What a combination bank notes, screens, stainless steel, glass, plastic and cooler temperatures. It is not hard to see how community transmission is spread without coughing, sneezing or talking occurring.
Mask wearing, distancing, hand washing, testing, contact tracing and isolation, were this not to occur the number of infections would be far greater. The second wave in the Northern Hemisphere is looking far worse than the first wave.
Victoria and NSW have given up on eliminating and the quote is that they are going to try to control but understand that it will keep 'bobbing along'. The point is made that there are many borders, it is a big land mass, more than NZ. And, hopefully, they have not run down their medical systems as we have.
They are making plenty of money from us, which leads to our skewed economy, hopefully they are putting their bank and supermarket profits into useful infrastructure and services over there.
Just to remind ourselves of the various control methods for Covid 19 from our NZESR:
Aug 3, 2020 — Despite its mutations, the virus shows little variability, and this is good news for … virus causing the COVID–19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, presents at least six strains. … The original one is the L strain, that appeared in Wuhan in December 2019. … 14, 2020 — In a new paper, experts comment on the future of …
In an audit of New Zealand's genome sequencing programme, EPA chief science advisor Michael Bunce recommended the Government prioritise genomic surveillance of the virus to monitor potentially dangerous mutations.
"Aotearoa New Zealand needs to embrace genomic tools and analyses for long-term monitoring of viral evolution. This is not simply an academic exercise, rather there is a pressing need to monitor the viral lineages that are circulating (akin to seasonal influenza tracking)," he wrote.
But the slow rate of mutation – just 24 a year on average – should remain a solace both to researchers working on vaccines and the rest of us, who hope to one day take one.
I see that vaccines such as the BCG are being looked at. Modifying the BCG has as much chance as something undiscovered. A proven vaccine is the best possible outcome to manage Covid – 19.
Sounds good. Hope it works. Talk I previously heard is that we may end up with a yearly vaccine tailored to the most outrageous of the nasty dots wanting to get at us. Similar to the present flu vaccine but additional to.
Scanning the Herald this morning, just noted they are charging for an article that was published in The Independent (UK) yesterday….on a Murdoch leaving his father’s (Rupert) company.
But in his briskly analytical way, over lunch and a subsequent phone call, he tried to explain why he "pulled the rip cord," as he put it, after deepening estrangement with his father and brother and growing discomfort over the toxicity of Fox News and other conservative News Corp properties.
"I reached the conclusion that you can venerate a contest of ideas, if you will, and we all do and that's important," he told me. "But it shouldn't be in a way that hides agendas. A contest of ideas shouldn't be used to legitimise disinformation. And I think it's often taken advantage of. And I think at great news organisations, the mission really should be to introduce fact to disperse doubt — not to sow doubt to obscure fact, if you will.
I was wondering how Rupert could look himself in the face. Let alone his recent missus. It must be clear to him now it's got down to a war on democratic processes. And the affront to his journalistic instincts of Trumpism.
Richard Harman on his Politik website is suggesting that Collins has had to rejig her campaign diary in this final week. She’s now not going to Tauranga (a visit that somehow Simon Bridges wasn’t even aware of) and instead will head to Hamilton where, according to Harman , the two National held seats are now at risk.
POLITIK understands that Collins and the party hierarchy believe they have identified the MP who leaked the email. The MP cannot be named for legal reasons, but they are in the top 20 of the caucus and to put it on the record, it is neither Lee nor Simon Bridges.
Collins has apparently confronted the MP, and three separate sources have told POLITIK that her approach was greeted with what one described as a tirade.
‘However, the aim to expand the use of biometrics for multiple uses by Crown agencies is clear in documents obtained under the Official Information Act from Internal Affairs, the police and others.’
"The business outcome… is to deliver a fit-for-purpose and supported Facial Recognition Solution that will increase productivity, reduce cost and extend the capability across and beyond" the Service Delivery and Operations branch, said a privacy assessment of the DXC system by Internal Affairs.
Police tender documents show they sought out a system that could be used in the future to import drivers' licence and passport photos, and masses more facial images than currently, though police deny they will use their Dataworks Plus-NEC system for that.
"the company has been criticised in the UK for being less than transparent about how these all-important algorithms 'learn' who to raise the alarm about."
When it comes to identifying a person for a specific reason proper facial recognition is required. It is the use of the information gathered which needs to be administered according to legislation which is clear and understood.
Would you have an issue with police using a body webcam on a normal shift?
Nothing is required! There is a big difference between some local camera on a local cop recording a personal local interaction and scanning everyone that passes a particular place or uses a particular service.
There is no reason for surveillance of the public going about their lawful business and any law and order stuff is just rubbish. How many people would be scanned to pick up the one person in years doing some thing they shouldn't that couldn't be identified in any other way.
Labour need to get on top of this pronto. The chilling sight of China selling the system they use on the Uighers to Iran should stop anyone in their tracks
Somehow we managed to identify people adequately before facial recognition. Once it's in it will be very hard to get it out. Plus extending to private firms -who thought that was a good idea.
I'm still a no -any safeguards would be gone by lunchtime with a right wing government.
The other problem is a camera with bad lighting using technology that routinely has difficulty correctly identifying people of colour in ideal conditions has a high likelihood of not just rounding up the usual suspects, but forcing the suspects to prove their innocence because "computer says you were there".
And a proprietary algorithm that the defence can't interrogate or examine? Not only would they have to prove the computer wrong to discount that piece of "evidence", disagreeing with it would make them look like liars and therefore lower the weight of the other evidence they present. You know, stuff like true alibis.
I am with you on this RBCV, however I feel we will be in the minority.
We have access to a bach near Taupo, on a street running to the lake with a river on one side.
A mix of locals and bach owners concerned with crime have put a digital CCTV camera up. Thru a FB page they have lobbied folk to gauge enthusiasm for $ to maintain the device.
Overwhelmingly in favour is how would describe the response. I have asked a couple of questions e.g., who 'owns' the data, how they intend to deal with privacy issues should they arise. Not got an answer yet….
I was a little surprised at the enthusiasm, but I live rurally and a dog is about the extent of our security. We don't lock doors and about half the windows.
"5.Street surveillance The concept of a “public place” is changing subtly but very significantly with the increasing use of surveillance systems. "
Also ….I have personal experience of Employer Surveillance…I pushed back HARD. Union, Community Law etc, There was theft. Turns out it the end (long trail ) it was a "manager". But WE all got surveillance. Camera in smoko room !! And its still there. Fark ..pissed off.
4.2.1 Absolutely !! And an FYI for anyone… When the whole 5 Eyes spy BS was started. Fark I debated and pushed back many times AGAINST John Key and the nats trying to have surveillance on ALL of us.
Now Labour is going there?
And re the Police, SIS etc? They already have more than enough Laws and Tech to do their jobs. Have done for Years.
Leaving aside the total bullshit around National’s lies about the Green’s Wealth Tax, it’s the target audience that’s probably the most interesting aspect.
The party has been forced, in the last week, to roll out some pretty crude scare tactics to try and regather one of its usually most constant voting cohorts, wealthy, mortgage free retired kiwis.
The wealthy mortgage free retired Kiwis are the new Act Party voters.
Seymour is going to be the big winner next Saturday when it comes to a comparison on how much a leader has grown their party. His end of life bill will probably pass, as it is not harmful to others apart from immediate family starting the grieving process earlier than they would have.
This one is going to accelerate changes already in train. The Americans are no longer going to provide the default security guarantee and global trade structure; we are going to rapidly see a number of powers attempt to occupy the vacuum created. It will be messy.
It was going to be about a decade off, now it's next year or so.
Is it going to be a replication of the triumphalist superpower in full spectrum domination , or perhaps something more mature and multi polar, where we accept flux and negotiation.Who knows, the art of true diplomacy may come to the fore
It's going to be a bumpy ride the next little while though
Greywarshark could also read 'Nature's Mutiny' by Blom. About the little ice age from about 1580 to 1670 and the profound effect it had on society.
In the early years they burned a few witches to appease an angry God when crops failed. When that didn't seem to work the people turned to other solutions. By the end of the century of low temperatures a embryonic capitalistic system was embedded in Europe.
A very readable and insightful book.
Climate change is going to have profound effects on life.
global temperatures dropped approximately 1°C around the year 1400. By the 1500s, the temperature drop had reached 2°C, resulting in extreme weather events. England’s historically temperate Thames River froze over five times between 1400 and 1550, and between 1551 and 1700 it was covered in thick ice 12 times.
Harvests failed during this period, and for a social world largely centered on grain production, this was a disaster. Peasants starved and could no longer pay their masters. Various “messiahs, seers, occultists, witches, magicians, and charlatans” proffered explanations of nature’s nervous breakdown, and a frenzy of finger-pointing led to rampant torture and burning of scapegoats.
Blom suggests that the crisis in agriculture led to a vast reorganization of land use and land ownership, which changed social structures and power relationships. Farms and estates that once operated in a self-enclosed system began to produce more efficiently and to look to long-distance trade. To facilitate the new system of production and far-flung markets, regulatory bodies were established, and roads were built. European powers looking outward identified whole continents full of natural resources that they enthusiastically plundered, ushering in the age of colonialism.
There are monastry wine makers records that show that the cold from about 1590 was preceded by a very warm period when it was possible for picknickers to walk across the Rhine at Frankfurt even by ladies in the volumnous dresses of the day and only get their feet a little wet, according to Hugh Johnson in The Story of Wine and this year The Little Ice Age by Prof Brian Fagan of University of California Santa Barbara. Both excellent reads esp Fagans on how climate has shaped our history.
Of immediate concern to those in western Europe is the state of health of the Gulf Stream. Once, about 13,000 years ago, a vast frozen lake in north America melted and, in a remarkably short period of time (in geological terms), dumped its freshwater contents into the Sea of Labrador. The Gulf Stream, which is only a small part of the planet-girdling "conveyor belt" of ocean currents, came to a halt. An icy chill hit Europe, and drought settled on the Middle East. This incident, known as the Younger Dryas, was a mere blip in the Earth's gradual recovery from the Ice Age, but it lasted for 1,000 years.
At present, the icecap on Greenland is leaking cold meltwater into the north Atlantic at the same rate as the Nile empties into the Mediterranean. This alone should concentrate the minds of the politicians, economists and farmers. Halting the Gulf Stream might be Earth's compensatory way of restoring an icecap to the North Pole, but in the process it will be farewell to everything and everybody north of Morocco.
It's sort of an attack on democracy really – people who are supposed to be able to form modern joined-up thoughts and put their reasoned thinking into choosing a capable leader with wide knowledge and the wisdom to apply it for the good of everyone. I don't feel encouraged about getting a good outcome from the brainwork of citizens revelling in this sort of graffiti. And witches are so passe' aren't they. Aren't they?
Well, we need a war govt to deal with climate change, so that is socialism. Though National is slipping away from recognition of climate change to engineer more immediate rewards for themselves.
Be interesting to see if Ardern heads to Auckland Central in this last week? Winning is still an uphill battle for Swarbrick but she’s clearly in another league from White and Mellow.
" Winning is still an uphill battle for Swarbrick but she’s clearly in another league from White and Mellow "
Yes from what i have seen of White and Mellow ( sounds like an accounting firm ) Swarbrick would be a marvellous asset for the good people of Auckland Central.
Yesterday I received an unsolicited and personalised email from Judith Collins. Its content, which is fear mongering at its worst, is attempting to link Labour policy to the Green's Wealth Tax proposal. Jacinda Ardern has stated quite categorically that this is not true and so scurrilous misinformation.
It is obviously aimed at gold card holders and a number of my acquaintances, who share my indignation, have also received it.
The serious question is, how did the National Party obtain those email addresses. If they came from a Grey Power data base or even a Gold Card data base then this must be a breach of privacy which should be investigated. Do others share my concern.
Ask the sender of this email how they obtained you email address. You could also get assurance from your grey power chairperson that they've not given it to any marketing outfit.
But how they would get your email address from a gold card database. Is there such a thing?
Grey Power need looking into telling members to vote no on the cannabis reeferendum without consulting members when 70% of elderly people are for a yes vote.
“Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she will reconsider a decision to deny a grieving British family entry to New Zealand.
Ardern said this morning that she stood by a decision not to let yachts in the Pacific dock here during the Covid-19 pandemic.
She said she did not want a scenario in which people could not fly into New Zealand but could sail in.”
The blue water yachts sailing the world oceans have annually migrated and brought business to New Zealand when they sailed away from the tropical areas of the Pacific to avoid being there in the hurricane season. To sail from Tahiti to NZ, as this family will have to do , will take about 20 days so they will not arrive Covid stricken.
I bet the super yacht owners and all their friends will be “facilitated” to come to NZ in time for the Americas Cup Races – but will the lovers and friends ( those that do not have “partner” status) of New Zealanders currently held at bay overseas , be invited in first. What wins MONEY of Kiwi happiness ? Right now I am ashamed to be a New Zealander.
But surely the blue water yachts have had the sense to lay up at this time. Surely they can't have thought they could drift through the carnage unaffected, munching their lotuses?
RL, frankly the opinionated tosh coming from people who appear to have a poor grasp of pandemic epidemiology and what's at stake globally has been… an eye-opener. On 2 October, you wrote (in separate comments):
The daily number of new COVID infections continues to outstrip recovered cases, so the number of active COVID cases globally continues to rise. On 2 October, when you boldly and repeatedly opined "It's over", the number of active cases was apparently 7.72 million; currently there are 8.31 million infected patients.
Officially, COVID-19 has infected less than 0.5% of humans , so it seems unlikely that "it's over", even allowing for vitamin D supplementation and whatever other 'magic bullet' / 'snake oil' straws one might want to clutch at. Apologies for doing "this one to death" (an unfortunate choice of words), but your opinion on this particular aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic are misleading and dangerous to public health, IMHO.
Edit: Reading those two quotes again, you appear to be implying that those critiquing your opinions might want COVID-19-related illness and death to continue – pretty offensive.
Take your complaint to WHO. They've come out this week against continued lockdowns as the only tool against Covid.
We now have an array of smarter, less blunt, tools to help manage this disease. And in the week since I made those quotes above, it looks like a lot of qualified medical people are thinking along similar lines.
RL, my "complaint" is that you are promulgating the idea that the COVID-19 pandemic is over. Don't lean too hard on the WHO for support; how do you imagine that organisation, or indeed “a lot of qualified medical people” would respond to your assertion that "It's over"?
“We now have an array of smarter, less blunt, tools to help manage” diabetic conditions, but diabetes isn’t over.
You can delude yourself as much as you want, but please don’t mislead others.
It's over from a strategic perspective. Its no longer an unknown, uncontrolled threat. Which means we can start thinking about what comes next.
I’ve made this distinction clear enough already, but obviously it suits you to pretend otherwise.
Diabetes kills between 1 – 2m people each year, and we manage it without resort to extraordinary measures that have huge costs to the whole of society. Covid is going to eventually become something similar.
All comparisons are flawed. But it was DMK who made it in the first place.
But let's see, we could probably stop diabetes in its tracks if govts exerted a complete totalitarian control over diet and exercise. Comfortable with that?
Doing it for a month or so would have minimal effect on diabetes. It would also require carefully tailored programmes for each individual, lest heart attack rates and other comorbidities skyrocket.
L4 for a month or so saved thousands of NZers' lives, and means we can go to sports games without it being a "super-spreader" event.
In short, your comparison could well make the diabetes problem worse, while the "totalitarian" action actually imposed has led to greater freedoms than many other nations currently have.
You could have written 'It's not [anywhere near] over, yet', but that wouldn't have suited your argument/position, so you chose to deceive and wrote "It's over" – twice. And now your writing that:
"It's over from a strategic perspective. Its no longer an unknown, uncontrolled threat."
I personally believe it’s simply more “opinionated tosh” to assert that COVID-19 is "no longer an uncontrolled threat". Recorded daily global deaths have been between 4,000 and 6,000 since 28 April, and currently at 5,285 (7-day moving average) – ffs, think for a moment if the families and friends of the thousands of people who will die tomorrow due to COVID-19 infections view it as 'over' – that’s a morally repugnant view IMHO.
Your point of view remains a mystery to me, moreso because you previously stated that:
"We still have some way to go to properly understand the epidemiology of this virus."
I get that you want the COVID-19 pandemic to be over. I certainly wish it was over. But no amount of wanting and wishing by us will make a blind bit of difference. The COVID-19 pandemic is what it is, and it's NOT over, "from a strategic perspective" or otherwise. You're position on this issue is simply not credible or rational, and I can only conclude that irrationality is at the root of your apparent need to dig yourself ever deeper.
The remarkable thing about the global daily death rate is how stable it is now. This is not a pandemic spiralling out of control. It represents less than 4% of all deaths, despite the case rate continuing to climb.
