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.
Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.It was another ‘SHOCK! HORROR!’ headline from a media increasingly venturing into tabloid-style journalism:Andrea Vance’s article seemed to focus on the "million dollar sums from the Government as the country grapples with a housing ...
Dr Brian Easton writes: It’s the summer break. Everyone settles down with family, books, the sun and some fishing. But the Prime Minister has a pile of briefing papers prepared just before Christmas, which have to be worked through. I haven’t seen them. Here is my guess at some ...
What Was the Prime Minister Reading in the Runup to Election Year?It’s the summer break. Everyone settles down with family, books, the sun and some fishing. But the Prime Minister has a pile of briefing papers prepared just before Christmas, which have to be worked through. I haven’t seen them. ...
In case you hadn't noticed, FYI, the public OIA request site, has been used to conduct a significant excavation into New Zealand's intelligence agencies, with requests made for assorted policies and procedures. Yesterday in response to one of these requests the GCSB released its policy on New Zealand Purpose and ...
Farming leaders are watching closely whether Damien O’Connor keeps the key portfolios of Agriculture and Trade when Prime Minister Chris Hipkins restructures his Cabinet. O’Connor has been one of the few ministers during Labour’s term in office who has won broad support for what he has done ...
South Islands farmers are whining about another drought, the third in three years. If only we knew what was causing this! If only someone had warned them that they faced a drying climate! But we do know what is causing it: climate change. And they have been warned, repeatedly, for ...
Ok, there’s good news and bad news in this week’s inflation figures, but bad > good. Our inflation rate held steady but hey, at a level below the inflation rate in Australia. The main reason for the so/so result here? A fall in petrol prices of 7.2% offset the really ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office. Yet ...
Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office. Yet there have been dozens of columns ...
The Clinical Magus: Of particular relevance to New Zealanders struggling to come to terms with the sudden departure of their prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is Jung’s concept of the anima. Much more than what others have called the feminine principle, the anima is what the human male has made out ...
The Select Committee, considering the proposed RNZ-TVNZ merger, has come back with a report conceding many of the criticisms that were made of the original legislation. In what is one of the most comprehensive demolitions of a Bill submitted to a Select Committee, the Economic Development, Science and Innovation ...
Such are the 2020s, the age when no-one, it seems, actually respects the basic underpinnings of democracy. Even in New Zealand. This week, I stumbled across a pair of lengthy and genuinely serious articles, that basically argue that Something is Rotten in the state of New Zealand democracy. One ...
Buzz from the Beehive Hurrah. Today we found something fresh on the Beehive website, Beehive.govt.nz, which claims to be the best place to find Government initiatives, policies and Ministerial information. It wasn’t from Finance Minister Grant Robertson, whose reaction to the latest inflation figures would have been appreciated. So, too, ...
Smiling And Waiving A Golden Opportunity: Chris Hipkins knew that the day at Ratana would be Jacinda’s day – her final opportunity to bask in the unalloyed love and support of her followers. He simply could not afford to be seen to overshadow this last chance for his former boss ...
Extremism Consumes Itself: The plot of “Act of Oblivion” concerns the relentless pursuit of the “regicides” Edward Whalley and William Goffe – two of the fifty-nine signatories to King Charles I’s death warrant. As with his many other works of historical fiction, Robert Harris’s novel brings to life a period ...
To challenge the Government’s promotion of co-governance, to share power between Maori and public authorities and agencies, is to invite accusations of racism. An example: this article by Martyn Bradbury on The Daily Blog headed Luxon’s race baiting hypocrisy at Ratana. The article was triggered by National leader Christopher Luxon, ...
A very informative video discussion: Are we getting the whole story about Ukraine? | Robert Wright & Ivan Katchanovski Getting objective information on the situation in Ukraine and the cause of this current war is not easy. There is the current censorship and blatant mainstream media bias – which ...
