No Right Turn puts his/her finger right on the pulse of Natz party thinking in a post on Wednesday. http://norightturn.blogspot.com/
Obviously, Collins wants all the time she can get to have Brownlee spread conspiracy theories. But its also quite revealing that her instinctive reaction is to try and abrogate our democracy for her own advantage. The National Party is showing us exactly who they are: instinctive authoritarians who think only of themselves, who will happily try and sabotage a critical public health response if they think it helps them.
The right’s inclination towards dictatorship [or should that read ‘firm and effective government?’] is apparent and mirrors the stance taken by Trump and many other right wingers around the world.
My bold.
It is surely time for the Govt. to action making cash payments to all citizens, administered by IRD. The scale of the shitstorm about to hit will be beyond WINZ/MSD capacity even if the funds are made available.
Wage subsidies seem pointless for some sectors that are moribund, and “Covid capitalists” had a field day rorting the high trust subsidy model.
A basic income for all citizens needs to kick in asap, so at least people can have food security.
Rent and food security – we need both. One or the other alone is not keeping society healthy.
Also needed is a legal way for people stuck in moribund leases of commercial property to get out withouth having to declare bankruptcy first or pay tens of thousands of dollars to the landlord to make up for his/her losses, while getting nothing for ones own losses. We are all in this together, right?.
Absent of that, a mortgage, rent, bill holiday for any period of Level 4 – 2 as most businesses can't operate and people don’t take home enough money to pay for both, residential live and business life. There is only so many times you can shut your businesses down (those that can not operate from home but must have commercial properties, licensed and inspected) until they shut down for good.
I have been saying that now for a few month.
As for he Labour campaign, please use the funds you wanted to use to entice us small businesses to re-hire staff, or to get some of the previously employed but newly unemployed to start their own businesses and use it for rent/lease/mortgage/bill relieve. It would be a better use then expecting someone to open a business in times like these.
Make it a Covid Payment – 480 pw to anyone not working and making money, and increase the payment for unemployed people to that amount. We know that that amount is enough to keep up a semblance of life and thus protect society.
Good points Sabine. I did not want to write another list, just make the point that it is now time to just start delivering funds to those guaranteed to spend it, rather than filtering the borrowed billions through a hundred schemes and dreams–a pretence that normal still applies, or somehow will again. It won’t.
Also public transport could be designated fare free and free Wifi nationwide too would all assist. Who will pay for it? The workers of the country, paid and unpaid of course!
People are spending, we were in Akaroa for a few days and locals were saying it was their best trading winter ever. Look at the Auckland cluster family, they were spending around the north.
That is why i listed the 'bill holiday', most of it would be water, rent, electricity. If we can put a safeguard in that would allow people who default on these bills and allow for it to be paid back in increments – depending on income – that would take away the need for giving out money and keep our people in their homes.
Water, electricity are to some extend public / private goods and the government could put down a foot and demand that no utilities will be cut off during these trying times. Public health begins at home.
Public Transport should have been free to all for the longest of time, considering that it is us the workers that have paid for it. – Reminder, the government has no money, it gets it from us the Tax payer.
I understand the wage subsidy as a flattening of the unemployment curve. It did that well. But the second wave is coming as certain as night follows day.
So this time i hope for a decent UBI announcement paid for by the IRD as you said.
Last, i would like to see the government start putting out information on how to vote safely during a pandemic. This is what i came up withI.e. download your ballot online, ballot drop off boxes stationed by dairys with an armorguard dude – emptied once/twice a day. Just use your voter code, download the ballot, fill out and drop off. That would work for a very large part of the country. And social distancing standard voting for those that want to go in person.
Rent control is coming, has come hasn't it? It should be reviewed six-monthly but not necessarily lifted.
Special circumstances for landlords to apply for interest-free loans to fix leaky roofs etc on ordinary houses might be good. For apartments, loans for tenants to take legal action to enforce work perhaps. They need to be able to challenge the positions of their unit agents (forgotten the right description), and the head builders, who can't just turn and blame their sub-contractors.
Food vouchers for supermarkets without total authority to scrutinise and control, except to limit cigarettes, and wine, beer to one bottle or 1 litre highest level.