Also check the data we do have for the excess death rate. This paints another picture again
a regular 10-20% increase in some nations weekly mortality is "almost back to normal"?
Only because the peaks before substantial numbers of people did what the governments were too cowardly or corrupt to require. So now we have places like the US, where huge numbers of people are in lockdown (voluntary or locally-mandated) for months while others hug each other at maskless political events, just to keep it ticking over.
I, for one, don't want to risk an "almost normal" 20% increase in mortality in NZ.
It's a "remarkable thing" that we can have such different opinions about what a stable global COVID-19 death rate of 5,000 (give or take) per day means for the pandemic. Your evolving position:
"…but it's over"
"…but from an epidemiology perspective… it's over"
"It's over from a strategic perspective."
is an intriguing one, but I'm not convinced your selected words accurately reflect the current stage of the pandemic.
Hopefully the COVID-19 case and fatality rates will begin to edge down within a few months, and your "it's over" will eventually match pandemic reality – maybe when (or if) a moderately effective vaccine is widely available. But if the COVID-19 trajectories of some other OECD countries are anything to go by, then letting our guard down is just asking for trouble.
fatality rates will begin to edge down within a few months
And a quick glimpse of the data clearly shows that despite a rising number of cases globally, the number of deaths is stable. This absolutely means the Case Fatality Rate must be declining and has been for months … good news.
But if the COVID-19 trajectories of some other OECD countries are anything to go by, then letting our guard down is just asking for trouble.
Nonetheless the shape of these curves is broadly similar, a bump and then a decline back to nearly normal or below. Even Sweden where they never put their guard up much in the first place.
Someone might just look at them all and conclude that from the perspective of why we did the lockdowns and travel bans back in March … it's effectively over. Globally it's not exponentially spiralling out of control, and we now have an array of tools to manage this disease in the usual way. Lockdowns should no longer be the primary tool that govts reach to.
Possibly more “controversial” for NZ than for the nine OECD countries with rates of COVID-19 deaths per million at least 100 times ours. Might relaxing NZ’s border controls now be likened to gradually decreasing the concentration of fluoride in drinking water?
It's hardly surprising that a global pandemic would increase inequality and so hardship, but is the optimal solution really to allow the virus to spread until herd immunity (still rather contentious for COVID – remember your perceptive comment regarding our incomplete understanding of COVID epidemiology) is established? This would appear to be advocating that the total number of COVID-19 cases globally should be allowed to increase to a point were there are roughly 100 times the number of people infected – this would presumably (somehow) occur in a controlled fashion. Still, I can't help wondering if there might be some other way to alleviate poverty – some other way. After all, there really is more than enough wealth to go around.
Don't know about Aussie, but found these links.
'Fatally flawed': AMA fires back at letter
"However, despite the good intentions of the medial experts’ letter, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has fired back, saying the letter is “fatally flawed’ and lifting restrictions too soon would only allow the virus to spread uncontrollably.
“Well, what we really say is do it all,” she responded. “We say don’t just do one thing. Don’t just rely on your border closure or your mass quarantine, do absolutely everything you can because where we are seeing a failure or we are seeing a rise in cases people have focused just one thing and this is again where lockdowns can be problematic.
“When people come out of lockdowns they think, ‘OK, it is over, we don’t have to do all of the other things any more’ and in fact it is all the other things that really work.”
He then asked her whether Australia should open its borders to the rest of the world.
“What we are seeing that really works is strong quarantine and strong monitoring at borders,” she said. “So if you are looking at, really following everybody who comes in, really putting them in quarantine, really putting them in quarantine, really making sure that happens, then we are certainly seeing that is what prevents transmission.”
In order to get some clarification, Karl asked whether this means we should open the borders but still enforce a two-week quarantine once people arrive.
Seems to relaxing border controls for NZ now would be akin to not finishing a course of antibiotics.
Yes. I get that, we saved lives at the front end, but now we're faced with another kind of challenge at the back end. It seems to me NZ is betting the farm on an effective vaccine.
At present NZ is nowhere near 'herd immunity', at whatever level you choose to put that number, effectively COVID has never really happened in NZ, which is forcing us into a posture of extreme vulnerability all the while waiting on a vaccine to rescue us. Is this really a sustainable strategy?
As I've said repeatedly, back in March when faced with many unknowns lockdowns were absolutely the right thing to do. But in six months the ground has shifted.
"As I've said repeatedly, back in March when faced with many unknowns lockdowns were absolutely the right thing to do. But in six months the ground has shifted."
With over a million dead, and at least as many seriously debilitated, the ground has indeed shifted – we now know that COVID-19 is a dangerous virus. I'll behave accordingly until a reliable treatment and/or vaccine is available – it's an easy personal choice to make here.
As NZ progressed down the COVID alert levels for the first time, we went to a popular local resaurant to celebrate level 3 –> 2. It was a little too popular, and wasn't observing the mandated health safety rules. Haven't been back – fortunately there are plenty of safety-conscious eateries to choose from.
"At present NZ is nowhere near 'herd immunity'", and as you point out we don't even know if as few as 50% of the population (or even less) would need to be infected to achieve effective herd immunity (if herd immunity is even possible for this virus.) If ~50% turns out to be the level of exposure required for herd immunity, then we're already ~1% of the way down that road – yay.
I'm under no illusions that economic considerations will eventually dominate health concerns, but I'll get (well) behind any government, health service, organisation and individual applying the brakes and urging caution, and drag my heels every step of the way.
Stamp it out, keep it out – "We don't know how lucky we are…", and I'd rather that didn't become "We don't know how lucky we were…"
Nah, a completely idiotic and in the long term, impossible dream. It will fail.
There are only two ways out of this, a vaccine or herd immunity.
The article I linked to on herd immunity above is a reasonably well balanced read on this. It could be a number as high as 70% based on a simple analysis, or as low as 20% if you start introducing other considerations. Differing specialists are making various argument. But NZ has effectively taken this possibility off the table for the time being.
So a vaccine it is … what if we never get one? How many more lockdowns can we do?
And here is a WHO spokesperson speaking to the NZ situation; effectively saying the same thing as I am. Use all the tools at your disposal, but don’t rely on lockdowns as your primary tool:
"There are only two ways out of this, a vaccine or herd immunity." – RL @8:47 am
You’ve repeatedly stated "it's over", so why do we need a 'way out'? Is the COVID-19 pandemic over, and if not then why were you promulgating the idea that it was?
Herd immunity remains a dream until ~50% of NZers have been infected; maybe not even then. At the moment ~1,800 NZers have been infected, so one of your "ways out" consists of letting the number of people who have been infected with COVID-19 rise (gradually?) to ~2,500,000. No thanks – that's a BIG fail, IMHO.
I'm not holding out much hope for an effective vaccine either, but that's still a better bet than banking on at least 2,500,000 NZers being infected.
If you're planning on returning to NZ anytime soon then you'll have to do the 14-day managed isolation, just like everyone else.
This it what I ve written elsewhere. Note I am in the business myself.
"While I would be inclined to support the yachties, being one myself, and living in an area where many jobs depend on boating and visitors. However New Zealand has hundreds of thousands asking for exemptions. Including industries that make a lot more than services, to notoriously frugal, cruisers. Every group that is exempted increases the risk, even if by a small amount. At the moment we have totally free movement within NZ, no covid outside isolation, and most of our industries working, unlike the USA. A resurgence puts all that at risk, including the many people, most of NZ, whose jobs depend on keeping covid out. The Government has to draw a line in the sand with our border, somewhere. As the more people we have to quarantine the greater the chances of more outbreaks. It is a numbers game. The more we let in the more risk. I'm an essential worker that travels around NZ. Very pleased our Government has kept covid away from me so far. Unlike similar people in other countries. People I knew in the USA are dead! Those ignoring the rules are somewhat arrogant, to say the least. Just look at the US reaction to those disobeying border rules. Indefinite detention without trial."
By the way there are a huge number of commercial ships crews that have been stuck on board for 17 months or more now. With no shore leave. Including in New Zealand.
On many ships little or no contact with family.
Having accidents after months of 12 hour split shifts.
No one gives a stuff about them. accept to crucify them if something goes wrong.
And you expect me to be worried about a few yachties. Who can fly home and pay a New Zealand crew to sail their boat to Opua, if it is that desperate.
Already pressure from our "poverty stricken" farmers and growers to let their slave labour back in. Not to mention the education sector wanting to resume their student scam. If they all had their way, as National is dog whistling, we would be back to 10’s of thousand of arrivals per month, in private quarantine.
If anyone should be given priority to enter NZ, it should be shore leave and repatriation for the ships crews, that deliver our groceries and depart with our exports.
KJT @ 7.49 am Really good explanation of why we should be maintaining our tight line on the borders. Then the government can decide who to let in on what basis and how to handle them. Well said.
Several thousand New Zealand citizens and permanent residents are arriving by air each week.
Any New Zealand citizens and permanent residents on yachts in the South Pacific have been free to return at any time. But if they arrive with crew that aren't currently eligible to arrive here considering the pandemic situation, then those crew members won't find a welcome. And if the yacht they arrive on isn't NZ owned etc, then that's problematic too.
"several thousands per week"might be considered overstating it….
"There was a net gain of 5200 New Zealand citizens between April and August this year, which was partially offset by a net loss of 3500 non-New Zealand citizens, leaving a net gain of 1700 overall."
and arrivals were 5200 between april and august…hardly several thousands per week.
"Statistics NZ estimated that in the 12 months to August, there was net population gain of 71,500 people from migration, with 98% of that gain occurring over the seven months prior to border restrictions being introduced."
If they arrive by air and are NZ citizens of course they permitted entry. The difference is that those coming by boat that are not permitted entry are not NZ citizens. How difficult is that to understand?
In the normal course of events they would have been granted visitor visas. That's what they were relying on when they set out.
If you got on a plane to a country like Australia with automatic visa entry, and half way into your flight the authorities of that country cancelled all entry, arrested you when you landed, put you in prison, deported you and fined you a sum equal to the value of your home, I think you would see this as unreasonable.
That's a gross misrepresentation. They've been made aware they’re not welcome before boarding, not mid-flight.
Circumstances change during travel. It happens. When you became aware that you're not welcome at your next intended destination, you change plans and routes before you leave where you are currently.
Once you depart the Eastern Pacific, the only practical destination for most is going to be Aus/NZ.
When I was connected to the industry, there were plenty of boats doing all kinds of alternative routes that I was aware of. Sure, they weren't all cushy downwind slides, some of them were long and uncomfortable slogs upwind. But they were doable and were being done.
In the right boat with a strong crew yes. But most short handed cruisers would be exhausted in less than a week.
Sailing upwind is doable for short legs, but for 3 – 4 weeks or more, it's not an option for most. Throw in the constant ocean swell and performance is even worse. Most cruising boats are not set up to do it for long periods, and things start to break.
If they don't travel here, the visa remains valid until its expiry date, but they can't use the visa to travel to and enter NZ currently. If they travel here and are refused entry, then the visa is cancelled automatically under the Immigration Act.
Qualified medical people are missing their employer funded or tax write off overseas conferences and sabbaticals, overseas holidays, au pairs, school student exchanges and the opportunity to host overseas colleagues. This is a source of bias towards thinking along similar lines. An elderly obese diabetic person would think along different lines I suspect, and rightly so.
The family can fly out of Tahiti- and assumedly could leave their boat there as well or at worse hire a kiwi yacht broker to sail it here and sell it. It's worth $1m.
They may not arrive covid free in NZ if they sailed with one infected person and it was transmitted to others during the voyage.
As for cyclones -this is a fact free zone by the media. The cyclone season is Nov- April. The pacific nations closed borders at the end of March. Boats were assumedly some where safe for the last cyclone season and basically have been unable to move since.
FP has only very limited exposure to cyclones. There has been a lot of links on that.
Covid 19 has an incubation period of around 5 days but it can incubate up to 14 days. Symptoms develop at the end of the incubation period. Tbe contagious period begins 2-3 days before symptoms begin and lasts for up to 10 days, or longer if symptoms persist.
With a little bad luck, a sailor could contract covid the day they left, become infectious around day 10 and infect the rest of the crew, experience mild symptoms around day 13 and then recover. The other crew, who may experience no symptoms at all, will likely be contagious as they disembark on day 20.
The other point is that those timeframes are the most probable ones, there will be statistical outliers.
And even if we're talking a solo sailor taking three weeks for the voyage, what if they have it upon arrival or require urgent help from within our rescue area only a part way through their "isolation"? Everyone in the crew compartment would be a close contact, and the chopper is down a crew for the next fortnight. Mostly because the sailor wants to sell their boat for a better price than in the islands.
This scenario is the same basis on which family groups are already treated. Are you telling me that quarantine for 14 days is far too short? You should alert the appropriate medical authorities.
It is not the same because in managed quaratine the original case would be tested on day 3 and 12, and checked daily for symptoms.
In addition, medical authorities do acknowledge that there is a risk that undetected infections may pass through MIQ. This is why only NZ residents are permitted entry and random yachties aren't.
Sighs … yet no-one is proposing that these yachties just get off the boat untested. As a group they've worked to develop a quarantine protocol that makes sense for their situation. In effect they'd be doing two quarantines, one at sea and another when they get here. If that isn't enough for you I don't know what would be.
I struggle to imagine any other group arriving with a lower risk profile than these people, and they'd self isolate on arrival in the safest possible manner. At almost no cost to NZ.
This is why only NZ residents are permitted entry and random yachties aren’t.
This isn't the biggest political issue of the year, but it sure has uncovered just how smugly irrational and mean spirited kiwis have become over their covid situation.
They want to come to New Zealand because they think they can sell their yacht quicker and for more money here.
However, Genda said it is almost impossible to sell their yacht in French Polynesia.
Auckland yacht brokers 36 degrees had urged the family to make the "utmost effort" to bring September AM to New Zealand because there were prospective buyers here – but none that could fly to Tahiti to view their yacht.
Genda said the family would soon have to sail their yacht from Tahiti for over a week to the French Polynesian island of Marquesas to be safe during the summer cyclone season.
"We hope that we spend the cyclone season [in Marquesas] and hopefully next year New Zealand will open up and then we can eventually sail the boat there for a sale.
In order for this to be viable they need visas and funds to stay in FP for that period. Plus somewhere they'll be allowed to anchor long term. And nothing else to go wrong.
It was an option for those Greman chancers that apparently decided instead to do a bandit run and see how it turned out for them (badly, they shoulda stayed where they were).
It's an option for the family at issue right here right now.
So far there hasn't been any of them with a woe is me story for whom it hasn't been an option. I'm gonna need actual evidence to be persuaded it's not option. Vague unbacked assertions won't cut it.
If they are EU citizens (including the UK currently), they can stay and work in Tahiti without special visas. Not much use for the North American travellers obviously.
I don't really get it. Is there a reason they can't stay in that part of the Pacific until cyclone season is finished, and then sail back to Europe and sell the yacht there?
They started sailing in Jan, by the end of Feb it was clear we were heading into a pandemic. NZ borders have been closed since mid-march. I appreciate they are grieving, but what have they been doing all year? The complaint about the America's cup is a big rich, given they were pretty much intending to go on holiday for a year. They can put their daughter into school in the Pacific until they can move on.
The America's cup is part of that whole Auckland exceptionalism thing – they think there might be a few votes in it – but real sailors, not so much. No salt in this govt's blood.
The blue water yachts sailing the world oceans have annually migrated and brought business to New Zealand…
Sounds like the godwits. These birds have been traversing the globe from time immemorial. They have birdbrains and are most adept at doing what their instincts tell them.
Whereas humans have few instincts, but large brains and we do not seem to be adept at using them to capacity. Pity we are such a failing species that we are taking ourselves down, and the rest of the animal crew on the planet as well who had adapted and knew their limits.
No not like Godwits, every year a different fleet of yachts arrive in the Pacific and many drop down to NZ for cyclone season shelter and boat repairs near the end of the safe sailing season, which is now. Yachts generally sail westwards along what we call the barefoot route.It takes most yachties about 3 years to sail right around the world This family left England in January 2019 . No covid in sight then.
It was understandable for everything to be shut done in the panic when Covid hit NZ. By now things like “yachts” coming into New Zealand should be reconsidered.
Actually the only reason we cannot have more people coming into NZ is because of the limitation of quarantine facilities for air travellers. Anyone arriving on a yacht to any country of the world is not allowed to disembark until a health check of all people on board has been undertaken and they are signed off as OK by a health department doctor. In the current situation , if the people on board did not get a clearance because maybe the signing off doctor thought, despite the time it took to sail here, that the captain and crew may be infectious or may yet become infectious with Covid then everybody stays on board until that clearance is given.