Yesterday the Herald ran an op-ed from Mayor Wayne Brown titled “The case for light rail is lighter than ever” and a few things stood out. However, it’s getting more and more tricky to make a strong economic case for spending up to $29 billion on a single route of ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Samantha Harrington Imagine it’s a cold February night and your furnace breaks. You want to replace it with an electric heat pump because you’ve heard that tax credits will help pay for the switch. And you know that heat pumps can reduce ...
In 2005, then-National Party leader based his entire election campaign on racism, with his infamous racist Orewa speech and racist iwi/kiwi billboards. Now, Christopher Luxon seems to want to do it all again: Fresh off using his platform at this week's Rātana celebrations to criticise the government's approach to ...
Inflation is showing little sign of slowing down, posing a problem for freshly minted PM Chris Hipkins. According to that old campaigner Richard Prebble, Hipkins should call a snap election. If he waits till October, he risks being swept away. The dilemma for the new leader is that fighting an election ...
Buzz from the Beehive A great deal has happened since January 19. Among other things, a new Prime Minister and deputy have been sworn in and our leaders (past, present and aspiring) have delivered speeches at Ratana. Newshub reported that politicians of all stripes had descended upon Rātana for the ...
It’s a big day for New Zealand; our 41st Prime Minister has taken office and the new, “Chippy” era of politics is underway. Or, on the other hand, the Labour Party continues to govern with an overall majority and much the same leadership team in place. Life goes on and ...
New Zealand has another Prime Minister who does not have a basic grasp of the three articles of the Treaty of Waitangi. THOMAS CRANMER writes: It is simply astonishing that New Zealand’s next Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, is unable to give even a brief explanation of the three articles ...
A statue of a semi-naked Nick Smith puts the misogyny debate into perspective. GRAHAM ADAMS writes … In the wake of Ardern’s abrupt resignation, the mainstream media are determined to convince us she was hounded from office mainly because she is a woman and had to fall on her sword ...
A Different Kind Of Vibe: In the days and weeks ahead, as the Hipkins ministry takes shape, the only question that matters is whether New Zealand’s new prime minister possesses both the wisdom and the courage to correct his party’s currently suicidal political course. If Chris “Chippy” Hipkins is ...
An editorial in the NZ Herald last week, titled “Nimbyism goes bananas as housing intensifies“, introduced Herald readers to a couple of acronyms that go along with the now-familiar NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard): “bananas” (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone) “cave” dwellers (citizens against virtually everything). The editorial ...
Back in the dark autumn of 2020, when the prospect of Covid was freaking the country out, Finance Minister Grant Robertson set himself and Treasury a series of questions about what a post-Covid economy might look like. Those were fearful days, and the questions in part reflected a series ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yet another day has passed without Ministers of the Crown posting something to show they are still working for us on the Beehive website. Nothing new has been posted since January 17. Perhaps the ministers are all engaged in the bemusing annual excursion ...
Incoming Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has already indicated he intends making the tax system “fairer”. That points to the route a government facing an election could take to tilt the odds towards winning in its favour, given Labour’s support in the last months of the Ardern era had been ...
NewsHub has a poll on the cost-of-living crisis, which has an interesting finding: the vast majority of kiwis prefer wage rises to tax cuts: When asked whether income has kept up with the cost of living, 54.8 percent of people surveyed said no and according to 58.6 percent of ...
Labour has begun 2023 with the centre-left bloc behind in the polls and losing ground. That being so, did his colleagues choose Chris Hipkins as the replacement for Jacinda Ardern because they think he has a realistic shot at leading them to victory this year, or because he‘s the best ...
Two Flags, Two Masters? Just as it required a full-scale military effort to destroy the first attempt at Māori self-government in the 1850s and 60s (an effort that divided Maoridom itself into supporters and opponents of the Crown) any second attempt to establish tino rangatiratanga, based on the confiscatory policies ...
