AUT School of Hospitality and Tourism Professor David Williamson told Morning Report the sector had been reliant on cheap migrant labour for too long, and unions, fair pay and collective agreements needed to re-introduced.
"The employment relations framework that was altered so dramatically after 1984 through the 1990s has left the sector vulnerable to low pay and poor conditions and that needs to be turned around," he said.
"These employees who are working in this industry are our neighbours, our friends, our children, our family, and they are just not getting the pay and conditions that you would want."
There's an assumption that one group of people by virtue of business ownership can expect a stable supply of other people for them to employ at wage rates that make that business profitable.
There is no reciprocal assumption – that non-owners can expect a stable of supply of jobs that pay enough for them to live in moderate comfort. Such an assumption would contradict the first assumption, so it's not made.
[When you quote you have to use some kind of formatting, preferably block-quote, to make clear which text is the quote. You also have to make clear when you have left out parts, i.e., when you are selectively quoting. You know all this and Mods don’t want to waste their precious time on lazy unthinking commenters and check & correct after them all the time. This is your warning – Incognito]
In one of the videos posted on the social network around midnight outside Bakhmut you can see the constant strikes of rockets illuminating the night sky and a woman’s voice saying, “My mother is there! Fuck fucking goddamn it.
A man named Nikolai says, “Everything’s on fire. They hit power lines.
When the woman speaks again, apparently wanting to borrow the phone to call her mother, the man cuts in. “Your mom is fucked up. This is stupid [that’s getting hit]”He says, referring to the northern part of Bakmut.
The original Standard piece noted that the press release did not say precisely what was suggested (break up duopoly).
And today, there's a piece from Micky Savage criticising Luxon, the first of which is for something he did not actually say (going straight to green).
There is a clear warning in the Daily Blog article. It notes that there is a tendency to read everything to be pro-Labour and anti Luxon/Nats/Act and fuss over the smallest of details. And ignore all the elephants in the room.
I'm in North Shore and have been in hospital a few times since covid. So feeling a bit uncomfortable about the article in the media today noting their ED using leaking tarps due to overflow pressures. I'm hearing a lot about restructure of DHBs but no evidence of improving service. And I don't think I'm alone in that sentiment.
The Daily Blog says the consequence will be that there is a high chance that there will be a change of Govt (though said in a much shorter and abrupt way). I'm not sure I can disagree with that sentimentt.
Those so called Left want a revolution. They are still living in that era……
Who knows. We all might be soon living in that era.
With our oceans choked with plastic, and we can't put a ban even on Coca-Cola.
With climate change threatening human extinction over part of the planet's surface, and we can't even ban intensive dairying conversions and importing and mining coal.
With World War III in the planning stages. and we can't stop millions of people facing being bombed and shot killed and maimed.
If we can't stop any of these things under the current system.
To stop us killing ourselves and the planet. Might need a revolution.
The Arab Spring was the very, very worst of the Obama-CIA follies that brought momentary hope to millions only to turn into a permanently repressed nightmare for women, gays, Christians, people with degrees, people who wanted to vote, and people who thought the United States would support its idealistic rhetorical flourishes with resolute might.
President Biden’s current tour of Saudi Arabia’s leadership is its perfect and permanent apostasy.
The Arab Spring was the very, very worst of the Obama-CIA follies….
You can't be serious.
The Arab Spring was a CIA plot? Surely one of the most stupid conspiracy theories of all time. You might as well have written that the French revolution was a CIA plot.
You completely ignore the fact that regimes you are talking about, that the Arab people were revolting against, were Western backed. The CIA wasn't trying to topple them, just the opposite. Egypt is the second biggest recipient of US military aid after Israel. And this US military aid was and is being used to suppress and oppress the Arab people.
I asked you a serious question in good faith. And your answer is a slur on the Arab people that the more than 25 million people that rose up against the Dictator Ben Ali and Mubarak and Assad were all CIA dupes?
It was a folly because no one in the US intelligence community appeared to either anticipate or know what to do when the uprising occurred, and when they did Obama rushed in with the Cairo speech that just wrote a whole massive cheque that his ass couldn't cash, and then the great majority of them failed and Obama and the intelligence agencies looked even worse. The result was a spectacular mess that Obama never got out of and the Middle east hasn't yet recovered from.
Irony award of the day for use of the word slur then using Sky News as your source.
The degeneration of the Daily Blog into a place where the supposedly 'real' left end up repeating right wing talking points must be hugely amusing to the actual right/far right. I understand why it delights you so much.
AB, I am far from being delighted!! Pleased and relieved more apt a description.
I do feel that Bryce Edwards "takes a position" then finds passages from others to "Prove his case"
That is fine as long as he quotes correctly. He did not and was called out.
If The Standard is to blame lol, why not Media Watch and Colin Peacock who brought it public notice????
The petty comments on The Blog was one of the reasons I left their site.
There is far more indepth argument here with supporting items, and the calibre of commentary is far superior imo.
Colin Peacock was commenting on a judgement that went against Bryce Edwards.
I was pleased the quotes and use of them was under the microscope, as Bryce has "sailed close to the wind' on previous occasions. Pleased is not delighted.
.
Yeah … because anything outside the Upper-Middle Woke echo-chamber of moral panics, purity spirals, & "good" vs "evil" identity groups = "right wing talking points". Spare me such empty-headed banality. You really have no idea about fundamental Left principles, do you ?
The degeneration of the Daily Blog into a place where the supposedly 'real' left end up…..
Yes it is one thing that can be said in favour of the Daily Blog, it provides an outlet for those on the extreme Left like Malcolm Evans and John Minto who have trouble getting published anywhere else.
“Auckland restaurateurs Sid and Chand Sahrawat are extending service at their Fort Lane restaurant Cassia to seven days and hiring 15 more staff to give their team better hours and more flexibility.”
But the survey of 1,000 British adults, carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday, found Mr Sunak was by far the most well known of the candidates. Some 60% said they knew a great deal or a fair amount about him, and 56% correctly identified him as the former chancellor.
Mr Hunt was the second most well known on 40%, followed by Ms Truss on 33% and Mr Zahawi on 28%.
Ms Mordaunt was known by 20% of people and Mr Tugendhat by 15%, while Ms Badenoch and Ms Braverman were on just 14%.
However, 12% of people told Ipsos that they knew either a great deal or a fair amount about Stewart Lewis, a fake candidate created by the pollster.
Some 6% even said they knew “a great deal” about the non-existent Mr Lewis, more than the 5% who said the same thing about Ms Braverman, the Attorney General, and the same proportion as for Ms Badenoch and Mr Tugendhat
Australasia is treated as a single market…and while the current focus is on Australian floods (the previous occasion of threat here was post ChCh quakes) the underlying driver is the risk of losses which will only increase. As has been noted in the comments to the article those losses are also increasing in their major markets so rationalisation can be expected, or best case scenario a repricing of risk which will have to be carried by all end users….read 'inflationary'.
A bit difficult to track down the quote in the midst of a regularly updated live blog – but I think this is the relevant quote from Little – from the above link:
Q: Unvaccinated health workers. Is there a place for them?
We keep a lot of things under review and we're reviewing the mandate for health care workers.
This is the thing that you do.
I know a lot of people are concerned about unvaccinated health care workers being in the health system.
A lot of people say I don't want to be treated by a healthcare worker who's not vaccinated.
Is there a good clinical basis to maintain the mandate? That's the question that has to be answered. We will rely on expert advice to do that.
If there is any consideration to re-employ unvaccinated nurses it would be backroom jobs where they don't come into contact with patients or indeed vaccinated health staff.
That's fine. Let em do the paper work and answer the telephone.
…..re-employ unvaccinated nurses it would be backroom jobs….
Or. They could be put to work providing hands-on care to Covid infected patients.
Or betterer. Put them to work providing hands-on care to the fucking filth unvaccinated Covid infected patients. Saving the nice, clean, triple jabbed nurses for the nice, clean triple jabbed Covid infected patients.
If I was seriously ill in hospital, either with Covid or anything else for that matter, I wouldn't give a shit as whether my care giver was vaccinated or not. I would just be grateful that they were trying to keep me alive.
If you are an ICU nurse who PPE's and is vaccinated and has just had COVID, thankyou for your service.
Other people I wouldn't want around me: a urinary tract exam from a doctor who didn't wash their hands, a dentist not cleared for Hepatitis, or an ambulance driver who wouldn't wear a seatbelt.
Or indeed blood/tissue products from former UK/French/ROI residents 1980-1996, IV drug users, carriers of hepatitis/EB/CFS viruses, anyone requiring HIV/hepatitis tests, recent STI patients, current sex workers, men who've recently had sex with men or woman they've had sex with…the list goes on.
So when they are wheeling you in to the ED bleeding to death after a car accident, and they say to you, are you ok if an unvaccinated doctor stops the bleeding as we are so short staffed, you will say to them in a weak dying voice "No keep that doctor away from me I don't want Covid. Leave me to die outside"
Your health insurer wouldn’t have time to whisk you off if it was a real emergency. You would be at the ED. You have really swallowed the fear porn of Covid. I actually had Covid a couple of weeks ago and like many others it wasn't even the worse cold or flu I've had. I'm still upright.
Are we so lucky to have Andrew Little as the minister of Health and this ONE nurse in Manila that the minister bases his support for his actions on. Then as a “union man” he craps on the nurses union.
Why is it that so many on the left accept this without voicing any comment or is this the best we can hope for and have to accept. Whist Rome burns ….
I now wonder how much better our health systems would be if someone in Dunedin didn’t go out for a bike ride??
Pity bluster is favoured over compentance.
A little digging can uncover interesting remnants of what was. As exhALANt wrote in his latest blog post (see sidebar):
Tony Ryall once proclaimed at a Health Conference this blogger attended (as part of the job with RNZCGP) “Primary care is not our priority at this time”. The Minister who took over, Jonathan Coleman? He was equally dismissive of concerns across the wider Health Sector then…
Based on this OIA about Canterbury DHB nurses, average RN salary increased every year from 2011 through 2020. That includes 7 years of a National government, during which time nurses salaries increased by an average of 2.3% p.a.. David Clark (Minister from 2017 through mid 2020) managed to secure sufficient extra health money to increase average nurses salaries by 4.7% p.a. from 2018 through 2020.
I don't have the figures since Andrew Little became minister, however his outburst yesterday was either a calculated attack or a political blunder. Either way, it wasn't a good look.