So really NZ could be opened up for yachties to arrive because they will not be needing our quarantining facilities.If they need to quarantine they will stay on their boats.
New Zealand is turning away the good seasonal business that comes with the yachties for no really sensible reason.
With the current case there is a humanatarian aspect.
The only people allowed into NZ are NZ citizens/residents, people on humantiarian grounds, and people that Labour believe bring some kind of urgent economic benefit. The family on the yacht don't fit into any of those categories.
Except humanitarian, they are grief-stricken as their 13 year old son was killed by a yobbo in a small boat in Tahiti who crashed into their yacht and they wish to return home and bury him and give up the cruising dream. I can understand that completely. Bit unfair to say "Harden up ".
We have the author of his story about being held on Manus Island speaking in Nelson soon. If you have a yacht you are entitled to have superior arrangements obviously, to all the other suffering people in the world.
The only people allowed into NZ ….. …. limited to NZ citizens etc because of our limited border / quarantining facilities. The family on the yacht do not need to go into our border quarantine facilities – they can quarantine on board if thought necessary.
250 post-grad students who already had visas and didn't make it here before the borders closed in March.
New Zealand's door has been opened to overseas students again – but only for 250 postgraduate students who will have to pay for their own quarantine.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins says the students must have had a visa to study in New Zealand at masters or doctoral level but were unable to get into the country when the border closed in March.
It is nice of Judith to have a photo OP with the man they are replacing her with after the election. I wonder if they have been discussing her big golden parachute exit out of parliament?
It's an interesting question, the future of National.
Some might argue that they don't have one, at least not as they are.
The Luxon waiting in the wings doesn't seen to have any splendid new ideas, and there's no sign thus far of them going to the mattresses to sort out what they stand for that the public could conceivably swallow.
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To buttress his argument that "a 4% swing from Labour to National or ACT in the last two weeks" of the current election campaign is certainly achievable (and thus "there is a credible path to victory for National") ,David Farrar cites polling evidence from the final stages of the 2002 campaign, suggesting the "Govt (ie Labour) dropped 5% from 46% to 41% in last two weeks".
What DPF doesn't mention is that in the same Colmar Brunton, the National Party Opposition suffered an even steeper plunge from 27% down 6 points to 21% over those same final 2 weeks.
In other words, far from the gap closing .. Labour's lead over the Nats during those final few weeks in 2002 opened up a little by 1.4 points. There was no "5% swing" from Govt to Oppo.
Still I never like the thought of tightrope walking. I would like to have seen planned electorate party voting by the Greens and Labour, in a keen left electorate, to be sure of one in Green hands. Pragmatic and legal, politics is the art of the possible etc.
Yes, strategic planning is unknown on the left still. The electorate is viewed as a market, so party providers are meant to promote their brands separately. Gambling on faith. Whereas the right get that democracy is a game, so to win you must figure out how best to game the system – not that they're much good at this in Aotearoa currently!
Politics as a sport. If we openly treated it as such, showing how people have allegiances with the brand and the team, we would understand why there is often little intellectual power put into the process and understand the outcome better.
Swordfish….but that doesn't mean it won't happen this time….and if the Greens get 4.9% Standardistas could wake up to Crusher as PM and ACT with 5 cabinet posts.
Based on current polls, the route to that happening would need 1% or 2% of the electorate shifting from Green to Labour, and a massive exodus of Labour voters to Nat.
Former Green voters aren't gonna go anywhere but to Labour (unless the nutter faction in Greens is waaay bigger than I thought and they go to Billy Te Kookiha). So if they do bail, then the 47%ish Labour are showing in the polls goes up closer to 50% vs a combined NACT vote around 40%.
To lift NACT above Labour, nearly 1 in 10 voters currently planning to vote Labour would need to swap to Nat. Disregarding the fact that over a quarter of the electorate has already voted.
In his excellent book Strategy and Soul, US activist and educator Daniel Hunter says, “Politicians are like a balloon tied to a rock. If we swat at them, they may sway to the left or the right. But, tied down, they can only go so far. Instead of batting at them, we should move the rock: people’s activated social values. When we move the rock, it automatically pulls all the politicians towards us — without having to pressure each one separately.”
In other words, where the people lead the politicians will follow. We, the people, just need to be clear, strategic and insistent about where we want to paddle this waka to. I think our social movements would benefit from working at the intersections of what is popular and progressive.
There are many kaupapa where voters are more ready for change than our politicians: government-funded dental care, higher taxes for the wealthy and climate action. With a coordinated and broad-based approach, social movements could make significant gains on all three of these.
Every campaign we win pulls the rock to a more progressive position which makes more change possible in the future. We build hope and belief by winning. We grow our power by nurturing diverse social movements, building the capacity of people to create change and shifting hearts and minds through storytelling and organising.
So this is a community-building praxis, in which like-minded communities operate as social organisms. They appeared in our media during the latter half of the 1960s. I went on a HART demo in 1970 after several years of resolutely refusing to be a joiner, and remember how alien it felt – being part of a group of strangers.
In the pandemic era infection teaches us there's danger in such groups. Praxis of how to drive group process to make progress happen has to become more sophisticated in response. Non-local communities are now how humans exercise social agency.
To be fair Labour does it too. I was part of numerous phone campaigns in past years. Asking people to get out and vote was the opening gambit then you took it from there – depending on the recipient's response.
I gave up doing it because too many people were rude and just hung up. Looking back I don't blame them.
Michele A'Court describes the sheeple styling of wimping out, then gets proactive:
When people talk about how they're going to vote in the upcoming cannabis referendum, it is usual practice – even for those in favour of legalising the Devil's Lettuce – to clearly state they don't touch the stuff themselves, actually officer… In a nod to that tradition, I will say these things: cannabis is not my drug of choice but I was at university in the 1980s and I've worked in the entertainment industry for over 30 years.
I'm voting yes in the referendum in small part because I'd like to ditch my current drug of choice – alcohol – and replace it with a nice, soothing, legal cup of cannabis tea.
As a balm, cannabis strikes me as a distinctly feminine drug. Despite the popular image of cannabis users being a bunch of blokes getting blazed on the strongest strain of weed they can cultivate, there is a whole other world of Mary Jane proponents whose names are more likely to be Mary or Jane.
There is a network, for example, of Green Fairies in Aotearoa – mostly women who grow and supply the herb to assist with anxiety, provide pain relief, and offer a natural pick-me-up or calm-me-down.
Before it became illegal here in 1927, the story goes that Mother Suzanne Aubert (currently in line for sainthood) included the plant in her remedies and sold it to help fund her community work.
It is an entirely human thing to seek out substances that change our mood – every culture finds a leaf or berry, vegetable or fruit that they can tootle about with to come up with vodka, pinot, coffee or cocaine. [Which] shifts us from our factory settings to either a more or a less elevated state.
Those Green Fairies sound like great ladies. For all the female elderly arthritic ladies and gents mustn't forget them, and those who have anxiety and stress in their lives young or old bring it on. Being a reformed non drinker for health reasons a calming balm of the devil's lettuce sounds a pretty good thing to me. Kicking back at the end of the day – when I miss my drink the most – would be wonderful. I am good at growing vegies etc in the garden and have successfully grown the most amazing specimen of the devil's lettuce once upon a time, it was wondrous to behold, I am looking forward to cultivating a couple of the plants in the corner of my garden when this reform becomes law.
Bless these Green Fairies for they are the salt of the earth.
Why is there not an option for medicinal cannabis?
My weeping gut cannot take meds for arthritic pain in several places and when the pain gets so debilitating I would like the option of smoking away the pain.
When it comes to being stoned when driving I am wavering being a yes vote for legalising cannabis. Screening for being stoned is not up to the mark. The strength and 14 grams is an issue for me as well. Most other reasons to legalise can be worked around. The end of life choice is a yes.
I am a bit stumped for the first time in voting for 40 years on giving Labour my electorate vote. I might just do a party vote this time around.
Like you I have erosive gastritis and arthritis. The gut wont take anti-inflammatories so I just take fish oil and glucosomine and its amazing how pain tolerant one can become. I have had foot surgery and a knee replacement but I still do get out and walk and keep fit. I think there will be some leeway with driving. Its not like the elderly will be stoned witless every day. As for the euthanasia bill its a big no for me. Just can't get my head around it. Like taxes, laws are just waiting to be changed, altered, got around, loopholed you name it. So its a big nono for me. However this will be an interesting election I must say.
The strength they are suggesting is at the lower end of the scale.
14 gram max limit is so people don't have to visit the shop as often. Unlike say a box of beers, people won't consume 14g in a day/sitting. It would be near on impossible for one person to smoke that much weed in a day.
Medical cannabis under the current system is unaffordable for many, the majority of those who use it for such get it on the black market at present. Being able to grow ones own medicine changes everything when it comes to affordability. Personally am looking forward to the prospect of being able to grow a plant organically to use as ingredient in a salve for arthritis, should everything work out.
The best thing about voting yes is that we get to have a say on how the law is constructed via committees etc etc.
To date, probably the best piece I've seen this election, that examines both sides of the story was Paddy Gowers last week. Here's the link
Mum disclosed she voted yes for cannabis the other day, she's a conservative person in her late 70's, originally she was going to vote no. Same with the old man, almost fell over when he said he voted yes, he's always been fiercely anti weed.
Hope that is of help and all the best making your decision. How lucky are we that we get to have choices, yay for referendums 🙂
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Barely acknowledged, if at all by commentators … the last Reid Research Poll found a whopping 21% of 2017 –Nats– planning to swing to –Labour–.
Not surprising, of course, given the significant re-alignment suggested by all the post-COVID Lockdown polls … but it's worth pointing out just how massive this is … means around 242k Nats have moved to Labour (putting aside questions of turnout).
By comparison, at the last two Turnover Elections (ie where a change of Govt occurred), only around 94k Labour voters swung to the Nats in 2008, while about 105k Nats moved to Labour in 2017.
The closest we've come to something on this scale (assuming it eventuates) was in 2002 when 112k Nats swung to Labour (representing a little over 17% of 1999 Nat voters).
Give them something to vote for and they will come eh!. Go on cleaving through the Slough of Despond and we can see off some of the crippling rentiers and con corporates and private equity outfits with our own versions. Use the attackers own weapons, hoist them on their own petards.
People generally don't like the low blows that Collins eminates like a spoilt child who doesn't get her whey will mean she will be put out to pasture ,being a negative ninny like whinny means he is dog tucker.
Swordfish…do you have any data on how many 18-25's are enrolled this election compared with the last?
Also, I'm guessing the percentage of enrolled 18-25's that will turn up and vote is likely to be higher due to the cannabis issue. The Green's will benefit from this.
Mind you, 2020 stats are, of course, pre-election … 2017 were post-election (over 94,000 (of all ages) enrolled over the final 3 days before 2017 election day). So if similar last minute surge then final 2020 tally for 18-24 yo may well exceed 2017.
Let's imagine the Greens come out of this election strong enough that they can ram through a wealth tax. What does everybody think will then happen in 2023, and the fate of the wealth tax after the next change in government?
Firstly, I don’t think the Greens will be in a position to ram through anything. In any case, this will have to be dealt with during the post-election talks between parties.
Secondly, it is not in their nature [pardon the pun] to try a ram through anything.
Insisting on a conversation is not equal to ‘ramming through’, IMHO.
Ok then, let's assume the polite and respectful conversation they insist on having results in a wealth tax being implemented over the many statements so far from Labour that it ain't gonna happen.
What does everybody think will then happen in 2023, and the fate of the wealth tax after the next change in government?
What would need to happen for that is Labour looking tired, out of ideas, and authoritarian, and Greens to still be stuffed full of social activists and woo-meisters with very few actual grounded greens. Kinda like 2008, only worse.
But of the people in my circles that are currently going Labour or Greens, I'd tend more to be one of the later ones to switch. Most of the others will flip somewhat more easily.
Perhaps you will keep on watching what happens in the USA Andre and advise us on what to do so we turn the opposite way. Or perhaps you will go back and give them the benefit of your excellent analytical skills that you have honed here.
Ok then, let's assume the polite and respectful conversation they insist on having results in a wealth tax being implemented over the many statements so far from Labour that it ain't gonna happen.
Ah, so you want to do a thought experiment? Seems a bit abstract to me.
As said above, the Greens are unlikely to try and ram anything through, politely or otherwise. What Shaw is saying is that they will bring the wealth tax to the table during negotiations. I assume this includes the GMI and the ACC reforms and so on, they're not wanting a tax for tax' sake. And I take the positioning this week to be about not letting Labour treat them like some rag tags who will do as they are told. Which is a good thing, to stand up to that.
Personally I think Lab should just give them the welfare portfolio. Sepuloni obviously isn't managing it well, and Labour can let the Greens do the heavy lifting on it for a while. The Greens aren't going to get all their policy enacted off the vote this year, but it's completely reasonable to bring the whole policy to the table and say this is our starting point, these things are very important, and remember it's the members who decide if we form govt with you or let you come to us on each piece of legislation for the next three years while we are on the cross benches.
If that comes about and the other areas brought to the fore are actual green topics, then I'd consider that a win. But it would be a win somewhat tempered by the apparent shortage at the top of the Greens list of actual green talent and substance to take advantage of it.
you still seem to be under the mistaken impression that the Green Party is only meant to be about the environment, as if that is somehow separate from human social and economic wellbeing.
But green politics has always been about the intersections of environmental and social justice.
Getting NZers out of poverty is a climate priority. Does that really need explaining?
meanwhile the Greens, after change not power, are yet again pulling NZ in the right direction. They've been doing that on climate and other environmental issues for decades and I don't see that has changed much, it's just that the policies are integrated more I guess. But shifting the debate on welfare is huge.
Well spoken Weka-there is too much tribal Labour and Jacinda worship being used to justify voting for Labour, rather than debate about the policies.
In particular the Wealth Tax is a good idea but clearly would benefit by being modified/fine-tuned, perhaps so that it only targets the top 4% rather than 6% as now, so that it can gain more widespread support.
For me to support it, the Green Party needs to balance a strong green focus with those other aspects. Right now, that balance isn't there because the green side of things is very weak and way under-represented. I'm not interested in a radical social activism party that's trying to pretend to be something else by holding a Green tissue paper in front of themselves.
The Green Party can make their philosophy and politics about whatever they want it to be. But if they don't have an actual strong green focus, they shouldn't expect to attract votes from those whose actual interest is green issues just by calling themselves Green.
And no, moving people up out of poverty doesn't automatically improve the climate or environment. In fact, to first order, by itself it might even make climate and environment issues worse, because those people will likely consume more. Making environmental and climate improvements needs actual work and priority on those topics, not self-delusion that social activism somehow also magically creates climate and environmental improvement.
But if they're interested in why their vote share falls short of their hopes and dreams and previous highs, my view is there for the consideration. And I know there's other sometime Green voters with similar views. I couldn't say how common they are outside my circles tho, we could just be weirdos. Or not.
"But if they're interested in why their vote share falls short of their hopes and dreams and previous highs, my view is there for the consideration."
This seems reasonable and I would assume they are looking at why previous green voters are still voting Labour after 2017. But I think the reasons are complex. I doubt it's primarily the wealth tax, which would affect so few NZers. I think it's more likely to be a combination of the Ardern effect, along with a smaller party having been successful in pulling the larger party closer to its own platform and no longer standing out.
Lots of people won't see a huge amount of difference between Lab and Green and will vote on feels (they like JA). Those that look at policy more in depth will shy away from the welfare stuff, not because of the woke thing so much as most liberals in NZ are centre left and happy with neoliberalism.
There is probably a hang over from 2017 of perception of competence (Shaw's Green School gaff won't have helped), along with lots of new faces that people don't know.
Then there is covid, and I have no doubt that there is both the effect of thinking Labour handled it well, and people being afraid and wanting stability and centrism rather than radical change.
Weird thing for me this week is seeing a number of actual lefties saying to vote GP when they've been slagging them off all year. Don't quite know how that is supposed to work, they want people to suddenly think the GP are a good bet?
don't know what you are on about Andre. Leaving aside the referends, there are 8 major policies currently on the campaign part of the website, and 5 of them are environment focused,
transport
oceans
farming
clean energy
the Green Vision for Aotearoa:
Healthy Nature.
Clean Economy.
Fairer Communities
Here are the three top priorities this year, that will feature in any post-election negotiations,
Action on climate change
Halting the biodiversity crisis
Income inequality
"And no, moving people up out of poverty doesn't automatically improve the climate or environment."
No-one actually said it would though, you just made that up.
"In fact, to first order, by itself it might even make climate and environment issues worse, because those people will likely consume more."
Which is why the Green Party has an integrated set of policies based on systems thinking, not reductionist, linear, solve this problem then that one thinking.
