The page may not last long (too overtly political?).
All donations go to the Christchurch City Mission, a charity I have no connection with.
And I have used the words of UncookedSelachimorpha without permission I’m afraid (I hope you don’t mind) because you expressed the indignation I felt far better than I could.
"For Michael Woodhouse, as health spokesman, former CEO of a hospital and person with a Masters of Health Administration, to merely delete emails that wilfully breach patient privacy is disgracefully inadequate.
"He knew the leak he received was outrageously unethical and went against all standards of medical practice. It was incumbent on him to take decisive action to expose and shut down this appalling behaviour. Reporting the breach to the proper authorities (e.g. MOH, privacy commissioner) would be the minimum decent action he could take."
Gordon Campbell hones in on a key point of the saga:
And what are we to make of National’s Health spokesperson Michael Woodhouse, whose credibility is fast receding to vanishing point, what with that invisible homeless person he alleged had snuck into quarantine last week. Woodhouse is obviously a big Bob Dylan fan (‘How does it feel to be without a home/like a complete unknown ?’) Subsequently, Woodhouse could offer no evidence that the mystery tramp even existed. Now comes this latest epic fail. As we stare into the vacuum of his eyes, his words make ironic reading:
National health spokesman Michael Woodhouse said the leak represented “another serious failing” of the Government.“Reports coming in this morning of personal details being leaked which reveals the identity of New Zealand’s current active cases, is yet another serious failing from this incompetent Government. This is unconscionable and unacceptable that those suffering from the incredibly dangerous virus now have to suffer further with their private details being leaked. The Government needs to get to the bottom of this, and quickly. The Ministry of Health has been assuring people since the beginning of the epidemic in New Zealand that personal details would remain private, it’s unfathomable that it couldn’t handle a simple task like this.”
Editorial note: `stare into the vacuum of his eyes' ought to be in single quotes, Gordon, to remind readers that it's a line from the Dylan song that hit top of the charts in '65.
Perhaps a journo will do the sleuthing to establish the extent of woodlouse guilt? Did he admit that he saw the email Boag sent him before he accused the govt of the privacy breach? If he did know it was a Nat conspiracy before mouthing off, Muller ought to punish him. While staring into the vacuum of his eyes, preferably…
Yes, the drift towards shallow journalism has been evident for some years now. I saw it happening in the TVNZ newsroom while I was working there in the '90s but those doing investigative journalism provided suitable balance then. I blame social media for the subsequent worsening of the effect.
Commentators lack the inside view: deadline pressure motivates quick production of stories. So there's a real economic cost to doing research. A journalist will only invest the time to get to the crux of a skullduggery situation if their conscience prevails over expediency. Journalism in the public interest remains de-institutionalised!
The Anglosphere is a term first used by science fiction author Neal Stephenson but taken up by historians and others as a useful signpost for those nations formerly part of the British Empire. It includes Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand and in some formulations, South Africa, and Ireland. Countries bound by culture, political traditions and a mutually intelligible language (hence the debate over South Africa and Ireland). In his book ‘How We Invented Freedom and Why It Matters’, ace Brexiteer and former Euro MP, Dan Hannan makes the argument that political freedom – the state deriving its power from the consent of free individuals, rather than individuals being granted freedom by an almighty state – is a uniquely British rather than ‘Western’ phenomenon.
This freedom was wrought by history and circumstances peculiar to the British Isles: the Anglo-Saxon Witan system, the common law, the Protestant break with Rome, the absence of a large, potentially tyrannical standing army and the individualist property rights that provided the basis for capitalism. Hannan argued that in the face of encroachments on political liberty (he was thinking foremost of the EU) the ideal of ‘the Anglosphere’ should be reignited.
Hong Kong is another opportunity. It prospered as a loyal British colony for over 150 years with its people never demanding self-government. Then for the sake of diplomatic expediency, its people were handed to the CCP without the democratic consultation usually required elsewhere (see the Falklands). Britain has a moral duty to its former subjects. Hong Kong, spat out by the Lion, shouldn’t be left to be swallowed up by the Dragon.
Inasmuch as we all remain embedded in cultural ambience produced by the residue of the British empire, it's a good idea to reflect on how distinctive its imperialism actually is – and likely due to having no emperor!
In a 2015 email addressed to the Mayor, Brady said she had been told at a meeting she “was being banned from participating in any official events related to China and or Antarctica…”. She claimed pressure had been placed on an individual (whose name is redacted) to have her banned, and asked if this pressure was “made under Mayor Dalziel’s knowledge, if she too is bending to Chinese pressure…
“Banning was a common practice of the South African regime and is a classic means to isolate, discredit, and silence someone whose views might be an inconvenient truth,” Brady wrote.
The mayor seems reluctant to embrace the notion that she may be a stooge of the communist regime in China. Quite why the prof got banned isn't clear though.
A council staff member responded saying “we are not aware of any ‘ban’ or ‘blacklisting’”, and rejected the suggestion there had been any such “policy or pressure” to do so.
So it seems to be a Schrodinger's ban: real if one official says it is, unreal if another says it isn't. Social reality gets created according to who you believe…
Here is the submission from: Professor Anne-Marie Brady
This submission provides: 1. An overview of China’s foreign interference activities; 2. Suggestions for a resilience strategy for local and central government.
We really need better, otherwise conspiracy theories fill in the gaps. My neighbour was telling me yesterday that he's "heard" that everyone's covering up that the guy who did a runner from quarantine the other day went to a brothel instead of the official story. First time I've ever heard a conspiracy theory of any kind from him.
Mosa publicised this article a couple of days and it has been discussed a bit on the Standard.
It would be good if there was a post based on this article.
Caitlin Johnson, one of my favourite writers, writes regularly on the issue of the daily narrative we are fed. An Aussie, her main focus is the U.S. ; however, her take is accurate for all the 5 eye nations.
Her most recent report is entitled 'As Long As Mass Media Propaganda Exists, Democracy Is A Sham. ' I recommend it.
The article looks at a recent poll that shows most Americans believe Russia targeted U.S. soldiers, despite this being a "completely discredited narrative ."
It looks at the power of the media to sway people's thinking.
Why? I'll leave that to Caitlin…..
"But people are not as objective and adept at critical thinking as we tend to believe we are. People have many cognitive biases which distort our ability to objectively process information and understand events, including one which causes us to believe something is true just because they’ve heard it said multiple times. This makes us easily susceptible to mass media propaganda, where our encounters with daily news headlines can shape our perception of what’s going on in the world regardless of whether or not those headlines are backed by actual facts."
But people are not as objective and adept at critical thinking as we tend to believe we are. People have many cognitive biases which distort our ability to objectively process information and understand events, including one which causes us to believe something is true just because they’ve heard it said multiple times. This makes us easily susceptible to mass media propaganda, where our encounters with daily news headlines can shape our perception of what’s going on in the world regardless of whether or not those headlines are backed by actual facts.
As I've said many times, the spreading of misinformation needs to be made illegal with serious consequences for those doing so. The concept of free-speech does not give anyone, especially media services, a right to lie.
Kim Hill's "brave" (that's how he describes himself) guest this morning came up with a completely ridiculous solution to the problems facing the world
RNZ National, Saturday 11 July 2020, 8:10 a.m.
First up on Dame Kim's programme this morning: yet another from that endless conveyor belt of glib and talkative "woke" commentators that she and her producers go to almost without thinking. This fellow likes to hang out with billionaires and deliver mild critiques of them to their face in places like Aspen, Colorado. Early on in this interview he called himself "brave" for this daring behaviour…
Described by a Guardian reviewer as "superb hate-reading", writer and columnist Anand Giridharadas's latest book Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World investigates the hypocrisy of billionaire "do-gooders".
He questions how and why we have become reliant on the philanthropy of the super-rich to help solve our biggest global issues, and their role in eroding the public institutions that should be leading the way.
Giridharadas is an editor-at-large for TIME and was a foreign correspondent and columnist for The New York Times from 2005 to 2016. His two previous books are India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation's Remaking and The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas.
As I suspected, Giridharadas could not help himself; a few minutes after praising himself for daring to speak to Bill Gates and Peter Thiel—"brave", he calls himself—he then went on to claim that there was one person who could save the world from this. That saviour is…. wait for it!.… Barack Obama.
I dropped the following hasty email to Lady Kim…
Anand Giridharadas' bizarre praise of Obama
Dear Kim,
Anand Giridharadas was doing well until he suddenly started to spruik Barack Obama. If ever there was a tool of corrupt billionaires, it was that machine politician.
Yours in disgust at glib and thoughtless New York Times hacks,
Anand had a pretty good analysis of neo liberalism and its origins I thought regardless of his pedigree and acquaintances.
Morrissey, is there anyone in this whole damn world that has got it right in your esteemed opinion–or is everyone a sell out dog, and working class heros exist no more?
I googled working class heroes and got this: http://www.workingclassheroes.co.uk selling "mens streetwear from Patagonia". Nice to know they have embraced capitalism while doing `hands across the water' with the folks in Patagonia eh? 🤣
Bet it got Marx spinning in his grave. No more revolution. Evolution instead.
I've been wondering if capitalism is the last stage of development for a civilisation. After all, once capitalism arises in a civilisation its always been destroyed allowing for a new civilisation to arise to replace it and thus giving us civilisational evolution.
People who take Girardharadas seriously would worry about such symbolism, Dennis. Symbolism and right-on messaging is the only thing that matters for them.
I respect and admire many ethical, rigorous and brave academics and journalists—really brave, that is, not someone who delivers mild critiques to billionaires in luxury resorts.
I do not rate someone who hobnobs with Bill Gates and delivers glib homilies on the hipster channel Vice, and advocates for, of all people, Barack Obama.
I agree, Ed. He says many things that are perfectly correct. But anyone who posits Barack Obama as any sort of a solution cannot be taken seriously, other than by the same folks who wept in despair after Saint Hillary was beaten in 2016.