Then stand behind regions that want to create local currency, with printing and material costs for weekly Spending Vouchers for say 10 credits, handed out to each caller each week at some central office, adults or children. Encourage them to be spent and circulated in that one week and leave to the local 'market' to find ways to use them; who will accept them having found themselves where they can on-spend them. Talk about it being a 'Treasure Hunt' for the search to find who will accept them. 'Pay with a Voucher and a Smile' would be the slogan.
Getting stats would come from printing numbered tick boxes used each transaction and write where, and report to the local paper radio station, on the highest numbers, give publicity each time to different businesses or groups accepting them.
Get a bunch of school kids or unemployed to do the office work. It is a working example of local economics, the way that official money works stripped down to view. Each week there would be a new colour, and they would have to be spent in a week. It would start slowly until people got used to it and networks built up for exchange of goods or services on a regular basis. They could act as full payment or part, like a discount. They would have to be noted in a register for tax purposes, as discounts or promotional give-aways.
If it became integrated and well-used in the community, there could be a meeting with locals, and see whether it could be expanded to be more for certain people. To see whether more people could be added to the business side, so that there were networks amongst businesses providing a satisfactory circulation for them, and overcoming prejudice against it amongst citizens. (It would seem like play money, insubstantial, to many as we have never understood what money actually is; just tokens or written agreements with an intrinsic promise to pay given official and legal backing, circulating in the economy and managed for maintenance of value using quantity measures, supply and demand, inflation controls etc.)
Shane Jones went to Harvard too. It seems to be like the elite school for capitalists or understanding how to work with them. Is it possible to go through one of these institutions without being overcome by the hegemony of the prevailing zeitgeist?
Well, Collins and Brownlee have displayed an degree of ineptitude that will have National caucus members shuffling backwards when it comes to answering the question "who did you vote for to be the leader?"
National's polling looks light of 35% minimum that Collins stated that validated a leader's credibility.
My guess is that party cohesion will continue to diminish as the Collins/Brownlee twinset fails to provide the firebreak it claimed it could achieve.
So who is next? Mark Mitchell? The mercenary stepped in US military and intelligence ties? Chris Luxton, freshly elected strongly carring Christian fundimentalist and corporate concerns?
He should tell all the Doctors ,Nurses frontline workers older people those with compromised immune systems who are going to have the highest rates of contracting Covid 19 getting serious complications and dying ,Tell them to their faces the sniveling coward.
After his disastrous effort in Wellington
His opinions are those of a deranged man continuing in his own little bubble of complete ignorance.
It's not a 1% risk to people in rest homes, if you're in the rest home demographic and you get it, the most recent data I've seen suggests it's in the region of 15% to 20% likelihood it will finish you off terminally. That 1% is the current best rough estimate of the case fatality rate across the entire population.
It's deeply misrepresenting reality to claim that for most people, COVID is no worse than flu. Because COVID is known to cause significant numbers of long term disabilities even in young people that get it. My nephew is one of those still struggling with severe effects almost 6 months after getting it. Flu doesn't do that.
Right now, a bit of patience around the possibility of a vaccine is warranted. Several have already started phase 3 trials where it's given to tens of thousands of subjects to check how effective and long-lasting it is, and to check for potential rare safety issues. This is the final trial before initial rollout. If any of the candidates are actually successful, and there's enough candidates using enough different approaches that the chances are pretty good at least one will be, then early next year might see a vaccine available. That's not long to wait, weighed against the suffering and death that would be caused by letting the virus loose.
Yeah, the rules around what can and can't be done in lockdown could certainly do with some tuning. I get it that it's onerous for some people. Even if it's not for me, being an introvert an' all.
you are sick of lockdown. where do you live? if it is anywhere in New Zealand, you are a whinger. we havent had lockdown for two months! I am sick of self obsessed whingers.
So you feel that mental health and other negative impacts of lockdown should be ignored? That the government is beyond criticism? That reporters should not offer independent analysis?
We can't keep jumping in and out of lockdown – Yes we can actually, we can do it regional, town by town etc as we are right now doing, the centre of the outbreak at one level the rest of the country on another.
