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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It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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 ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
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Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
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The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Yes that is so true. Collective agreements mean fairer wages and conditions.
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.
Oh sorry AB. Not the first time I've had the wrong end of the stick. I agree about TDB.
.
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/
1000+ JO. Brilliant summary.
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."
100+
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".