Morrissey you find fault with the guy for referring to Obama in a positive way. So he is to be hit over the head with that. Yet you write here with so many flaws in your thinking and still demand your right to be taken seriously: I would rate you only 65/35 right, which isn't all that high. Try being more objective and not so excitable about others why don't you.
I made the decision that that sleazeball does not deserve an hour of my time transcribing his crap; so I'm using only a little bit of that demolition job by Katherine Ryan, as part of a dramatization I'm doing of a recent emergency meeting of Muller's caucus.
Giridharadas said that the progressive ideas of Sanders and Warren were popular – but that there were barriers to them actually winning electorally. And to overcome those barriers would need someone with the charisma, rhetorical fluency, charm, likability (call it what you will) of Obama.
That doesn't seem like an unreasonable comment – whatever you think of what Obama actually did – his skills as a politician are undeniable. We have seen this close-up with Ardern, how relatability, charm, being in tune with the mood and language of the times is so important. I took it as more of a comment about Bernie's limitations as an electoral politician, rather than errors in his policy.
Admittedly – Giridharadas,s solution does seem rather week in comparison to the strength of his diagnosis.
The coalition of left/progressive voters (especially in the USA) have many conflicting values and agendas, and normally only win when the Democrats can put up a candidate who has the charisma and political fluency to get them all to turn out and vote.
(Biden is the exception only because Trump is so intensely polarising.)
Please don’t spoil Morrissey’s carefully crafted narrative; it took him ages to draft that carefully worded e-mail to Kim Hill. We need more brave public intellectuals like Morrissey.
It's going to be interesting to see the reponses in here to Kim Hill's interview with Anand Giridharadas (link not up yet @ Sacha – except maybe https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday for today 11/07/2020 )
Pass the popcorn
Edit: Fark me! How did I guess @ Mozza
I mean Obama had his chance …for the first 2 years Democrats had a majority in both houses , and yet still Guantanamo , despite all his noble promises remains open for business
No one was prosecuted for the disaster of the GFC, and the torturers “we tortured some folks”got off scot free.
Ask the people of Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Libya what they think of Obama.
Ask the people of 138 countries in the world where US special operators could be found in 2016.
“In 2016 alone, the Obama administration dropped at least 26,171 bombs. This means that every day last year, the US military blasted combatants or civilians overseas with 72 bombs; that’s three bombs every hour, 24 hours a day.”
This issue of alcohol came up yesterday on DR I think. My understanding is they can buy wine from the hotel, but not order it in. Prices are likely to be higher than a liquor outline. And the hotel can control how much is supplied, which would be essential…..imagine unlimited alcohol in quarantine……what could possibly go. wrong
I see some friend/family member said she tried to persuade our Queenstown business owner not to abscond. I hope she informed the police of his intention to commit a crime. If not suggest a visit from the police and charges.
BTW. Shout out to Gabby and Observer for having me LMAO last night. Observer quoted from the media that the Queenstown man had been difficult to manage in social isolation and had very strong political views (?" Cindy's locking me up????")
Gabbys response…."look like the Nats have found their next candidate forSouthland/Clutha " Ha ha ha bloody funny.
I also saw a headline from a contact of the new candidate saying he's a really nice guy. Yeah right….
most businesses already offer delivery – have been doing so since level 4 and three.
so no point using an underpaid uber driver – the only ones making money is the app/shareholder.
But the government could legislate just how much these hotels can charge to people in isolation for say beer and wine. Usually mini bar prices are way up because many people actually don't use them. They leave their hotels for drinks. And again in saying that, non of these fuckwits actually have a cost to pay for food n bed, so fuck it they should be able to either hold their need or suck it up and pay the price.
Have yet to see a good write up of what is available and seeing a range of opinions on it, I suspect it probably varies a bit from place to place. But the restriction on alcohol might be causing some problems, also for people that smoke. Stressful situation alongside not being able to self-medicate enough is not a good mix.
Of course not! The binary brigade will still stick to its simplistic morals of right or wrong, for or against. Anything in between has too much nuance and is too complex to consider for more than a fleeting moment – hang on, there’s another message/tweet/reckon I need to give my undivided attention as if my life depends on it. There is no position in the middle, there is no room for negotiation and debate (!), and there is definitely no possibility for consensus or agreeing to disagree.
People are not really left- or right-handed, as they would use both hands for most stuff. Similarly, people are not as politically pure and on either side of the political left-right spectrum as they believe they are. It is heuristic approach by the mind to make things simpler than they are and save time (another illusion) and energy.
Don’t blame the media, blame your lazy mind and start thinking.
Referendums don’t come out of the blue and don’t sit in some kind of vacuum. There is much debate before, which leads to a decision to hold a referendum, and then after, to implement any changes. I wasn’t referring to any specific action but to thinking, binary thinking.
This binary thinking also sits alongside that "cancel culture" letter that famous people signed, then some people took their names off when they realised who elses name was on the letter. It's about agreeing with the goal, but for different reasons. Like marching for free speech, but when you look around and see you're in a group of neo nazis you decide to quietly leave, even though you have the same goal (free speech), but for totally different reasons.
I agree. I suspect some of this is political (court report from one case suggested this). But some might also be stress. People do weird shit when in unusual and stressful situations.
A story in the Herald this morning stating unemployment was reaching " the same levels as it did during the GFC".
The recession that NZ suffered from was in 2011, nearly three years after the GFC, it was the only country in the world to claim this 3 years on, most countries were in recovery stage.
The recession in 2011, was at the time described by most economists as the direct as a soft recession, the result of the Drought that affected Northland and the East Coast, the other contributing factors was the CHCH earthquakes and the combination of the National Party Tax cuts and the increase in GST which did more harm to the economy than the GFC three years earlier.
NZ was fortunate in 2008, to have ridden the GFC on the back of Australia's economic plan, they injected over a billion dollars directly into their economy by sending a $1000 check to every house hold to maintain spending in the local Economy
At that time, Australia was NZs biggest export market and maintained their demand for NZ products.
I get really tired of the media and National saying the recession was due to the GFC, it wasn't, it was created by a Failure of the Govt of the day to recognize it wasn't the time to push through there famous tax cuts and the increase in GST that saw many on low incomes with lower spending power.
Ideological stupidity was at the forefront, but they didn't care, it was a really good excuse to run Austerity and a low wage economy, which, by any measurement, was a Complete and Total failure for most Kiwis.
NZ had the lowest average income in the OECD measured against similarly developed countries, any economist worth anything will tell you those two things lead to a shinking economy, so National imported nearly 800,000 migrants, bringing their money with them to prop up the failing economy.
Asking this again, anyone know what this piece of legislation is for? Apparently it's in older acts too. Am curious what the intent is, and how often it gets used (and why).
Schedule 8 clause 6 provides that a “chief executive of a department or the board of an interdepartmental venture may request an applicant for appointment or an employee to undergo a medical examination”. The department or venture may nominate a “medical practitioner” and must pay.
The Chief Ombudsman notes that the discretion provided to chief executives already exists in section 82 of the State Sector Act, but suggests that the Committee consider amendments to provide guidance as to the purpose of the discretion and the circumstances in which it could be exercised.
Submissions by the PSA national delegates within the Department of Conservation (DOC) and Inland Revenue Department (IR) express shared concerns. Both submit it should be clear that the requirement should be relevant to the work of the role, for example by adding to subclause (1) “… to ascertain any medical conditions that could affect fulfilment of the role”. They comment that “request” implies that an applicant could refuse a request and, if that is not the case, it should change to “require”. The DOC delegates comment that they support drug testing of workers for health and safety reasons. The IR delegates comment there is no mention of how mental health would be viewed/managed and how the principles of Nga Kaupapa are incorporated into this and the required medical examinations.
The New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties considers the power provided to chief executives is broad and untrammelled. It recommends that the Bill incorporate the safeguards found in the United Kingdom Access to Medical Reports Act 1988 (these include, for example, requiring the person seeking the medical report to obtain the person’s consent, and to provide them with information about their rights to see and amend the report before it is provided to the employer). The Council also recommends that the Bill require chief executives to keep data on the frequency and circumstances with which they use the power to ask people to undergo a medical examination, and to report this data to the Commissioner annually.
Commentary: As the Chief Ombudsman notes, the provision in the Bill already exists. It has existed in some form since 1912.
Public Service Act 1912: the Commissioner shall make regulations prescribing (among other things) “a medical examination as to the health of candidates”. Candidates were held to comply.
State Services Act 1962: the Commission or permanent head may require any applicant or employee to submit to a medical examination at ‘his’ own expense.
State Sector Act 1988: a chief executive may require any applicant or employee to undergo a medical examination at the expense of the department.
Public Service Legislation Bill: provides for a chief executive or interdepartmental venture to request and must pay.
The Bill changes an ability to “require” to an ability to “request”. This change is deliberate in the contemporary context of human rights and privacy considerations. A request cannot be enforced. If not followed, it could become the subject of an employment-related conversation between the employer and employee.
The Bill does not detail particular types of medical examinations. It would not be suitable to attempt to include either a positive or negative list. However, the term “medical practitioner” is defined in clause 5 as “a health practitioner who is, or is deemed to be, registered with the Medical Council of New Zealand continued by section 114(1)(a) of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 as a practitioner of the profession of medicine”.
In practice, the provision is not used extensively. However, there can be circumstances where it is appropriate, notably when a medical examination would be relevant:
for the purpose of determining the person’s ability to perform their job, or to fulfil their requirements of being a good employer, including good and safe working conditions.
The New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties makes a number of helpful suggestions with regard to international examples. In New Zealand, however, the Privacy Act 1993 would apply to the information and provide for matters such as protecting the individual’s rights to access to it, correction, and storage. Advisers agree that the information resulting from the medical examination may only be provided to a chief executive or board or an interdepartmental venture with the consent of the applicant or employee. Advisers also agree that the only information that should be provided to the chief executive or board is information that is relevant to the purpose of the medical exam.