People need social and family connections – works best when social connections and family are not dying of a preventable disease
Periodic outbreaks will have to be tolerated and managed – we are doing this right now
The disease will be mitigated by faster testing, better tracing, more handwashing, improved treatments – true, once we actually start understanding how the disease attacks the bodys as it seems it does different things to different people, but one day sure we will understand this illness, like we understood Polio, measles, Black plaque etc.
Flu vaccine only works for 2/3 of recipients, a COVID vaccine may never eventuate – knowing this we might need to come to understand that we will live with it for a long time, and that yes, it is worse then the flue.
It took 20 years to eradicate small pox – we have yet to eraidcate the common flu.
Lockdown life can't go on forever. A 1% risk to people in rest homes should not be cratering the economy and quality of life for everyone else. – why yes it actually can. We have had lepers colonies, we have quarantine stations for superspreaders, we have the same with ebola etc etc etc. I know that the illnesses i just listed are commonly found in what we call affectionalty 'third world' countries, but Covid is no more no less deadly. 1% risk of the people in rest homes? and the doctors and nurses, and the children, and the healthy young people, and the healthy not yet in a retirment home ., and and and.
My guess is you are safe and secure enough to write a lot of people of as it won't happen to you, but what if you kid gets it and two weeks later its your wife on a respiarator in the hospital? Or maybe we just stop pretending to care and go all out Mrs. Oravida/Trump let it run rampants and if people die by the thousands it is what it is. So as long as it ain't you?
Not so fast on those ' it's mainly old folks' notions.
In June: Individuals with age under <65 account for 4.5–11.2% of all COVID-19 deaths in European countries and Canada; 8.3–22.7% in the US locations, and WERE the majority in India and Mexico.
Covert eugenics for breakfast anyone ?
To be noted is that death rate varies in different locales and death rate also varies between communities of differing socio-ethnic makeup.
The unknown is how the virus WILL evolve and behave eg. Could gain more virulence and or a strain evolves that increases mortality rate.
Global tally now 20.6 M recorded known infections. To date 749 000 known deaths from Covid 19 is 3.6% death rate once infected.
Currently 8.5 M of these are infections are in only 2 countries the US and Brazil. Both countries letting the 'herd' type methods take its course.
So, who is to be a soothsayer predicting whether the Covid virus behaves itself in the same manner in NZ as other countries if we opt for herd methods– one and a half thousand deaths a day ?
Radionz had Professor Sir David Skegg on this morning and he spoke truth to our difficulties. I'd put him alongside D-G of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield as very good on info.
I think it was Skegg that compared us to Sweden as an example of how well we have done. They have a population 5 times higher than us, and our figures by five are much lower.
But we just have to try harder, stop the gaps he said. I think one way is to do much more testing with more open criteria h at present older aged people in the community should have it more easily available – it starts to rise noticeably after 50!
Here are some North Europe figures:
So there was a substantial voluntary lockdown in Sweden – yet it wasn’t nearly as effective in reducing the spread of the coronavirus as the compulsory lockdowns in neighbouring Denmark and Norway. Cases and deaths rose faster in Sweden and have been slower to decline.
Sweden has had 57 deaths per 100,000, compared with five in Norway and 11 in Denmark. (For the UK it is 70 and the US 50.)
Sheridan’s* analysis suggests that young people – whose spending makes little contribution to the overall economy – were least likely to change their behaviour and might have undermined the voluntary lockdown. Among people aged between 18 and 29, spending dropped far less in Sweden than in Denmark….
That said, Sheridan’s spending comparison suggest that the economic impact was only slightly reduced by not imposing a more effective compulsory lockdown. “It’s very little in economic costs for saving a larger number of lives,” he says. * Adam Sheridan at the University of Copenhagen
Covid-19 and economies. In the comment above there is mention of Sweden compared to Denmark.
This from UK. Business rules okay!
The Telegraph hard-liner journo Allister Heath has written a scathing report blaming the Brits bad economy on 'arrogant quangocrats and state “experts”'. Sweden wins over Britain for less deaths per capita and Less recession. But doesn't mention Brexit at the beginning of the piece which is all I have access to.
Oh ta Just Is. I thought I heard the 5 number but only half-listening and then couldn't find the figures I wanted to verify it. Sorry about that, thanks for correction.