The first of Kiwirail’s big network shutdowns to fix the foundations on our tracks is now well underway with the Southern Line closed between Otahuhu and Newmarket. This is following on from the network wide Christmas/New Year shutdown, during which Kiwirail say that nearly 1,300 people working across 69 different ...
This is a re-post from the Citizens' Climate Lobby blogIn last year’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Congress included about $20 billion earmarked for natural climate solutions. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for deciding how those funds should be allocated to meet the climate ...
You’ve really got to wonder at the introspection, or lack thereof, from much of the mainstream media post Jacinda Ardern stepping down. Some so-called journalists haven’t even taken a breath before once again putting the boot in, which clearly shows their inherent bias and lack of any misgivings about fueling ...
Over the weekend I was interviewed by a media outlet about the threats that Jacinda Ardern and her family have received while she has been PM and what can be expected now that she has resigned. I noted that the level of threat she has been exposed to is unprecedented ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: The days of the Labour Government being associated with middle class social liberalism look to be numbered. Soon-to-be Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni are heralding a major shift in emphasis away from the constituencies and ideologies of liberal Grey ...
A Different Kind Of Vibe: In the days and weeks ahead, as the Hipkins ministry takes shape, the only question that matters is whether New Zealand’s new prime minister possesses both the wisdom and the courage to correct his party’s currently suicidal political course. If Chris “Chippy” Hipkins is able to steer ...
The days of the Labour Government being associated with middle class social liberalism look to be numbered. Soon-to-be Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni are heralding a major shift in emphasis away from the constituencies and ideologies of liberal Grey Lynn and Wellington Central towards the ...
Following the surprise resignation of Jacinda Ardern last week, her replacement, Chis Hipkins, has said: Over the coming week, Cabinet will be making decisions on reining in some programs and projects that aren’t essential right now That messaging is similar to what Jacinda Ardern said late last year and as ...
Much of what will mark the early days of Chris Hipkins’ Prime Ministership would have happened anyway. By December, the Prime Minister and Finance Minister were making it clear the summer break and early days of this year were going to be spent on a reset of government policy. ...
Going to try to get into the blogging thing again (ha!) what with an election coming up and all that. So today I thought I'd start small and simple, by merely tackling the world's (second) richest man.I'm no fan of Elon Musk. You don't want to know why, but I'll ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 15, 2023 thru Sat, Jan 21, 2023. Story of the Week State of the climate: How the world warmed in 2022With a new year underway, most of the climate data for ...
Well, that was a disappointment. As of today, the New Zealand Labour Caucus opted for Chris Hipkins as our new Prime Minister, and I cannot help but let loose a cynical cackle. ...
Get ready for a major political reset once Chris Hipkins is sworn in as Prime Minister this week. Labour’s new leader is likely to push the Government to the right economically, and do his best to jettison the damaging perceptions that Labour has become “too woke” on social issues. Overall, ...
Things have gone sideways… and it’s only the third week of January? It was political earthquake time. For some the Prime Minister made a truly significant announcement. For others – did you have this on your bingo card? – a body double did so (sit tight, you’ll understand later, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Because our hard-working Ministers of the Crown are engaged in Labour Party caucus stuff in Napier, no doubt jockeying to ensure they keep their jobs or get a better one, Point of Order was not surprised to find no fresh news on the Beehive website this ...
By the end of 2019, Jacinda Ardern was a political superstar heading towards an election defeat. She was an icon, internationally beloved, on track to be an ex-prime minister before the age of forty. It was the year of the Christchurch terror attack when Ardern’s response to the atrocity saw ...
People complain about their jobs being meaningless. Does it matter?David Graeber, author of Bullshit Jobs: The Rise of Pointless Work and What We Can Do About It, would have smiled at Elon Musk’s sacking half the Twitter workforce. Musk seems to be confirming the main thesis of the book, that ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: Should New Zealand have a snap election? That’s one of the questions arising out of the chaos of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation. There’s an increased realisation that everything has changed, and the old plans and assumptions for election year have suddenly evaporated. ...