"Making environmental and climate improvements needs actual work and priority on those topics, not self-delusion that social activism somehow also magically creates climate and environmental improvement"
Fuck sake, get a grip and go read some actual policy as well as what they've been doing for the past three years.
I have some problems with some of the GP positioning on things woke too. Their rigid stance on gender ID is very risky given what is happening in the UK were left wing women voters are basically now at war with the Labour Party. I just don't think that throwing the baby out with the bath water will help. On climate alone, there are compelling reasons to vote Green, not least is that Labour have no commitment to acting in time.
as for the party list, the point there is that everyone is on board with eco and social and economic. Everyone. So eg Ricardo Menendez will be supporting the enviro stuff while he works on his area of social justice, because he understands the connection between the two.
Vagueish short documents can always be interpreted and implemented in a wide variety of ways.
Manifesto policies that don't align with a pollies actual interests tend to get a token once-over to satisfy the notion that they're trying to implement the policy before finding their way to the too-hard basket.
But the stuff that gets that pollies juices going, that gets a lot of attention and effort whenever it can somehow get related to the manifesto.
Looking at the personnel at the top of the Greens list, I see very little actual green talent and substance, so I have little confidence serious green efforts will be made. But I see a lot of background and experience and enthusiasm for social activism I'm meh about, but I think it's very likely that's where the effort and enthusiasm will go.
As for the last three years, one of the very few individuals that had actual green talent and substance has retired and isn't standing this time around.
yet in the top five are the Minister for Climate, the Minister for Conservation and Associate Minister of Transport. Are they the ones not enthused about their portfolio?
But Weka, that would require Andre actually reading the Green's policies. He is obsessed with the Wealth Tax, in part because he will have to pay some extra tax because of it.
I'm not averse to a side of social justice with my greenery, but I'm not keen on a heaping helping of social activism and moral superiority with a tiny sprinkling of ineffectual green on top to hide it.
Clearly a Nat/Lab voter, ole Kate. Does a chair speak for the org or not? Depends which way the political wind is blowing. I suspect members have been blowing up a bit of a storm in the general direction of her…
Over the weekend, 453,426 votes were cast, according to the Electoral Commission. 253,616 were on Saturday and 199,810 on Sunday, taking the total number of early votes to 1,153,334.
it becomes glaringly obvious that it is now impossible for Labour to lose next Saturday… The election campaign will rumble on. But it is likely to prove to be even more of an anti-climax than it was already likely to have been. By the time the campaign enters its final week, the participants are exhausted; the arguments have been thrashed to death.
There is nothing new to say. If there happens to be fresh policy at hand, opponents will castigate its content and the timing of its release as an indication of desperation.
The pressure will be on Collins to lift National’s party vote to 35 per cent as an absolute minimum is, well, crushing
The disarray, disunity, indiscipline and disloyalty endemic in National’s caucus hardly inspires confidence that the party could lift its game to the standard at which Ardern operates.
To the contrary, National looks less like a government-in-waiting and more like a rabble without a cause.
" Barack Obama, Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron each, like Ardern, spoke the language of “hope” and “change”. Yet, ultimately, all further entrenched a poisonous status quo "
Glen Johnson from Al Jazeera has summed up politics in New Zealand very succinctly.
On border protection from Judith today more yeah..nah.. confusion.
"She said lockdowns led by the border protection agency and minister in charge should be the last resort."
On introducing new, unknown road tolls, Judith negates the whole point of better roading,
" People don't mind, because they have the alternative.
"People can always go the slower way," she said. "
And for her claims, the only party with a tech plan, which then has a tech blunder, Judith ices the "pick me cake",
" About National's ad error, Collins said it was a digital error that was fixed quickly and was now fine. She put the blame on the "digital people"."
Ah, those digital people ay, they keep fecking up Natz great tech policy.
And when you are short on answers to the media's questions today, after ' re-introducing' the same tech policy and probably some more tolls for Auckland roads, Judith looks to her inner Trump mentor,
" I think we just out work, out compete and basically be far more fabulous than [anyone] on the other side."
What brilliant observations by Glen Johnson from Al Jazeera. Shows up our local media. Listened briefly to something on Newshub of some sort of discussion between their women reporters. They were like a group of 14 year old teenage girls as they giggled about someone's birthday cake.
Sean Plonker can't understand why the PM doesn't want a bar of Magicktalk. Why can't snoflake Plonker's listeners join the team of 5 million? whines Sean. Maybe they could try a different station.
Shhh, don't tell St. Jude the patron saint of lost causes that she has an actual lost cause on her hands. We don't want her to give up. I'm quite enjoying the show as it's currently playing out.
And on and on Red Logix goes – sail away I say. What about spending
six months on a leaky boat and we'll just trudge along without you.
And as for people arriving by air. We want to keep our airline going, on a lesser level no doubt in the future, fewer tourists etc. But to do that we have to use it and have return passengers. Comparing our airline entries and exits with people who own their own boats with lives separate from being permanent NZ citizens on land, is spurious.
Or do you think they will put their backs into becoming transport for our people and visitors – a sort of Dunkirk. That would earn them some brownie points here. But actually they need to shelter here don't they, so they have little structural value to us in a time of crisis.
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I have hitherto been fairly quiet on the new season of Rings of Power, on the basis that the underwhelming first season did not exactly build excitement – and the rumours were fairly daft. The only real thing of substance to come out has been that they have re-cast Adar ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
“The thing is,” Chris Luxon says, leaning forward to make his point, “this has always been my thing.”“This goes all the way back to the first multinational I worked for. I was saying exactly the same thing back then. The name of our business needs to be more clear; people ...
Buzz from the Beehive It’s been a momentous few days for Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court decision which blocked a summons order from the Waitangi Tribunal for her. And today she has announced the Government is putting children first by introducing to ...
In 2014 former Australian army lawyer David McBride leaked classified military documents about Australian war crimes to the ABC. Dubbed "The Afghan Files", the documents led to an explosive report on Australian war crimes, the disbanding of an entire SAS unit, and multiple ongoing prosecutions. The journalist who wrote the ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – According to the respected Pew Research Centre, “In seven of eight [European] countries surveyed, the most trusted news outlet asked about is the public news organization in each country”. For example, “in Sweden, an overwhelming majority (90%) say they trust the public broadcaster SVT”. ...
David Farrar writes – Kata MacNamara reports: Details of Tony Blakely’s involvement in the New Zealand Government’s response to the pandemic raise serious questions about the work of the Covid-19 Royal Commission of Inquiry over which he presides. It has long been clear that Blakely, a ...
Chris Trotter writes – Are you a Brahmin or a Merchant? Or, are you merely one of those whose lives are profoundly influenced by the decisions of Brahmins and Merchants? Those are the questions that are currently shaping the politics of New Zealand and the entire West. ...
RNZ reports – It’s supposed to be a haven of healing and spiritual awakening but residents of the Kawai Purapura community say they’ve been hurt and deceived. It’s the successor to the former Centrepoint commune, and has been on the bush block opposite Albany shopping centre since 2008. It ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. Usually we have a video chat to go with this wrap, but were unable to do one this week. We’ll be back next week.Several reports ...
The Transport Minister has set a hard 'fiscal envelope' of $6.54 billion for transport capital spending. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy is settling into a state of suspended animation as the Government’s funding freezes and job cuts chill confidence and combine with stubbornly high interest rates to ...
To be precise, the term “anti- Zionism” refers to (a) criticism of the political movement that created a modern Jewish state on the historical land of Israel, and to (b)the subjugation of Palestinians by the Israeli state. By contrast, the term “anti-Semitism” means bigotry and racism directed at Jewish people, ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Because hurricanes are one of the big-ticket weather disasters that humanity has to face, climate misinformers spend a lot of effort muddying the waters on whether climate change is making hurricanes more damaging. With the official start to the hurricane ...
Yesterday the Mayor released what he calls his “plan to save public transport” which is part of his final proposal for the Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP). This comes following consultation on the draft version that occurred in March which showed, once again, that people want more done on transport, especially ...
And it's a pleasure that I have knownAnd it's a treasure that I have gainedAotearoa’s coalition government is fragile. It’s held together by the obsequious sycophancy of Christopher Luxon, who willingly contorts his party into the fringe positions of his junior coalition partners and is unwilling to contradict them. The ...
The Select Committee hearing submissions on the fast-track consenting legislation is starting to become a beat-up of regional councils. The inflexibility and slow workings of the Councils were prominent in two submissions yesterday. One, from the Coromandel Marine Farmers Association, simply said that the Waikato Regional Council’s planning decisions were ...
Back in April, the High Court surprised everyone by ruling that Ministers are above the law, at least as far as the Waitangi Tribunal is concerned. The reason for this ruling was "comity" - the idea that the different branches of government shouldn't interfere with each other's functions. Which makes ...
Buzz from the BeehiveTolling was mentioned when Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced the government was re-introducing the Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme, with 15 “crucial” projects to support economic growth and regional development across New Zealand. All RoNS would be four-laned, grade-separated highways, and all funding, financing, and ...
or the past 14 years, ever since the Spanish government cheated on an autonomy deal, Catalonia has reliably given pro-independence parties a majority of seats in their regional parliament. But now that seems to be over. Catalans went to the polls yesterday, and stripped the Catalan parties of their majority. ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ report: Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins said the Electoral Commission should make sure the system ran smoothly and “taking away the right of thousands of people to vote” was not the answer. “Thousands of people enroled and voted on the day. If ...
Don Brash writes – There was a rather revealing headline in the Herald on Sunday today (12 May). It read “One in 8 Auckland homes on market were bought during boom, may now sell for loss”. The first line of text noted that “New data shows one in ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – At a time when universities are understandably nervous regarding the establishment of the University Advisory Group (UAG) and the Science System Advisory Group (SSAG) it may seem strange – or even fool-hardy – to state that there are long-standing issues in the tertiary sector ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – A lack of perspective can make something quite large or important seem small or irrelevant. Against a backdrop of high-profile, negative statistics it is easy to overlook the positive. For instance, the fact that 64 percent of Maori are employed is rarely reported. For ...
Earlier this year, the Herald ran a series of articles amounting to a sustained campaign against raised pedestrian crossings, by reporter Bernard Orsman. A key part of that campaign concerned the raised crossings being installed as part of the Pt Chevalier to Westmere project, with at least 10 articles over ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 19 include:PM Christopher Luxon is expected to hold his weekly post-cabinet news conference at 4:00pm on Monday.Parliament is not sitting this week. It resumes next week for a two-week sitting session up to and ...
Hi,Thanks to all the beautiful Worms who came to the LA Webworm popup on Saturday.It was a way to celebrate the online store we launched last week — and it was super special.As I talk about a lot, I really value our community here — and it was a BLAST ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, May 5, 2024 thru Sat, May 11, 2024. (Unfortunate) Story of the week "Grief that stops at despair is an ending that I and many others, most notably ...
Last night the largest solar storm in decades resulted in Aurorae being seen across Aotearoa, causing many to ask why?Why was the sky pink? What was all this stuff about the power grid? Have we, as so many have wondered since the election, reached the end of days?I had a ...
We have been on the road in England, squeezing down narrow lanes, flying up the M6, loving hedgerows and villages and cathedrals, liking the 21st century less.There have been moments when it’s felt like a movie trope. The pub in Exford, lovely seventeenth century bar, almost more dogs than people, ...
There’s a solar-storm on at the moment, and since the South Island is having a day and night with clear skies, that means Aurorae. I have just got back from a midnight visit to Tunnel Beach – southwards-looking over the Sea, and without the light pollution. Quite a few others ...
Michael Bassett writes – I’m not sure that it’s much comfort to anyone to know that the post-Covid surge in violent crimes, gang activity, ram raids, random shootings, thuggery and stabbings is occurring in other countries as well as New Zealand. These days, wagging school, out-of-control welfare and ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – Cast your mind back to mid-December. A new Prime Minister had just been sworn in, the new Government started its 100-day programme, and Christmas was only days away.Amid all the haste, a report landed that would have deserved our attention.I am talking about the ...
TL;DR: An unseasonally early icy blast at the same time as some long-overdue maintenance almost caused Aotearoa-NZ’s electricity system to black out this week. That’s because a quadropoly of gentailers1 have prioritised paying dividends from their rising profits and adding debt over investing in 1.5 GigaWatts of new wind farms ...
Hi,Before we crack into today’s Webworm, I wanted to acknowledge the fact that Israel is pushing into Rafah. Over 100,000 Palestinians are now attempting to flee the one place that was deemed “safe”.Trouble is, the place they’re fleeing to is already destroyed. Total annihilation is the end goal here.“Israel is ...
‘It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. I am quite sure that it is figures which show us whether it is being ruled well or badly.’ GoetheI was struck at a recent conference on equity for the elderly, how many presenters implicitly relied upon Statistics New Zealand. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveReporting on defence spending late last year, RNZ said the coalition government will have to make some tough calls this term to help the force address staff shortages and ageing infrastructure. “These are huge, huge amounts of government spending. It’s a significant proportion of the government’s ...
Peter Dunne writes – I am always wary when I hear that the Controller and Auditor-General has commented on or made recommendations to the government about an issue of public policy that does not relate strictly to public expenditure. According to the legislation, the role of the Controller ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought NZ to the brink of economic and cultural chaos Chris Trotter writes – TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition ...
And why did the Crown not challenge the Tribunal’s jurisdiction? Gary Judd writes – Retired District Court Judge, David Harvey, has posted on his A Halflings View Substack an excellent summary of Justice Isacs’ judgment declining to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result?As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and ...
Macklemore isn’t someone I’d usually think about. Sure I liked his big hit from a few years back, everybody did it was catchy and cool with some memorable lines. But if I was going to think of artists who might speak out on political matters or world events, he wouldn’t ...
Another week goes by in the Luxon government’s efforts to roll back the past 70 years of social progress. The school lunches programme is to be downgraded by $107 million, and women need bother their heads no longer about pay equity, let alone expect ACC to provide adequate sexual violence ...
Brrr, the first cold snap of the year. Hope you’re rugged up nice and warm. Here are some stories that caught our eye this week… This Week on Greater Auckland On Monday, we had a post from a new contributor, Connor Sharp, who dug into the public feedback ...
Almost all of the Wellington City Council’s recommended zoning changes to allow many more apartments and townhouses in its inner-suburbs have been approved.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guest on geopolitics, ...
Open access notablesA Global Increase in Nearshore Tropical Cyclone Intensification, Balaguru et al., Earth's Future:Tropical Cyclones (TCs) inflict substantial coastal damages, making it pertinent to understand changing storm characteristics in the important nearshore region. Past work examined several aspects of TCs relevant for impacts in coastal regions. However, ...
Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result? As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and always answered “yes”, with very few ...
Thus far May has followed on from a quiet April in the blogging department, but in fairness, it has been another case of doing what I am supposed to be doing, namely writing original fiction. Plus reading. So don’t worry – I have been productive. But in order to reassure ...
Buzz from the Beehive A new government agency will open for business on July 1 – the Social Investment Agency. As a new standalone central agency effective from 1 July, it will lead the development of social investment across Government, helping ministers understand who they need to invest in, what ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The ...
Alwyn Poole writes – After being elected to Parliament in 2008 the maiden speech of Hipkins was substantially around education policy. He was Labour’s spokesperson for education 2011 – 2017. He was Minister for Education from 2017 until February 2023. This is approximately 88% of the time Labour ...
Eric Crampton writes – A fashion industry group is lobbying for protections. They make the usual arguments and a newer one. None of it makes sense. An industry group says it pumped $7.8 billion into the economy last year – that’s 1.9 percent of New Zealand’s GDP. ...
In December 2006, Fiji's military leader Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the elected government in a coup. He ruled Fiji for the next 16 years, first as dictator, then as "elected" Prime Minister. But now, he's finally been sent to jail where he belongs. Sadly, this isn't for his real crime of ...
Don't like National's corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" law? Aotearoa's environmental NGO's - Greenpeace, Forest & Bird, WWF, Coromandel Watchdog, Coal Action Network Aotearoa, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, and others - have announced a joint march against it in Auckland in June: When: 13:00, 8 June, 2024 Where: Aotea Square, Auckland You ...
Seymour describes sushi as too woke for school meals. There are no fish sushi meals recommended by the School Lunches programme. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Government will swap out hot meals for packaged sandwiches to save $107 million on school lunches for poor kids. MSD has pulled ...
I don't mind stealin' bread from the mouths of decadenceBut I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled, yeahBut it's on the table, the fire's cookin'And they're farmin' babies, while slaves are workin'The blood is on the table and the mouths are chokin'But I'm goin' hungry, yeahSome ...