The union was all for the settlement, until they decided back pay had to be settled first. Nurses would have salaries 10 to 12 thousand more a year, which would have helped with the recruiting process as Andrew Little pointed out.
They shot that delay across his bow in December, and are now moaning that nurses will go to Australia. Well Dahhh!!! He is right, they have not helped Nurses.
Interesting, but that's not how Ian Powell sees it:
"And he is getting stuck into the NZ Nurses Organisation, accusing the union of reneging on a deal on pay equity. Simply not true. The “deal” was agreed to by two negotiating teams, but still required ratification. Following membership feedback, NZNO identified two obstacles to ratification which required resolution. That is not reneging; it is the part of the process called ratification. As a former union leader, Little knows this well."
2. Then in May "in a low blow, in May, Little derogatorily referred to the “nominal leaders” of primary care for allegedly failing to see what a different and better health system looks like. It was clear from the context of his attack that he was referring to representatives of general practices."
3. He's also had a crack at rural health services and Pharmac.
I understand the Minister is under pressure, but he's doing himself no favours. Powell concludes with this:
"Little’s poor performance has made him a ministerial liability. A big factor behind this is his failure to recognise the importance of relationships in public health systems."
and
"This has led him to undermine workforce trust and confidence in the Government’s leadership of the health system. Further, he has achieved this in little over 18 months. I don’t recall any health minister reaching this milestone."
Where is any comment from you to question Littles behaviour and actions ?? It appears you can see everything Wrong with parties other than Labour BUT are blinded by this governments performances and unable to make comment.
Not great use of language by Little. "in an interview with Stuff, Andrew Little labelled the union ‘unprincipled’ and the impediment to a pay deal." Just like the Kiwi in Manila telling Little "2 yr is not an issue" how would she know what nurses around the world are thinking" and for him to use that as a reason for his Do Little action. That interview was a train wreck – And sitting in Wellington – Where is he – And you support him without any reservations, as do many here. Imagine the commentary if Nats were in power and Little was the Health minister acting as he is.
Mother was a life member of Labour. I have always voted Labour and worked hard for them.
I now have no ideological home politically. I try to go by my values. I fear for NZ as I think our parliamentarians aren't up to it. That's not a criticism, I think it is a hard job (although sometimes I do criticize them).
One of the most important things for me is the Health system. The only people who really matter in that system are the well trained professionals who look after you if you get sick. We are all dependent on them.
I don't rely on Jacinda. I don't have anything against her and also acknowledge her strengths. I was grateful to her and Labour for the initial Covid response. The reality is I went into isolatin before the country did. Currenlty living a rather isolated life to protect me and my loved ones and the health professionals from Covid.
I try to take as much responisitiblity for myself and my life. This has always been the case. I now are just grateful when politicians don’t makethings worse. Or spend public money on consultants whose contribution won’t matter.
Labour have lost me. They are ideologically driven and its not an ideology I support. This doesn’t mean I support Luxon (personaly I think he is out of his depth and woeful).
I probably won’t vote next election. But if that is the case, it will be a deliberate and well thought through decision.
Andrew Little is not there to make friends. He is there to change entrenched attitudes biases and methods, which have not delivered to a large percentage of the public. Feathers are going to be ruffled as some were very comfortable in their Silos. Some were paid by both the private and the public system.
Whenever the left shift the dial, personal attacks start. No one has suggested there should not be change, just they don’t like the messenger.
Umpty managers board members and other duplications creaming money out of the "system" Yes feathers will be ruffled and fur fly. The intention is to increase services at the frontline. Perhaps Andrew is tired That would be understandable.
Yes I am sure Little is tired. What a big job to have. I do have a little empathy for him. But the front line is the health system. I hope he does ruffle feathers of the bureacrats but he seemed to be picking a fight with the union, i.e. the front line services union. Unforgivable from so many angles.
I don't think Little knows too much about health at all.
The health system doesn't deliver for people in small towns e.g Wairoa has no cardiologist. People can't even get a regular GP in many towns.
They can stand on their heads, re structure, bring in a band, put on a party, so whatever, but until the solve the staffing and medication crisis, it will do swa
It was not the Union who rejected the settlement but was the membership dismayed at the deal. Backpay was promised then reneged on. In my role as a senior nurse the offer was a fraction of that offered to other roles. All this has done is compress the salary scales to the point where most senior staff would make more giving up their roles and become plain RN,s. I had been advanced more on the last pay round in a lump sum against future pay equity than I was offered. We were looking at having to pay it back.
Every time this minister opens his mouth he alienates the very people who vote for his party, he needs to go, replace him with someone who can demonstrate empathy.
Nice DEFLECTION, what about …. On the issue nice to see that you cannot find anything to counter to support Littles performances. And for his attach on a union, nice to have friends like that in a Labour party. But I gather you totally support him.
How about addressing the issue?? Unless you don't really have the conviction.
This maybe news to you BUT Labour is currently the government and Little IS the minister.
Thanks for saying all of this Herodotus, and psych nurse.
Fancy a labour minister, ex labour boss, trashing a union. Accusing them of talking with a forked tongue. Does he not realize how many kiwis lives are dependent on our health work force? What will this do for staff morale? That and refusing to call it a crisis (actually I think it is a catastrophe).
Little doesn't show any signs of appreciating what a health system is. Its nurses, Drs and allied health workers. We are despearately short of them Andrew. Many of them are working their guts out to save lives right now. Your stupid bloody health reforms are irrelevant.
Remember when Key use to say its not a housing crisis and most of us on this site would be tearing our hair out about his denial (acutally the situation with housing back in Key's day looks a lot better that our current housing catastrophe……
Tony Ryall and Johanathan Coleman were likely incompetent shits, but they are long gone. Littles in charge of the ship now. Labour have had five years. David Clark was told back in 2017 that there was a serious work force shortage before the pandemic.
"Why is it that so many on the left accept this without voicing any comment or is this the best we can hope for and have to accept"
I figure this is what we could call the neo-liberal left. The left that couldn't raise a murmur when lots of poorly paid people (mainly women) were mandated out of jobs.
The term Brahmin class better describes what a lot of 'lefties' behave like.
gsays I think it is tribal labour who will support Labour no matter what and sorry if this comes across as judgmental many of them have lost their ability to critique anymore.
To be fair, that awning is more a triage and Covid testing space – before admitting patients to either the 'with Covid' or 'without Covid' streams. Decision made that it was better to do this step in the 'open' with ventilation, rather than within the closed (and crowded) ED itself.
However, have just had a friend admitted (and now discharged) from ICU with Covid at North Shore (luckily they were able to get on top of the symptoms quickly) – who commented on just how rushed and stressed all of the medical staff were. No complaints about the treatment – but she could see how much pressure the staff were under – and how long their shifts were. The doctor seeing her dealt with 3 emergency calls while checking her symptoms and prescribing for her.
Well a relative of mine went there with a fracture and said that the tent was for Covid triage which is not a rare practice at all. And that the privately owned ShoreCare A&E across the road where they went for the initial consultation in order to be seen more rapidly (cost $105 after ACC subsidy was deducted) used a tent in exactly the same way. Looks like the thrusting, innovative titans of the private sector aren't doing any better than public hospitals – other than through the natural advantages that come from reducing the demand on their services by charging money.
This is of course just an n=1 anecdote. But I ain't holding my breath on the assumption that the Herald is not engaged in distortion of the facts for political purposes. Essentially the house organ of the National Party, that rag is why we don't even need the Murdoch media in this country in order to sabotage democracy.
"The photos come after a survey – conducted by the New Zealand Women in Medicine (NZWIM) Charitable Trust, including responses from more than 900 New Zealand doctors – warned a "catastrophic collapse" of the healthcare workforce loomed.
"Ward full, extreme staff shortages, ED full and seeing little babies as young as seven weeks old waiting (more than) >2 hours outside in tents for a bed in the department, or to be seen and an attempt at an exam made in the tent," one junior doctor working in paediatrics said in the survey. The hospital where this doctor worked was not specified."
If it's in crisis, then Wellington did not show that.
Nor does my local hospital, though a friend tells me that the waits are long.
I am objecting to blanket criticisms of 'shambles', 'crisis' or whatever else. They are overused, becoming meaningless political buzz words. Today I read that "all'' whatever the feck it was was a disaster. It was obvious that ''all" did not apply. It was hyperbole. Sorry, I can't remember the actual situation, but that in itself points to the problem with doomsaying, crying wolf, inflated criticism.
If someone comes along and says that I had a problem with such an hospital, I'd accept that. If someone can honestly give an overview of an hospital system stretched beyond breaking point. I'd look at that.
I have personally reached my breaking point as a teacher, but it wasn't the NZ education system. Covid is hard, and winter is hard. There will always be discontent.
There is, and has been, far too much exaggeration that is political, serving narrow interests, and ultimately harmful as its effect is to lessen trust, hope and social cohesion either deliberately or as a corollary.
I am now a sceptic. I've had covid, cancers and crises de foi. I have been well served in two different hospital systems.
I went walking today as I have for years with a highly qualified medical professional, recently forcibly retired from a hospital board as a member by recent changes, who does not talk of crises. Problems, yes always, but I have not heard of crises- and believe me I would have from him.
I socialise with nurses, surgeons, anaesthetists, long term sufferers from all sorts of complaints, but I don't hear crises. Again problems, but not crises.
I have a niece who is an authority on aspects of public health- difficulties, problems, social attitudes and behaviours- all of that, but not heard of crises.
No, it's not one reporter's experience. His experience just points out the arrant stupidity of blanket, unbalanced, unsubstantiated criticism, and the use of hyperbolic and harmful language.
It's harmful because it limits the truth of the matter, the extent of the matter, the causes of the matter, and only serves narrow, sectional, shallow political purposes.
There are many,many more examples like this Mac 1.
I noticed that the person who murdered the woman in Grey Lynn has been sent to the Mason Clinic. Only a week or two ago and innocent woman was stabbed in Chch by a man discharged from the psych unit. Sadly expect more of this.
You may be like the Nurses Union who don't want to refer to it as a crisis because they just want the minister to get on and fix it. Gordon Campbell has an interesting article posted by Sacha on Daily Review.
Call it what you like, but the health syster is exceptionally stressed and they are understaffed. Nowadays i hope like hell I don't get sick
"Nowadays i hope like hell I don't get sick." And if you did, I'd wish you the same timely, expert and appropriate treatment I got with four cancer diagnoses and a hernia for good measure.
What I said above about trust and hope and social cohesion applies with us both. I keep hoping and trusting and believing in how our society should progress.