Should New Zealand have a snap election? That’s one of the questions arising out of the chaos of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation. There’s an increased realisation that everything has changed, and the old plans and assumptions for election year have suddenly evaporated. So, although Ardern has named an ...
I warned about the trap of virtue signaling in my article Virtue signaling over Ukraine. This video is still relevant – but have we moved on since then? The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was universally condemned at the time. Or was it? Certainly, the political atmosphere ...
Earlier this week Point of Order carried a post by Geoffrey Miller on how Japan under a new security blueprint is doubling its defence spending. The plans see Japan buying up advanced weaponry – including long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US – and spending more on ...
Anyone else suffering back-to-work-blues? We’re battling, but still upright. Haere tonu! Today’s cover image is of sunset over Tirohanga Whānui Bridge, sourced from Twitter. The week in Greater Auckland On Monday, Jolisa pondered the fate of AT’s ‘Statements of Imagination’. Tuesday’s post was a guest post by Grady ...
Open access notables Bad news delivered by an all-star cast of familiar researchers: Another Year of Record Heat for the Oceans. From the abstract: In 2022, the world’s oceans, as given by OHC, were again the hottest in the historical record and exceeded the previous 2021 record maximum. According to IAP/CAS data, ...
The resignation of Jacinda Ardern has already made more global headlines than you might expect for that of the PM of a small commonwealth nation like say Sierra Leone (population 6.5 million) or Singapore (population 5.5 million). But international observers might not be too surprised by Ardern’s announcement that ...
One of my earliest political memories is the resignation of Prime Minister David Lange in August 1989. I remember this because of a brown felt-tipped pen drawing I did of the Beehive, the building that houses the Executive of the New Zealand Government. More than thirty years later, we ...
Buzz from the Beehive Hard on the heels of our Buzz from the Beehive earlier today, the PM has made two announcements – the 2023 general election will be held on Saturday 14 October and she will not be campaigning to win a third term as Prime Minister. She will ...
Jacinda Ardern had an outsized impact on New Zealand’s international relations. While all Prime Ministers travel internationally, Ardern’s calendar was fuller than most. Ardern’s first major foreign trip came within weeks of her election in 2017, to the APEC summit in Vietnam. The meeting gave Ardern her first in-person encounter ...
She gave it her all. No New Zealand Prime Minister has ever dominated the political scene at home as she has done, or has established an international profile to match hers. No New Zealand Prime Minister has had to confront such a sequence of domestic and international catastrophes – from ...
Jacinda Ardern's shock resignation announcement today has left a lot of us with a lot of complicated feelings. In my case, while I've been highly critical of Ardern's government, I'm still sorry to see her go. We've had far too many terrible things happen during her term as Prime Minister ...
The decision by Jacinda Ardern to end her term as Prime Minister on February 7 has come as a stunning surprise. It turns the task of a centre-left government winning re-election this year from difficult to nigh on impossible. No-one else among the Labour caucus has Ardern’s ability to explain ...
Jacinda Ardern’s first press conference as Labour leader in August 2017 was a defining moment in the past decade of New Zealand politics. A young woman (by the standards of politics) who had long been tipped for higher office, she had underperformed as a minister and Andrew Little’s noble resignation ...
The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party says. ...
Members of Parliament for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand have today written to Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Khamenei to condemn the ongoing violence and killing of women’s rights and democracy protesters, and to call on him to intervene immediately. ...
As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland. “I’d urge people to follow the advice of authorities and check Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information. As always, the Government ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
The 2023 General Election will be held on Saturday 14 October 2023, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “Announcing the election date early in the year provides New Zealanders with certainty and has become the practice of this Government and the previous one, and I believe is best practice,” Jacinda ...
Jacinda Ardern has announced she will step down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Her resignation will take effect on the appointment of a new Prime Minister. A caucus vote to elect a new Party Leader will occur in 3 days’ time on Sunday the 22nd of ...