The Ardern Government’s chickens came home to roost yesterday with the news that the country is short of natural gas. In 2018, Labour banned offshore petroleum exploration, and industry executives say that the attendant loss of confidence by the industry impacted overall investment in onshore gas fields. Energy Resources Minister ...
Hi,If you’ve been digging through the newly launched Webworm store (orders are being dispatched worldwide as I type!) you’ll have noticed the best model we had was Calvin.This is Calvin.Calvin.Calvin is 7, and is the son of my producer over on Flightless Bird, Rob — aka “Wobby Wob”. Rob also ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leaders’ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Today’s announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Government’s pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “The National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Korea’s aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. “New Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,” Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill’s introduction reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. “While section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week travel to the UK and Italy to meet with her defence counterparts, and to attend Battles of Cassino commemorations. “I am humbled to be able to represent the New Zealand Government in Italy at the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of what was ...
The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today. $153 million in new funding will be provided over four years to establish and operate up to 15 new charter schools and convert 35 state ...
“The results of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has now been received, with results indicating over 13,000 submissions were made from members of the public,” Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “We heard feedback about the extended lockdowns in ...
Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, other Members of Parliament Acting Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Distinguished Guests Defence and Diplomatic Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, tēna koutou, apinun tru It’s a pleasure to be back in Port Moresby today, and to speak here at the Kumul Leadership ...
Health, infrastructure, renewable energy, and stability are among the themes of the current visit to Papua New Guinea by a New Zealand political delegation, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Papua New Guinea carries serious weight in the Pacific, and New Zealand deeply values our relationship with it,” Mr Peters ...
The coalition Government is launching Roads of Regional Significance to sit alongside Roads of National Significance as part of its plan to deliver priority roading projects across the country, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The Roads of National Significance (RoNS) built by the previous National Government are some of New Zealand’s ...
A high-level New Zealand political delegation in Honiara today congratulated the new Government of Solomon Islands, led by Jeremiah Manele, on taking office. “We are privileged to meet the new Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet during his government’s first ten days in office,” Deputy Prime Minister and ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
What happens when cash is king – and then your bank leaves. A businessman in a town that hasn’t had a bank for three years says the Reserve Bank’s plans to put more cash in the hands of its people and introduce digital cash could save hours of time. John ...
The people have spoken, in their hundreds. Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton has been overwhelmingly voted the favourite New Zealand book of 2023 as nominated by ReadingRoom readers. The vote can informally be regarded as the People’s Choice award – ahead of tonight’s Ockham book awards, where Catton’s novel is competing ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt Garrow, Editorial Web Developer The government has handed down its budget for 2024–25. It’s delivered a $9.3 billion surplus for the financial year just about to finish but is forecasting a $28.3 billion deficit for next year. Here’s the key points: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Jim Chalmers has produced a benign third budget aimed at soothing hard-pressed voters agitated about their high cost of living and punishing interest rates. At the same time he has walked a tightrope, trying ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND A $300 energy rebate for all households from July 1 and a 10% increase in Commonwealth Rent Assistance are key measures in a budget targeting cost-of-living relief that put ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra Treasurer Jim Chalmers promised an “inflation-fighting and future-making budget” and he has delivered by introducing measures aimed at directly bringing down inflation. Combined, his A$300-per-household energy rebate and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra Treasurer Jim Chalmers promised an “inflation-fighting and future-making budget” and he has delivered by introducing measures aimed at directly bringing down inflation. Combined, his A$300-per-household energy rebate and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Bartos, Professor of Economics, University of Canberra Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been bitten by the giveaway bug. This budget contains not only the well-foreshadowed tax cuts for all taxpayers, but a range of new spending measures in health, education, infrastructure, aged ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Greste, Professor of Journalism and Communications, Macquarie University Governments and their agencies wield awesome power. At times, it is quite literally the power over life and death. That is why in any functioning democracy, we have robust checks and balances designed ...
As the world commemorates the 71st Everest Day, it's not just a celebration of human achievement but also a reflection of the enduring bond between New Zealand and Nepal. This day marks the historic feat of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa ...
Individuals in Wellington, led by City Councillor Nīkau Wi Neera, are working to use the ‘hecklers veto’ to shut down Inflection Point , a gender-critical event to be held at a Te Papa venue this weekend featuring speakers such as Bob McCoskrie ...
The transgender community, whānau & allies will rally outside Tākina/Wellington Convention Centre against anti-trans confederation “Inflection Point NZ,” who are hosting a conference to encourage parliamentarians to restrict trans people’s ...
A strategic asset for Auckland that has been fought over for years as either sacrosanct or a sacred cow looks certain to be sold and the proceeds of around $1.3 billion put in a new investment fund. A year after bitter political struggle ended in a compromise in which Auckland ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – the Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. The number of voices raising concerns about the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill is rapidly growing. This is especially apparent now that Parliament’s select committee is listening to submissions from the public to evaluate the ...
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Internet Governance Project founder Milton Mueller asked “is the Christchurch Call accomplishing anything?” Increasingly it seems the only thing it hopes to achieve is killing off free expression. ...
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Opinion: Unfortunately, the term ‘woke’ is back in the news and for the most stupid of reasons: Act leader David Seymour is now designating certain types of food as ‘woke’ or not. As the Government makes cuts to school lunches, let us consider what ‘woke’ might mean here. ...
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Interesting (and concerning ) research showing COVID can last 28 days on some surfaces.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/428099/covid-19-virus-survives-on-some-surfaces-for-28-days
Such information is a reminder to us that we cannot be complacent..
As Sharon Murdoch said in her cartoon, we need to be a lert.
The world needs lerts.
https://mobile.twitter.com/domesticanimal/status/1314266673789059072/photo/1
What a combination bank notes, screens, stainless steel, glass, plastic and cooler temperatures. It is not hard to see how community transmission is spread without coughing, sneezing or talking occurring.
Mask wearing, distancing, hand washing, testing, contact tracing and isolation, were this not to occur the number of infections would be far greater. The second wave in the Northern Hemisphere is looking far worse than the first wave.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/428118/victoria-should-ease-lockdown-epidemiologist-says
Victoria and NSW have given up on eliminating and the quote is that they are going to try to control but understand that it will keep 'bobbing along'. The point is made that there are many borders, it is a big land mass, more than NZ. And, hopefully, they have not run down their medical systems as we have.
They are making plenty of money from us, which leads to our skewed economy, hopefully they are putting their bank and supermarket profits into useful infrastructure and services over there.
Just to remind ourselves of the various control methods for Covid 19 from our NZESR:
https://www.esr.cri.nz/our-expertise/covid-19-response/strategies-for-covid-19/
The strain of knowing that there are different strains. Oooh er!
The six strains of SARS-CoV-2 — ScienceDaily http://www.sciencedaily.com › releases › 2020/08
Aug 3, 2020 — Despite its mutations, the virus shows little variability, and this is good news for … virus causing the COVID–19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, presents at least six strains. … The original one is the L strain, that appeared in Wuhan in December 2019. … 14, 2020 — In a new paper, experts comment on the future of …
The coronavirus is mutating — does it matter? – Nature http://www.nature.com › news feature
Sep 8, 2020 — Different SARS-CoV-2 strains haven't yet had a major impact on the course of the …
Oct.5/20 https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300124671/covid19-the-nz-strains-and-our-second-wave-of-coronavirus
This is a long-form piece with lots of info and detail, thanks stuff and Marc Daalder of Newsroom. At the end there is an update on the vaccine situation which is rather cheering.
In an audit of New Zealand's genome sequencing programme, EPA chief science advisor Michael Bunce recommended the Government prioritise genomic surveillance of the virus to monitor potentially dangerous mutations.
"Aotearoa New Zealand needs to embrace genomic tools and analyses for long-term monitoring of viral evolution. This is not simply an academic exercise, rather there is a pressing need to monitor the viral lineages that are circulating (akin to seasonal influenza tracking)," he wrote.
But the slow rate of mutation – just 24 a year on average – should remain a solace both to researchers working on vaccines and the rest of us, who hope to one day take one.
I see that vaccines such as the BCG are being looked at. Modifying the BCG has as much chance as something undiscovered. A proven vaccine is the best possible outcome to manage Covid – 19.
Sounds good. Hope it works. Talk I previously heard is that we may end up with a yearly vaccine tailored to the most outrageous of the nasty dots wanting to get at us. Similar to the present flu vaccine but additional to.
Scanning the Herald this morning, just noted they are charging for an article that was published in The Independent (UK) yesterday….on a Murdoch leaving his father’s (Rupert) company.
James Murdoch. A wise man?
I was wondering how Rupert could look himself in the face. Let alone his recent missus. It must be clear to him now it's got down to a war on democratic processes. And the affront to his journalistic instincts of Trumpism.
Richard Harman on his Politik website is suggesting that Collins has had to rejig her campaign diary in this final week. She’s now not going to Tauranga (a visit that somehow Simon Bridges wasn’t even aware of) and instead will head to Hamilton where, according to Harman , the two National held seats are now at risk.
https://www.politik.co.nz/2020/10/12/national-gets-desperate/
Very interesting.
From the article you referenced
Ahaha.
By the way, would Bennett still be on the caucus email list? Adams etc?
Adams certainly would be. Love the thought of someone giving madame Collins a dressing-down.
But with Collins turning up in Hamilton wont that put those two seats in even more risk ?
There is no way Collins would be going to Tauranga and the siting MP not knowing. I there?
Depends who her campaign team trusts..
Facial Recognition. Coming soon…Everywhere?
‘However, the aim to expand the use of biometrics for multiple uses by Crown agencies is clear in documents obtained under the Official Information Act from Internal Affairs, the police and others.’
"The business outcome… is to deliver a fit-for-purpose and supported Facial Recognition Solution that will increase productivity, reduce cost and extend the capability across and beyond" the Service Delivery and Operations branch, said a privacy assessment of the DXC system by Internal Affairs.
Police tender documents show they sought out a system that could be used in the future to import drivers' licence and passport photos, and masses more facial images than currently, though police deny they will use their Dataworks Plus-NEC system for that.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/428103/government-facial-recognition-tech-deal-offers-wide-access
No fucking way is this acceptable
"the company has been criticised in the UK for being less than transparent about how these all-important algorithms 'learn' who to raise the alarm about."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/423893/global-facial-recognition-company-working-closely-with-nz-govt
Labour? What is the story?
When it comes to identifying a person for a specific reason proper facial recognition is required. It is the use of the information gathered which needs to be administered according to legislation which is clear and understood.
Would you have an issue with police using a body webcam on a normal shift?
Nothing is required! There is a big difference between some local camera on a local cop recording a personal local interaction and scanning everyone that passes a particular place or uses a particular service.
There is no reason for surveillance of the public going about their lawful business and any law and order stuff is just rubbish. How many people would be scanned to pick up the one person in years doing some thing they shouldn't that couldn't be identified in any other way.
Labour need to get on top of this pronto. The chilling sight of China selling the system they use on the Uighers to Iran should stop anyone in their tracks
A system which does the job and does not violate a person's freedom or rights is required.
The police have made more than one IT blunder. Remember INCIS a computer system which flopped.
Somehow we managed to identify people adequately before facial recognition. Once it's in it will be very hard to get it out. Plus extending to private firms -who thought that was a good idea.
I'm still a no -any safeguards would be gone by lunchtime with a right wing government.
Your no is clear.
Lazy policing methods would occur and security firms do not have the ability to arrest a person.
I would not want to be caught up in being questioned or on a list just because my face was detected near a crime scene.
The other problem is a camera with bad lighting using technology that routinely has difficulty correctly identifying people of colour in ideal conditions has a high likelihood of not just rounding up the usual suspects, but forcing the suspects to prove their innocence because "computer says you were there".
And a proprietary algorithm that the defence can't interrogate or examine? Not only would they have to prove the computer wrong to discount that piece of "evidence", disagreeing with it would make them look like liars and therefore lower the weight of the other evidence they present. You know, stuff like true alibis.
I am with you on this RBCV, however I feel we will be in the minority.
We have access to a bach near Taupo, on a street running to the lake with a river on one side.
A mix of locals and bach owners concerned with crime have put a digital CCTV camera up. Thru a FB page they have lobbied folk to gauge enthusiasm for $ to maintain the device.
Overwhelmingly in favour is how would describe the response. I have asked a couple of questions e.g., who 'owns' the data, how they intend to deal with privacy issues should they arise. Not got an answer yet….
Anyone can put a CCTV camera up. What to do with the information is another matter.
Would the police even be interested in looking at the footage?
It should be on a secure server that no one can access unless a crime is committed that is covered by the camera(s).
If a crime occurs that is covered by the cameras then they would be. I'd be highly disgusted if they didn't.
4.2.1.2 Hi, I have had an interest in this since the John Key "era"…but sadly the normalisation of our surveillance has continued…
Anyway, maybe these might be of use?
https://privacy.org.nz/assets/Files/Brochures-and-pamphlets-and-pubs/Privacy-and-CCTV-A-guide-October-2009.pdf
https://www.cab.org.nz/article/KB00001289
Last resort ?
https://www.privacy.org.nz/your-rights/making-a-complaint/
Thanks, PLA. I will give them a peruse.
I was a little surprised at the enthusiasm, but I live rurally and a dog is about the extent of our security. We don't lock doors and about half the windows.
Nick Hager on…and he would Know ! This is a great sum…
https://www.privacy.org.nz/assets/Files/13854584.pdf
"5.Street surveillance The concept of a “public place” is changing subtly but very significantly with the increasing use of surveillance systems. "
Also ….I have personal experience of Employer Surveillance…I pushed back HARD. Union, Community Law etc, There was theft. Turns out it the end (long trail ) it was a "manager". But WE all got surveillance. Camera in smoko room !! And its still there. Fark ..pissed off.
Anyway…always Push Back. Question Authority.
4.2.1 Absolutely !! And an FYI for anyone… When the whole 5 Eyes spy BS was started. Fark I debated and pushed back many times AGAINST John Key and the nats trying to have surveillance on ALL of us.
Now Labour is going there?
And re the Police, SIS etc? They already have more than enough Laws and Tech to do their jobs. Have done for Years.
https://thestandard.org.nz/the-right-for-spys-to-break-the-law-bill/
Aye matey ! I was not on the Standard then, but "another site"…..Its a slippery slope we end up with if :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_hide_argument
kinda remember Key and nats full of that shite….
And this from Aus…
'On February 22, 2015 Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Tim Morris made the following claims appealing to blind trust from the public.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance_in_Australia
To be honest I wouldnt trust them too much….Ours prob similar ?
I'm sure the judiciary will rule it's not to be used near brothels.
Leaving aside the total bullshit around National’s lies about the Green’s Wealth Tax, it’s the target audience that’s probably the most interesting aspect.
The party has been forced, in the last week, to roll out some pretty crude scare tactics to try and regather one of its usually most constant voting cohorts, wealthy, mortgage free retired kiwis.
The wealthy mortgage free retired Kiwis are the new Act Party voters.
Seymour is going to be the big winner next Saturday when it comes to a comparison on how much a leader has grown their party. His end of life bill will probably pass, as it is not harmful to others apart from immediate family starting the grieving process earlier than they would have.
For Greywarshark , who reads widely , a precis of how pandemics have dramatically changed societies
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/10/09/covid-19-how-3-prior-pandemics-triggered-massive-societal-shifts/
This one is going to accelerate changes already in train. The Americans are no longer going to provide the default security guarantee and global trade structure; we are going to rapidly see a number of powers attempt to occupy the vacuum created. It will be messy.
It was going to be about a decade off, now it's next year or so.
Is it going to be a replication of the triumphalist superpower in full spectrum domination , or perhaps something more mature and multi polar, where we accept flux and negotiation.Who knows, the art of true diplomacy may come to the fore
It's going to be a bumpy ride the next little while though
Greywarshark could also read 'Nature's Mutiny' by Blom. About the little ice age from about 1580 to 1670 and the profound effect it had on society.
In the early years they burned a few witches to appease an angry God when crops failed. When that didn't seem to work the people turned to other solutions. By the end of the century of low temperatures a embryonic capitalistic system was embedded in Europe.
A very readable and insightful book.
Climate change is going to have profound effects on life.
Taken note and will read
Thanks
https://blogs.sciencemag.org/books/2019/01/30/natures-mutiny/
There are monastry wine makers records that show that the cold from about 1590 was preceded by a very warm period when it was possible for picknickers to walk across the Rhine at Frankfurt even by ladies in the volumnous dresses of the day and only get their feet a little wet, according to Hugh Johnson in The Story of Wine and this year The Little Ice Age by Prof Brian Fagan of University of California Santa Barbara. Both excellent reads esp Fagans on how climate has shaped our history.
esp Fagans on how climate has shaped our history
Yeah, he continued that in another of his books, The Long Summer, which I've got. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/may/29/featuresreviews.guardianreview11
Sounds interesting – will put it in my later file Francesca and Tony V, Adrian.