So say we have half the population of Sweden, and at their death rate, we would have had about 2900 deaths. A sharp contrast to our own number – 22! That extra number if we had let the virus roam free could have taken out all the thinking heads, and pointy-ones too, on The Standard. That would be a disaster for the country in my opinion.
All our stats nicely displayed! See under – covid 19 nz stats
This is true. I am hoping as more tools become available; better testing, improved treatment, vaccine etc, a more realistic plan will become achievable without major loss of life.
New Zealand has its unique challenges with respect to Covid-19; poor housing, underfunded health system, temperate climate. These things make us highly susceptible.
Health systems are voracious beasts when it comes to spending, but the evidence shows NZ has delivered significant increases in spending over a sustained period.
Paddington you are wrong the cash amount on health spending doesn't mean there has been increases in health spending.
National increased health spending by 1% per year inflation was 2% on average so that is a 9 % decrease then the population increased by 20% over those 9 yrs .a reduction in health spending per capita of nearly 30%.That was where your tax cuts came from.
Health costs inflation runs at 7% per annually so to say we have had increases health spending is not true.Thats where your tax cuts came from.
“National increased health spending by 1% per year”
That simply isn’t correct, based on the per capita figures in the source I quoted. Do you have a cite for your figures?
" Health costs inflation runs at 7% per annually "
Can you provide a cite for that please?
Also you are comparing changes in health spending. Muttonbird was referring to ‘underfunding’. The two are related, but not the same.
Further to my comment above, if you are looking at changes in spending, this article from 2018 https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/102941246/do-we-put-enough-money-into-the-health-system
makes the point that "Our per capita spending is slightly below the OECD average, but health outcomes are good by OECD standards." Surely quality of outcomes are more important than the quantum of spend?
Relative outcomes aren't always quality measures, in the same way that "per capita" measures aren't always accurate when they don't account for exchange rate or interest rate variations, and include the private sector when the issue under discussion is government funding.
" and include the private sector when the issue under discussion is government funding "
The issue was never defined as being about government funding. Also, referreing to Tricledown's response, ACC, for example, is government funding.
" in the same way that "per capita" measures aren't always accurate when they don't account for exchange rate or interest rate variations "
Any data comparisons have limitations. However the comparisons I linked to show that, based on OECD comparisons, on a per capita basis NZ's health system is not under-funded.
Nobody has claimed that we don't have a better health system than, say, the yanks.
The claim was that the NZ health system is underfunded, with a specific claim about 1%p.a. by the nats that none of your links are inconsistent with.
The ~3% average in your USD link is neither impressive if true nor out of the ballpark of ~1% depending on how one adjusts for exchange rate and inflation.Hell, your per capita link has different data to your wikipedia OECD link, and the difference seems to be bigger than the annual average in the per capita link.
That's the conclusion I'm coming to as well. The strategy of elimination sounds good in theory, but it will only work if we can hold out until there is a vaccine, and even then it relies on either compulsory vaccination of an extremely high uptake.
Well his guess/opinion is as good as yours or mine.
Point is we just do not know at this stage. I am sure that the tracing has not been been started/continuing on a predicated outcome as ruling out quarantine involvement. All cards/ideas will be on the table as to where this may have come from. It would not align with scientific method to rule anything out.
I gather, that like many out there – and given the speed that the spread has occurred. That Winny has just taken a guessed from where the source originated, and taken a gamble that this is the case. If he is wrong (as he has been in the past) so what, by then the media has moved on.
I would think that he wanted to say something positive though not immediately provable, and what he said would have been better than letting the idea that we have community spread get going and scaring the horses.
Likely a political white lie for the sake of the country. Everything is not cut and dried in politics as we know, they have to gain wiggle room sometimes.
Just is @ 7
There's a consensus of opinion among the experts that it is likely a border breach of some kind and since we now know some 60% of border-based workers did not get themselves tested for Covid 19 (for whatever reason) then he could be right.
Not a fan of Winston but can't see it as a sackable offence.
oh but its Winston and then it can't be of value. Never mind that he worked quite well in the coalition, but then some seem to think that the coalition does not need him anymore, so burn the witch. Its quite dumb actually.