What adjectives would you use to describe the problems? Ones that come to my mind are systemic, chronic, under-resourcing, under-staffing, entrenched. Most of which come down to senior management and governance.
To describe out health system as just having 'problems' is equally "harmful because it limits the truth of the matter, the extent of the matter, the causes of the matter, and only serves narrow, sectional, shallow political purposes."
Ironically a measure you may be able to relate to, I have been to my GP in regards to an inguinal hernia. He referred me to our local hospital for an appointment. They said 'No'. I went back to him on Friday as things have worsened and he point blank told me, 'you won't get in.' His advice was going privately.
At the core of the problems is this market driven, neo-liberal approach to running hospitals. I had hopes when the reform was announced then discovered Ardern's pick for heading up the changes is from Ernst Young. Says it all really.
Wishing Sean Plunkett all the very best for his recovery. He lost his brother to suicide last week. So an unbelievably difficult time.
When I visited Wellington ED just over a month ago, staff were calm and professional. It was remarkable given the numbers of sick people arriving by ambulaances and the beds stacked in corridors.
When I visited Wellington ED just over a month ago, staff were calm and professional. It was remarkable given the numbers of sick people arriving by ambulaances and the beds stacked in corridors.
Which is why I harp on about those who are not following the rules and who publicly demand that all Covid regulations be rescinded Anker.
I was in hospital earlier this year for major surgery. The professionalism of the doctors, nurses and the surgeon blew me away. I constantly think of them and wonder how they are coping with the enormous strain they are currently experiencing.
Anyone calling for the removal of all Covid restrictions (and I refer particularly to the Freedom crowd) are showing a lack of respect and consideration for the health workers in question.
With a country of around only 3 to 4 million tax-payers, there is never going to be enough money in the cookie jar to service entities like the health sector to our satisfaction. So, its up to each of us to be prepared to do whatever is required to alleviate the worst of the pandemic affects on those staffing the health services.
Getting vaccinated, wearing masks and keeping our distance is the very least we can do.
You might have heard Thomas Coughlan grinding his teeth as he had to concede that PM Ardern had a successful overseas trip. How it must have hurt. Anyway it is an interesting summary.
The United States trip was successful on branding terms. Ardern's Harvard Commencement Speech will be remembered in the same vein as David Lange's appearance before the Oxford Union. Lange's wit and the place of that debate in how New Zealanders remember the battle over New Zealand's nuclear free policy will likely mean it looms larger in the historical memory, but to be fair to Ardern, the Harvard Commencement Speech is a greater honour. Distinguished speakers debate at the Oxford Union most nights – Harvard Commencement speeches are very rare.
They called her stardust. On Tuesday I had a coffee in town and sprinkled a sachet of sugar around the lovely design of a fern in the crema on top.
I called it stardust and saluted our Prime Minister. In a world of Putins, Johnsons, Trumps and that whole throng of narcissist, deluded and sociopathic crazies, we are indeed blessed.
Yes, covid and politics has made the world difficult, so thank you Jacinda Ardern and her fully supportive team, who instead of being assisted through the pandemic and the world scene, have been put down harried and generally denigrated.
For some this has reached the stage that any comment is leapt on quoted out of context and added to name calling and calls for dismissals.
Those same folk want change… but not that change.. go figure.
Angry Andy meme is again fashionable. Previously Nanaia Mahuta was the target.
The search for holes in the government's armour continues by the Nats and Act, to the point of even bad mouthing the country while overseas is sad.
Denying reputable evidence over and over. Flat out saying the opposite. Chipping away.
So some of us support, as we see the propaganda repeated endlessly and echoed in MSM.
The kickback from those making money, and/or sitting in positions of power, due to the inefficiencies, duplication and partial privatisations that the DHB model enabled, is enormous. It has only just started.
You will hear more and more the mealy mouthed.. “We admit change is needed, but not this change”.
The "Salaried medical specialists" that use their position in State hospitals to prop up lucrative private businesses, the "Consultants", the "Private contractors" are just a few examples of those who have a vested interest in the continuation of the current shemozzle.
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This week’s ONE News-Verian poll had the National/ACT coalition teetering on the edge of being able to govern alone while – just as precariously – having its legislative agenda vulnerable to a potential veto by Winston Peters in the House. So close, but so perilous. During the run-up to election ...
National Leader Christopher Luxon likes to bag the way the Resource Management Act worked. Though it has been repealed and replaced by the Labour government, Luxon plans, before Christmas, to repeal the new legislation and, for the foreseeable future, revert to the old Act that he has consistently criticised. ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections On August 16, 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. Over a year later, its climate provisions remain a hot topic. The law’s proponents argue that it’s created a boom in domestic manufacturing jobs within the United States while paving ...
New Zealand’s dairy farmers will be relieved that prices rose for the second time this month at the latest Fonterra GDT auction. The encouraging feature of the sale was the activity of Chinese buyers who drove up prices. As a result, the GDT price index rose 4.6%, helped by a 4.6% lift ...
Here is a review of last night’s Democracy McNuggets debate, delivered in the style of last night's Democracy McNuggets debate.McNugget #1This format was very advantageous for the man who speaks in lazy SLAM DUNK.To hark back a few editions: The lazy SLAM DUNK doesn’t bother to make its case. It simply offers ...
Unfortunately I will need to take a bit of time off from this blog. After months of misdiagnoses and a change in GPs, my precious son is in Starship Hospital about to have major surgery. He already has had one … Continue reading → ...
Buzz from the BeehiveSource: ANZ The latest balance of payments statistics – providing a broad measure of what the country earns and spends internationally – gave grist to Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s publicity mill today. The current account deficit narrowed to 7.5 per cent of ...
Can This Be Possible? For nearly thirty years the pundits have been telling the minor parties that they must be good little puppies and let the big dogs decide. The parties with a plurality of the votes cast must be allowed to govern – even if that means ignoring the ...
Since we began worrying about climate change, the market fundamentalists have pushed the idea of "offsets" rather than actual emissions reductions. There's just one atmosphere after all, so in theory it doesn't matter where the reductions are made, so you can just pay someone on the other side of the ...
Ministers are pretending the former PM has simply vanished.Graham Adams writes – Late last week, Tova O’Brien asked Grant Robertson on her Stuff podcast if Jacinda Ardern should be “rolled out” to “galvanise the base” to help save Labour’s faltering campaign. Robertson laughed. ”I’m sure for ...
Owners of property deemed at risk from climate change related floods and rising sea levels will increasingly find their access to affordable insurance shut off. Some may become ‘prisoners’ in their uninsurable and therefore unbankable homes. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR:IAG, which insures more than 60% of homes ...
So it’s kind of obligatory to start with the boxing analogy…In the red corner, you’ll know him from his red hair and his red heart, the champion of achievable socialism, weighing in when given the opportunity - it’s Chris.And fighting out of the blue corner, you’ll know him from his ...
Last night’s TVOne debate may well reinforce the idea that the minor parties will determine this election. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and National leader Christopher Luxon ended their one-and-a-half hours with Luxon probably slightly ahead, though a stalemate might be a more realistic assessment. But there was nothing of ...
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 ...
Aliens landed in the seaside village this morning. Just like every other cruise tourist who gets carted over here by Fullers and dumped at the bus stop, they had that bewildered look that said, How do you have fun here?I took them by their goey rubbery arms and said, Come ...
The 2023 general election campaign must be the most hollow in living memory. There really isn’t much that is positive or attractive about the electoral options on offer. This is an election without inspiration. An angry mood for change There is a definite cyncism amongst the public right now – ...
As New Zealand confronts a near-record current account deficit few, if any, of the country’s politicians are talking about it or the underlying problems. NZ’s external deficit is expected to continue narrowing, but at a slower pace than forecast a few months ago. Data out this week is expected ...
Fighting Mad: That which Twenty-First Century progressives most feared, Twenty-First Century progressivism has become. No one old enough to have experienced the emancipatory power of true progressivism: in the factory or on the streets; in the university quad or in the “old school” newsroom; could possibly vote for the parties ...
Buzz from the Beehive Hurrah. Someone in the Beehive has posted a ministerial announcement, the first since Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta last Thursday announced New Zealand will provide humanitarian support to those affected by last week’s earthquake in Morocco. It is somewhat stale news, dated 15 September 2023. It was ...
More investors are eyeing up the market, and first home buyers are feeling the FOMO again. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Landlords are gearing up to jump back into the housing market as soon as a National-ACT Government is elected, expecting a swathe of repeals to tax rules that ...
* Michael Bassett writes – If Labour ministers and our left-leaning media knew more about New Zealand’s political history they would stop giving so much publicity to National’s tax-cut plans, ill-advised though they might be. The attacks are only increasing the likelihood that National will be elected. In one ...
Debate time: In contrast to most debates, political debates aren’t simply about winning on points of logic, but are also about looking likeable on television – which is why good political debaters often have to pull their punches on TV, lest they seem unkind to dumb animals. Chris Hipkins is ...
Before New Zealand changed to MMP in 1996 there was a lot more interest in certain local contests. First past the post elections were won and lost in key marginal electorate battles, rendering the votes of those in safe seats largely obsolete.These days local contests have little impact on the ...
Both National and ACT are starting to back off some of their hardline positions on tax and spending. And finally, National leader Christopher Luxon has softened his stance on doing a deal with Winston Peters and NZ First. Their moves are subtle and wrapped up in sound-byte-friendly media standup ...
In Art, we find meaning.From Art, we draw deeper understanding of what the hell it’s all about.Kindly now mute your cellphones and please remain behind the velvet ropes as we move through the gallery.She might be contemplating a secret, she might be enjoying a private joke. Perhaps she is simply ...
In Art, we find meaning.From Art, we draw deeper understanding of what the hell it’s all about.Kindly now mute your cellphones and please remain behind the velvet ropes as we move through the gallery.She might be contemplating a secret, she might be enjoying a private joke. Perhaps she is simply ...
The right has a problem with brainwormed conspiracy theorists. They've thoroughly infiltrated NZFirst and ACT, and now it seems they've infiltrated National as well: The National Party candidate favoured to win the Hamilton East electorate held views directly opposed to the party's leader on fluoridation of water and vaccine ...
Pushed by the need for votes, Act’s leader, David Seymour, like Richard Prebble before him, has reached out to the dark side of the New Zealand electorate. Much as he would prefer to pull in support on the strength of Act’s sunny libertarianism, there just ain’t enough Eighteenth Century liberals ...