And Dennis F thanks also – when we had a break in our regular trade with UK we went stir crazy and invited everybody to the selling-up auction.
Looks like Chris Bishop's office has been busy:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300129880/election-2020-im-proud-to-be-a-socialist-witch–labours-ginny-anderson-hits-back-at-graffiti-rampage
If only they were socialists…I wish!
It's sort of an attack on democracy really – people who are supposed to be able to form modern joined-up thoughts and put their reasoned thinking into choosing a capable leader with wide knowledge and the wisdom to apply it for the good of everyone. I don't feel encouraged about getting a good outcome from the brainwork of citizens revelling in this sort of graffiti. And witches are so passe' aren't they. Aren't they?
Was driving through Petone yesterday and noticed that a number of Labs signs graffitied with really facile comments like above. Facile
Said to hubby at least when the left do this we most often show wit and intelligence.
I would vote for a socialist witch, probably vote for a socialist which …
or even a socialist switch
Well, we need a war govt to deal with climate change, so that is socialism. Though National is slipping away from recognition of climate change to engineer more immediate rewards for themselves.
Be interesting to see if Ardern heads to Auckland Central in this last week? Winning is still an uphill battle for Swarbrick but she’s clearly in another league from White and Mellow.
" Winning is still an uphill battle for Swarbrick but she’s clearly in another league from White and Mellow "
Yes from what i have seen of White and Mellow ( sounds like an accounting firm ) Swarbrick would be a marvellous asset for the good people of Auckland Central.
It is a shame they don't seem to see that.
@mosa 9
I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of Swarbrick coming through the middle on election night. Be great to see that happen.
" Be great to see that happen "
Would be the highlight of the night !
totally ditto
She is fantastic
Yesterday I received an unsolicited and personalised email from Judith Collins. Its content, which is fear mongering at its worst, is attempting to link Labour policy to the Green's Wealth Tax proposal. Jacinda Ardern has stated quite categorically that this is not true and so scurrilous misinformation.
It is obviously aimed at gold card holders and a number of my acquaintances, who share my indignation, have also received it.
The serious question is, how did the National Party obtain those email addresses. If they came from a Grey Power data base or even a Gold Card data base then this must be a breach of privacy which should be investigated. Do others share my concern.
Ask the sender of this email how they obtained you email address. You could also get assurance from your grey power chairperson that they've not given it to any marketing outfit.
But how they would get your email address from a gold card database. Is there such a thing?
No way MSD would be leaking it. Grey Power on the other hand..
Grey Power need looking into telling members to vote no on the cannabis reeferendum without consulting members when 70% of elderly people are for a yes vote.
I am seriously wondering whether or not to renew my membership.
NZ Herald 12 Oct
“Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she will reconsider a decision to deny a grieving British family entry to New Zealand.
Ardern said this morning that she stood by a decision not to let yachts in the Pacific dock here during the Covid-19 pandemic.
She said she did not want a scenario in which people could not fly into New Zealand but could sail in.”
The blue water yachts sailing the world oceans have annually migrated and brought business to New Zealand when they sailed away from the tropical areas of the Pacific to avoid being there in the hurricane season. To sail from Tahiti to NZ, as this family will have to do , will take about 20 days so they will not arrive Covid stricken.
I bet the super yacht owners and all their friends will be “facilitated” to come to NZ in time for the Americas Cup Races – but will the lovers and friends ( those that do not have “partner” status) of New Zealanders currently held at bay overseas , be invited in first. What wins MONEY of Kiwi happiness ? Right now I am ashamed to be a New Zealander.
But surely the blue water yachts have had the sense to lay up at this time. Surely they can't have thought they could drift through the carnage unaffected, munching their lotuses?
Lay up where exactly?
Harden up Cupcake.
I've done this one to death elsewhere.
Frankly the opiniated tosh coming from people here who have no understanding of yachting and what's at stake for these people has been… an eyeopener.
RL, frankly the opinionated tosh coming from people who appear to have a poor grasp of pandemic epidemiology and what's at stake globally has been… an eye-opener. On 2 October, you wrote (in separate comments):
The daily number of new COVID infections continues to outstrip recovered cases, so the number of active COVID cases globally continues to rise. On 2 October, when you boldly and repeatedly opined "It's over", the number of active cases was apparently 7.72 million; currently there are 8.31 million infected patients.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Officially, COVID-19 has infected less than 0.5% of humans , so it seems unlikely that "it's over", even allowing for vitamin D supplementation and whatever other 'magic bullet' / 'snake oil' straws one might want to clutch at. Apologies for doing "this one to death" (an unfortunate choice of words), but your opinion on this particular aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic are misleading and dangerous to public health, IMHO.
Edit: Reading those two quotes again, you appear to be implying that those critiquing your opinions might want COVID-19-related illness and death to continue – pretty offensive.
Take your complaint to WHO. They've come out this week against continued lockdowns as the only tool against Covid.
We now have an array of smarter, less blunt, tools to help manage this disease. And in the week since I made those quotes above, it looks like a lot of qualified medical people are thinking along similar lines.
RL, my "complaint" is that you are promulgating the idea that the COVID-19 pandemic is over. Don't lean too hard on the WHO for support; how do you imagine that organisation, or indeed “a lot of qualified medical people” would respond to your assertion that "It's over"?
“We now have an array of smarter, less blunt, tools to help manage” diabetic conditions, but diabetes isn’t over.
You can delude yourself as much as you want, but please don’t mislead others.
It's over from a strategic perspective. Its no longer an unknown, uncontrolled threat. Which means we can start thinking about what comes next.
I’ve made this distinction clear enough already, but obviously it suits you to pretend otherwise.
Diabetes kills between 1 – 2m people each year, and we manage it without resort to extraordinary measures that have huge costs to the whole of society. Covid is going to eventually become something similar.
Diabetes isn't highly contagious.
All comparisons are flawed. But it was DMK who made it in the first place.
But let's see, we could probably stop diabetes in its tracks if govts exerted a complete totalitarian control over diet and exercise. Comfortable with that?
Doing it for a month or so would have minimal effect on diabetes. It would also require carefully tailored programmes for each individual, lest heart attack rates and other comorbidities skyrocket.
L4 for a month or so saved thousands of NZers' lives, and means we can go to sports games without it being a "super-spreader" event.
In short, your comparison could well make the diabetes problem worse, while the "totalitarian" action actually imposed has led to greater freedoms than many other nations currently have.
You could have written 'It's not [anywhere near] over, yet', but that wouldn't have suited your argument/position, so you chose to deceive and wrote "It's over" – twice. And now your writing that:
I personally believe it’s simply more “opinionated tosh” to assert that COVID-19 is "no longer an uncontrolled threat". Recorded daily global deaths have been between 4,000 and 6,000 since 28 April, and currently at 5,285 (7-day moving average) – ffs, think for a moment if the families and friends of the thousands of people who will die tomorrow due to COVID-19 infections view it as 'over' – that’s a morally repugnant view IMHO.
Your point of view remains a mystery to me, moreso because you previously stated that:
I get that you want the COVID-19 pandemic to be over. I certainly wish it was over. But no amount of wanting and wishing by us will make a blind bit of difference. The COVID-19 pandemic is what it is, and it's NOT over, "from a strategic perspective" or otherwise. You're position on this issue is simply not credible or rational, and I can only conclude that irrationality is at the root of your apparent need to dig yourself ever deeper.
The remarkable thing about the global daily death rate is how stable it is now. This is not a pandemic spiralling out of control. It represents less than 4% of all deaths, despite the case rate continuing to climb.
Also check the data we do have for the excess death rate. This paints another picture again
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/excess-mortality-p-scores
A huge bump back in March April May, and now almost back to normal. Or below.
We did the right move at the beginning, but the right move now may well be different.
a regular 10-20% increase in some nations weekly mortality is "almost back to normal"?
Only because the peaks before substantial numbers of people did what the governments were too cowardly or corrupt to require. So now we have places like the US, where huge numbers of people are in lockdown (voluntary or locally-mandated) for months while others hug each other at maskless political events, just to keep it ticking over.
I, for one, don't want to risk an "almost normal" 20% increase in mortality in NZ.
Are you looking at the same graphic?
Yup. I also looked at the note about the reporting lag for recent weeks, and looked at the button to "add country".
But most of all, I looked at the Y-axis scale.
It's a "remarkable thing" that we can have such different opinions about what a stable global COVID-19 death rate of 5,000 (give or take) per day means for the pandemic. Your evolving position:
is an intriguing one, but I'm not convinced your selected words accurately reflect the current stage of the pandemic.
Hopefully the COVID-19 case and fatality rates will begin to edge down within a few months, and your "it's over" will eventually match pandemic reality – maybe when (or if) a moderately effective vaccine is widely available. But if the COVID-19 trajectories of some other OECD countries are anything to go by, then letting our guard down is just asking for trouble.
fatality rates will begin to edge down within a few months
And a quick glimpse of the data clearly shows that despite a rising number of cases globally, the number of deaths is stable. This absolutely means the Case Fatality Rate must be declining and has been for months … good news.
But if the COVID-19 trajectories of some other OECD countries are anything to go by, then letting our guard down is just asking for trouble.
Nonetheless the shape of these curves is broadly similar, a bump and then a decline back to nearly normal or below. Even Sweden where they never put their guard up much in the first place.
Someone might just look at them all and conclude that from the perspective of why we did the lockdowns and travel bans back in March … it's effectively over. Globally it's not exponentially spiralling out of control, and we now have an array of tools to manage this disease in the usual way. Lockdowns should no longer be the primary tool that govts reach to.
This is now the view of WHO and numerous other highly qualified medical professionals, so while I accept it's still a controversial position, it's not an uninformed or ignorant one.
Possibly more “controversial” for NZ than for the nine OECD countries with rates of COVID-19 deaths per million at least 100 times ours. Might relaxing NZ’s border controls now be likened to gradually decreasing the concentration of fluoride in drinking water?
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/10/covid-19-who-official-s-lockdown-criticism-probably-doesn-t-apply-to-new-zealand-dr-siouxsie-wiles.html
It's hardly surprising that a global pandemic would increase inequality and so hardship, but is the optimal solution really to allow the virus to spread until herd immunity (still rather contentious for COVID – remember your perceptive comment regarding our incomplete understanding of COVID epidemiology) is established? This would appear to be advocating that the total number of COVID-19 cases globally should be allowed to increase to a point were there are roughly 100 times the number of people infected – this would presumably (somehow) occur in a controlled fashion. Still, I can't help wondering if there might be some other way to alleviate poverty – some other way. After all, there really is more than enough wealth to go around.
Don't know about Aussie, but found these links.
Then there's this.
Seems to relaxing border controls for NZ now would be akin to not finishing a course of antibiotics.
Yes. I get that, we saved lives at the front end, but now we're faced with another kind of challenge at the back end. It seems to me NZ is betting the farm on an effective vaccine.
At present NZ is nowhere near 'herd immunity', at whatever level you choose to put that number, effectively COVID has never really happened in NZ, which is forcing us into a posture of extreme vulnerability all the while waiting on a vaccine to rescue us. Is this really a sustainable strategy?
As I've said repeatedly, back in March when faced with many unknowns lockdowns were absolutely the right thing to do. But in six months the ground has shifted.
With over a million dead, and at least as many seriously debilitated, the ground has indeed shifted – we now know that COVID-19 is a dangerous virus. I'll behave accordingly until a reliable treatment and/or vaccine is available – it's an easy personal choice to make here.
As NZ progressed down the COVID alert levels for the first time, we went to a popular local resaurant to celebrate level 3 –> 2. It was a little too popular, and wasn't observing the mandated health safety rules. Haven't been back – fortunately there are plenty of safety-conscious eateries to choose from.
"At present NZ is nowhere near 'herd immunity'", and as you point out we don't even know if as few as 50% of the population (or even less) would need to be infected to achieve effective herd immunity (if herd immunity is even possible for this virus.) If ~50% turns out to be the level of exposure required for herd immunity, then we're already ~1% of the way down that road – yay.
I'm under no illusions that economic considerations will eventually dominate health concerns, but I'll get (well) behind any government, health service, organisation and individual applying the brakes and urging caution, and drag my heels every step of the way.
Stamp it out, keep it out – "We don't know how lucky we are…", and I'd rather that didn't become "We don't know how lucky we were…"
Stamp it out, keep it out
Nah, a completely idiotic and in the long term, impossible dream. It will fail.
There are only two ways out of this, a vaccine or herd immunity.
The article I linked to on herd immunity above is a reasonably well balanced read on this. It could be a number as high as 70% based on a simple analysis, or as low as 20% if you start introducing other considerations. Differing specialists are making various argument. But NZ has effectively taken this possibility off the table for the time being.
So a vaccine it is … what if we never get one? How many more lockdowns can we do?
And here is a WHO spokesperson speaking to the NZ situation; effectively saying the same thing as I am. Use all the tools at your disposal, but don’t rely on lockdowns as your primary tool:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/covid-19/428204/covid-19-nz-is-in-an-advantageous-position-who-spokesperson
Vaccines create herd immunity. Herd immunity without vaccines is just infecting millions and watching people die.
The third way out of this is that we keep mandatory border isolation. It'll also help with the next pandemic, too.
You’ve repeatedly stated "it's over", so why do we need a 'way out'? Is the COVID-19 pandemic over, and if not then why were you promulgating the idea that it was?
Herd immunity remains a dream until ~50% of NZers have been infected; maybe not even then. At the moment ~1,800 NZers have been infected, so one of your "ways out" consists of letting the number of people who have been infected with COVID-19 rise (gradually?) to ~2,500,000. No thanks – that's a BIG fail, IMHO.
I'm not holding out much hope for an effective vaccine either, but that's still a better bet than banking on at least 2,500,000 NZers being infected.
If you're planning on returning to NZ anytime soon then you'll have to do the 14-day managed isolation, just like everyone else.
Lucky L4 is not our only tool then, isn't it.
This it what I ve written elsewhere. Note I am in the business myself.
"While I would be inclined to support the yachties, being one myself, and living in an area where many jobs depend on boating and visitors. However New Zealand has hundreds of thousands asking for exemptions. Including industries that make a lot more than services, to notoriously frugal, cruisers. Every group that is exempted increases the risk, even if by a small amount. At the moment we have totally free movement within NZ, no covid outside isolation, and most of our industries working, unlike the USA. A resurgence puts all that at risk, including the many people, most of NZ, whose jobs depend on keeping covid out. The Government has to draw a line in the sand with our border, somewhere. As the more people we have to quarantine the greater the chances of more outbreaks. It is a numbers game. The more we let in the more risk. I'm an essential worker that travels around NZ. Very pleased our Government has kept covid away from me so far. Unlike similar people in other countries. People I knew in the USA are dead! Those ignoring the rules are somewhat arrogant, to say the least. Just look at the US reaction to those disobeying border rules. Indefinite detention without trial."
In short, "I'm alright Jack … fuck you".
So. We should fuck the entire country and the rest of our workers and businesses that can go to work.
For the benefit of a few.
You can fuck off.
Yeh, cracks me up how RL gets all passionate about groups he cares about but shows zero regard for others.
If we self-identify as "yachties" would he have time for "woke" principles, I wonder 👿
you'd have to buy all them black and queer folk boats mate. If people were getting shot for sailing while black you'd see some action for sure.
By the way there are a huge number of commercial ships crews that have been stuck on board for 17 months or more now. With no shore leave. Including in New Zealand.
On many ships little or no contact with family.
Having accidents after months of 12 hour split shifts.
No one gives a stuff about them. accept to crucify them if something goes wrong.
And you expect me to be worried about a few yachties. Who can fly home and pay a New Zealand crew to sail their boat to Opua, if it is that desperate.
Already pressure from our "poverty stricken" farmers and growers to let their slave labour back in. Not to mention the education sector wanting to resume their student scam. If they all had their way, as National is dog whistling, we would be back to 10’s of thousand of arrivals per month, in private quarantine.
If anyone should be given priority to enter NZ, it should be shore leave and repatriation for the ships crews, that deliver our groceries and depart with our exports.
but they no special.
RL. Personally, I would be better off financially if the yachties were allowed in.
NZ does not have any responsibility to the boaters but we do have a responsibility to those here in NZ.
Living on boats comes with risk. No point whinging about it when those risks call due.
KJT @ 7.49 am Really good explanation of why we should be maintaining our tight line on the borders. Then the government can decide who to let in on what basis and how to handle them. Well said.
"She said she did not want a scenario in which people could not fly into New Zealand but could sail in"
That is the bottom line. The sooner yachties understand this the better.