The Government is maintaining its strong trade focus in 2023 with Trade and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visiting Europe this week to discuss the role of agricultural trade in climate change and food security, WTO reform and New Zealand agricultural innovation. Damien O’Connor will travel tomorrow to Switzerland to attend the ...
The Government has extended its medium-scale classification of Cyclone Hale to the Wairarapa after assessing storm damage to the eastern coastline of the region. “We’re making up to $80,000 available to the East Coast Rural Support Trust to help farmers and growers recover from the significant damage in the region,” ...
The Government is making an initial contribution of $150,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Tairāwhiti following ex-Tropical Cyclone Hale, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “While Cyclone Hale has caused widespread heavy rain, flooding and high winds across many parts of the North Island, Tairāwhiti ...
Rural Communities Minister Damien O’Connor has classified this week’s Cyclone Hale that caused significant flood damage across the Tairāwhiti/Gisborne District as a medium-scale adverse event, unlocking Government support for farmers and growers. “We’re making up to $100,000 available to help coordinate efforts as farmers and growers recover from the heavy ...
A vaccine for people at risk of mpox (Monkeypox) will be available if prescribed by a medical practitioner to people who meet eligibility criteria from Monday 16 January, says Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall. 5,000 vials of the vaccine have been obtained, enough for up to 20,000 ...
RNZ News Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has acknowledged the way Aucklanders have come together and opened their homes to those in need, with the New Zealand government focused on providing the resources needed to get the city back up and running. The new prime minister — just four days into ...
RNZ News Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty has asked for communication on support after the severe thunderstorm in Auckland to be stepped up. It comes after a Civil Defence warning text failed to be sent out, and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown told RNZ they will be reviewing the response, ...
RNZ News Three people are dead and at least one person is missing following the flooding overnight in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. About 1000 people were still stranded today after Auckland Airport was closed last night because of flooding of the arrival and departure foyers. Flights were cancelled for ...
Wayne Brown has doubled down on his decision last night to shun the media until close to midnight and only order a state of emergency at 9.30pm. In a defensive display to the media this afternoon, the Auckland mayor was questioned on comments other councillors made last night, including some ...
Prime minister Chris Hipkins has confirmed there are three deaths linked to the extreme weather event in Auckland over the past 24 hours. There is also at least one person missing. Speaking at a press conference in Auckland, Hipkins said the priority was to make sure Aucklanders were safe, housed ...
*This story was first published on The Conversation and is republished with permission*Until New Zealand's stormwater drain system adapts to our rising climate, it will never be able to cope with the level of flooding seen in Auckland on Friday night, writes James Renwick The extraordinary flood event Auckland experienced ...
Chris Hipkins has experienced his first major event as prime minister, just days into his tenure. He’s spent the day in Auckland alongside emergency services, surveying the damage and assessing next steps. He’s due to speak at 3.15pm alongside Auckland mayor Wayne Brown. Thanks to Stuff, here is a livestream. ...
Due to the “unprecedented weather event” in Auckland, organisers have confirmed the “heartbreaking decision” to cancel this year’s Laneway Festival. “We were so excited to deliver this show to our biggest crowd ever in New Zealand, our team has been working around the clock to do everything they can to ...
With the rain easing for a moment, many will be beginning the arduous task of cleaning out their flooded property. Auckland council has release advice for cleaning up after a flood. Cleaning up after a flood It is important to clean and dry your house and everything in it. Floodwater ...
Air New Zealand Chief Operational Integrity and Safety Officer Captain David Morgan says the airline’s domestic flights in and out of Auckland resumed from 12pm today as Auckland Airport re-opens. But he said with a backlog of flights and customers, the priority is those who need to travel urgently. “Those ...
Festival-goers holding on hope for Laneway, set to take place at Western Springs on Monday, will have to wait a bit longer for an official update. A brief post on Facebook this afternoon stated: “Safety is Laneway Festival’s number one priority. With the large weather event Auckland is currently experiencing, ...