Recommendation 35: We recommend that an addition to this clause be inserted to the effect that:
a chief executive or board of an interdepartmental venture may request a medical examination for the purpose of determining the person’s ability to perform their job or to fulfil their requirements of being a good employer, including good and safe working conditions
the request must be in writing and state the purpose
the information resulting from the medical examination may only be provided to a chief executive or board or an interdepartmental venture with the consent of the applicant or employee
only information relevant to the purpose of the medical exam is to be provided
Now that the language is “request” not “require”, the civil liberty issue isn’t really there in the same manner. Note that employers can require medical examinations for H&S reasons now e.g. to determine if an employee is fit to return to work.
Commenters who fill in the Name and Email fields frequently, has something changed in the past few months? We're getting a lot of typos, which means the system treats you as a new commenter and the comment gets held in Pending to be released by a moderator. Would love some feedback and what kind of device you are using.
I sometimes type too fast and notice I've been typing in the email field, so more bozo user fault than system. I back up but sometimes leave the odd extra letter.
it seems odd that there is a sustained spate in the past few months. Might still be user error, but I am curious if the interface or something has changed.
I did comment some months ago that my text field kicks me off sometimes while I'm typing, and the cursor resets to the Name field. Most of the time I pick it up but sometimes I hit submit with the last bit of a sentence in the Name field instead of where it should be. Desktop version on laptop.
Also can't use the desktop version on mobile because the text field doesn't have a cursor or accept text.
ta, that's the kind of thing I was thinking about. There's been a few where sentences have turned up in the name field. Or email addresses. I'll mention it to Lynn (he's aware of the mobile issue, I find it is intermittent on my iphone). What's your OS and browser?
I hope people start to read and get informed before adding the knee-jerk comments on these "escape" stories.
Yesterday there was a flurry of Confident Reckons, many of which were made to look silly soon after, once we had some facts. Sharing instant ignorance adds nothing.
It appears that each of runners had different reasons, one only wanted some shopping, the older person is suggested as having health issues, the other man had been abusive and a "strong political viewpoint", I'm not sure about the first woman.
Amy Adams suggested that the reason was because the motel/hotel accommodation was below scratch.
Actually, I think the MSM are partly responsible. They’ve been making a big thing out of these break-outs and, I suspect, generating both copy-cat scenarios and over-reactions among some in the community.
They should leave the police and related services to deal with them and stop high-lighting the escapees unless there is good cause to notify the populace at large – something the police would do anyway.
Because these people weren't in the country as we went through L4 and L3, it looks like they may have missed out on some shift in consciousness that the rest of us have been through. The idea of sacrificing immediate self-interest for the collective good, was strong through L4 and L3. Strong enough for the phrase 'team of 5 million' not to feel completely cringey and embarrassing, which under normal circumstances it would. Alternatively – it might be that at all times, and under all circumstances, there is simply an irreducible minority of dipsh*ts.
After what I have heard about the prevalence of meth and P in the country, and the fact that we have such a high drug taking score, it is likely that there are many people affected by abstinence of their chosen pasttimes. I had an eye operation requiring me to lie still face down for long periods and regret to say that I couldn't manage the required periods. So I can be understanding of people who have drug habits or are freedom-loving reckless individuals.
Good assesment AB but there were still quite a few doing runners or walkabouts under 4 and 3, was it something like 6-700 arrests and lots of talking too's ?.
Remarkable that Labour lead National on the economy, 45-30. That might not be the case if Todd had been doing what he promised on his first day as leader … talking about the economy.
Instead he's been barking at the cars like Bridges, except with a much smaller vocabulary.
So, now it’s woof, woof instead woof, woof, wuff. That’s not vocabulary but the use of onomatopoeias to sound like a dog. All is well in NZ politics. Miaow!
The faces of Adams, Muller and Brownlee on TV1 news last night when Muller was being questioned should be set in stone. Never seen quite that level of discomfort!
Bloody Hell! Another conspiracy for Mr Muller to sink his teeth into.
First it's portraits of JA on bus shelters, now it's pavement stickers telling us all to "Keep Left Unite Against Covid 19"
The Electoral Commission really should get involved!!!! I mean ….why NOW?
And while they're at it, we should get them to declare all those "Keep Left Unless Passing" signs as electioneering – nobody takes heed of them anyway! And half the people are driving on a fishing licence too!
The link is along Cable Street Wellington – plastered over the footpath. A bloody disgrace! And I bet those bloody radical left-wing Labour Party supporting New World franchise owners are responsible.
I'm just getting more cynical as I approach dotage @ Chris T. It's a right of passage. Won't be long before the folks at ZB will be offering me a job in their bid to be fair and balanced.
I think Mike Baker on NewShubs the Nation this morning had some good ideas re handling people in quarantine. But as you know, these things take time
We can all be shit at spelling. Even i can mispell misspel. But I have seen trolls mkae dumb claims about dyslexia, and dumb lefties bekieve it and roll over for them. We can all type a message in a rush and have errors in it.
I'd hope that mental health workers are available.
But if they're sitting around in hotels at midnight waiting to respond, then I'd volunteer for isolation tomorrow. Back in the day when I had some (helpful) counselling, they kept office hours. And the taxpayer didn't pick up the tab.
There was more than enough outrage at going to Rotorua – I'm not sure how a barbed wire internment camp would go down.
But given the ongoing warnings about novel viruses, we should probably start looking at a dedicated facility or three. Maybe prefab units that can be clipped together in a public park.
Hotels work in a pinch, but they're not suitable for longer term use. Not just the absconding, they obviously have issues with cohort control and separation, especially at check in.
Chris T, NZ has no detected post-elimination Covid-19 community transmission (so far) due to an ENORMOUS dollop of good management and a near-invisible dusting of "pure luck" – you sound put out by our excellent health outcomes.
Maybe it's mostly good management in NZ and Australia, with a little bad luck in Victoria. Personally I think it's mostly good management in NZ and Victoria (slightly better management in NZ?), and luck has little to do with it.
You and Todd just need to be patient – there will be community transmission of Covid-19 again in NZ, but no-one knows when.
Has luck really got "a lot" to do with the comparatively bad Covid-19 health stats in Ireland, Sweden, the UK, USA and Brazil? If you think NZ's Covid-19 health outcomes owe more to good luck than good management, then I respectfully suggest that you re-examine your understanding of the factors affecting the spread of global pandemics.
Apologies for lumping you in with Todd – you tend to come across here as being more critical of left-leaning policies/governments than those on the right of the political spectrum, but maybe that’s just me.
There is an element of luck/chance as to whether that positive person (just the one was it?) infected someone else in those 70 minutes.
It's management (by public health services and other government institutions), aided and abetted by the general populace (team of nearly 5,000,000), that’s the primary determinant of a country’s overall health outcomes in a global pandemic. That management can be anything ranging from ‘very tight’ to ‘open slather’.
Ireland, Sweden, the UK, USA and Brazil each have a Covid-19 death rate per million of population that’s at least 75 times NZ's rate – if you thinks that's due to luck, then we'll have to agree to disagree.
Ireland, Sweden, the UK, USA and Brazil each have a Covid-19 death rate per million population that’s at least75 times NZ's and Australia’s rates. The number of Covid-19 cases per million population in NZ is at least 14 times lower than those five countries.
If you think that's due to (blind) luck, then we'll have to agree to disagree.
The management part is stopping staff having sex with people in isolation. It's literally a staff management issue. And not the only lapse they had.
Our worse lapse is someone speaking to a checkout person or a cop or a neighbour, not tongue-lashing them
Because the bloke only had to splutter on one person (If he did indeed not, in the missing 40 odd minutes) And we could just as easily be looking at Victoria numbers,
Who knows as the testing has turned to shite
But hey, The govt is doing brilliant when people aren't running off.
Based on measured Covid-19 health outcomes, our Government has indeed done a brilliant job to date. If, despite your relentless carping, you're genuinely keen on holding "all parties to account", then I look forward to your critique of the behaviour of opposition National party MPs over the last week – bit of a shocker eh?
Still think the Jamie-Lee Ross deBaclay was the opposition’s ‘lowlight‘ for this term so far, but who knows what the next 2 months will bring
And I'm struggling to understand your apparent inability to grasp the relative contributions of "blind luck" and 'management' (by governments, public services et al.) to a particular country's long-term health outcomes during a global pandemic of a novel virus.
Surely you can see that the ideology and Covid-19 health advice offered by Trump, Johnson, Bolsonaro etc., are having an appreciable effect on the measurable Covid-19 health outcomes of the countries they ‘lead‘.
Although I will have to concede that NZ got pretty lucky with Ardern and Bloomfield. We don’t know how lucky…
I give up too – if you can't see a relationship between the ‘economy over health‘ ideology and ‘leadership/management‘ styles offered by Trump, Johnson, Bolsonaro etc., and the measurable Covid-19 health outcomes of the countries they 'lead', but would rather attribute the hugely different health outcomes of countries to "blind luck", then we are indeed at an impasse.
As an aside, I think we should be using schools rather than hotels as detention centres. Schools are so much more like prisons, and most are now already surrounded by horrible spiky fences to keep the nasty local gangsters out. (Thanks to social policies of most governments since the 1980s.)
It would be so easy to use schools as concentration camps – only a few would be needed, and minimal security staff would be needed to patrol the perimeter.
Some people on various social media demanding to know "Where's Tova? Jessica? Why aren't they going after Todd?".
On a break, is the answer. With an election campaign coming, there won't be any time off for political journos. Parliament is in recess, so this was the obvious time to book. It's not as if they could predict the mad meltdown of the past week (who did?).
As with the timing of polls and much else, a lot of things that inspire conspiracy theories are simply arranged in advance.
(and no, that doesn't excuse Newshub's lamentable coverage, at all. But that's the fault of people who are in the building, not one reporter who isn't).