Sabine, my point was he made the statement while in Aus talking to the media, if it was me I would've waited for confirmation of what the reporter had suggested before announcing it in a foreign country.
i don't know much about that i don't follow the news really.
I do get tired a bit about he bashing he receives, considering who he is, what he has done and achieved in his life, and the fact that without him we would be having a national government is just something people seem to forget.
I get that people might want to have labour alone, or supported only by the greens, but really unless that is a given, labour might need him again to form a government and maybe just maybe keep that in mind.
other then that, he has his own interests to pursue, and if the government has issues with winston then the government should address this. again, keeping in mind that htey might need him again.
i would keep my eyes on some of the conservative parties.
MMP can be a whole bunch of splinter parties – does not make for good governance but it can make a government. Germany is MMP, has been since the 50s. So i am quite aware of what can and can not be done in this environment.
my understanding of the political happenings are fine. Thanks.
However i don't read in general is the yellow press, and updates on the national parties shenanigans and the he said she said bullshit coming from NZ finest stenographers aka journalists. I have no use for that crap. Case in point i don't often comment on the 'what are they doing National/Act/others …..threads, they have no value to me". I rather read the threads of 'what they (Government) will be doing'
But like it or not, the current labour government is courtesy of NZfirst.
And one thing i am very certain about it is that Jacinda Ardern knows who he is, and maybe has put him exactly where he is supposed to be being whom he is.
And again, maybe Labour will need this party again.
So how many reputable trustworthy journalist friends does Winston actually have around him ? They did him no favours when his NZ Super mistake was leaked. I'm surprised he trusts any now.
Is Gerry Brownlee under big stress ? Has his Boss Judith Collins been overloading him with work ?
Both Judith and Gerry are national attack personalities, but with Gerry openly wandering around everywhere, including parliament, with pitiful Conspiratory Dreams.
Both J and G are palpably showing unstable tendencies.
Yesterday, Distinguished Kim Hill, had to try and fathom what on earth Judith was saying on and on. It was sad really. I kid you not.
Judith eventually informed Kim Hill and the listeners, that she is a Lawyer.
Crikey!
Is age overtaking Judith? As soon as she was appointed Leader of national, over a dozen national politicians vacated her.
A strange entity – is national. Judith is demanding the coming election be bypassed. A whole new election to take place any old time in years to come.
Hey folks, I thought I would group source a couple of questions I have.
One of the main roads into Palmy is Railway Road, running from Bunnythorpe to PN. It is a 100km road. Over the last decade there has been a large distribution hub built on the southern side of Railway Rd.
Two days ago there was a double fatality in a truck vs car collision around the intersection with Roberts Line.
Our son was involved in a collision, with a fatality in the other vehicle in Dec 2018. The other vehicle failed to give way.
Which is the appropriate authority to lobby for road remediation? Council, NZTA or another body.
Are petitions effective or worthwhile? What is an effective way to get traction on change?
Good luck to you gsays…you're taking on a system that just loves to buck pass. Is is NZTA? Is is the local council? Is is the road surface or surrounding terrain or a speed factor or more to do with the type of traffic using the road. This will go on or some time.
Is this road used by the Heavy Transport Sector? Are there humoungous juggernauts thundering down this highway at 90 kph (yeah right)? 'Cos you can bet your bottom $ they will move heaven and earth to keep the speed limit at 100kph.
However…what is in your favour, unfortunately, is there is already a body count. This is what triggers a response from NZTA and there will be a person in your region who is the contact to get the ball rolling.
A FOAF had reason to contact NZTA on such a road safety issue the other day. They found that investing in a toll call to the Head Office in Welly was an excellent move. Have a pen at the ready 'cos my mate's mate was nearly caught short. Helpful person gave names, contact landline and cellphone numbers and took particular care that the correct email address was given.
In my mate's mate's case, although it concerns a state highway and there is as yet no body count in this particular area yet and it is a pedestrian/cyclist issue they were flicked to the local council.
Good luck. (Oh, and you didn't hear it from me…but an elderly gent sidled up and suggested that a citizens' intervention might also be part of the solution.)
There are trucks but their speed isn't really the issue. There are lots of 'em.
The increase in volume of traffic, the roads intersecting with Railway Road, driver speed and impatience are bigger issues.