Yet oddly enough several thousand people are arriving by air each week, all of them a much higher Covid risk.
Kiwis are making total dicks of themselves on this.
You’re comparing people with different entry qualifications, i.e. apples with oranges.
Covid doesn't care about entry qualifications.
Someone who set out to sail across the Pacific is in a very different position to someone who can't fly here. There's your apples and oranges for you.
Several thousand New Zealand citizens and permanent residents are arriving by air each week.
Any New Zealand citizens and permanent residents on yachts in the South Pacific have been free to return at any time. But if they arrive with crew that aren't currently eligible to arrive here considering the pandemic situation, then those crew members won't find a welcome. And if the yacht they arrive on isn't NZ owned etc, then that's problematic too.
No, i think just one, hereabout anyway.
"several thousands per week"might be considered overstating it….
"There was a net gain of 5200 New Zealand citizens between April and August this year, which was partially offset by a net loss of 3500 non-New Zealand citizens, leaving a net gain of 1700 overall."
https://www.interest.co.nz/property/107477/net-population-gain-migration-including-returning-nz-citizens-was-just-1700-five
In what way does someone leaving NZ reduce the total risk. Arrivals are the only number that matter.
and arrivals were 5200 between april and august…hardly several thousands per week.
"Statistics NZ estimated that in the 12 months to August, there was net population gain of 71,500 people from migration, with 98% of that gain occurring over the seven months prior to border restrictions being introduced."
https://www.interest.co.nz/property/107477/net-population-gain-migration-including-returning-nz-citizens-was-just-1700-five
Dunno how they work that. Actual arrivals were around 9000ish June and July, 11000ish August and September.
https://www.customs.govt.nz/covid-19/more-information/passenger-statistics/
interesting…there must be a swarth of 'critical workers' in those totals
If they arrive by air and are NZ citizens of course they permitted entry. The difference is that those coming by boat that are not permitted entry are not NZ citizens. How difficult is that to understand?
In the normal course of events they would have been granted visitor visas. That's what they were relying on when they set out.
If you got on a plane to a country like Australia with automatic visa entry, and half way into your flight the authorities of that country cancelled all entry, arrested you when you landed, put you in prison, deported you and fined you a sum equal to the value of your home, I think you would see this as unreasonable.
That's a gross misrepresentation. They've been made aware they’re not welcome before boarding, not mid-flight.
Circumstances change during travel. It happens. When you became aware that you're not welcome at your next intended destination, you change plans and routes before you leave where you are currently.
Once you depart the Eastern Pacific, the only practical destination for most is going to be Aus/NZ. The route is pretty much predetermined.
Sure it's a long slow flight with many stopovers, and the timetable might change, but the parallel is reasonably apt in my view.
Once you depart the Eastern Pacific, the only practical destination for most is going to be Aus/NZ.
When I was connected to the industry, there were plenty of boats doing all kinds of alternative routes that I was aware of. Sure, they weren't all cushy downwind slides, some of them were long and uncomfortable slogs upwind. But they were doable and were being done.
In the right boat with a strong crew yes. But most short handed cruisers would be exhausted in less than a week.
Sailing upwind is doable for short legs, but for 3 – 4 weeks or more, it's not an option for most. Throw in the constant ocean swell and performance is even worse. Most cruising boats are not set up to do it for long periods, and things start to break.
Yeah, that can happen, too.
There are no guarantees in international travel. Sailors should know this better than anyone.
Are their visitor visas still valid?
If they don't travel here, the visa remains valid until its expiry date, but they can't use the visa to travel to and enter NZ currently. If they travel here and are refused entry, then the visa is cancelled automatically under the Immigration Act.
Qualified medical people are missing their employer funded or tax write off overseas conferences and sabbaticals, overseas holidays, au pairs, school student exchanges and the opportunity to host overseas colleagues. This is a source of bias towards thinking along similar lines. An elderly obese diabetic person would think along different lines I suspect, and rightly so.
The family can fly out of Tahiti- and assumedly could leave their boat there as well or at worse hire a kiwi yacht broker to sail it here and sell it. It's worth $1m.
They may not arrive covid free in NZ if they sailed with one infected person and it was transmitted to others during the voyage.
As for cyclones -this is a fact free zone by the media. The cyclone season is Nov- April. The pacific nations closed borders at the end of March. Boats were assumedly some where safe for the last cyclone season and basically have been unable to move since.
FP has only very limited exposure to cyclones. There has been a lot of links on that.
On a small yatch either everyone has Covid or none at all. Your sequential infection scenario is exceedingly unlikely.
Besides no-one was going to arrive and walk off the boat without testing and quarantine.
The rest of your comment is equally misleading.
"To sail from Tahiti to NZ, as this family will have to do , will take about 20 days so they will not arrive Covid stricken."
Maybe but they could still be carrying covid as latent infection. How many people on board total?
Most yatchs are crewed by a couple. But the usual range of crew is between 1 and 6. More than this would be rare.
As for latent infection, this claim would invalidate the whole basis of quarantine if we took it seriously.
Covid 19 has an incubation period of around 5 days but it can incubate up to 14 days. Symptoms develop at the end of the incubation period. Tbe contagious period begins 2-3 days before symptoms begin and lasts for up to 10 days, or longer if symptoms persist.
With a little bad luck, a sailor could contract covid the day they left, become infectious around day 10 and infect the rest of the crew, experience mild symptoms around day 13 and then recover. The other crew, who may experience no symptoms at all, will likely be contagious as they disembark on day 20.
The other point is that those timeframes are the most probable ones, there will be statistical outliers.
And even if we're talking a solo sailor taking three weeks for the voyage, what if they have it upon arrival or require urgent help from within our rescue area only a part way through their "isolation"? Everyone in the crew compartment would be a close contact, and the chopper is down a crew for the next fortnight. Mostly because the sailor wants to sell their boat for a better price than in the islands.
This scenario is the same basis on which family groups are already treated. Are you telling me that quarantine for 14 days is far too short? You should alert the appropriate medical authorities.
It is not the same because in managed quaratine the original case would be tested on day 3 and 12, and checked daily for symptoms.
In addition, medical authorities do acknowledge that there is a risk that undetected infections may pass through MIQ. This is why only NZ residents are permitted entry and random yachties aren't.
Sighs … yet no-one is proposing that these yachties just get off the boat untested. As a group they've worked to develop a quarantine protocol that makes sense for their situation. In effect they'd be doing two quarantines, one at sea and another when they get here. If that isn't enough for you I don't know what would be.
I struggle to imagine any other group arriving with a lower risk profile than these people, and they'd self isolate on arrival in the safest possible manner. At almost no cost to NZ.
This is why only NZ residents are permitted entry and random yachties aren’t.
This isn't the biggest political issue of the year, but it sure has uncovered just how smugly irrational and mean spirited kiwis have become over their covid situation.
They want to come to New Zealand because they think they can sell their yacht quicker and for more money here.
Given that the alternative for many is going to abandon the boat where it is and likely become a total loss, this seems a reasonable motivation.
All the safe places to store a boat in the Pacific were filled up ages ago.
Their other option is (from the same link):
Not going to be an option for everyone at all.
In order for this to be viable they need visas and funds to stay in FP for that period. Plus somewhere they'll be allowed to anchor long term. And nothing else to go wrong.
It was an option for those Greman chancers that apparently decided instead to do a bandit run and see how it turned out for them (badly, they shoulda stayed where they were).
It's an option for the family at issue right here right now.
So far there hasn't been any of them with a woe is me story for whom it hasn't been an option. I'm gonna need actual evidence to be persuaded it's not option. Vague unbacked assertions won't cut it.
If they are EU citizens (including the UK currently), they can stay and work in Tahiti without special visas. Not much use for the North American travellers obviously.
Then they should have factored a pandemic into their passage plan and activated a contingency plan.
BTW, link for the Harold piece that started the thread:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/newstalk-zb-mike-hosking-leaders-breakfast-jacinda-arderns-vision-for-next-three-years/N7C5TPZEJRIYJK5IAHQA7LFWXA/
ta.
I don't really get it. Is there a reason they can't stay in that part of the Pacific until cyclone season is finished, and then sail back to Europe and sell the yacht there?
They started sailing in Jan, by the end of Feb it was clear we were heading into a pandemic. NZ borders have been closed since mid-march. I appreciate they are grieving, but what have they been doing all year? The complaint about the America's cup is a big rich, given they were pretty much intending to go on holiday for a year. They can put their daughter into school in the Pacific until they can move on.
They started sailing in January 2019 not 2020
The America's cup is part of that whole Auckland exceptionalism thing – they think there might be a few votes in it – but real sailors, not so much. No salt in this govt's blood.
This line from Janet catches my eye.
The blue water yachts sailing the world oceans have annually migrated and brought business to New Zealand…
Sounds like the godwits. These birds have been traversing the globe from time immemorial. They have birdbrains and are most adept at doing what their instincts tell them.
Whereas humans have few instincts, but large brains and we do not seem to be adept at using them to capacity. Pity we are such a failing species that we are taking ourselves down, and the rest of the animal crew on the planet as well who had adapted and knew their limits.
No not like Godwits, every year a different fleet of yachts arrive in the Pacific and many drop down to NZ for cyclone season shelter and boat repairs near the end of the safe sailing season, which is now. Yachts generally sail westwards along what we call the barefoot route.It takes most yachties about 3 years to sail right around the world This family left England in January 2019 . No covid in sight then.
But why is it NZs problem that they cannot now sail on their predetermined course? Why does an exception have to be made for them?
It was understandable for everything to be shut done in the panic when Covid hit NZ. By now things like “yachts” coming into New Zealand should be reconsidered.
Actually the only reason we cannot have more people coming into NZ is because of the limitation of quarantine facilities for air travellers. Anyone arriving on a yacht to any country of the world is not allowed to disembark until a health check of all people on board has been undertaken and they are signed off as OK by a health department doctor. In the current situation , if the people on board did not get a clearance because maybe the signing off doctor thought, despite the time it took to sail here, that the captain and crew may be infectious or may yet become infectious with Covid then everybody stays on board until that clearance is given.
So really NZ could be opened up for yachties to arrive because they will not be needing our quarantining facilities.If they need to quarantine they will stay on their boats.
New Zealand is turning away the good seasonal business that comes with the yachties for no really sensible reason.
With the current case there is a humanatarian aspect.
The only people allowed into NZ are NZ citizens/residents, people on humantiarian grounds, and people that Labour believe bring some kind of urgent economic benefit. The family on the yacht don't fit into any of those categories.
"The family on the yacht don't fit into any of those categories."
Precisely.
It's achingly simple.
yep. If we let in yachties, then why not private jets?
Except humanitarian, they are grief-stricken as their 13 year old son was killed by a yobbo in a small boat in Tahiti who crashed into their yacht and they wish to return home and bury him and give up the cruising dream. I can understand that completely. Bit unfair to say "Harden up ".
We have the author of his story about being held on Manus Island speaking in Nelson soon. If you have a yacht you are entitled to have superior arrangements obviously, to all the other suffering people in the world.
The only people allowed into NZ ….. …. limited to NZ citizens etc because of our limited border / quarantining facilities. The family on the yacht do not need to go into our border quarantine facilities – they can quarantine on board if thought necessary.
Woops, More news from today’s NZ Herald…
“New Zealand's door has been opened to overseas students again “
As (next headline) “Global infections surge – a million new cases in three days”
Sorry yachties
250 post-grad students who already had visas and didn't make it here before the borders closed in March.
Does anyone know if rescues are still being carried out at sea?
I would want to know if a cyclone damaged my yacht and I was left drifting.
It is nice of Judith to have a photo OP with the man they are replacing her with after the election. I wonder if they have been discussing her big golden parachute exit out of parliament?
Once Collins is no longer the leader she will probably bailout. Her brand is not the future of National and the election result will consolidate this.
Who wants to sit in opposition calling out to get noticed?
It's an interesting question, the future of National.
Some might argue that they don't have one, at least not as they are.
The Luxon waiting in the wings doesn't seen to have any splendid new ideas, and there's no sign thus far of them going to the mattresses to sort out what they stand for that the public could conceivably swallow.
Dreadful shame – and all on the public's tab.
My crystal ball says no future on being in government on the 18th.
Nothing will change with the National caucus being united. Also a leadership change before the 2023 election.
.
To buttress his argument that "a 4% swing from Labour to National or ACT in the last two weeks" of the current election campaign is certainly achievable (and thus "there is a credible path to victory for National") ,David Farrar cites polling evidence from the final stages of the 2002 campaign, suggesting the "Govt (ie Labour) dropped 5% from 46% to 41% in last two weeks".
What DPF doesn't mention is that in the same Colmar Brunton, the National Party Opposition suffered an even steeper plunge from 27% down 6 points to 21% over those same final 2 weeks.
In other words, far from the gap closing .. Labour's lead over the Nats during those final few weeks in 2002 opened up a little by 1.4 points. There was no "5% swing" from Govt to Oppo.
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2020/10/over-interpreting_a_sarky_tweet.html
# Lies, damned lies, and statistics
Heh. He failed to notice that?? Maybe he noticed, then went straight into denial. False hope is better than no hope.
Still I never like the thought of tightrope walking. I would like to have seen planned electorate party voting by the Greens and Labour, in a keen left electorate, to be sure of one in Green hands. Pragmatic and legal, politics is the art of the possible etc.
Yes, strategic planning is unknown on the left still. The electorate is viewed as a market, so party providers are meant to promote their brands separately. Gambling on faith. Whereas the right get that democracy is a game, so to win you must figure out how best to game the system – not that they're much good at this in Aotearoa currently!
Politics as a sport. If we openly treated it as such, showing how people have allegiances with the brand and the team, we would understand why there is often little intellectual power put into the process and understand the outcome better.
Media certainly cover it that way.
Swordfish….but that doesn't mean it won't happen this time….and if the Greens get 4.9% Standardistas could wake up to Crusher as PM and ACT with 5 cabinet posts.
Based on current polls, the route to that happening would need 1% or 2% of the electorate shifting from Green to Labour, and a massive exodus of Labour voters to Nat.
Former Green voters aren't gonna go anywhere but to Labour (unless the nutter faction in Greens is waaay bigger than I thought and they go to Billy Te Kookiha). So if they do bail, then the 47%ish Labour are showing in the polls goes up closer to 50% vs a combined NACT vote around 40%.
To lift NACT above Labour, nearly 1 in 10 voters currently planning to vote Labour would need to swap to Nat. Disregarding the fact that over a quarter of the electorate has already voted.
To be fair, we were saying the same thing when the margins were the other way.
An interesting concept that may have real possibilities although it contains a potential difficulty with the EU and its in house factions.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/were-not-even-close-to-our-nuclear-free-moment
Action Station's director explains change praxis to progressives (in the hope that they learn to make it happen instead of just talking about it): https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/12-10-2020/moving-the-rock-an-election-manifesto-for-people-led-change/
So this is a community-building praxis, in which like-minded communities operate as social organisms. They appeared in our media during the latter half of the 1960s. I went on a HART demo in 1970 after several years of resolutely refusing to be a joiner, and remember how alien it felt – being part of a group of strangers.
In the pandemic era infection teaches us there's danger in such groups. Praxis of how to drive group process to make progress happen has to become more sophisticated in response. Non-local communities are now how humans exercise social agency.
The praxis is gnosised.
Through pedagogy?
I had a call from a woman representing the National Party
after my "/lol you are calling the wrong person "
she assured me it was just a call to remind me to vote –
" already have thank you have a good evening"
It gave me a good chuckle
To be fair Labour does it too. I was part of numerous phone campaigns in past years. Asking people to get out and vote was the opening gambit then you took it from there – depending on the recipient's response.
I gave up doing it because too many people were rude and just hung up. Looking back I don't blame them.
Am hearing JA had Hoskings eating out of her hand this morning.
I posted about this interview last week. Good to see JA's team did the right thing and got her in studio.
Shoring up his revenue streams for the next 3 years by stepping back from going full troppo?
Totally, the hosk is a very predictable shill for the right. His power comes from a medium we all know is dying out along with it’s audience.
Michele A'Court describes the sheeple styling of wimping out, then gets proactive:
Those Green Fairies sound like great ladies. For all the female elderly arthritic ladies and gents mustn't forget them, and those who have anxiety and stress in their lives young or old bring it on. Being a reformed non drinker for health reasons a calming balm of the devil's lettuce sounds a pretty good thing to me. Kicking back at the end of the day – when I miss my drink the most – would be wonderful. I am good at growing vegies etc in the garden and have successfully grown the most amazing specimen of the devil's lettuce once upon a time, it was wondrous to behold, I am looking forward to cultivating a couple of the plants in the corner of my garden when this reform becomes law.