From Luke Malpress on Stuff and I thought Luke was an enthusiastic National man. Again he hints at the National being saved last week by the runaways. But not all MPs are happy. (Reference the faces of Adams and Brownlee during Mullers presser.)
It is also understood that the National Party had a caucus teleconference on Thursday night at 9.30pm which left many caucus members unhappy. First, according to sources, Muller did not specifically ask if anyone else had received information from Boag. And second, in his first big economic speech, Muller criticised the Government for not having a plan while not presenting a plan himself, instead delivering a directional, but vague, five-point framework to the Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce.
It is reported that the Virus has mutated and is much more infectious. It is said to be no more dangerous but just more easily spread. So hands up that we keep the border closed longer? Waiting for confirmation.
I think the WHO investigation into the origins of the virus will at best be a barometer displaying the alignment of Dr Tedros.
Although beyond redemption, I think Trump is right to take a step away from the UN. It's become a pit of snakes, past it's best before date. It's an organisation that should have it's foundation in a love for each other and it just hasn't. The CCP can have it.
A worthwhile WHO would bring together the 200 best vaccine minds in the world and give them all they required.
Wuhan in Hubei province was locked down, residents welded into their apartment buildings, meals passed through railings. At this time 5 million people departed on international flights from Wuhan International Airport, domestic was closed.
You or I, we'd slam the gates down at Mangere wouldn't we? The thought of knowingly jetting hot-spot people off to all points around the globe conjures up images of Mike Myer's Dr Evil in my mind.
I get the Chinese need to save face, reluctance to admit fault etc. But sheeesh. I don't think the CCP form is aligned very well with the sentiments and emotions of the 1.4 billion.
Leading via fear works, but it is always finite, comes to an end. It is natural that our love and respect for each other will rise to be dominant. We are a social animal, inclined to be friends.
So Former National Party President Michele Boag has resigned – from a few things. National's Southland MP Hamish Walker has resigned too, as did the MP he took over from Todd Barclay. Then there was Mike Sabin in 2015, Maurice Williamson in 2014, Aaron Gilmore in 2013, Phil Heatley and Pansy Wong in 2010, Richard Worth in 2009…………..all for things they knew they shouldn't be doing, but did anyway.
The Serious Fraud Office filed criminal charges against four people in relation to an alleged NZ$100,000 donation paid into a National Party electorate bank account which senior National Party personnel who clearly should have known something about it apparently didn't.
And Nicky Hager's book Dirty Politics revealed (along with a few other examples of 'dirty politics') that Judith Collins had passed on private information about public servants to right-wing attack-blogger Cameron Slater Again senior National Party personnel who clearly should have known something about it apparently didn't. Collins was also the subject of controversy after an overseas trip where she appeared to be promoting milk products produced by Oravida – a New Zealand company of which her husband was a director.
There's more, but it doesn't need to be catalogued.
What's here is surely sufficient to make one question the validity of National's superior attitude towards being the 'natural party of government'. Why would anyone want to vote for more of that?
And National's claim of being 'superior economic managers' is just as flawed and will be examined in the next post.
Righties and idiots often claim, "Both sides are dirty in Politics." The last one I heard was a woman on RNZ's 'The Panel' on Friday – she made that claim, and then quoted sex scandals associated with Labour Conferences.
Well, none of them were schemes calculated to make National look bad. More like Labour being made to look bad through the media publicizing 'bigly' rumours and accusations. And let us not forget that the big headlines from Andrea Vance's accusation that Jacinda Ardern had 'covered up' a big sex scandal was later withdrawn and apologized for – at the bottom bit of page 126 where few would notice it…
National has been constantly caught out at Dirty Politics – manoeuvres deliberately calculated to make Labour look bad. This current one is only the latest. The worst was the deliberate use of material from GSCB (or SIS?) to denigrate Goff during his 2011 election campaign.. only exposed several years later. That election result should have been revoked, the abuse of knowledge explained to the public, and a new election held.
Come on, you Righties and idiots who say both sides are dirty:
Please give me a list of Labour's dirty deeds which have been deliberately calculated using foul means to make National look bad.
Nicky Hager has made a big long list of National doing that to Labour, and none of his accusations has been disproven in court – because they are valid.
Righties – please tell us exactly how many times the Labour Party or the Left in general have been shown to use subterfuge like Boag's email leaks to deliberately make the other side look bad.
I don't believe you can supply anything much of substance. Usually the mud slung at Labour is own-goal stuff, exaggerated by hostile news media.
Ed – I now think it was Thursday, not Friday. I managed to listen to Friday on RNZ website, and it was not her. I got lost in trying to hear Thursday's panel in their demands that I enrol for ipods and God only knows what..
Thanks. It was near the start, and I now know it was not Alexia. I could not access Thursday so I do not want want to accuse Nalini in case it was Wednesday..
The worst was the deliberate use of material from GSCB (or SIS?) to denigrate Goff during his 2011 election campaign.. only exposed several years later.
That was former SIS Director, Warren Tucker. The current Director, Rebecca Kitteridge formally apologised to Phil Goff a few years down the track.
Cameron Slater requested the SIS held material on Phil Goff and Tucker sent it to him. My suspicion is: Tucker was directed to supply the material to Slater from either John Key himself or someone from the PM's Office acting on his behalf.
One day the truth about that scandalous affair will be released.
“Inspector General of Intelligence and Security Ms Gwyn has been investigating allegations made in author Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics that as part of a long-running National Party dirty-tricks campaign, the Security Intelligence Service and Mr Key’s office worked together to release politically embarrassing material to Slater, who used it to discredit Mr Goff.”
You are not a Rightie giving me what I asked for, but you have magnificently reinforced what I wrote about the travesty of the 2011 election. And from what I recall, that 'embarrassing material' was not even true…
So the story of the 60 year old who busted through a window, out of quarantine, and went banging on the neighbour’s doors is already slipping out of the news sites headlines. No push for the story from the opposition I guess. So, provided we don’t go down Victoria’s unhappy path these few incidents, at odds with the 99.9% of people who are going through quarantine properly, will become nothing more than what they should be, the background noise to our successful Covid response.
Some clever, smart thinking going on in the rest of the country out side the Gnats bubble. (I don't know what they've got but I'd keep at least 2m away).
A couple of sheep are looking thoughtful about this idea, and I think probably like it. It seems the sort of thing that practical TS would go along with. How about signing the petition.
A Southland farmer is calling for New Zealand wool to be used in all publicly-funded buildings and KiwiBuild homes, for carpeting and insulation.
A petition has been started and signed by more than 7000 people.
Thanks to – Greywarshark – And thanks also to – Just is-
We are getting some very good uptodate Information and wisdom !
It does not amaze me that GrannyPoof Herald writes lines and lines of lies, and squeezes its endless Army of Bias, out of it's much treasured enormous Ass.
As David Attenborough might say – the Herald Species is breathing out its last few breaths.
Hi Grey I see on Newshub that Michael Baker the Epidemiologist is suggesting that some returnees are presenting with addiction problems and need help staying in isolation for 14 days. He suggested as one of the props to help their stay over being Nicotine patches. I thought to myself maybe my email to the Hon Chris Hipkins (which was then forwarded to Dr Megan Woods) has been actually taken in and discussed. I can hope but its probably such an obvious idea that many others have proffered their opinions as well. But I did the deed and the next day it has been suggested. Amen to that.
The eminent doctor also suggested health checks and help for other mental health issues. They need to get on top of it whatever the outcome.
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
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 in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
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Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
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Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
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Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
The protest outside the White House correspondents’ dinner hotel. Image: Anatolu video screenshot APR More than two dozen Palestinian journalists had called for a boycott of the dinner, writing an open letter urging their American colleagues not to attend. “You have a unique responsibility to speak truth to power and ...
“Our exporters should, therefore, be deeply concerned that the Fast-track Approvals Bill was not assessed for consistency with any of our free trade commitments prior to being introduced to the House,” says Gary Taylor, Chief Executive of the Environmental ...
NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff is calling on all political parties to support the new Member’s Bill from Labour’s workplace relations and safety spokesperson Camilla Belich MP that would ensure negligent companies are held accountable when their employees ...
A historian with an uncanny track record of predicting US election winners tells RNZ's Sunday Morning that President Biden looks to be on track for another term, but things could still go very wrong for him. ...
A historian with a track record of predicting US election winners tells RNZ's Sunday Morning that President Biden looks to be on track for another term, but things could still go wrong for him. ...
Ngaio Marsh House is one of Christchurch’s best kept secrets – and contains more than a few mysteries of its own.Trust Ngaio Marsh to leave more than a few mysteries scattered through her house long after her departure. For a start, there’s the curious concrete portal in the garden, ...
Appointment viewing has been lost to the mists of time, but memories of Montana Sunday Theatre can still be conjured by hitting play on a particular piece of classical music. “You’re not going to be able to sell it.” Over 30 years on, Karen Bieleski still recalls how the task ...
Performance Review King Luxon sat behind His massive polished oak desk. It is Performance Review time. There is a knock on the door. “Enter!” says the King. In steps Minister of Disabilities and Carer Pedicures, Penny Simmonds. “I can explain everything …” she begins. “Fine,” says King Luxon, pressing the ...
The pair opened their first fully collaborative exhibition, Nina for Flowers, last Saturday. Gabi Lardies visited their studio to find out who Nina is and what working together was like.‘It didn’t start out like, ‘This is a show about Nina,’” says Josephine Jelicich, gripping a thermos of peppermint tea. ...
Thank you, Dr Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner, for your brilliant invention. I’m another mid-20s Kiwi who had an OE last year. I hopped on my bicycle where France meets the Atlantic and cycled east. I pedalled through the Loire Valley, down rivers lined with willows and ancient wisteria-draped chateaus. I relished ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Dear Standard readers,
I have created a fun Give a Little page:
“Buy Michael Woodhouse a moral compass.”
https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/buy-michael-woodhouse-a-moral-compass
The page may not last long (too overtly political?).