Buzz from the BeehiveAgain, no news has been posted on the government’s official website over the past 24 hours. Indeed, no news has been posted since Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta last Thursday announced New Zealand would be providing $1 million humanitarian support to Morocco to those affected by ...
Despite the headlines, things are not much worse than at the time of the 2023 budget, but fiscal management is always difficult.Brian Easton writes- The Treasury is required by law to publish a Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (PREFU) a few weeks before a general election, ...
It’s a bit bigger than that: the gap between National’s forecast of lost tax revenues from changes to tax rules for landlords and what Treasury predicts is significant, and adds to the $500 million a year predicted shortfall from its foreign buyers tax . File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The ...
Once upon a time, manifestos were a key feature of the election period, arriving in letterboxes in solid printed form, and full of details of what each party proposed to do and why. These days, we get a little pledge card with a few bullet points on it. So it’s interesting ...
Change is coming. A shakeup of the ministers responsible for New Zealand’s international relations seems almost guaranteed, irrespective of the country’s election result on October 14. Coalition politics are likely to play a key role in appointments related to foreign affairs. On current opinion polling, a government led by the ...
ACT leader David Seymour has declared war on the public service with his promise to sack 15,000 of them. This is probably four times more than National want given the boot under its promise to cut all budgets by 6.5 per cent. But Seymour may have got a foretaste ...
It has been a while since I engaged in meaty Tolkien analysis, so I deem it time to delve into one of the most pressing issues of our age. Namely, the vexed property law issues governing the One Ring in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. I was prompted to offer some ...
We, the public, are making a hiring decision. That’s what this is. As silly as it is to have things like those utterly infernal “Most preferred Prime Minister” polls, largely an outcome of the “presidential style” of politics that has no basis in our system because we simply do ...
Hi,Webworm was birthed over three years ago, as New Zealand went into its first Covid lockdown. Back then I wrote a lot about the conspiratorial madness that erupted from the sewers, the world very quickly becoming infected with brain worms. I have all those Webworms archived here, for anyone interested.As ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s a few things that I stumbled on over the week that made me stop and think, or just have a chuckle. Hope you enjoy them on a Sunday. They’re especially for paying subscribers, although if there’s plenty of support from paying subscribers, I ...
“Suppose big ‘ol Luxon will be there”, said my middle lad Johnny, watching the game with me.“Doubt it”, I replied, remembering John Key being soundly booed at games in the past. “League is a working man’s game, West Auckland, South Auckland, this is Labour territory”.Getty images.It’s true. I remember the ...
I always smile when my supermarket checkout offers me a moment of existential angst. Do you wish to continue? a kindly woman’s voice asks, meaning: you're standing in front of a card-only machine and cash money’s no good here.Do you wish to continue? What’s not to like about some Hamlet ...
A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Sep 10, 2023 thru Sat, Sep 16, 2023. Story of the Week Humans Have Crossed 6 of 9 ‘Planetary Boundaries’Scientists analyzed nine so-called planetary boundaries and found humans are currently ...
Mr Pushmepullyou: Pushed by the need for votes, Act's leader, David Seymour, like Richard Prebble before him, has reached out to the dark side of the New Zealand electorate. Much as he would prefer to pull in support on the strength of Act's sunny libertarianism, there just ain't enough Eighteenth ...
Buzz from the Beehive Your Point of Order writers, again starved of news when they visited the government’s official website this morning, found something fascinating while surfing the worldwide web. Our attention was drawn to a TVNZ interview last Sunday, when Rawiri Waititi, co-leader of the Māori Party defended the ...
TL;DR: I interviewed ACT Leader David Seymour this week after the party released its housing policy1, which includes:an aim to build 51,000 new houses a year, which relies on a migration forecast of around 28,000 per year (there was 96,200 net migration in the year to the end of July);sharing ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Treasury published the Pre Election Fiscal Update (PREFU) on Tuesday, including a one-year delay in Labour returning ...
“Can you guys hear me?”, said Nicola, feeling her body shrink into the corner of the sofa.She moved her head, which for some reason turned incredibly slowly. Her eyes took even longer to follow.A man was sitting at the far end of the sofa with one foot resting on the ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the week.MONDAY Craig Renney has their numbers. They do not balance.Fact and number-checking the bureaucracy-hatersSome of the clearest commentary this election has been coming from CTU economist Craig Renney.Yesterday he helpfully translated the ACT party’s ...
Despite the headlines, things are not much worse than at the time of the 2023 budget, but fiscal management is always difficult.The Treasury is required by law to publish a Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (PREFU) a few weeks before a general election, just as it is required to publish ...
1. A plodding brain inside a shiny dome was questioned by Jack Tame. What did the plodding brain have to offer?a. Charismab. Wizardryc. Goosebumpsd. A Squeezed Muddle2. How did he answer the question: “The foreign buyer tax you’re relying on to fund your tax cuts will need to see about ...
Jerry Coyne has been writing again about mātauranga Māori, this time in an article prompted by the University of Auckland’s “going full steam ahead pushing the scientific value of MM while criticizing modern science”. MM is an abbreviation of Mātauranga Māori, which Coyne describes as “… a gemisch of some ...
Buzz from the Beehive Uh, oh. The Government has nothing to declare – or rather, it had posted no news on the Government’s official website when Point of Order checked at 1pm. Thus it looked like ministers have had nothing to announce since Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta yesterday said ...
The problem with taking GST off of food has little to do with the revenue cost of the policy, it’s that it’s just dumb to begin with. Any gains to households are smaller than those that could be achieved through other instruments, and there’s long-term cost to the integrity of ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: In the 2011 and 2014 election campaigns then-National PMJohn Key shredded Labour Opposition leaders Phil Goff and David Cunliffe with the simple challenge to their tax revenue estimates: ‘Show me the money.’Finance Minister Grant Robertson did the same last night in the finance ...
I saw this headline yesterday. Initially I thought it was referring to tax cuts, but it’s not. The cuts that Nicola Willis promises by Christmas, are to people’s jobs.Let’s for the moment ignore the enormous holes economists across the board have spotted in National’s plan to tax people overseas on ...
Once again, last night at the ASB Great Debate in Queenstown, National’s economic management credentials came under question. Ordinarily questioning National’s economic credibility would be like questioning the Greens’ sincerity on climate change or arguing that Te Paati Maori was not putting enough emphasis on the Treaty. The Guardian-Essential ...
Hi,A friend sent me this text the other day:I have to agree.My buddy was talking about the comments going on under the Webworm I sent out about Danny Masterson. The conversations going on came from so many smart angles, it reminded me that half the reason I write Webworm is ...
The next Labour Government will build a new hospital in Hawke’s Bay, Labour leader Chris Hipkins and Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall announced. ...
The Green Party will keep up the fight to support exploited migrant workers, including pushing to end single employer visas, after the government picked up Green recommendations to improve immigration settings. ...
Green Party co leader James Shaw visited a home in Auckland today that has been upgraded with a wide range of energy improvements, similar to those that would be supported through the Green Party’s Clean Power Payment. ...
The Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta’s presence in New York today at the United Nations General Assembly is a contempt of New Zealand’s “caretaker government” convention. Despite the long-standing caretaker convention, Minister Mahuta is today at the UN to sign a highly contentious “Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement”, delivering a ...
The Pre-Election Fiscal Update Changes EverythingWithin an hour of this speech there is going to be a debate between the political parties that the media, under MMP, still think are the only parties that matter in this campaign. Both of those parties are riddled with inexperience, as evidenced by ...
National and ACT's tax plans don't add up, and that means deep cuts to the public services New Zealanders rely on, says Labour Campaign Chair Megan Woods. ...
Thank you for your invitation to speak with you this afternoon about New Zealand Foreign Policy. After offering one or two general thoughts about the nature of foreign policy, the focus today will be the Pacific Reset and why its goals remain even more important today as when they were ...
National’s plan to cut policies that are reducing New Zealand’s climate emissions will result in a huge gap in the country’s emissions budgets and could see Kiwis paying significantly more at the petrol pump as a result of Christopher Luxon hiking the ETS price. ...
Labour’s plan to support rooftop solar is a step in the right direction, but falls short of what could be achieved through the Green Party’s Clean Power Payment. ...
Labour will double the number of houses with rooftop solar in New Zealand, lowering household power bills, reducing emissions and boosting renewable electricity generation. ...
A re-elected Labour Government will continue its proud tradition of advancing women’s health, employment, and legal rights Spokesperson for Women Jan Tinetti said. ...
Speaking at the E Tū Election Launch in Auckland today, Green Party co leader Marama Davidson outlined the Green Party’s manifesto commitment to ensure everyone has five weeks of annual leave. ...
A re-elected Labour Government will protect hard-fought workers’ rights and keep the momentum on wage growth to lift incomes for all New Zealanders, leader Chris Hipkins announced today. ...
New Zealand First is proud to announce the Party List for the upcoming 2023 General Election. We have had a great number of applicants and potential candidates moving through the selection process over the past few months. Our final selection for our list proves we have a wide range ...
Massive cuts to public service are on the cards as Nicola Willis has promised to resign if she doesn’t deliver tax cuts but is refusing to make the same commitment if she doesn’t raise enough income from her bungled foreign buyer’s tax. ...
Labour will help more victims of crime achieve justice faster by introducing a formal class-action regime, modernising consent laws and increasing the use of technology to speed up hearings. ...
Labour will deliver the largest ever increase to the number of doctors trained each year, adding an additional 335 doctors a year to our health workforce from 2027, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins has announced. ...
If re-elected Labour will make cervical screening services free to all women and people with a cervix aged 25 – 69 years, delivering better cancer care for over 1.4 million New Zealanders. ...
Labour is running a positive, forward-looking campaign that's focused on fixing the cost of living, keeping people and communities safe and investing in education, health and housing. ...
Statements from David Seymour and Winston Peters have called into question whether National would be able to lead a functional government if they were in a position to do so after the election. ...
The Green Party will protect 30% of the ocean by 2030, create an independent Ocean Commission to advise the government, and put a Green Minister for Oceans and Fisheries in charge of making it happen. ...
National's shaky tax scheme has received a further blow after it’s been revealed that John Key received advice when he was Prime Minister that the scheme being proposed by National couldn’t be done, Labour Finance Spokesperson Grant Robertson says. ...
The National Party’s housing policy is vacant; with no new funding and no timelines attached to its delivery says Labour Housing Spokesperson Megan Woods. ...