Wayne Brown has defended the timing of a declaration of a state of emergency last night following record rainfall in Auckland. “The state of emergency is a prescribed process, it’s quite formal, and I had to wait until I had the official request from the emergency management centre. The moment ...
After the 11th hour cancellation last night, Elton John has cancelled the second concert of his farewell tour at Mt Smart, which had been scheduled for this evening. In a statement, John said: “Following the instruction of the emergency services, we have no option but to cancel tonight’s show in ...
The member of parliament for Mt Albert, Jacinda Ardern, has posted a message on Facebook following the flooding in Auckland. “I’m very conscious that it’s been a while since I posted, and there have been a few big things happening. But today the most important thing is everyone’s wellbeing and ...
Flooding of the runway, the check-in and arrivals areas on the ground floor and surrounding roads has disrupted operations at Auckland International, halting all departures until at least 5pm today, with no arrivals before 4:30am tomorrow. “People are asked not to come to the International Terminal at this time for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Renwick, Professor, Physical Geography (climate science), Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Victoria Park near the Auckland CBD on January 27.Getty Images The extraordinary flood event Auckland experienced on the night of January 27, the eve of the ...
New Zealand’s largest insurance group, IAG, says it is on track to receive more than 1,100 claims from Aucklanders by lunchtime after the city was deluged in the wettest day on record. Those claims, said the group which includes AMI, State and NZI Insurance, span property damage to homes and ...
The rampant flooding in Auckland didn’t just detonate its provincial public holiday weekend – it coincided with the biggest weekend of the year to date for live events. A pair of Elton John concerts at Mt Smart stadium had a combined capacity of over 80,000, while both Laneway at Western ...
Auckland is beginning a clean-up after its wettest day since records began. “Auckland was clobbered on Friday,” said emergency management duty controller Andrew Clark. “We won’t start to get a good idea of numbers affected until later today and, even then, this will take time, with information still coming in ...
The prime minister, Chris Hipkins, is travelling to Auckland after devastating floods hit the city overnight. With the airport out of operation until at least midday, he is landing at Whenuapai air base on a New Zealand Defence Force Hercules aircraft from Wellington. ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has arrived in Auckland for a daylong visit to the city following its catastrophic flood on Friday night. Flying in an Air Force Hercules to Whenuapai, Hipkins will spend roughly three hours on the ground assessing flood damage in the city before returning. He will receive ...
A quirk of timing left all Auckland’s institutions on the back foot. But social media, particularly TikTok, graphically showed just how bad the situation was. Late afternoon on a Friday is known as time to quietly drop bad news. You have the plausible deniability of it happening during work hours, ...
It’s a common sight during summer. It’s also a recipe for disaster.I recently drove with my family from New Plymouth to Tāmaki Makaurau and, just like how I lost count of how many cows I saw on the way, I lost count of how many cars had a passenger ...
Opinion - Election year has begun with a bang, and already the punditry and speculation are ramping up, but Grant Duncan warns not to treat polls as gospel. ...
New Zealand’s new prime minister, Chris Hipkins, is formally facing down an emergency just a few days after being sworn in, summoning the National Crisis Management Centre to the Beehive. The Beehive Bunker is being stood up to help with coordination of the emergency response in Auckland. I’ve asked ...
Analysis - Jacinda Ardern is one of New Zealand's most historically significant leaders. But she did not achieve the grand vision for Aotearoa her outsized rhetoric promised. ...
Brits abroad can be an asset to Aotearoa - but only if we make an effort to engage with te ao Māori, writes Scottish expat Fran Barclay Earlier this week, the UK High Commissioner signalled a promising intention to address the barriers facing young Māori and Pasifika who aspire to ...