All donations go to the Christchurch City Mission, a charity I have no connection with.
And I have used the words of UncookedSelachimorpha without permission I’m afraid (I hope you don’t mind) because you expressed the indignation I felt far better than I could.
'outrageously unethical ' seems very much the brand these days, hope mattys enjoying this ride as they've shambolic'd this one all themselves.
Awesome, I just donated!
Me too!
Tony, why don't you just make a page: "Michael Woodhouse must resign."
Or, even better: "Woodhouse, Kaye, and Muller Must Resign."
i shared that on my evil FB page 🙂
Gordon Campbell hones in on a key point of the saga:
Editorial note: `stare into the vacuum of his eyes' ought to be in single quotes, Gordon, to remind readers that it's a line from the Dylan song that hit top of the charts in '65.
Perhaps a journo will do the sleuthing to establish the extent of woodlouse guilt? Did he admit that he saw the email Boag sent him before he accused the govt of the privacy breach? If he did know it was a Nat conspiracy before mouthing off, Muller ought to punish him. While staring into the vacuum of his eyes, preferably…
Denis, the 4th estate is equally to blame for this fiasco, they parroted the mumblings of a recidivist liar, knowingly.
We need honest Journalism at a time like this, peoples lives are at risk
WAKE UP MEDIA, get your heads out of the sand.
Yes, the drift towards shallow journalism has been evident for some years now. I saw it happening in the TVNZ newsroom while I was working there in the '90s but those doing investigative journalism provided suitable balance then. I blame social media for the subsequent worsening of the effect.
Commentators lack the inside view: deadline pressure motivates quick production of stories. So there's a real economic cost to doing research. A journalist will only invest the time to get to the crux of a skullduggery situation if their conscience prevails over expediency. Journalism in the public interest remains de-institutionalised!
.”…….and say, do you want to…….make a deal?”
[Fixed error in e-mail address]
Homes in, in praxis. Go hone your wit.
BFD has something worth reading for a change: https://thebfd.co.nz/2020/07/10/a-free-taste-of-an-insight-politics-article-8/
Inasmuch as we all remain embedded in cultural ambience produced by the residue of the British empire, it's a good idea to reflect on how distinctive its imperialism actually is – and likely due to having no emperor!
The writer seems unaware of the constraint imposed by international law: 19th centuries treaties dictated the outcome. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handover_of_Hong_Kong
Two prominent women in spat over free speech: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122101004/christchurch-mayor-lianne-dalziel-rejects-china-corruption-claim
The mayor seems reluctant to embrace the notion that she may be a stooge of the communist regime in China. Quite why the prof got banned isn't clear though.
So it seems to be a Schrodinger's ban: real if one official says it is, unreal if another says it isn't. Social reality gets created according to who you believe…
Here is the submission from: Professor Anne-Marie Brady
This submission provides: 1. An overview of China’s foreign interference activities; 2. Suggestions for a resilience strategy for local and central government.
https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/52SCJU_EVI_93630_JU69172/ec59cb5bfacf8217b4d55c2200ba6e5875ce9943
Here's an article about the media's quality of reporting during COVID:
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/zealand-media-endangered-public-health-200707103532946.html
We really need better, otherwise conspiracy theories fill in the gaps. My neighbour was telling me yesterday that he's "heard" that everyone's covering up that the guy who did a runner from quarantine the other day went to a brothel instead of the official story. First time I've ever heard a conspiracy theory of any kind from him.
Thank you Gareth. I agree with your summation.
Mosa publicised this article a couple of days and it has been discussed a bit on the Standard.
It would be good if there was a post based on this article.
Caitlin Johnson, one of my favourite writers, writes regularly on the issue of the daily narrative we are fed. An Aussie, her main focus is the U.S. ; however, her take is accurate for all the 5 eye nations.
Her most recent report is entitled 'As Long As Mass Media Propaganda Exists, Democracy Is A Sham. ' I recommend it.
The article looks at a recent poll that shows most Americans believe Russia targeted U.S. soldiers, despite this being a "completely discredited narrative ."
It looks at the power of the media to sway people's thinking.
Why? I'll leave that to Caitlin…..
"But people are not as objective and adept at critical thinking as we tend to believe we are. People have many cognitive biases which distort our ability to objectively process information and understand events, including one which causes us to believe something is true just because they’ve heard it said multiple times. This makes us easily susceptible to mass media propaganda, where our encounters with daily news headlines can shape our perception of what’s going on in the world regardless of whether or not those headlines are backed by actual facts."
We need a better media.
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/07/09/as-long-as-mass-media-propaganda-exists-democracy-is-a-sham/
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/03/26/the-illusory-truth-effect-how-millions-were-duped-by-russiagate/
As I've said many times, the spreading of misinformation needs to be made illegal with serious consequences for those doing so. The concept of free-speech does not give anyone, especially media services, a right to lie.
Kim Hill's "brave" (that's how he describes himself) guest this morning came up with a completely ridiculous solution to the problems facing the world
RNZ National, Saturday 11 July 2020, 8:10 a.m.
First up on Dame Kim's programme this morning: yet another from that endless conveyor belt of glib and talkative "woke" commentators that she and her producers go to almost without thinking. This fellow likes to hang out with billionaires and deliver mild critiques of them to their face in places like Aspen, Colorado. Early on in this interview he called himself "brave" for this daring behaviour…
As I suspected, Giridharadas could not help himself; a few minutes after praising himself for daring to speak to Bill Gates and Peter Thiel—"brave", he calls himself—he then went on to claim that there was one person who could save the world from this. That saviour is…. wait for it!.… Barack Obama.
I dropped the following hasty email to Lady Kim…
Anand Giridharadas' bizarre praise of Obama
Dear Kim,
Anand Giridharadas was doing well until he suddenly started to spruik Barack Obama. If ever there was a tool of corrupt billionaires, it was that machine politician.
Yours in disgust at glib and thoughtless New York Times hacks,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
Anand had a pretty good analysis of neo liberalism and its origins I thought regardless of his pedigree and acquaintances.
Morrissey, is there anyone in this whole damn world that has got it right in your esteemed opinion–or is everyone a sell out dog, and working class heros exist no more?
To call Obama a working class hero is quite a stretch.
He was there for the billionaires.
I googled working class heroes and got this: http://www.workingclassheroes.co.uk selling "mens streetwear from Patagonia". Nice to know they have embraced capitalism while doing `hands across the water' with the folks in Patagonia eh? 🤣
Bet it got Marx spinning in his grave. No more revolution. Evolution instead.
Capitalism is destroying the planet.
So not evolution, but regression.
I've been wondering if capitalism is the last stage of development for a civilisation. After all, once capitalism arises in a civilisation its always been destroyed allowing for a new civilisation to arise to replace it and thus giving us civilisational evolution.
Can you give me an example please?
Ancient Rome
Ancient Greece
Ancient Egypt
The list goes on.
People who take Girardharadas seriously would worry about such symbolism, Dennis. Symbolism and right-on messaging is the only thing that matters for them.
I respect and admire many ethical, rigorous and brave academics and journalists—really brave, that is, not someone who delivers mild critiques to billionaires in luxury resorts.
I do not rate someone who hobnobs with Bill Gates and delivers glib homilies on the hipster channel Vice, and advocates for, of all people, Barack Obama.
Morrissey.
I'm 10 minutes in and Anand Giridharadas is making a lot of sense, especially regarding the Tech billionaires, like Thiel, Gates and Bezos.
I agree, Ed. He says many things that are perfectly correct. But anyone who posits Barack Obama as any sort of a solution cannot be taken seriously, other than by the same folks who wept in despair after Saint Hillary was beaten in 2016.
Totally agree.
How is that manuscript coming along of the Woodhouse interview?
Morrissey you find fault with the guy for referring to Obama in a positive way. So he is to be hit over the head with that. Yet you write here with so many flaws in your thinking and still demand your right to be taken seriously: I would rate you only 65/35 right, which isn't all that high. Try being more objective and not so excitable about others why don't you.
I made the decision that that sleazeball does not deserve an hour of my time transcribing his crap; so I'm using only a little bit of that demolition job by Katherine Ryan, as part of a dramatization I'm doing of a recent emergency meeting of Muller's caucus.
No he didn't. You need to clean your ears again.
Actually, he said we need "someone like Obama."
Utterly inane, utterly Hillary for President.
Giridharadas said that the progressive ideas of Sanders and Warren were popular – but that there were barriers to them actually winning electorally. And to overcome those barriers would need someone with the charisma, rhetorical fluency, charm, likability (call it what you will) of Obama.
That doesn't seem like an unreasonable comment – whatever you think of what Obama actually did – his skills as a politician are undeniable. We have seen this close-up with Ardern, how relatability, charm, being in tune with the mood and language of the times is so important. I took it as more of a comment about Bernie's limitations as an electoral politician, rather than errors in his policy.
Admittedly – Giridharadas,s solution does seem rather week in comparison to the strength of his diagnosis.
The coalition of left/progressive voters (especially in the USA) have many conflicting values and agendas, and normally only win when the Democrats can put up a candidate who has the charisma and political fluency to get them all to turn out and vote.
(Biden is the exception only because Trump is so intensely polarising.)
That's a fair point
Indeed, AB.
And it was a great interview by the way. It's something we should be focused on.
Egg Zachary, LIKE Obama. The persuader, not the warmonger.
Please don’t spoil Morrissey’s carefully crafted narrative; it took him ages to draft that carefully worded e-mail to Kim Hill. We need more brave public intellectuals like Morrissey.
It's going to be interesting to see the reponses in here to Kim Hill's interview with Anand Giridharadas (link not up yet @ Sacha – except maybe https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday for today 11/07/2020 )
Pass the popcorn
Edit: Fark me! How did I guess @ Mozza
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018754514/anand-giridharadas-beware-of-billionaire-do-gooders
Thank you, fellow link-wrangler 🙂
But you have to admit, he has a point.