A re-elected Labour Government will help Kiwi households to be more energy efficient and reduce emissions from household energy use, Labour Spokesperson for Building and Construction and Energy and Resources, Megan Woods, announced today. ...
A Labour Government will deliver a further increase of 300 additional frontline Police officers, new ways to crackdown on gangs and strengthen legal protections against stalking and harassment. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the launch of Te Ohu Tāmaki, and affirms its commitment to clear the social housing waitlist in 5 years - and challenges other parties to say they will do the same. ...
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has set out his top five priorities for growing the economy which include ambition for New Zealand to be a global leader in sustainable agriculture and renewable energy. ...
Former Wellington Mayor Andy Foster has announced he is standing for New Zealand First in the Mana electorate for the upcoming election. “As a former Mayor of our Capital City, Andy has an exceptional resume and level of professional and governance experience that will be an asset to the team.” ...
It’s Chris Hipkins’ birthday today, and to celebrate we’re taking a look back at some of his most defining moments. During his time at Parliament, he’s led New Zealand through some difficult times, delivered change that will make a real difference to Kiwis' lives, and given us a few laughs. ...
Revelations on Newshub tonight that National only got an expert to review their tax plan two days after it was released adds further fuel to the call for Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis to release all costings and advice they have received on it, Labour Finance Spokesperson Grant Robertson said. ...
No MP pay rises until essential workers get one first. The pay freeze for parliamentarians is due to end this year, with a hefty pay rise forecasted. The fact is when this announcement was made that Members of Parliament would receive a pay rise, in the middle of an ...
The Government has today confirmed $2.5 million to fund a replace and upgrade a stopbank to protect the Waipawa Drinking Water Treatment Plant. “As a result of Cyclone Gabrielle, the original stopbank protecting the Waipawa Drinking Water Treatment Plant was destroyed. The plant was operational within 6 weeks of the ...
Another $2.1 million to boost capacity to deal with waste left in Cyclone Gabrielle’s wake. Funds for Hastings District Council, Phoenix Contracting and Hog Fuel NZ to increase local waste-processing infrastructure. The Government is beefing up Hawke’s Bay’s Cyclone Gabrielle clean-up capacity with more support dealing with the massive amount ...
The future of Supercars events in New Zealand has been secured with new Government support. The Government is getting engines started through the Major Events Fund, a special fund to support high profile events in New Zealand that provide long-term economic, social and cultural benefits. “The Repco Supercars Championship is ...
The economy has turned a corner with confirmation today New Zealand never was in recession and stronger than expected growth in the June quarter, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. “The New Zealand economy is doing better than expected,” Grant Robertson said. “It’s continuing to grow, with the latest figures showing ...
The Government has accepted the Environment Court’s recommendation to give special legal protection to New Zealand’s largest freshwater springs, Te Waikoropupū Springs (also known as Pupū Springs), Environment Minister David Parker announced today. “Te Waikoropupū Springs, near Takaka in Golden Bay, have the second clearest water in New Zealand after ...
Temporary package of funding for accommodation and essential living support for victims of migrant exploitation Exploited migrant workers able to apply for a further Migrant Exploitation Protection Visa (MEPV), giving people more time to find a job Free job search assistance to get people back into work Use of 90-day ...
An export boost is supporting New Zealand’s economy to grow, adding to signs that the economy has turned a corner and is on a stronger footing as we rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle and lock in the benefits of multiple new trade deals, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. “The economy is ...
The Government has approved $15 million to raise about 200 homes at risk of future flooding. More than half of this is expected to be spent in the Tairāwhiti settlement of Te Karaka, lifting about 100 homes there. “Te Karaka was badly hit during Cyclone Gabrielle when the Waipāoa River ...
The Government is helping businesses recover from Cyclone Gabrielle and attract more people back into their regions. “Cyclone Gabrielle has caused considerable damage across North Island regions with impacts continuing to be felt by businesses and communities,” Economic Development Minister Barbara Edmonds said. “Building on our earlier business support, this ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little has turned the first sod to start construction of a new Maintenance Support Facility (MSF) at Burnham Military Camp today. “This new state-of-art facility replaces Second World War-era buildings and will enable our Defence Force to better maintain and repair equipment,” Andrew Little said. “This Government ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta will represent New Zealand at the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York this week, before visiting Washington DC for further Pacific focussed meetings. Nanaia Mahuta will be in New York from Wednesday 20 September, and will participate in UNGA leaders ...
Around 1,700 Te Whatu Ora employed midwives and maternity care assistants will soon vote on a proposed pay equity settlement agreed by Te Whatu Ora, the Midwifery Employee Representation and Advisory Service (MERAS) and New Zealand Nurses Association (NZNO), Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. “Addressing historical pay ...
Aotearoa New Zealand will provide humanitarian support to those affected by last week’s earthquake in Morocco, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. “We are making a contribution of $1 million to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to help meet humanitarian needs,” Nanaia Mahuta said. ...
The Government is investing over $22 million across 18 projects to improve the resilience of roads in the West Coast that have been affected by recent extreme weather, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. A dedicated Transport Resilience Fund has been established for early preventative works to protect the state ...
The Government has today confirmed a $2 million grant towards the regeneration of Greymouth’s CBD with construction of a new two-level commercial and public facility. “It will include a visitor facility centred around a new library. Additionally, it will include retail outlets on the ground floor, and both outdoor and ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta will attend the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, in Suva, Fiji alongside New Zealand’s regional counterparts. “Aotearoa New Zealand is deeply committed to working with our pacific whanau to strengthen our cooperation, and share ways to combat the challenges facing the Blue Pacific Continent,” ...
Economy to grow 2.6 percent on average over forecast period Treasury not forecasting a recession Inflation to return to the 1-3 percent target band next year Wages set to grow 4.8 percent a year over forecast period Unemployment to peak below the long-term average Fiscal Rules met - Net debt ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall proudly opened the Canterbury Cancer Centre in Christchurch today. The new facility is the first of its kind and was built with $6.5 million of funding from the Government’s Infrastructure Reference Group scheme for shovel-ready projects allocated in 2020. ...
$12 million to improve the resilience of roads in the Nelson, Marlborough and Tasman regions Hope Bypass earmarked in draft Government Policy Statement on land transport $127 million invested in the top of the south’s roads since flooding in 2021 and 2022 The Government is investing over $12 million to ...
Ko tēnei te wiki e whakanui ana i tō tātou reo rangatira. Ko te wā tuku reo Māori, e whakanuia tahitia ai te reo ahakoa kei hea ake tēnā me tēnā o tātou, ka tū ā te Rātū te 14 o Mahuru, ā te 12 o ngā hāora i te ahiahi. ...
The 70-year-old Wildlife Act will be replaced with modern, fit-for-purpose legislation to better protect native species and improve biodiversity, Minister of Conservation Willow-Jean Prime has announced. “New species legislation is urgently needed to address New Zealand’s biodiversity crisis,” Willow-Jean Prime said. “More than 4,000 of our native species are currently ...
Central and Local Government are today announcing a range of new measures to tackle low-level crime and anti-social behaviour in the Auckland CBD to complement Police scaling up their presence in the area. “Police have an important role to play in preventing and responding to crime, but there is more ...
The Government has confirmed $73.7 million over the next four years and a further $40.5m in outyears to continue to transform the disability support system, Minister for Disability Issues Priyanca Radhakrishnan has announced. “The Enabling Good Lives (EGL) approach is a framework which guides positive change for disabled people, ...
Standard and Poor’s is the latest independent credit rating agency to endorse the Government’s economic management in the face of a deteriorating global economy. S&P affirmed New Zealand’s long term local currency rating at AAA and foreign currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook. It follows Fitch affirming New ...
Christchurch barrister Kelvin Reid has been appointed as a Judge of the Environment Court and the District Court, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Mr Reid has extensive experience in Resource Management Act issues, including water quality throughout the South Island. He was appointed to the Technical Advisory Group advising the ...
New Zealand is on track to have greener steel as soon as 2026 with New Zealand Steel’s electric arc furnace project reaching a major milestone today. The Government announced a conditional partnership with New Zealand Steel in May to deliver the country’s largest emissions reduction project to date. Half of ...
Pokia ana te tihi Taiarahia e Hine-Pūkohu-rangi Hotu kau ana te manawa! Horahia ana te whārua o Ruātoki e te kapua pouri Tikaro rawahia ko te whatumanawa! Rere whakamuri kau ana te awa o Hinemataroa Ki te kawe i te rongo ki te mātāpuna i nga pōngaihu Maungapōhatu, tuohu ...
Police Minister Ginny Andersen has today congratulated Police in their efforts to crack down on gangs, after laying 50,000 charges against gang members and their associates through the hugely successful Operation Cobalt. As at 31 August, Police have: Laid 50,396 criminal charges against gang members and their associates Issued 64,524 ...
The Government has confirmed details of the tax changes to the bright-line test for cyclone-damaged properties, with the release of the required legislative amendments. Revenue Minister Barbara Edmonds has released a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) to be considered by the Finance and Expenditure Committee in the next Parliament, as it ...
Minister for Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor has welcomed the CPTPP Panel’s ruling in favour of New Zealand in our dispute against Canada, a significant win for our primary sector exporters. The Panel found that Canada’s dairy quota administration is inconsistent with its obligations under the Comprehensive and Progressive ...
The next phase of the Government’s response to youth crime is underway, with an intensive programme for the country’s most prolific young offenders launched today in Auckland, Minister for Children Kelvin Davis said. The programme, announced by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins in July, will see up to 60 recidivist young ...
The Government has agreed to a request from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 for extra three months to deliver its final report. The Royal Commission was established in 2022 to strengthen New Zealand’s preparedness for any future pandemics. It was originally due to conclude mid-2024. “The Commission has ...
The Wainuiomata High School redevelopment is making great progress, with two more classroom blocks set to be complete by the end of the month, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. The Prime Minister visited today to see first-hand the progress of the redevelopment which is continuing at pace and is ...
New Zealand’s Tongan community are coming together to promote language sustainability this week, as Uike Lea Faka-Tonga – Tongan Language Week begins. “For our Pacific communities, language is more than just a means of communication. It’s an important way to link generations and maintain connections to our ancestral roots,” Barbara ...
The NZ First leader's rehashed claim on a televised debate defending his backing of Labour in 2017 is dismissed as a "fabrication" by Sir Bill English Winston Peters has refloated claims then-National leader Bill English confided in him at the start of 2017's coalition negotiations that he was about to be "rolled" ...