"They want the Māoris out": provincial life in NZShe hadn’t learned to shut her mouth. Howard was tired of Councillor Kemp harping on and on and on. He pushed himself deeper into the boardroom chair and leaned back as far as he could force it. This woman had ranted ...
Positive affirmation quotes often aren’t helpful for tāngata whai ora. But taking the piss out of them can be. Early in January, on the first day of what would be a week of staying in bed with the curtains pulled, I put a disappointingaffirmations Instagram post up on my stories. ...
Ellen Rykers visits Mahakirau Forest Estate, ‘a crown jewel in the Coromandel Range’, where pest control is serious business.This is an excerpt from our weekly environment newsletter Future Proof – sign up here. The Mahakirau Forest Estate is not your average subdivision. Enter through its tall ...
As Auckland tackles severe floods and the city’s airport emerges from a deluge on both the runway and in terminals, Air New Zealand has confirmed that no flights will leave or arrive before noon on Saturday at the earliest. In a statement, the airline said anyone booked for a flight ...
RNZ News Mayor Wayne Brown has shut down criticism that he was too slow in declaring a state of emergency after severe flooding in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. In a media stand-up late on Friday evening, Brown said he was following advice from experts and as soon as they ...
The Prime Minister has gone down to the Beehive bunker to help coordinate the emergency response, as the Insurance Council warns some Aucklanders whose homes and business are flooded face very hard times ahead. Jonathan Milne reports.Comment: Standing by the south-western motorway, I watched in dismay as hundreds of cars ...
A state of emergency has been declared in Auckland as severe weather causes major flooding across much of the city. It’s expected the rain will continue into the morning. This post will be updated as more information is shared.What does a state of emergency mean? A state of emergency ...
Auckland’s mayor Wayne Brown said he declared an emergency in Auckland as soon as he possibly could – and he made the decision without listening to the “clamour” of the public. There has been some criticism of the mayor for his relative silence today throughout the deadly flooding that’s hit ...
Welcome to a special late night edition of The Spinoff’s live updates as Auckland enters a state of emergency. Stewart Sowman-Lund is on deck, with help from our news team.The top linesAuckland is in a state of emergency. It will remain in place for seven ...
Prime minister Chris Hipkins is pleased the call was made to declare a state of emergency in Auckland. All government agencies were working “flat out” to help in what was an “extraordinary set of circumstances”, Hipkins said in a tweet. “The emergency response is underway and the government is ready ...
Auckland’s mayor Wayne Brown has released a statement following the decision to declare a state of emergency in Auckland. Brown has faced criticism this evening for his relative silence throughout today’s major flooding, with the first public pronouncement of the state of emergency coming from his deputy. Brown said the ...
Christopher Luxon has criticised the time it took for the state of emergency in Auckland to be declared. The National Party leader is currently in Southland, but told Today FM he intends to get back to Auckland as soon as possible. Earlier in the night, Luxon sent a tweet “urging” ...
Here is, verbatim, that latest information we have from Civil Defence on tonight’s state of emergency in Auckland: Auckland Emergency Management has opened a Civil Defence Centre to assist those that have been displaced or need assistance following today’s severe weather. The centre is open now and is based at ...
Severe flooding has ravaged Auckland today but the mayor of the city is barely visible. As I write, the airport has flooded, check-in areas looking like a public pool. Motorways are overflowing and cars have been seen floating down streets like a river. A person has died in floodwaters in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Treasurer Jim Chalmers has laid out an economic blueprint for pursuing “values-based capitalism”, involving public-private co-investment and collaboration and the renovation of key economic institutions and markets. In a 6000-word essay in The Monthly ...
This is live coverage of the developing situation in Auckland. We will continue to update this with photos and information as it comes to hand. After a day of torrential rain, and new reports of at least one death in the flood water, a state of emergency has been declared ...
Fans are describing Auckland Transport's plans to help them get to and from Elton John's concerts in the supercity this weekend as a fiasco with tonight's concert now cancelled due to the weather. Two concerts were due at Mt Smart Stadium before tonight's concert was called off in the face ...