Bless these Green Fairies for they are the salt of the earth.
Why is there not an option for medicinal cannabis?
My weeping gut cannot take meds for arthritic pain in several places and when the pain gets so debilitating I would like the option of smoking away the pain.
When it comes to being stoned when driving I am wavering being a yes vote for legalising cannabis. Screening for being stoned is not up to the mark. The strength and 14 grams is an issue for me as well. Most other reasons to legalise can be worked around. The end of life choice is a yes.
I am a bit stumped for the first time in voting for 40 years on giving Labour my electorate vote. I might just do a party vote this time around.
Like you I have erosive gastritis and arthritis. The gut wont take anti-inflammatories so I just take fish oil and glucosomine and its amazing how pain tolerant one can become. I have had foot surgery and a knee replacement but I still do get out and walk and keep fit. I think there will be some leeway with driving. Its not like the elderly will be stoned witless every day. As for the euthanasia bill its a big no for me. Just can't get my head around it. Like taxes, laws are just waiting to be changed, altered, got around, loopholed you name it. So its a big nono for me. However this will be an interesting election I must say.
Hi Treetop, re cannabis.
To date, probably the best piece I've seen this election, that examines both sides of the story was Paddy Gowers last week. Here's the link
There was also a good debate on the subject between Chloe Swarbrick and dr custard (aka nick smith).
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/08/cannabis-referendum-chloe-swarbrick-and-nick-smith-get-fired-up-over-cannabis.html
Mum disclosed she voted yes for cannabis the other day, she's a conservative person in her late 70's, originally she was going to vote no. Same with the old man, almost fell over when he said he voted yes, he's always been fiercely anti weed.
Hope that is of help and all the best making your decision. How lucky are we that we get to have choices, yay for referendums 🙂
The shit doctors prescribe (enough to knock a horse out) or cause a serious addiction is a worry.
Did you see that from 5 November a prescription is required for codine?
I only take pain meds when I cannot get up using my own steam, cannot turn over without waking up or close to chucking from a headache.
.
Barely acknowledged, if at all by commentators … the last Reid Research Poll found a whopping 21% of 2017 –Nats– planning to swing to –Labour–.
Not surprising, of course, given the significant re-alignment suggested by all the post-COVID Lockdown polls … but it's worth pointing out just how massive this is … means around 242k Nats have moved to Labour (putting aside questions of turnout).
By comparison, at the last two Turnover Elections (ie where a change of Govt occurred), only around 94k Labour voters swung to the Nats in 2008, while about 105k Nats moved to Labour in 2017.
The closest we've come to something on this scale (assuming it eventuates) was in 2002 when 112k Nats swung to Labour (representing a little over 17% of 1999 Nat voters).
Give them something to vote for and they will come eh!. Go on cleaving through the Slough of Despond and we can see off some of the crippling rentiers and con corporates and private equity outfits with our own versions. Use the attackers own weapons, hoist them on their own petards.
Someone worthy to vote for is my take on That.
People generally don't like the low blows that Collins eminates like a spoilt child who doesn't get her whey will mean she will be put out to pasture ,being a negative ninny like whinny means he is dog tucker.
Great comment Trickledown – lots of nuances.
Swordfish…do you have any data on how many 18-25's are enrolled this election compared with the last?
Also, I'm guessing the percentage of enrolled 18-25's that will turn up and vote is likely to be higher due to the cannabis issue. The Green's will benefit from this.
Oct 2020
Age 18-24 … 72.4% enrolled (326k)
2017
Age 18-24 … ? % enrolled (333k)
Thanks Swordfish much appreciated…even if that wasn't the answer I wanted.
I thought this time there would be more.
Mind you, 2020 stats are, of course, pre-election … 2017 were post-election (over 94,000 (of all ages) enrolled over the final 3 days before 2017 election day). So if similar last minute surge then final 2020 tally for 18-24 yo may well exceed 2017.
Ah you just made my day….very 18-24 to enrol so late.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/123047516/election-2020-hopes-for-higher-voter-turnout-as-more-than-585000-people–cast-their-ballot-early
Cheers … Serves me right for going to the official Elections.NZ site … they're clearly a little behind the times.
Last Updated 9 Oct.
25-29 year-olds clearly higher enrolment than 18-24.
Let's imagine the Greens come out of this election strong enough that they can ram through a wealth tax. What does everybody think will then happen in 2023, and the fate of the wealth tax after the next change in government?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/428115/ruling-out-conversation-on-wealth-tax-not-credible-shaw
Firstly, I don’t think the Greens will be in a position to ram through anything. In any case, this will have to be dealt with during the post-election talks between parties.
Secondly, it is not in their nature [pardon the pun] to try a ram through anything.
Insisting on a conversation is not equal to ‘ramming through’, IMHO.
On past form they may insist on a public education campaign between now and 2023, if that's not too much trouble Jacinda.
Ok then, let's assume the polite and respectful conversation they insist on having results in a wealth tax being implemented over the many statements so far from Labour that it ain't gonna happen.
What does everybody think will then happen in 2023, and the fate of the wealth tax after the next change in government?
In that case I guess we know that you'll vote Nact who will promise to throw it out to gain votes from the likes of you.
AmIright?
Very unlikely, but not impossible.
What would need to happen for that is Labour looking tired, out of ideas, and authoritarian, and Greens to still be stuffed full of social activists and woo-meisters with very few actual grounded greens. Kinda like 2008, only worse.
But of the people in my circles that are currently going Labour or Greens, I'd tend more to be one of the later ones to switch. Most of the others will flip somewhat more easily.
Perhaps you will keep on watching what happens in the USA Andre and advise us on what to do so we turn the opposite way. Or perhaps you will go back and give them the benefit of your excellent analytical skills that you have honed here.
Ah, so you want to do a thought experiment? Seems a bit abstract to me.
As said above, the Greens are unlikely to try and ram anything through, politely or otherwise. What Shaw is saying is that they will bring the wealth tax to the table during negotiations. I assume this includes the GMI and the ACC reforms and so on, they're not wanting a tax for tax' sake. And I take the positioning this week to be about not letting Labour treat them like some rag tags who will do as they are told. Which is a good thing, to stand up to that.
Personally I think Lab should just give them the welfare portfolio. Sepuloni obviously isn't managing it well, and Labour can let the Greens do the heavy lifting on it for a while. The Greens aren't going to get all their policy enacted off the vote this year, but it's completely reasonable to bring the whole policy to the table and say this is our starting point, these things are very important, and remember it's the members who decide if we form govt with you or let you come to us on each piece of legislation for the next three years while we are on the cross benches.
this is more succinct,
https://twitter.com/MJWhitehead/status/1315459250051661824
If that comes about and the other areas brought to the fore are actual green topics, then I'd consider that a win. But it would be a win somewhat tempered by the apparent shortage at the top of the Greens list of actual green talent and substance to take advantage of it.
you still seem to be under the mistaken impression that the Green Party is only meant to be about the environment, as if that is somehow separate from human social and economic wellbeing.
But green politics has always been about the intersections of environmental and social justice.
Getting NZers out of poverty is a climate priority. Does that really need explaining?
meanwhile the Greens, after change not power, are yet again pulling NZ in the right direction. They've been doing that on climate and other environmental issues for decades and I don't see that has changed much, it's just that the policies are integrated more I guess. But shifting the debate on welfare is huge.
Well spoken Weka-there is too much tribal Labour and Jacinda worship being used to justify voting for Labour, rather than debate about the policies.
In particular the Wealth Tax is a good idea but clearly would benefit by being modified/fine-tuned, perhaps so that it only targets the top 4% rather than 6% as now, so that it can gain more widespread support.
For me to support it, the Green Party needs to balance a strong green focus with those other aspects. Right now, that balance isn't there because the green side of things is very weak and way under-represented. I'm not interested in a radical social activism party that's trying to pretend to be something else by holding a Green tissue paper in front of themselves.
The Green Party can make their philosophy and politics about whatever they want it to be. But if they don't have an actual strong green focus, they shouldn't expect to attract votes from those whose actual interest is green issues just by calling themselves Green.
And no, moving people up out of poverty doesn't automatically improve the climate or environment. In fact, to first order, by itself it might even make climate and environment issues worse, because those people will likely consume more. Making environmental and climate improvements needs actual work and priority on those topics, not self-delusion that social activism somehow also magically creates climate and environmental improvement.
The party weeps copious tears at this news.
They're welcome to.
But if they're interested in why their vote share falls short of their hopes and dreams and previous highs, my view is there for the consideration. And I know there's other sometime Green voters with similar views. I couldn't say how common they are outside my circles tho, we could just be weirdos. Or not.
Andre we've got the message that you hate the Greens. Time to move on.
@Andre
It's OK, most Green supporters are not as self-absorbed as you are.
"But if they're interested in why their vote share falls short of their hopes and dreams and previous highs, my view is there for the consideration."
This seems reasonable and I would assume they are looking at why previous green voters are still voting Labour after 2017. But I think the reasons are complex. I doubt it's primarily the wealth tax, which would affect so few NZers. I think it's more likely to be a combination of the Ardern effect, along with a smaller party having been successful in pulling the larger party closer to its own platform and no longer standing out.
Lots of people won't see a huge amount of difference between Lab and Green and will vote on feels (they like JA). Those that look at policy more in depth will shy away from the welfare stuff, not because of the woke thing so much as most liberals in NZ are centre left and happy with neoliberalism.
There is probably a hang over from 2017 of perception of competence (Shaw's Green School gaff won't have helped), along with lots of new faces that people don't know.
Then there is covid, and I have no doubt that there is both the effect of thinking Labour handled it well, and people being afraid and wanting stability and centrism rather than radical change.
Weird thing for me this week is seeing a number of actual lefties saying to vote GP when they've been slagging them off all year. Don't quite know how that is supposed to work, they want people to suddenly think the GP are a good bet?
don't know what you are on about Andre. Leaving aside the referends, there are 8 major policies currently on the campaign part of the website, and 5 of them are environment focused,
Here are the three top priorities this year, that will feature in any post-election negotiations,
"And no, moving people up out of poverty doesn't automatically improve the climate or environment."
No-one actually said it would though, you just made that up.
"In fact, to first order, by itself it might even make climate and environment issues worse, because those people will likely consume more."
Which is why the Green Party has an integrated set of policies based on systems thinking, not reductionist, linear, solve this problem then that one thinking.
"Making environmental and climate improvements needs actual work and priority on those topics, not self-delusion that social activism somehow also magically creates climate and environmental improvement"
Fuck sake, get a grip and go read some actual policy as well as what they've been doing for the past three years.
I have some problems with some of the GP positioning on things woke too. Their rigid stance on gender ID is very risky given what is happening in the UK were left wing women voters are basically now at war with the Labour Party. I just don't think that throwing the baby out with the bath water will help. On climate alone, there are compelling reasons to vote Green, not least is that Labour have no commitment to acting in time.
as for the party list, the point there is that everyone is on board with eco and social and economic. Everyone. So eg Ricardo Menendez will be supporting the enviro stuff while he works on his area of social justice, because he understands the connection between the two.
Personnel is policy.
Vagueish short documents can always be interpreted and implemented in a wide variety of ways.
Manifesto policies that don't align with a pollies actual interests tend to get a token once-over to satisfy the notion that they're trying to implement the policy before finding their way to the too-hard basket.
But the stuff that gets that pollies juices going, that gets a lot of attention and effort whenever it can somehow get related to the manifesto.
Looking at the personnel at the top of the Greens list, I see very little actual green talent and substance, so I have little confidence serious green efforts will be made. But I see a lot of background and experience and enthusiasm for social activism I'm meh about, but I think it's very likely that's where the effort and enthusiasm will go.
As for the last three years, one of the very few individuals that had actual green talent and substance has retired and isn't standing this time around.
yet in the top five are the Minister for Climate, the Minister for Conservation and Associate Minister of Transport. Are they the ones not enthused about their portfolio?
Have a look at Hughes' portfolios, not a lot of enviro stuff there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Party_of_Aotearoa_New_Zealand
Unless of course we acknowledge that the GP build the enviro stuff into all their policies.
But Weka, that would require Andre actually reading the Green's policies. He is obsessed with the Wealth Tax, in part because he will have to pay some extra tax because of it.
Let them eat cake eh Andre?
There is always Vernon Tava's party if you don't want your greenery with a side of social justice.
Vernon Tava … … good one .
I'm not averse to a side of social justice with my greenery, but I'm not keen on a heaping helping of social activism and moral superiority with a tiny sprinkling of ineffectual green on top to hide it.
Andre ACT and Nstional will tax the poor more.
Yep. So that's a good reason to not hand them a really powerful weapon they can use to grab power back in 2023.
Almost 1.2 million have already voted…heading for a very high turnout?
https://vote.nz/voting/get-ready-to-vote/about-the-2020-general-election/?ref=vote-cta-1
Could be a higher turnout or higher early vote percentage than forecast or both. I hope it's both personally.
https://twitter.com/nzbenedict/status/1315452455124045824
Clearly a Nat/Lab voter, ole Kate. Does a chair speak for the org or not? Depends which way the political wind is blowing. I suspect members have been blowing up a bit of a storm in the general direction of her…
No idea about her politics, but deeply unprofessional to stake out such a firm stance without supporting analysis.
The College of GPs by contrast respected the diversity of opinion amongst their members all along: https://rnzcgp.org.nz/RNZCGP/Advocacy/Cannabis_referendum.aspx
and then the ensuing justifications for being sloppy and loose with the truth.
Do you put the increase in early voting just down to avoiding an unknown community case of Covid – 19?
Tory hack John Armstrong:
Blimey, even the devious Mr.Armstrong is abandoning the sinking ship.
Trubble ut mill lad?
Trying to con voters into not bothering to turn out.
" Barack Obama, Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron each, like Ardern, spoke the language of “hope” and “change”. Yet, ultimately, all further entrenched a poisonous status quo "
Glen Johnson from Al Jazeera has summed up politics in New Zealand very succinctly.
Why can't this be replicated through out our MSM.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/10/11/new-zealand-elections-4/
True.
Campaign farce … Says Judith today,
" We don't do wussy stuff in the National Party,"
On border protection from Judith today more yeah..nah.. confusion.
"She said lockdowns led by the border protection agency and minister in charge should be the last resort."
On introducing new, unknown road tolls, Judith negates the whole point of better roading,
" People don't mind, because they have the alternative.
"People can always go the slower way," she said. "
And for her claims, the only party with a tech plan, which then has a tech blunder, Judith ices the "pick me cake",
" About National's ad error, Collins said it was a digital error that was fixed quickly and was now fine. She put the blame on the "digital people"."
Ah, those digital people ay, they keep fecking up Natz great tech policy.
And when you are short on answers to the media's questions today, after ' re-introducing' the same tech policy and probably some more tolls for Auckland roads, Judith looks to her inner Trump mentor,
" I think we just out work, out compete and basically be far more fabulous than [anyone] on the other side."
Jesus she's thick
Actually there's not much between her and Billy T K.
They both just start spouting utter rubbish when challenged; totally illogical garbage with not a trace of ignominy or flicker of embarrassment.
Crushless Collins Born to rule attitude stinks and pisses everyone off.
Last ditchDesperately throwing lies around which makes her look evil and even more unlikable.
NZ is going to ditch the …….
What brilliant observations by Glen Johnson from Al Jazeera. Shows up our local media. Listened briefly to something on Newshub of some sort of discussion between their women reporters. They were like a group of 14 year old teenage girls as they giggled about someone's birthday cake.
Sean Plonker can't understand why the PM doesn't want a bar of Magicktalk. Why can't snoflake Plonker's listeners join the team of 5 million? whines Sean. Maybe they could try a different station.
If almost half of voters have already voted, doesn't that make a nact turnaround in this last week about twice as hard an ask?
#heartbroken lol
Shhh, don't tell St. Jude the patron saint of lost causes that she has an actual lost cause on her hands. We don't want her to give up. I'm quite enjoying the show as it's currently playing out.
I have had enough of Trump and I cannot wait to see the back of him. His BS and his unconvincing leadership style is in a category on its own.
Collins will be remembered for the leader who got the job that no one wanted because of a party coming apart.
And on and on Red Logix goes – sail away I say. What about spending
six months on a leaky boat and we'll just trudge along without you.
And as for people arriving by air. We want to keep our airline going, on a lesser level no doubt in the future, fewer tourists etc. But to do that we have to use it and have return passengers. Comparing our airline entries and exits with people who own their own boats with lives separate from being permanent NZ citizens on land, is spurious.
Or do you think they will put their backs into becoming transport for our people and visitors – a sort of Dunkirk. That would earn them some brownie points here. But actually they need to shelter here don't they, so they have little structural value to us in a time of crisis.