This week on the Raw Politics podcast: We ask why Labour leader Chris Hipkins has failed to fire, as his party would have hoped, in this campaign so far. Plus: this week's debate, the latest polls and how relatively good economic news changes things in the run-up to election day. ...
Crime has been one of the dominant themes of this election campaign and it proved to be the hot button in the second televised debate this week. As Mark Jennings writes, the leaders of the minor parties were taking no prisoners in their battle for crucial votes. TV Viewers interested ...
After more than 50 years under the same proprietorship, Wellington’s famous Green Parrot Cafe is looking for a new owner. And Charlotte Muru-Lanning knows the perfect person to keep its legacy alive. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. There’s a dinky little story on the ...
Marama Davidson and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer brought the high-fives. Winston Peters and David Seymour brought high dudgeon. Toby Manhire reports from the Powerbrokers debate in Auckland.No wonder the big parties are so unloved. After the soporific Chris Show on Tuesday, the Newshub Nation Powerbrokers debate last night was an espresso ...
The latest Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list, described by Steve BrauniasNON-FICTION 1 The Dressmaker and the Hidden Soldier by Doug Gold (Allen & Unwin, $37.99) This hugely popular true-romance story set in World War II is set to be the hit book this Xmas. A free copy was up ...
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Onya Prof Williamson. Speaking the Truth. I thankyou for speaking for those….who either cant…or are fearful. Cheers !
agreed. Pscyling left and Patricia
There's an assumption that one group of people by virtue of business ownership can expect a stable supply of other people for them to employ at wage rates that make that business profitable.
There is no reciprocal assumption – that non-owners can expect a stable of supply of jobs that pay enough for them to live in moderate comfort. Such an assumption would contradict the first assumption, so it's not made.
It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic
While this idiotic diplomatic fools pantomime is playing on the world stage. Back in the real world.
Bakhmut bombed after Ukraine attacked the Russian air defense | Ukraine
9 hours ago
6 Views
5 Min Read
[deleted]
https://news.worabia.com/bakhmut-bombed-after-ukraine-attacked-the-russian-air-defense-ukraine/112011/
[When you quote you have to use some kind of formatting, preferably block-quote, to make clear which text is the quote. You also have to make clear when you have left out parts, i.e., when you are selectively quoting. You know all this and Mods don’t want to waste their precious time on lazy unthinking commenters and check & correct after them all the time. This is your warning – Incognito]
Mod note
The Standard
World famous in NZ
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2022/07/13/mediawatch-sigh-this-is-what-the-painfully-serious-left-thinks-is-a-victory/
[Spray and walk away. You’re now on notice for trolling – Incognito]
Those so called Left want a revolution. They are still living in that era.
I notice they attack the messenger, and defend Bryce Edwards. That says it all.
Bryce has been called out, he is on notice now. Strangled screams won't change that.
The original Standard piece noted that the press release did not say precisely what was suggested (break up duopoly).
And today, there's a piece from Micky Savage criticising Luxon, the first of which is for something he did not actually say (going straight to green).
There is a clear warning in the Daily Blog article. It notes that there is a tendency to read everything to be pro-Labour and anti Luxon/Nats/Act and fuss over the smallest of details. And ignore all the elephants in the room.
I'm in North Shore and have been in hospital a few times since covid. So feeling a bit uncomfortable about the article in the media today noting their ED using leaking tarps due to overflow pressures. I'm hearing a lot about restructure of DHBs but no evidence of improving service. And I don't think I'm alone in that sentiment.
The Daily Blog says the consequence will be that there is a high chance that there will be a change of Govt (though said in a much shorter and abrupt way). I'm not sure I can disagree with that sentimentt.
The Health reforms started on the first of July, so far it involves some rebranding only, your DHB will be functioning exactly as before.
Who knows. We all might be soon living in that era.
With our oceans choked with plastic, and we can't put a ban even on Coca-Cola.
With climate change threatening human extinction over part of the planet's surface, and we can't even ban intensive dairying conversions and importing and mining coal.
With World War III in the planning stages. and we can't stop millions of people facing being bombed and shot killed and maimed.
If we can't stop any of these things under the current system.
To stop us killing ourselves and the planet. Might need a revolution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT0HvHexhm8
There's a revolution right now in Sri Lanka.
There was nearly a revolution in the USA starting Jan 6th.
Solomon Islands nearly had a revolution.
Fiji has had three in thirty years.
And of course there's one underway in the eastern half of Ukraine.
To non-revolutionaries these things are called coups.
Serious question Ad.
What would you consider the Arab Spring to be?
Coup?
Revolution?
Something else?
The Arab Spring was the very, very worst of the Obama-CIA follies that brought momentary hope to millions only to turn into a permanently repressed nightmare for women, gays, Christians, people with degrees, people who wanted to vote, and people who thought the United States would support its idealistic rhetorical flourishes with resolute might.
President Biden’s current tour of Saudi Arabia’s leadership is its perfect and permanent apostasy.
You can't be serious.
The Arab Spring was a CIA plot? Surely one of the most stupid conspiracy theories of all time. You might as well have written that the French revolution was a CIA plot.
You completely ignore the fact that regimes you are talking about, that the Arab people were revolting against, were Western backed. The CIA wasn't trying to topple them, just the opposite. Egypt is the second biggest recipient of US military aid after Israel. And this US military aid was and is being used to suppress and oppress the Arab people.
I asked you a serious question in good faith. And your answer is a slur on the Arab people that the more than 25 million people that rose up against the Dictator Ben Ali and Mubarak and Assad were all CIA dupes?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIb6yvwT_Bw
It was a folly because no one in the US intelligence community appeared to either anticipate or know what to do when the uprising occurred, and when they did Obama rushed in with the Cairo speech that just wrote a whole massive cheque that his ass couldn't cash, and then the great majority of them failed and Obama and the intelligence agencies looked even worse. The result was a spectacular mess that Obama never got out of and the Middle east hasn't yet recovered from.
Irony award of the day for use of the word slur then using Sky News as your source.
"You can't believe the mainstream media", Said every conspiracy theorist ever.
So where, or what news outlet, or none, do you get your news from Ad?
Or do you do your own research?
The degeneration of the Daily Blog into a place where the supposedly 'real' left end up repeating right wing talking points must be hugely amusing to the actual right/far right. I understand why it delights you so much.
AB, I am far from being delighted!! Pleased and relieved more apt a description.
I do feel that Bryce Edwards "takes a position" then finds passages from others to "Prove his case"
That is fine as long as he quotes correctly. He did not and was called out.
If The Standard is to blame lol, why not Media Watch and Colin Peacock who brought it public notice????
The petty comments on The Blog was one of the reasons I left their site.
There is far more indepth argument here with supporting items, and the calibre of commentary is far superior imo.
Colin Peacock was commenting on a judgement that went against Bryce Edwards.
I was pleased the quotes and use of them was under the microscope, as Bryce has "sailed close to the wind' on previous occasions. Pleased is not delighted.
Patricia – it was Pataua4life I was replying to, not you. TDB just depresses me these days and I rarely go there, other things to do.
.
Yeah … because anything outside the Upper-Middle Woke echo-chamber of moral panics, purity spirals, & "good" vs "evil" identity groups = "right wing talking points". Spare me such empty-headed banality. You really have no idea about fundamental Left principles, do you ?
Yes it is one thing that can be said in favour of the Daily Blog, it provides an outlet for those on the extreme Left like Malcolm Evans and John Minto who have trouble getting published anywhere else.
The comments below the article are pretty accurate.
Mod note
Attention NZ Business!!
When you get your business model right, and look after your staff, you can actually grow the business. Who knew??
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-drink/129264329/top-auckland-restaurant-cassia-to-open-seven-days-to-help-staff
“Auckland restaurateurs Sid and Chand Sahrawat are extending service at their Fort Lane restaurant Cassia to seven days and hiring 15 more staff to give their team better hours and more flexibility.”
The discerning public.
/
But the survey of 1,000 British adults, carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday, found Mr Sunak was by far the most well known of the candidates. Some 60% said they knew a great deal or a fair amount about him, and 56% correctly identified him as the former chancellor.
Mr Hunt was the second most well known on 40%, followed by Ms Truss on 33% and Mr Zahawi on 28%.
Ms Mordaunt was known by 20% of people and Mr Tugendhat by 15%, while Ms Badenoch and Ms Braverman were on just 14%.
However, 12% of people told Ipsos that they knew either a great deal or a fair amount about Stewart Lewis, a fake candidate created by the pollster.
Some 6% even said they knew “a great deal” about the non-existent Mr Lewis, more than the 5% who said the same thing about Ms Braverman, the Attorney General, and the same proportion as for Ms Badenoch and Mr Tugendhat
https://archive.ph/J28mc
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/jeremy-hunt-liz-truss-suella-braverman-keir-starmer-penny-mordaunt-b1012160.html
Reinsurers threatening to quit NZ again.
https://www.interest.co.nz/insurance/116735/tower-ceo-blair-turnbull-says-reinsurers-are-questioning-their-down-under-exposure
This is a major concern. A. No insurance/ or B Costly insurance.
It is indeed….insurance is an integral part of financial systems.
Replying to Pat @6. (Reply function doesn’t work on my iPad.)
The article is more about the insurers being worried about the floods in Aussie, than here.
Australasia is treated as a single market…and while the current focus is on Australian floods (the previous occasion of threat here was post ChCh quakes) the underlying driver is the risk of losses which will only increase. As has been noted in the comments to the article those losses are also increasing in their major markets so rationalisation can be expected, or best case scenario a repricing of risk which will have to be carried by all end users….read 'inflationary'.
NZ has long been identified as a marginal market.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300631534/live-how-is-the-health-system-coping-amid-covid19-flu-and-staff-shortages
so the vaccine mandate is under review for health care workers
A bit difficult to track down the quote in the midst of a regularly updated live blog – but I think this is the relevant quote from Little – from the above link:
having unvaxxd health workforce personnel back at work is not a no no. It’s under review
If there is any consideration to re-employ unvaccinated nurses it would be backroom jobs where they don't come into contact with patients or indeed vaccinated health staff.
That's fine. Let em do the paper work and answer the telephone.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/07/mark-richardson-furious-at-unvaccinated-nurses-who-want-to-return-to-work-amid-health-care-crisis.html
About 2/3rds in – following the nutty 'Nurse for Freedom'. Mark Richardson is on the money. He winds up by saying:
“For God’s sake. Get the jab.”
…..re-employ unvaccinated nurses it would be backroom jobs….