I mean Obama had his chance …for the first 2 years Democrats had a majority in both houses , and yet still Guantanamo , despite all his noble promises remains open for business
No one was prosecuted for the disaster of the GFC, and the torturers “we tortured some folks”got off scot free.
The torture, mass killings, drone bombings, and persecution of journalists all increased in severity under Obama.
Ask the people of Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Libya what they think of Obama.
Ask the people of 138 countries in the world where US special operators could be found in 2016.
“In 2016 alone, the Obama administration dropped at least 26,171 bombs. This means that every day last year, the US military blasted combatants or civilians overseas with 72 bombs; that’s three bombs every hour, 24 hours a day.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/09/america-dropped-26171-bombs-2016-obama-legacy
Francesca 1 GOP senator fought a legal battle for 2 years to stop Obama's policies .
got a call to day asking if we could deliver to the local isolation hotel. Why yes, we can.
And so we did. Gave the package to the guard by the fence and they took it to the customer.
So really there is no reason anyone needs to sneak out for a V and a Pie, or a bootle of whine or anything. Call and have it delivered.
but not alcohol. (thanks @lprent for giving us the in comment ctrl/right click's)
This issue of alcohol came up yesterday on DR I think. My understanding is they can buy wine from the hotel, but not order it in. Prices are likely to be higher than a liquor outline. And the hotel can control how much is supplied, which would be essential…..imagine unlimited alcohol in quarantine……what could possibly go. wrong
I see some friend/family member said she tried to persuade our Queenstown business owner not to abscond. I hope she informed the police of his intention to commit a crime. If not suggest a visit from the police and charges.
BTW. Shout out to Gabby and Observer for having me LMAO last night. Observer quoted from the media that the Queenstown man had been difficult to manage in social isolation and had very strong political views (?" Cindy's locking me up????")
Gabbys response…."look like the Nats have found their next candidate forSouthland/Clutha " Ha ha ha bloody funny.
I also saw a headline from a contact of the new candidate saying he's a really nice guy. Yeah right….
Is a bootle of whine like are a very large container of whinge..
A Peter? lol
discussion on twitter suggests that people can't get alcohol delivered (but can buy in hotel alcohol, within a certain limit eg 6 cans beer/day).
TBF given it is 4 and 5 star hotels that would probably cost a fortune.
Not that I condone rocking on down to the local bottle store.
Maybe the govt should assign someone to just get a shopping list and delivery person for each day, can't see it being much more cost.
Maybe work with Uber?
most businesses already offer delivery – have been doing so since level 4 and three.
so no point using an underpaid uber driver – the only ones making money is the app/shareholder.
But the government could legislate just how much these hotels can charge to people in isolation for say beer and wine. Usually mini bar prices are way up because many people actually don't use them. They leave their hotels for drinks. And again in saying that, non of these fuckwits actually have a cost to pay for food n bed, so fuck it they should be able to either hold their need or suck it up and pay the price.
Have yet to see a good write up of what is available and seeing a range of opinions on it, I suspect it probably varies a bit from place to place. But the restriction on alcohol might be causing some problems, also for people that smoke. Stressful situation alongside not being able to self-medicate enough is not a good mix.
True.
TBH, given the situation I would tend to just say you can smoke in your room, if it temporarily saves grief
Increased risk of fire, and cigarette smoke ruining the room? Don't think so.
also the smell for the next person. But making it easier for smokers in other ways makes sense.
Patches. Plus something else to stick in their mouth instead.
Oh how kind we are to alcohol addicts. Now when we get the marijuana okay law passed it will stop some of the silly unbalanced BS in NZ.
Of course not! The binary brigade will still stick to its simplistic morals of right or wrong, for or against. Anything in between has too much nuance and is too complex to consider for more than a fleeting moment – hang on, there’s another message/tweet/reckon I need to give my undivided attention as if my life depends on it. There is no position in the middle, there is no room for negotiation and debate (!), and there is definitely no possibility for consensus or agreeing to disagree.
People are not really left- or right-handed, as they would use both hands for most stuff. Similarly, people are not as politically pure and on either side of the political left-right spectrum as they believe they are. It is heuristic approach by the mind to make things simpler than they are and save time (another illusion) and energy.
Don’t blame the media, blame your lazy mind and start thinking.
One of the disadvantages of a referendum is the Yes/No nature of it. A bit like are you really pregnant or just a little bit pregnant?
Referendums don’t come out of the blue and don’t sit in some kind of vacuum. There is much debate before, which leads to a decision to hold a referendum, and then after, to implement any changes. I wasn’t referring to any specific action but to thinking, binary thinking.
Out of interest, when do you become pregnant?
When do I become pregnant? Er no time I hope. As an 80 year old male it might be a bit late anyway.
This binary thinking also sits alongside that "cancel culture" letter that famous people signed, then some people took their names off when they realised who elses name was on the letter. It's about agreeing with the goal, but for different reasons. Like marching for free speech, but when you look around and see you're in a group of neo nazis you decide to quietly leave, even though you have the same goal (free speech), but for totally different reasons.
Context matters.
still, one ran for a pie and a v. non of that is needed.
Anywho, the lady in question got her teas, her chocolates, her pastry, her coffee and she will be good there for two weeks before going home.
the point is, that no one needs to be a shitheel.
I agree. I suspect some of this is political (court report from one case suggested this). But some might also be stress. People do weird shit when in unusual and stressful situations.
A story in the Herald this morning stating unemployment was reaching " the same levels as it did during the GFC".
The recession that NZ suffered from was in 2011, nearly three years after the GFC, it was the only country in the world to claim this 3 years on, most countries were in recovery stage.
The recession in 2011, was at the time described by most economists as the direct as a soft recession, the result of the Drought that affected Northland and the East Coast, the other contributing factors was the CHCH earthquakes and the combination of the National Party Tax cuts and the increase in GST which did more harm to the economy than the GFC three years earlier.
NZ was fortunate in 2008, to have ridden the GFC on the back of Australia's economic plan, they injected over a billion dollars directly into their economy by sending a $1000 check to every house hold to maintain spending in the local Economy
At that time, Australia was NZs biggest export market and maintained their demand for NZ products.
I get really tired of the media and National saying the recession was due to the GFC, it wasn't, it was created by a Failure of the Govt of the day to recognize it wasn't the time to push through there famous tax cuts and the increase in GST that saw many on low incomes with lower spending power.
Ideological stupidity was at the forefront, but they didn't care, it was a really good excuse to run Austerity and a low wage economy, which, by any measurement, was a Complete and Total failure for most Kiwis.
NZ had the lowest average income in the OECD measured against similarly developed countries, any economist worth anything will tell you those two things lead to a shinking economy, so National imported nearly 800,000 migrants, bringing their money with them to prop up the failing economy.
And we all know how that ended up.
Asking this again, anyone know what this piece of legislation is for? Apparently it's in older acts too. Am curious what the intent is, and how often it gets used (and why).
https://twitter.com/JennyKayNZ/status/1281463549114462208
After some more research, this is raised in the State Services Commission departmental report on the Bill (https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/submissions-and-advice/document/52SCGA_ADV_93134_GA4111/state-services-commission-departmental-report) – because the Select Committee failed to produce a report, the SSC report is the best option remaining. To quote from the report (pp135-137):
Now that the language is “request” not “require”, the civil liberty issue isn’t really there in the same manner. Note that employers can require medical examinations for H&S reasons now e.g. to determine if an employee is fit to return to work.
Commenters who fill in the Name and Email fields frequently, has something changed in the past few months? We're getting a lot of typos, which means the system treats you as a new commenter and the comment gets held in Pending to be released by a moderator. Would love some feedback and what kind of device you are using.
I sometimes type too fast and notice I've been typing in the email field, so more bozo user fault than system. I back up but sometimes leave the odd extra letter.
it seems odd that there is a sustained spate in the past few months. Might still be user error, but I am curious if the interface or something has changed.
I did comment some months ago that my text field kicks me off sometimes while I'm typing, and the cursor resets to the Name field. Most of the time I pick it up but sometimes I hit submit with the last bit of a sentence in the Name field instead of where it should be. Desktop version on laptop.
Also can't use the desktop version on mobile because the text field doesn't have a cursor or accept text.
ta, that's the kind of thing I was thinking about. There's been a few where sentences have turned up in the name field. Or email addresses. I'll mention it to Lynn (he's aware of the mobile issue, I find it is intermittent on my iphone). What's your OS and browser?
Ummm. That sounds like a lagging javascript.
I'll have a look at it when I get some working glasses back again.
But it will be a browser problem. I really need to finish the code (and cookie) that flips the java editor off on a particular browser / machine.
I accidentally typed in the name field and did not notice.
https://twitter.com/CitizenBomber/status/1281744405276160000
You've made my day
https://twitter.com/rnz_news/status/1281754277531095041
I hope people start to read and get informed before adding the knee-jerk comments on these "escape" stories.
Yesterday there was a flurry of Confident Reckons, many of which were made to look silly soon after, once we had some facts. Sharing instant ignorance adds nothing.
I'm looking forward to eventually finding out why people are doing this. Don't have a good sense of this yet.
It appears that each of runners had different reasons, one only wanted some shopping, the older person is suggested as having health issues, the other man had been abusive and a "strong political viewpoint", I'm not sure about the first woman.
Amy Adams suggested that the reason was because the motel/hotel accommodation was below scratch.
Actually, I think the MSM are partly responsible. They’ve been making a big thing out of these break-outs and, I suspect, generating both copy-cat scenarios and over-reactions among some in the community.
They should leave the police and related services to deal with them and stop high-lighting the escapees unless there is good cause to notify the populace at large – something the police would do anyway.