I do like the direct action approach. In a younger day, with mates, tagging the Manawatu Gorge with GE FREE PLEASE didn't change politics, but felt real good.
And also with the awesome Manawatu Gorge…even the posted speed limit was too fast for me…pulled the Bus over so I could better admire the brilliant engineering.
Sometimes, the signs are put in the 'wrong' place, or display the 'wrong' info…sometimes a traffic island is required to slow the traffic….all sorts of ways pro active folks can make a difference.
Thank you for taking that on. May not be a quick result.
I think your regional council may be the relevant roading agency, rather than PN City Council?
ACC used to sometimes get involved in road safety improvements, especially including fatalities.
NZTA may also have an interest through the proposed huge rail/road interchange hub near the airport. PN Council may have a lead councillor involved in that project, though not necessarily with much clout I'd assume. The regional council may be motivated more by the big project than the current defect, though if you can paint fixing one as making the other go more smoothly that may help. Signs of an engaged local community can help, though that takes effort.
Your local MP might be able to help cut through if you prepare something concise for them. May be most efficient avenue. Their electorate office staffers can be smart about who to approach.
The Minister responsible for road safety (Genter in this last govt) may also apply some pressure downwards.
Media can help when engaged at the right time, usually after you have got some evidence of pushback or neglect from officialdom. But they need someone to front and you need to be sure the public attention is worth it to you.
NZTA are spending a whole bunch of money near Palmerston North at the moment. It's a good time to push for safety upgrades.
Email Emma Speight who is the NZTA Director Lower North Island, and arrange a meeting on site with the head of Transport at New Plymouth Council. That will get the wheels in motion. It's their job to attend to black spots on the network.
I wonder what Cleangreen would recommend as likely to get a quick hearing leading to action and not the brush-off. Are you out there Cleangreen, hello?
Palmerston North City Council is the road controlling authority, suggest contacting them. As well as speed, the lack of right turn bays at the Roberts Line intersection is poor (particularly with the large relatively new Foodstuffs distribution centre close to intersection).
Longer term, Railway Road north of Roberts Line will close if KiwiRail's major Freight Hub project goes ahead (replaced by new road further west).
Thanks Alice, you are right about the layout and trucks turning.
In the collision my son was involved in, the other vehicle was coming over the railway line on Roberts Line. The driver said he just didn't see the Stop sign after crossing the rail line.
They were being guided by Google maps travelling between Hawkes Bay and Taranaki.
I know another place in another town with additional buildings and business that don't seem to have been planned for in roading design. It's dangerous, and also it's bad for citizens blood pressure as well when you think of the usual salary that gets allocated to these blokes and blokesses for their marvellous expertise.
a friend of mine had people regularly drive onto his property as he was at the end of a t section and people just missed their turns ending up on his front lawn or house if too fast.
calling council/nzta did nothing, going to the news after it happened for the third time did help. He now has a big chyron (yellow black metal thingy?) before the pedestrian walkway and since then no one missed the turn right or left anymore.
Got the ball rolling by e-mailing both Tangi Utikere (L) and PN Deputy Mayor and Ian McKelvie (N) MP for Rangitikei.
TBF, Utikere has more levers to pull as he is on the local council and has replied with his PNCC hat on. He will take it to council and look at opinions about lowering speeds or other mitigations as a short term fix.
McKelvie extended sympathies and referenced Collins' recent announcement that the road will be sorted with urgency if elected.
Simpson’s admits on ZB no compulsory testing of people working at border, unsubstantiated but numbers out their
that 60pc of people never had a test, From yesterday now compulsory. You could ;not make this stuff up
Rock and a hard place for the health ministry though. Imagine if they had forced border and quarantine staff to get tested and we’d not had an outbreak? The same people crying madness in the media right now would be screaming blue murder about the fascist’s government’s attack on our democracy.
I took it for granted that border workers would get periodic testing, until Hipkins explained that you can't force people to take tests.
It's a medical procedure, and I think this has already been covered weeks ago when it was brought up that if anyone in quarantine refused the day 3 and/or day 12 test, they would remain in quarantine for an additional 14 days.