Or. They could be put to work providing hands-on care to Covid infected patients.
Or betterer. Put them to work providing hands-on care to the fucking filth unvaccinated Covid infected patients. Saving the nice, clean, triple jabbed nurses for the nice, clean triple jabbed Covid infected patients.
You know…I think we could make this work!!!
Or they could become vaccinated like the rest of us and show that they are medically qualified to serve all of us.
If I was seriously ill in hospital, either with Covid or anything else for that matter, I wouldn't give a shit as whether my care giver was vaccinated or not. I would just be grateful that they were trying to keep me alive.
Until they breathed.
ffs Ad, they'd be wearing masks or PPE, they may have just had covid or you may already have covid. Or the guy in the next door bed may have covid.
Talking to an ICU nurse recently who is vaxxed and just had covid.
If you are an ICU nurse who PPE's and is vaccinated and has just had COVID, thankyou for your service.
Other people I wouldn't want around me: a urinary tract exam from a doctor who didn't wash their hands, a dentist not cleared for Hepatitis, or an ambulance driver who wouldn't wear a seatbelt.
Or indeed blood/tissue products from former UK/French/ROI residents 1980-1996, IV drug users, carriers of hepatitis/EB/CFS viruses, anyone requiring HIV/hepatitis tests, recent STI patients, current sex workers, men who've recently had sex with men or woman they've had sex with…the list goes on.
So when they are wheeling you in to the ED bleeding to death after a car accident, and they say to you, are you ok if an unvaccinated doctor stops the bleeding as we are so short staffed, you will say to them in a weak dying voice "No keep that doctor away from me I don't want Covid. Leave me to die outside"
Yeah, I can really imagine that happening.
Given the choice I certainly would and of course so would my health insurer who would whisk me off to a competent hospital.
As would the ED staff employer.
Your health insurer wouldn’t have time to whisk you off if it was a real emergency. You would be at the ED. You have really swallowed the fear porn of Covid. I actually had Covid a couple of weeks ago and like many others it wasn't even the worse cold or flu I've had. I'm still upright.
Are we so lucky to have Andrew Little as the minister of Health and this ONE nurse in Manila that the minister bases his support for his actions on. Then as a “union man” he craps on the nurses union.
Why is it that so many on the left accept this without voicing any comment or is this the best we can hope for and have to accept. Whist Rome burns ….
I now wonder how much better our health systems would be if someone in Dunedin didn’t go out for a bike ride??
Pity bluster is favoured over compentance.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/07/andrew-little-explains-why-he-s-refusing-to-say-health-system-in-crisis-in-tense-am-interview.html
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/07/andrew-little-slammed-for-just-not-helpful-comments-accusing-nz-nurses-organisation-of-sitting-in-wellington.html
Herodotus, did you ever fault the National Minister of Health Tony Ryall?
He did not have a Pandemic to deal with, and a pay rise for Nurses lol.
A little digging can uncover interesting remnants of what was. As exhALANt wrote in his latest blog post (see sidebar):
https://exhalantblog.wordpress.com/2022/07/12/tour-of-duty-ardern-out-on-the-world-stage-and-gets-things-done-luxon-goes-off-the-rails-again/
Based on this OIA about Canterbury DHB nurses, average RN salary increased every year from 2011 through 2020. That includes 7 years of a National government, during which time nurses salaries increased by an average of 2.3% p.a.. David Clark (Minister from 2017 through mid 2020) managed to secure sufficient extra health money to increase average nurses salaries by 4.7% p.a. from 2018 through 2020.
https://www.cdhb.health.nz/about-us/document-library/cdhb-10465-registered-nurse-average-salary/
I don't have the figures since Andrew Little became minister, however his outburst yesterday was either a calculated attack or a political blunder. Either way, it wasn't a good look.
The union was all for the settlement, until they decided back pay had to be settled first. Nurses would have salaries 10 to 12 thousand more a year, which would have helped with the recruiting process as Andrew Little pointed out.
They shot that delay across his bow in December, and are now moaning that nurses will go to Australia. Well Dahhh!!! He is right, they have not helped Nurses.
Interesting, but that's not how Ian Powell sees it:
"And he is getting stuck into the NZ Nurses Organisation, accusing the union of reneging on a deal on pay equity. Simply not true. The “deal” was agreed to by two negotiating teams, but still required ratification. Following membership feedback, NZNO identified two obstacles to ratification which required resolution. That is not reneging; it is the part of the process called ratification. As a former union leader, Little knows this well."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/129153136/the-return-of-angry-andy-the-health-minister-who-is-denying-the-obvious
Powell also points out the following:
1. The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM; the College) had to correct what it described as 'misleading comments' attributable to Little in June.
2. Then in May "in a low blow, in May, Little derogatorily referred to the “nominal leaders” of primary care for allegedly failing to see what a different and better health system looks like. It was clear from the context of his attack that he was referring to representatives of general practices."
3. He's also had a crack at rural health services and Pharmac.
I understand the Minister is under pressure, but he's doing himself no favours. Powell concludes with this:
"Little’s poor performance has made him a ministerial liability. A big factor behind this is his failure to recognise the importance of relationships in public health systems."
and
"This has led him to undermine workforce trust and confidence in the Government’s leadership of the health system. Further, he has achieved this in little over 18 months. I don’t recall any health minister reaching this milestone."
Ouch.
One man's opinion does not make truth.
Where is any comment from you to question Littles behaviour and actions ?? It appears you can see everything Wrong with parties other than Labour BUT are blinded by this governments performances and unable to make comment.
Not great use of language by Little. "in an interview with Stuff, Andrew Little labelled the union ‘unprincipled’ and the impediment to a pay deal." Just like the Kiwi in Manila telling Little "2 yr is not an issue" how would she know what nurses around the world are thinking" and for him to use that as a reason for his Do Little action. That interview was a train wreck – And sitting in Wellington – Where is he – And you support him without any reservations, as do many here. Imagine the commentary if Nats were in power and Little was the Health minister acting as he is.
I
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/129273745/nurses-organisation-asks-health-minister-to-focus-on-health-crisis-instead-of-putdowns
He's not just 'one man'. He is a former executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. Is he wrong? Is the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine wrong? Are commentators here that are in the profession wrong?
David J. No all the people you talk about are correct.
Little and Labour are so ideologically driven, they fail to see the real issues.
BTW I am a labour party member. But not for too much longer
Tell me Anker where is your ideological home?
Who will you support if not Jacinda Ardern?
Mother was a life member of Labour. I have always voted Labour and worked hard for them.
I now have no ideological home politically. I try to go by my values. I fear for NZ as I think our parliamentarians aren't up to it. That's not a criticism, I think it is a hard job (although sometimes I do criticize them).
One of the most important things for me is the Health system. The only people who really matter in that system are the well trained professionals who look after you if you get sick. We are all dependent on them.
I don't rely on Jacinda. I don't have anything against her and also acknowledge her strengths. I was grateful to her and Labour for the initial Covid response. The reality is I went into isolatin before the country did. Currenlty living a rather isolated life to protect me and my loved ones and the health professionals from Covid.
I try to take as much responisitiblity for myself and my life. This has always been the case. I now are just grateful when politicians don’t makethings worse. Or spend public money on consultants whose contribution won’t matter.
Labour have lost me. They are ideologically driven and its not an ideology I support. This doesn’t mean I support Luxon (personaly I think he is out of his depth and woeful).
I probably won’t vote next election. But if that is the case, it will be a deliberate and well thought through decision.
No not wrong, just looking through their own window.
Andrew Little is not there to make friends. He is there to change entrenched attitudes biases and methods, which have not delivered to a large percentage of the public. Feathers are going to be ruffled as some were very comfortable in their Silos. Some were paid by both the private and the public system.
Whenever the left shift the dial, personal attacks start. No one has suggested there should not be change, just they don’t like the messenger.
Umpty managers board members and other duplications creaming money out of the "system" Yes feathers will be ruffled and fur fly. The intention is to increase services at the frontline. Perhaps Andrew is tired That would be understandable.
Yes I am sure Little is tired. What a big job to have. I do have a little empathy for him. But the front line is the health system. I hope he does ruffle feathers of the bureacrats but he seemed to be picking a fight with the union, i.e. the front line services union. Unforgivable from so many angles.
I don't think Little knows too much about health at all.
The health system doesn't deliver for people in small towns e.g Wairoa has no cardiologist. People can't even get a regular GP in many towns.
They can stand on their heads, re structure, bring in a band, put on a party, so whatever, but until the solve the staffing and medication crisis, it will do swa
It was not the Union who rejected the settlement but was the membership dismayed at the deal. Backpay was promised then reneged on. In my role as a senior nurse the offer was a fraction of that offered to other roles. All this has done is compress the salary scales to the point where most senior staff would make more giving up their roles and become plain RN,s. I had been advanced more on the last pay round in a lump sum against future pay equity than I was offered. We were looking at having to pay it back.
Every time this minister opens his mouth he alienates the very people who vote for his party, he needs to go, replace him with someone who can demonstrate empathy.
That situation is not right or good Who were you actually negotiating with. Ministry boffins?
Nice DEFLECTION, what about …. On the issue nice to see that you cannot find anything to counter to support Littles performances. And for his attach on a union, nice to have friends like that in a Labour party. But I gather you totally support him.
How about addressing the issue?? Unless you don't really have the conviction.
This maybe news to you BUT Labour is currently the government and Little IS the minister.
Herodotus,
It isn't about me. See my comment above.
Thanks for saying all of this Herodotus, and psych nurse.
Fancy a labour minister, ex labour boss, trashing a union. Accusing them of talking with a forked tongue. Does he not realize how many kiwis lives are dependent on our health work force? What will this do for staff morale? That and refusing to call it a crisis (actually I think it is a catastrophe).
Little doesn't show any signs of appreciating what a health system is. Its nurses, Drs and allied health workers. We are despearately short of them Andrew. Many of them are working their guts out to save lives right now. Your stupid bloody health reforms are irrelevant.
Remember when Key use to say its not a housing crisis and most of us on this site would be tearing our hair out about his denial (acutally the situation with housing back in Key's day looks a lot better that our current housing catastrophe……
Tony Ryall and Johanathan Coleman were likely incompetent shits, but they are long gone. Littles in charge of the ship now. Labour have had five years. David Clark was told back in 2017 that there was a serious work force shortage before the pandemic.
Little should be sacked or resign
"Why is it that so many on the left accept this without voicing any comment or is this the best we can hope for and have to accept"
I figure this is what we could call the neo-liberal left. The left that couldn't raise a murmur when lots of poorly paid people (mainly women) were mandated out of jobs.