Because these people weren't in the country as we went through L4 and L3, it looks like they may have missed out on some shift in consciousness that the rest of us have been through. The idea of sacrificing immediate self-interest for the collective good, was strong through L4 and L3. Strong enough for the phrase 'team of 5 million' not to feel completely cringey and embarrassing, which under normal circumstances it would. Alternatively – it might be that at all times, and under all circumstances, there is simply an irreducible minority of dipsh*ts.
that's a really good point about not having gone through L4 here.
After what I have heard about the prevalence of meth and P in the country, and the fact that we have such a high drug taking score, it is likely that there are many people affected by abstinence of their chosen pasttimes. I had an eye operation requiring me to lie still face down for long periods and regret to say that I couldn't manage the required periods. So I can be understanding of people who have drug habits or are freedom-loving reckless individuals.
Good assesment AB but there were still quite a few doing runners or walkabouts under 4 and 3, was it something like 6-700 arrests and lots of talking too's ?.
A massive fine for any chump who sees fit to endanger what we've achieved plus the full cost also for the quarantine. Take that !
Anyway you cut it it's basically a 'F U, I'll be right' attitude which arises from not considering others.
Just heard another report that a 60 year old man broke out of a window in an Isolation facility in Hamilton, it took the police an hour to find him.
There are calls for returnees to have negative C19 test before boarding any flights to return to NZ.
Personally, I think this should be mandatory for all flights globally.
It's become evident that some of the people returnig to NZ new they had symptoms, but came here anyway.
I refer you to 14.1 above.
Sorry, the article I heard said Hamilton
Usual caveats about polls, but there's plenty of data here to reflect on.
Remarkable that Labour lead National on the economy, 45-30. That might not be the case if Todd had been doing what he promised on his first day as leader … talking about the economy.
Instead he's been barking at the cars like Bridges, except with a much smaller vocabulary.
So, now it’s woof, woof instead woof, woof, wuff. That’s not vocabulary but the use of onomatopoeias to sound like a dog. All is well in NZ politics. Miaow!
The faces of Adams, Muller and Brownlee on TV1 news last night when Muller was being questioned should be set in stone. Never seen quite that level of discomfort!
Adams eyeballs are spinning like a cartoon, it's strange to watch.
Bloody Hell! Another conspiracy for Mr Muller to sink his teeth into.
First it's portraits of JA on bus shelters, now it's pavement stickers telling us all to "Keep Left Unite Against Covid 19"
The Electoral Commission really should get involved!!!! I mean ….why NOW?
And while they're at it, we should get them to declare all those "Keep Left Unless Passing" signs as electioneering – nobody takes heed of them anyway! And half the people are driving on a fishing licence too!
(/sarc)
Link?
The link is along Cable Street Wellington – plastered over the footpath. A bloody disgrace! And I bet those bloody radical left-wing Labour Party supporting New World franchise owners are responsible.
If I had my way, I'd put them in the Army!
So no link?
Thanks
I bet those fishing are using their library cards too.
Bloody something something
brill.
Another one does a runner.
Am beginning to wonder if there are decent mental health workers in these places.
Are these issues regarding alcohol?
More likely drug related or mental health related I would think.
You mean as opposed to indecent ones? Put 'em in the stocks I reckon! NAME and SHAME is the only answer. That'd learn 'em
Not sure where that sarcastic comment came from.
I was just querying if there were councillors talking to these people.
But by all means, if you think who gives a shit, that is fine
I'm just getting more cynical as I approach dotage @ Chris T. It's a right of passage. Won't be long before the folks at ZB will be offering me a job in their bid to be fair and balanced.
I think Mike Baker on NewShubs the Nation this morning had some good ideas re handling people in quarantine. But as you know, these things take time
Counsellors surely, not councillors?
I am slightly dyslexic. Apologies.
It makes my emails that mention their or there and your and you're quite interesting to read though, which can entertain people at my expense.
🙂
Ah – trying to play a false 'PC' card, huh?
The fact that you can easily spell 'slightly dyslexic' correctly is complete proof that you are no such thing.
Never try to stand in the way of a good pedant, O careless one.
Whatever
You are awesome and probably right, and me admitting I am shit at spelling is a complete "PC" thing.
Congrats
We can all be shit at spelling. Even i can mispell misspel. But I have seen trolls mkae dumb claims about dyslexia, and dumb lefties bekieve it and roll over for them. We can all type a message in a rush and have errors in it.
You give me to much credit.
I have always just been crap at grammar since my school days.
I know big words, but often spell the smaller ones wrong.
It isn't a particularly sympathy thing.
It is just how it has always been.
too much, you rascal.
I'd hope that mental health workers are available.
But if they're sitting around in hotels at midnight waiting to respond, then I'd volunteer for isolation tomorrow. Back in the day when I had some (helpful) counselling, they kept office hours. And the taxpayer didn't pick up the tab.
Lol
That is a good point.
Huh? Nobody has thought of that, obviously.
https://covid19.govt.nz/updates-and-resources/latest-updates/miq-review/
4 cretins out of 30k do a runner and quickly get caught….NZ quarantine is working magnificently.
Hasn't it occurred to Muller that in criticising the quarantine process he is consigning himself to oblivion?
"magnificently."
One of them was infected and it is pure luck we aren't looking at infections
There was more than enough outrage at going to Rotorua – I'm not sure how a barbed wire internment camp would go down.
But given the ongoing warnings about novel viruses, we should probably start looking at a dedicated facility or three. Maybe prefab units that can be clipped together in a public park.
Hotels work in a pinch, but they're not suitable for longer term use. Not just the absconding, they obviously have issues with cohort control and separation, especially at check in.
Chris T, NZ has no detected post-elimination Covid-19 community transmission (so far) due to an ENORMOUS dollop of good management and a near-invisible dusting of "pure luck" – you sound put out by our excellent health outcomes.
Not really.
I am just starting to think it is more luck, than management.
Look at Victoria. I have family there and they have had the bad version.
Maybe it's mostly good management in NZ and Australia, with a little bad luck in Victoria. Personally I think it's mostly good management in NZ and Victoria (slightly better management in NZ?), and luck has little to do with it.
You and Todd just need to be patient – there will be community transmission of Covid-19 again in NZ, but no-one knows when.
I think luck has a lot to do with it and I wouldn't give Todd the time of day, so please don't associate me with him for zero reason.
Has luck really got "a lot" to do with the comparatively bad Covid-19 health stats in Ireland, Sweden, the UK, USA and Brazil? If you think NZ's Covid-19 health outcomes owe more to good luck than good management, then I respectfully suggest that you re-examine your understanding of the factors affecting the spread of global pandemics.
Apologies for lumping you in with Todd – you tend to come across here as being more critical of left-leaning policies/governments than those on the right of the political spectrum, but maybe that’s just me.
We had a positive person running around for 70 minutes
Yes. It is luck
There is an element of luck/chance as to whether that positive person (just the one was it?) infected someone else in those 70 minutes.
It's management (by public health services and other government institutions), aided and abetted by the general populace (team of nearly 5,000,000), that’s the primary determinant of a country’s overall health outcomes in a global pandemic. That management can be anything ranging from ‘very tight’ to ‘open slather’.
Ireland, Sweden, the UK, USA and Brazil each have a Covid-19 death rate per million of population that’s at least 75 times NZ's rate – if you thinks that's due to luck, then we'll have to agree to disagree.
And I am sure the people in Victoria would be saying the same thing if the security guard who had alleged shagged the isolated person and not got it.
It is blind luck
Ireland, Sweden, the UK, USA and Brazil each have a Covid-19 death rate per million population that’s at least 75 times NZ's and Australia’s rates. The number of Covid-19 cases per million population in NZ is at least 14 times lower than those five countries.
If you think that's due to (blind) luck, then we'll have to agree to disagree.
The management part is stopping staff having sex with people in isolation. It's literally a staff management issue. And not the only lapse they had.
Our worse lapse is someone speaking to a checkout person or a cop or a neighbour, not tongue-lashing them
BTW
I have no particular allegiance with either the Nats or Labour
Voted for Helen once and have never voted National
But I do do one thing, And that is hold all parties to account.
Edit: And I have a particular distaste for fluffy politics and crap media not asking questions
When was the last time it hit the average required 4000 a day which is required to be sure of proper monitotiring
These are Hipkins numbers, not mine,
Then lets disagree.
Because the bloke only had to splutter on one person (If he did indeed not, in the missing 40 odd minutes) And we could just as easily be looking at Victoria numbers,
Who knows as the testing has turned to shite
But hey, The govt is doing brilliant when people aren't running off.
By all means have an opinion divorced from reality but do not try to pass it off as fact.
Based on measured Covid-19 health outcomes, our Government has indeed done a brilliant job to date. If, despite your relentless carping, you're genuinely keen on holding "all parties to account", then I look forward to your critique of the behaviour of opposition National party MPs over the last week – bit of a shocker eh?
Still think the Jamie-Lee Ross deBaclay was the opposition’s ‘lowlight‘ for this term so far, but who knows what the next 2 months will bring
National have been complete idiots.
I am still struggling to see how this relates to covid infected people walking out of isolation with little detail of where they went for over an hour
And I'm struggling to understand your apparent inability to grasp the relative contributions of "blind luck" and 'management' (by governments, public services et al.) to a particular country's long-term health outcomes during a global pandemic of a novel virus.
Surely you can see that the ideology and Covid-19 health advice offered by Trump, Johnson, Bolsonaro etc., are having an appreciable effect on the measurable Covid-19 health outcomes of the countries they ‘lead‘.
Although I will have to concede that NZ got pretty lucky with Ardern and Bloomfield. We don’t know how lucky…
I know this is a struggle for you to understand, but I don't support national or labour.
I couldn't give a rats arse, if both broke.
I look at thingd from both sides
Apologies if this is a complete conundrum to you
I give up.
It is obvious you don't see a covid infected person who rock off on one of the busiest streets in the country is an issue.
All good
We had some blind luck and apparently no one else is infected in his travels.
But then who knows as the testing has gone down.