A state of emergency has been declared in Auckland due to severe flooding that has caused people to evacuate their homes. It was officially declared at 9.54pm. Meanwhile, Auckland Airport has closed its international terminal check-in due to flooding inside the building. The airport says it is sincerely sorry to ...
RNZ News Residents in flood-prone areas of West Auckland are being asked to prepare to evacuate as bad weather causes power cuts and car crashes across Tāmaki Makaurau, with a severe thunderstorm watch in place for the north of Aotearoa New Zealand. Auckland Emergency Management said the severe weather across ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Ward, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Queensland Five years ago, bulldozers with chains cleared forests and woodlands almost triple the size of the Australian Capital Territory in a single year. Brazil? Indonesia? No – much closer: Queensland. In 2018-19, ...
Auckland Transport has apologised for confusing messaging that suggested attendees of tonight’s Elton John concert should drive. In a post on Facebook last night, AT said “driving to the concert is recommended” – a suggestion that prompted backlash due to the lack of parking options near the stadium. The announcement ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Tingay, John Curtin Distinguished Professor (Radio Astronomy), Curtin University Asteroid 20223 BU’s path in red, with green showing the orbit of geosynchronous satellites.NASA/JPL-Caltech There are hundreds of millions of asteroids in our Solar System, which means new asteroids are discovered ...
In his memoir Spare, Prince Harry revealed he attended the future King and Queen of England’s wedding with a frostbitten penis. A veteran of Antarctic expeditions says it’s not an issue that crops up often, if at all.Now that the avalanche of coverage about the Duke of Sussex’s memoir ...
A new poem by Wellington poet and publisher Ash Davida Jane. objects in the mirror are closer than they appear if a dog digs in the right spot and unearths a rib what do I care if a woman grows from that bone take her in and tend to her ...
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.AUCKLAND1Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Grove Press, $25) Everyone’s chowing down on fiction ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hazel, Associate Professor, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide schankz/Shutterstock Have you ever worried if the play between your cats was getting too rough? A new study published in Scientific Reports has investigated play and fighting ...
More water than anything else, the cucumber is the perfect counter to intense and fiery flavours. Cucumber is without a doubt the most refreshing vegetable*, the antidote to hot summer days. At 95% water, a cucumber is basically an edible, crunchy, waste-free water bottle. Beside water, the cucumber has almost ...
REVIEW:By Rowan Callick Radio Australia was conceived at the beginning of the Second World War out of Canberra’s desire to counter Japanese propaganda in the Pacific. More than 70 years later its rebirth is being driven by a similarly urgent need to counter propaganda, this time from China. Set ...
The yellow brick road to Mt Smart stadium looks to be packed this weekend as thousands travel to dual Elton John concerts In the words of pop royal Elton John, “I think it’s going to be a long, long time” - in this case for the 40,000 odd concert-goers driving ...
The decision by Sport Northland to deny 'Stop Co-Governance', a community group, use of their Whangarei venue to hold a public meeting is illegal and defies the rights given to all Kiwis to voice their political opinions. This case, yet again, illustrates ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rolf Gerritsen, Professorial Research Fellow, Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University The supposed dimensions of the “crisis” in Alice Springs have been exhaustively portrayed in the media, both nationally and in the Northern Territory. The stories abound: shopfront windows repeatedly broken, groups of ...
Children’s Commissioner, Judge Frances Eivers: "Myself and previous Commissioners have been clear that the use of motels at all is deplorable, and a symptom of a system that is failing children. "Concerns around the practice have been raised repeatedly ...
Everything you need to know to get through the chaotic commute to to the Elton John concert in Tāmaki Mākaurau this weekend. Fans heading to Elton John’s concerts at Mt Smart Stadium this weekend have been advised to drive or walk thereby Auckland Transport (AT). In a Facebook post ...
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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).
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.
You've made my day
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
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.
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