The term Brahmin class better describes what a lot of 'lefties' behave like.
gsays I think it is tribal labour who will support Labour no matter what and sorry if this comes across as judgmental many of them have lost their ability to critique anymore.
Our health system is in crisis…..
"Strange to have gone from talking about a stressed health system to being in it in a couple of hours," he said.
"Wellington Hospital A & E actually as calm and efficient as I've ever seen it. I'll update later but nothing too serious."
RNZ reporter on an actual experience of the NZ health system after Sean Plunket suffers a minor heart attack.
https://www.odt.co.nz/star-news/star-lifestyle/star-entertainment/broadcaster-sean-plunket-hospital-after-heart-attack
North Shore Hospital doesn't seem to be coping as well as Wellington hospital.
Patients waiting under leaking tent outside North Shore emergency department – NZ Herald
To be fair, that awning is more a triage and Covid testing space – before admitting patients to either the 'with Covid' or 'without Covid' streams. Decision made that it was better to do this step in the 'open' with ventilation, rather than within the closed (and crowded) ED itself.
However, have just had a friend admitted (and now discharged) from ICU with Covid at North Shore (luckily they were able to get on top of the symptoms quickly) – who commented on just how rushed and stressed all of the medical staff were. No complaints about the treatment – but she could see how much pressure the staff were under – and how long their shifts were. The doctor seeing her dealt with 3 emergency calls while checking her symptoms and prescribing for her.
Well a relative of mine went there with a fracture and said that the tent was for Covid triage which is not a rare practice at all. And that the privately owned ShoreCare A&E across the road where they went for the initial consultation in order to be seen more rapidly (cost $105 after ACC subsidy was deducted) used a tent in exactly the same way. Looks like the thrusting, innovative titans of the private sector aren't doing any better than public hospitals – other than through the natural advantages that come from reducing the demand on their services by charging money.
This is of course just an n=1 anecdote. But I ain't holding my breath on the assumption that the Herald is not engaged in distortion of the facts for political purposes. Essentially the house organ of the National Party, that rag is why we don't even need the Murdoch media in this country in order to sabotage democracy.
Meanwhile, from Jimmy's source:
"The photos come after a survey – conducted by the New Zealand Women in Medicine (NZWIM) Charitable Trust, including responses from more than 900 New Zealand doctors – warned a "catastrophic collapse" of the healthcare workforce loomed.
"Ward full, extreme staff shortages, ED full and seeing little babies as young as seven weeks old waiting (more than) >2 hours outside in tents for a bed in the department, or to be seen and an attempt at an exam made in the tent," one junior doctor working in paediatrics said in the survey. The hospital where this doctor worked was not specified."
This was meant for AB.
"RNZ reporter on an actual experience … "
Who is the RNZ reporter you appear to be quoting?
Himself.
It must be at least 10 years since he worked for RNZ.
He got cancelled.
I am curious as to the purpose of yr comment.
Is it to deny our health system is in crisis because of one reporter's "actual" experience?
Running defence for a minister who has clearly pissed off a large portion of his workforce?
Based on one persons experience and extrapolating it out is like declaring the pandemic over coz I didn't get Covid.
If it's in crisis, then Wellington did not show that.
Nor does my local hospital, though a friend tells me that the waits are long.
I am objecting to blanket criticisms of 'shambles', 'crisis' or whatever else. They are overused, becoming meaningless political buzz words. Today I read that "all'' whatever the feck it was was a disaster. It was obvious that ''all" did not apply. It was hyperbole. Sorry, I can't remember the actual situation, but that in itself points to the problem with doomsaying, crying wolf, inflated criticism.
If someone comes along and says that I had a problem with such an hospital, I'd accept that. If someone can honestly give an overview of an hospital system stretched beyond breaking point. I'd look at that.
I have personally reached my breaking point as a teacher, but it wasn't the NZ education system. Covid is hard, and winter is hard. There will always be discontent.
There is, and has been, far too much exaggeration that is political, serving narrow interests, and ultimately harmful as its effect is to lessen trust, hope and social cohesion either deliberately or as a corollary.
I am now a sceptic. I've had covid, cancers and crises de foi. I have been well served in two different hospital systems.
I went walking today as I have for years with a highly qualified medical professional, recently forcibly retired from a hospital board as a member by recent changes, who does not talk of crises. Problems, yes always, but I have not heard of crises- and believe me I would have from him.
I socialise with nurses, surgeons, anaesthetists, long term sufferers from all sorts of complaints, but I don't hear crises. Again problems, but not crises.
I have a niece who is an authority on aspects of public health- difficulties, problems, social attitudes and behaviours- all of that, but not heard of crises.
No, it's not one reporter's experience. His experience just points out the arrant stupidity of blanket, unbalanced, unsubstantiated criticism, and the use of hyperbolic and harmful language.
It's harmful because it limits the truth of the matter, the extent of the matter, the causes of the matter, and only serves narrow, sectional, shallow political purposes.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300636068/waikato-hospital-cancels-100-surgeries-in-june-no-catch-up-in-sight—health-leader
There are many,many more examples like this Mac 1.
I noticed that the person who murdered the woman in Grey Lynn has been sent to the Mason Clinic. Only a week or two ago and innocent woman was stabbed in Chch by a man discharged from the psych unit. Sadly expect more of this.
You may be like the Nurses Union who don't want to refer to it as a crisis because they just want the minister to get on and fix it. Gordon Campbell has an interesting article posted by Sacha on Daily Review.
Call it what you like, but the health syster is exceptionally stressed and they are understaffed. Nowadays i hope like hell I don't get sick
"Nowadays i hope like hell I don't get sick." And if you did, I'd wish you the same timely, expert and appropriate treatment I got with four cancer diagnoses and a hernia for good measure.
What I said above about trust and hope and social cohesion applies with us both. I keep hoping and trusting and believing in how our society should progress.
Thanks Mac1. Well expressed.
Ok, you don't like the wording.
What adjectives would you use to describe the problems? Ones that come to my mind are systemic, chronic, under-resourcing, under-staffing, entrenched. Most of which come down to senior management and governance.
To describe out health system as just having 'problems' is equally "harmful because it limits the truth of the matter, the extent of the matter, the causes of the matter, and only serves narrow, sectional, shallow political purposes."
Ironically a measure you may be able to relate to, I have been to my GP in regards to an inguinal hernia. He referred me to our local hospital for an appointment. They said 'No'. I went back to him on Friday as things have worsened and he point blank told me, 'you won't get in.' His advice was going privately.
At the core of the problems is this market driven, neo-liberal approach to running hospitals. I had hopes when the reform was announced then discovered Ardern's pick for heading up the changes is from Ernst Young. Says it all really.
Andrew Little says everything is fine. Just a tough winter. 900 doctors say it's a crisis.
Of course the one person is right and the 900 doctors do not know what they are talking about.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/andrew-little-govt-responding-to-chronic-staffing-shortage-in-healthcare/GQT4WMCA6YGV3ZEODNNR3NZQL4/
Wishing Sean Plunkett all the very best for his recovery. He lost his brother to suicide last week. So an unbelievably difficult time.
When I visited Wellington ED just over a month ago, staff were calm and professional. It was remarkable given the numbers of sick people arriving by ambulaances and the beds stacked in corridors.
I'm sorry to hear that. I can but wish himself all the best.
Which is why I harp on about those who are not following the rules and who publicly demand that all Covid regulations be rescinded Anker.
I was in hospital earlier this year for major surgery. The professionalism of the doctors, nurses and the surgeon blew me away. I constantly think of them and wonder how they are coping with the enormous strain they are currently experiencing.
Anyone calling for the removal of all Covid restrictions (and I refer particularly to the Freedom crowd) are showing a lack of respect and consideration for the health workers in question.
With a country of around only 3 to 4 million tax-payers, there is never going to be enough money in the cookie jar to service entities like the health sector to our satisfaction. So, its up to each of us to be prepared to do whatever is required to alleviate the worst of the pandemic affects on those staffing the health services.
Getting vaccinated, wearing masks and keeping our distance is the very least we can do.
You might have heard Thomas Coughlan grinding his teeth as he had to concede that PM Ardern had a successful overseas trip. How it must have hurt. Anyway it is an interesting summary.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/thomas-coughlan-jacinda-ardern-finally-gets-lucky-break-on-overseas-trips/QKBCNI3Z7YCWB5MOCRHWMDG2G4/
In case it is behind the wall.
That reference to a 'lucky break' reminds me of the golfer who mused that the more he practised the luckier he got!
Jacinda is just so lucky. No way does she work hard to get her lucky breaks. Ha!
Remember when in her early PM days they denigrated her fluffy lack of substance.
Long may she reign!
They called her stardust. On Tuesday I had a coffee in town and sprinkled a sachet of sugar around the lovely design of a fern in the crema on top.
I called it stardust and saluted our Prime Minister. In a world of Putins, Johnsons, Trumps and that whole throng of narcissist, deluded and sociopathic crazies, we are indeed blessed.
Yes, covid and politics has made the world difficult, so thank you Jacinda Ardern and her fully supportive team, who instead of being assisted through the pandemic and the world scene, have been put down harried and generally denigrated.
For some this has reached the stage that any comment is leapt on quoted out of context and added to name calling and calls for dismissals.
Those same folk want change… but not that change.. go figure.
Angry Andy meme is again fashionable. Previously Nanaia Mahuta was the target.
The search for holes in the government's armour continues by the Nats and Act, to the point of even bad mouthing the country while overseas is sad.
Denying reputable evidence over and over. Flat out saying the opposite. Chipping away.
So some of us support, as we see the propaganda repeated endlessly and echoed in MSM.
I understand Little's frustration.
The kickback from those making money, and/or sitting in positions of power, due to the inefficiencies, duplication and partial privatisations that the DHB model enabled, is enormous. It has only just started.
You will hear more and more the mealy mouthed.. “We admit change is needed, but not this change”.
The "Salaried medical specialists" that use their position in State hospitals to prop up lucrative private businesses, the "Consultants", the "Private contractors" are just a few examples of those who have a vested interest in the continuation of the current shemozzle.
Careful KJT, you will be lumped in with me
Hopelessly Left lol. Such good company.
Shows how much the Overton window has shifted,, that I, a definite capitalist businessman, is "extreme left". LOL.
Quoting a well known philosopher. "Heaven holds no attraction for me. The company would be so boring".