Bloomfield will no doubt bring this matter up this afternoon at 1pm
Gorman on RNZ at the moment suggesting border workers who refuse routine covid tests should be fired, not that I consider his pronouncements to come from the Mount.
What happens if the employee refuses to give consent?
Most policies will state what will happen in the event an employee who is asked to take a drug or alcohol test refuses to do so. Usually, refusal without good cause will be treated by the employer as being failure to follow a reasonable and lawful instruction that is considered to be serious misconduct.
The employer must follow a fair and reasonable process when investigating and taking action against an employee who refuses to take a drug test. If it ends up in the Employment Relations Authority (or Court), the test of justification will be applied.
The government was passing legislation hither and thither…under the circumstances you'd think if the existing legislation is insufficient…
Besides…I think it is pretty much a consensus that it was understood that strict, routine testing was being done all along.
Rosemary the document you’re quoting from is one legal firm’s guide for employers and their employment agreements. Nothing in there has force of law. And we know that individual employment agreements are often overridden by other acts of parliament like The Bill of Rights for example.
I find it incomprehensible that staff wouldn't be clamouring for daily tests, rather than cavilling about their rights. Saying we can't force them, doesn't preclude not asking them in the first place.
Gorman I thought? Professor Des Gorman – Auckland University's Professor Des Gorman says he can't understand why government rhetoric about Covid preparedness and testing, wasn't matched with action.
I feel that complacency with our success has left more than the general public in a happy state. I enquired about circumstances for testing as an older person, with connections to an essential services person, and was told no probs, wait till you have symptoms. I thought this sounds like over-confidence and unwillingness to be precautionary. A bit like the case of the Samoan back in earlier lockdown who kept being excluded despite being sick, until he was on the point of collapse. He was only a young adult.
The trouble could be that hospitals may still be on austerity budgets, along with their capital charges amounting to ground lease of what is public land. No wonder that it is so hard to get proper provision for mental health funding.
Is it a public health failure though? Or is it just another example of how in western democracies an ideal pandemic response sometimes finds itself at odds with democratic norms? Managing that tension is the thing.
What does your salary have to do with testing for a potentially lethal disease when you are on the front lines of it?
Do you really think people are going to quit their jobs because of a weekly test but are happy to stay in work when they have a high potential of getting infected and NOT being tested?
Like supermarket workers these people should be on a pandemic bonus. As further explained this morning, many of the thousands working 'on the border' never have close contact with the incoming people.
But I'd have thought anyone with regular close contact should have a periodic test. It does bring up how often tests would be needed, and I think you will find that they would need to be taken every 3-5 days to ensure total capture of any virus infection. That would be quite onerous, and still may not avoid someone catching it and quickly becoming infectious for 1 or 2 days before the next test. So on reflection I'm less inclined to bag the MoH over this. This is one VERY tricky virus.
Reposting a comment from elsewhere which I think sums it up well:
They do daily health checks – temperature checks, symptom checks etc – so it's not like they are flying completely blind. If anyone shows symptoms they are tested and not allowed to work. They also wear extensive PPE.
Part of the problem is that PCR tests won't necessarily pick up asymptomatic people. That means you could be asymptomatic when tested, work your shift and then not find out until later in the day or the next day that you are positive.
I guess PCR testing would add another layer of comfort but do you shove swabs up the noses of your workforce daily? It seems to me continuing with the daily health screening with PCR tests every few days would be the way to go.
Reposting comments from NZ's foremost public health expert I think sums it up even better..
"I was really shocked to hear the director general of health say a week or two ago that they were aiming to test people [border workers] every two or three weeks, every two or three weeks frankly would be quite inadequate.
"But it now turns out that nothing like that was being achieved and I see the reports that more than 60 per cent of people working at the border have never been tested."
Ashley is not NZ's foremost public health expert he is NZ's top health bureaucrat his main area of interest is is non-communicable disease prevention and control.
I would be appalled (but not surprised) if the Ministry of Health was not taking advice from David Skegg.
Skegg is hugely respected, but not currently involved with the Ministry. Hence he was tapped as the expert advisor for the parliamentary Covid oversight committee chaired by Bridges. Gorman, on the other hand..
