enough wind to keep them operating across the peak period?
I doubt if there will be sufficient wind for tonight,where there will be significant frosts.
There are tools in the emergency supply models such as operating standby generation at hospitals,prisons etc.In addition ask commercial premises to reduce vanity lighting overnight (such as skytower etc)
Look at places like Manila. Ports have links to the reticulation networks that allow ships to plug their generators into. You might be surprised how much you can get out of a container ship! Probably more efficient than burning diesel at Huntly to transport to Auckland.
Hard to do if at the same time you want to push towards plug-in electric vehicles or even e-bikes.
The demand has been reducing rapidly in the NI anyway. My household power usage has dropped by nearly a half over the last 20 years mostly from the increases in efficiency in a electric utilities. Computers (my largest power hog), screens, lights, TV, heating, music systems, fridge, washing machine, dishwasher, dryer.
The only things that I haven’t changed for more efficient items are the stove top, oven, and range hood.
The problem is that (especially in the Auckland / Hamilton / Tauranga region that the population has also skyrocketed. That means that while individual electricity demand has dropped, the total demand has increased.
I was looking at the very short term 17:30 -19:30 tonight.
My solar in chch is at present generating 5kw,usage around 1.2 kw, just going to pay my power bill for the month of $56.
What a shame that sunset today in Christchurch is at about 17:30.
Where is Joshua when we most need him?
The thermometer in my conservatory is 23c,passive solar here will heat the house tonight to around 16c,life is good.
Out normal overnight temp in the well insulated apartment runs at about 20-22C. That is with a a couple of windows opened during winter for ventilation. ~5-10cm on the front window. The bathroom window open about 10cm. That provides just a little breeze overnight.
In summer of course we just open everything up to get the breeze to stop the interior temp from rising over 24C.
If I could convince my partner to look at the overnight external temp and wind forecasts and to not to open the windows when it is expected to drop below 10C overnight or the winds are going to be strong, then the usual computer generated heating is sufficient to keep the interior temp above 20C.
This is the relationship problem of an native Aucklander getting involved with a woman from Southland. At 11pm the exterior temperature is usually far higher than it is in the early morning. And I typically am in bed by 10pm reading. She goes to bed around midnight after the late night work session.
In winter this is a pain. I usually have get up at about 3-4am when I start freezing and close the bathroom door to stop the wind whistling through the apartment. At 2359, the exterior temperature may be 10C like it was on Monday. At 0400 it may be 4C like it was on Tuesday, and out interior temperature had dropped to 16.5C.
BTW I recommend fast CPUs and water coolers as convection heaters. Have a threadripper or two running in a well insulated apartment and your usual problem is how to reduce tempatures.
is that enough excess to run an EV?
There will be enough surplus to charge a storage battery (which is in the planning) an ev or plug in hybrid is in my retirement plan.
Golden opportunity to rip apart the scam our power industry's become Megan woods.
The first step is to show kiwis how dysfunctional and self serving the Bradford reforms were.
Another privatisation failure.
Will Megan Woods still be in the job? We talk about emissions from cattle and no doubt those outside my window are emitting right now. Then again a silly cow was just on the radio emitting crap, calling for the resignation of Woods. The great party conference in the weekend may have emboldened her I suppose.
Yeah… in the Herald there's currently a sustained campaign of letters to the editor re-various minsters. They are short and always end up with a smart-arse quip denigrating the minister. The quips all have a familiar ring to them. In other words, one person is composing the letters then emailing them out to National members who are in turn submitting them to the Herald as their own work.
Its a well known political ploy the National Party in particular use extensively.
Astroturfing?
This is some good investigative journalism for a student paper! Also gets pretty unpleasant at times, so I won't quote from all links. This one is from the accompanying guest editorial:
https://www.critic.co.nz/columns/article/9608/guest-editorial-i-spent-six-months-undercover-in-a
https://www.critic.co.nz/features/article/9610/fascism-20-lessons-from-six-months-in-new-zealands
This is perhaps the most concerning issue – though fascists inbedded in the military, and the risk of further hate crimes are strong competition. Even if they don't succeed in complete infiltration, with enough sockpuppets and a loud enough voices, a small focused group can convince a political party that there is strong public support for a change in certain policies. Especially if they are desperate to avoid irrelevancy:
https://www.critic.co.nz/news/article/9609/investigation-sheds-light-on-aotearoas-largest-neo
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/far-right-extremist-no-longer-in-army-reserves
The interview this morning on the news was PR murky – arguing forecasted demand against supply provision without actually saying whether:
A: They got the forecasting wrong
B: The generators couldn't deliver to what was forecast
I basically got the impression the forecasting was cocked up without anyone saying that directly.
Network resilience was one of the many principles torched by the Bradford reforms.
Deferred/cancelled or simply ignored in pursuit of that precious ROI for shareholders, lines trusts etc.
This is the inevitable outcome and guess what….nobody’s fault as designed.
On the news this morning was the release of another Climate Change report that referred to more extreme weather events – giving it appears fires in places like the USA and Greece, and perhaps cold weather without accompanying wind near Hamilton . . .
The extent to which we are getting weather events that are outside previous experience, may make it difficult to predict electricity demand at that time – doubtless there will be some changes to models.
Also on the news was the observation that SUVs now represent something like 55% of new vehicle purchases, which was reported as at least partially explained a 13% increase in vehicle emissions.
For electricity, we clearly need to investigate easing both demand (through local storage such as batteries?) and supply (by bringing back some of the wind projects that were deferred when there was talk of smelter closure, but also by better insulation of houses etc).
On which news?
Had to laugh at Hariet Hubbard on the opposition benches claiming that the government are rude and wont listed to her because she knows everything. NO wonder the nationals love her because she can sidestep every argument with puritanical foot stamping as if parliament is some sort of church where farting and telling the truth is not allowed especially when the bill at hand is rectifying the nonsense from the collins reforms to the family court.
btw I do not speak the Maori Language and reserve the right to translate any and all language back into English.