I give up too – if you can't see a relationship between the ‘economy over health‘ ideology and ‘leadership/management‘ styles offered by Trump, Johnson, Bolsonaro etc., and the measurable Covid-19 health outcomes of the countries they 'lead', but would rather attribute the hugely different health outcomes of countries to "blind luck", then we are indeed at an impasse.
As an aside, I think we should be using schools rather than hotels as detention centres. Schools are so much more like prisons, and most are now already surrounded by horrible spiky fences to keep the nasty local gangsters out. (Thanks to social policies of most governments since the 1980s.)
It would be so easy to use schools as concentration camps – only a few would be needed, and minimal security staff would be needed to patrol the perimeter.
I would have said the grounds of military bases and campervans like originally, but if you think schools I disagree.
Sorry – I forgot that some people need a sarc tag.
We could fit 25+ people into each classroom, with some extra desks to spare.
But this ignores the fact it would be a bit dim.
But by all means roll with it trying to tell them wise.
So now we have people saying we should use schools?
Brilliant
Some people on various social media demanding to know "Where's Tova? Jessica? Why aren't they going after Todd?".
On a break, is the answer. With an election campaign coming, there won't be any time off for political journos. Parliament is in recess, so this was the obvious time to book. It's not as if they could predict the mad meltdown of the past week (who did?).
As with the timing of polls and much else, a lot of things that inspire conspiracy theories are simply arranged in advance.
(and no, that doesn't excuse Newshub's lamentable coverage, at all. But that's the fault of people who are in the building, not one reporter who isn't).
And there I was feeling sorry for Tova. Why, I thought to myself, why should she ever again believe anything at all that Todd Muller ever says ???!
Poor little Tova – I well remember her shamelessly and impudently putting that question to Jacinda Ardern over a far lesser issue during lockdown.
I was so looking forward to Todd's effort at answering her heart-wrenching question…
Something like, "Er, no… I can see where you are going with this."
But poor little Tova is away on holiday, is she?
Well, I guess both she and we are spared all that agony.
As is Todd. Typical!
It's not politics, just a bit funny. This parrot rocks Led Zeppelin.
https://www.twitter.com/planetpng/status/1281298450563371015
That's gorgeous, Fireblade.
In parts it reminded me of Michelle Boag on The Panel.
From Luke Malpress on Stuff and I thought Luke was an enthusiastic National man. Again he hints at the National being saved last week by the runaways. But not all MPs are happy. (Reference the faces of Adams and Brownlee during Mullers presser.)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/122102664/mullers-new-job-convince-the-public-nationals-not-a-moral-vacuum
It is reported that the Virus has mutated and is much more infectious. It is said to be no more dangerous but just more easily spread. So hands up that we keep the border closed longer? Waiting for confirmation.
Watch the video.
Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan. The problem that Todd Muller has and is National telling us the truth?
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/video/heather-du-plessis-allan-is-national-telling-us-the-full-truth/
I think the WHO investigation into the origins of the virus will at best be a barometer displaying the alignment of Dr Tedros.
Although beyond redemption, I think Trump is right to take a step away from the UN. It's become a pit of snakes, past it's best before date. It's an organisation that should have it's foundation in a love for each other and it just hasn't. The CCP can have it.
A worthwhile WHO would bring together the 200 best vaccine minds in the world and give them all they required.
Wuhan in Hubei province was locked down, residents welded into their apartment buildings, meals passed through railings. At this time 5 million people departed on international flights from Wuhan International Airport, domestic was closed.
You or I, we'd slam the gates down at Mangere wouldn't we? The thought of knowingly jetting hot-spot people off to all points around the globe conjures up images of Mike Myer's Dr Evil in my mind.
I get the Chinese need to save face, reluctance to admit fault etc. But sheeesh. I don't think the CCP form is aligned very well with the sentiments and emotions of the 1.4 billion.
Leading via fear works, but it is always finite, comes to an end. It is natural that our love and respect for each other will rise to be dominant. We are a social animal, inclined to be friends.
From Chris Leitch outlining the number of dodgy National MPs. These are facts rather than just opinions. New Zealand Politics. Blogger.
https://www.facebook.com/New-Zealand-Politics-155820134514358/
That is skewering.
No hyperbole, exaggeration or histrionics.
I wonder if Kiwiblog is interested?
Righties and idiots often claim, "Both sides are dirty in Politics." The last one I heard was a woman on RNZ's 'The Panel' on Friday – she made that claim, and then quoted sex scandals associated with Labour Conferences.
Well, none of them were schemes calculated to make National look bad. More like Labour being made to look bad through the media publicizing 'bigly' rumours and accusations. And let us not forget that the big headlines from Andrea Vance's accusation that Jacinda Ardern had 'covered up' a big sex scandal was later withdrawn and apologized for – at the bottom bit of page 126 where few would notice it…
National has been constantly caught out at Dirty Politics – manoeuvres deliberately calculated to make Labour look bad. This current one is only the latest. The worst was the deliberate use of material from GSCB (or SIS?) to denigrate Goff during his 2011 election campaign.. only exposed several years later. That election result should have been revoked, the abuse of knowledge explained to the public, and a new election held.
Come on, you Righties and idiots who say both sides are dirty:
Please give me a list of Labour's dirty deeds which have been deliberately calculated using foul means to make National look bad.
Nicky Hager has made a big long list of National doing that to Labour, and none of his accusations has been disproven in court – because they are valid.
Righties – please tell us exactly how many times the Labour Party or the Left in general have been shown to use subterfuge like Boag's email leaks to deliberately make the other side look bad.
I don't believe you can supply anything much of substance. Usually the mud slung at Labour is own-goal stuff, exaggerated by hostile news media.
As a matter, who was the woman on RNZ's 'The Panel' on Friday?
Wallace Chapman is hapless.
The actions of Woodhouse during a worldwide pandemic are more than Dirty Politics.
What is the definition of subversion?
I do wonder sometimes if Wallace hears the way he speaks, in which case the world would be a wondrous bowl of vigorously tossed garbled word salad.
Yes, I suspect it is Wallace's task to trivialise and divert, just as it was Jim Mora's.
Ed – I now think it was Thursday, not Friday. I managed to listen to Friday on RNZ website, and it was not her. I got lost in trying to hear Thursday's panel in their demands that I enrol for ipods and God only knows what..
It was Nalini Baruch on Thursday's The Panel and Alexia Russell on Friday.
Thanks. It was near the start, and I now know it was not Alexia. I could not access Thursday so I do not want want to accuse Nalini in case it was Wednesday..
Sorry In Vino
There is no reply link on your other post.
So repeat
When was the last time it hit the average required 4000 a day which is required to be sure of proper monitotiring
These are Hipkins numbers, not mine,
I don't know why you are asking me, Chris T: I made no statement at all about testing.
One of the goals of Dirty Politics was to seed that doubt in the public, that they "all" do it, to undermine the notion of "big" Govt.
Yeah – Why on Earth did I waste my keyboarding time? No Rightie will reply, because no Rightie has a list of anything to offer.
Pledge cards kind of rings a bell
Was that a dirty trick by Labour designed to make the Right look bad? I think not… I seem to remember it was played upon to make Labour look bad.
That was former SIS Director, Warren Tucker. The current Director, Rebecca Kitteridge formally apologised to Phil Goff a few years down the track.
Cameron Slater requested the SIS held material on Phil Goff and Tucker sent it to him. My suspicion is: Tucker was directed to supply the material to Slater from either John Key himself or someone from the PM's Office acting on his behalf.
One day the truth about that scandalous affair will be released.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11363842
Thanks, Anne.
You are not a Rightie giving me what I asked for, but you have magnificently reinforced what I wrote about the travesty of the 2011 election. And from what I recall, that 'embarrassing material' was not even true…
Correct. Whoever the spook… who put the file together was up the creek without a paddle. I'm going to see if I can find the details.
I found this:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/spy-review-slams-former-sis-director-over-goff-2014112510
The incorrect information concerned a briefing Tucker gave Goff about the suspected Israeli spy case following the ChCh earthquake.
So the story of the 60 year old who busted through a window, out of quarantine, and went banging on the neighbour’s doors is already slipping out of the news sites headlines. No push for the story from the opposition I guess. So, provided we don’t go down Victoria’s unhappy path these few incidents, at odds with the 99.9% of people who are going through quarantine properly, will become nothing more than what they should be, the background noise to our successful Covid response.
Some clever, smart thinking going on in the rest of the country out side the Gnats bubble. (I don't know what they've got but I'd keep at least 2m away).
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018754423/calls-for-nz-wool-to-be-used-in-govt-buildings-and-homes
A couple of sheep are looking thoughtful about this idea, and I think probably like it. It seems the sort of thing that practical TS would go along with. How about signing the petition.
A Southland farmer is calling for New Zealand wool to be used in all publicly-funded buildings and KiwiBuild homes, for carpeting and insulation.
A petition has been started and signed by more than 7000 people.
Thanks to – Greywarshark – And thanks also to – Just is-
We are getting some very good uptodate Information and wisdom !
It does not amaze me that GrannyPoof Herald writes lines and lines of lies, and squeezes its endless Army of Bias, out of it's much treasured enormous Ass.
As David Attenborough might say – the Herald Species is breathing out its last few breaths.
Hi Grey I see on Newshub that Michael Baker the Epidemiologist is suggesting that some returnees are presenting with addiction problems and need help staying in isolation for 14 days. He suggested as one of the props to help their stay over being Nicotine patches. I thought to myself maybe my email to the Hon Chris Hipkins (which was then forwarded to Dr Megan Woods) has been actually taken in and discussed. I can hope but its probably such an obvious idea that many others have proffered their opinions as well. But I did the deed and the next day it has been suggested. Amen to that.
The eminent doctor also suggested health checks and help for other mental health issues. They need to get on top of it whatever the outcome.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/covid-19-nz-to-quarantine-people-in-isolation-for-months-maybe-years-epidemiologist/ar-BB16BkDC