All workers in "Quarintine" are tested around 10 day intervals, these people in Quarantine are high risk
The remainder of people entering NZ go into 14 day "Isolation", these people are not considered high risk and the workers are at much less risk and therefore are only tested if they have been in contact with a known infected case.
As stated by others, there are daily "Health Checks" on all staff comprising of temperature and having any symptoms consistent with the virus or flu.
Only mature adults who can start and engage in robust debate using clearly articulated thoughts by means of words constructed into logical sentences that convey meaningful contribution to said debate instead of relying on lazy emoticons only 😉
Most respond well to a gentle hint, if necessary. Some don’t; these get weeded out (first) from time to time, like mowing a lawn. It’s all part of service & maintenance with the occasional PM.
One of the really nasty aspects of this virus is it seems likely that someone infected will have already been near peak infectiousness for a day or two by the time they start showing symptoms. Let alone the asymptomatic but infectious cases.
So the "health checks" of symptoms are obviously hopelessly inadequate. But then even say twice-weekly swab tests with results 24 hrs later will still let a lot through the gaps.
Having done it myself for years I'm vividly aware of how difficult it is to keep everyone happy while moderating. While a good moderator will do their best to be even-handed, you have to keep in mind this is a left-wing site and it has it's own social norms. Steer against them and inevitably you'll face a head wind, and there is only just so much that a moderator can do to protect you from that.
Incognito is one of the best mods we've ever had, and I take the view that even when I disagree with him/her, I'd sooner help than hinder.
I’d like to follow on from RL’s superb comment by saying that indeed commenters who go against the ‘main stream’ (i.e. the centre-left and left of the political ideological spectrum) will find it a challenge here. But we (the Authors and Moderators, at least) do value opposing opinions that are well argued because they make for good robust debate, which is the raison d'être of this site. In other words, sharpen your pen, lift your game, and give it your best shot. You will earn respect for being a tough but fair opponent in debate. If you do that, Moderators will ‘look after you’. If you continue your ways, you will be “heading back to the clink”.
Had the usual Thursday dinner at the parents-in-law who are both big Judith fans and lifelong National voters, and even they were disappointed with the comments from the National leadership trying to undermine the health response, they even went so far as to call it Dirty Politics (don't think I've ever heard them use that term)
They are at a big risk of alienating a large part of their core support if they continue to let Brownlee peddle his conspiracy theories
Wouldn't be surprised to see the next public poll have them mid-20%
An insult to people's Intelligence, he just doesn't understand that most people are more intelligent than he is, he seems to think he's the smart one and everyone else is stupid.
The fast track to oblivion for National, panic has set in and they're not thinking clearly about the long term negative effects.
A complete overhaul of the party is likely after the election, Collins and Brownlee are gonners.
If only they had Supported the Govt during this period their polling would still be at a respectable level, but Stupidity and undermining Govt policy that nearly everyone else in the country agrees with.
On the capitalist measure – 'If you're so smart why aren't you rich' he is the smart one cf to most. Someone said yesterday he makes $288,000 pa e&oe. So 'he seems to think he's the smart one and everyone else is stupid.' has worked for him so far, don't fix it until it breaks is his motto.
Both he (Hipkins) and Winston Peters are warning Aucklanders to prepare for an extension to the level 3 lockdown restrictions to be announced on Friday afternoon, though no decision had been made as of the morning ……
"All of the positive cases we've had to date – and there will be some more announced at lunchtime today, at one o'clock today – all of them relate to the same single cluster. They all relate to one another. All of the testing we've done up and down the country has not identified any other cases of COVID that aren't related to this one. What we still don't know however is how this cluster came into being in the first place." ….
Hipkins said the new cases to be announced at 1pm so far don't amount to a "heap", but new information is constantly trickling in – and that's why the Government will be leaving any decision on an extension to the lockdown in Auckland until Friday evening. …
"This is a virus – it's unpredictable. We don't quite know what's going to happen, but we will know more this afternoon once we get all the overnight testing results in and the contact tracing from this cluster in during the course of today. We'll know a lot more to make a much more informed decision than we know now." …..
Hipkins said with every new case so far linked back to the same cluster, there would be no justification for going to level 4….
"Level 3 is certainly the maximum level you could justify based on the information we know now. If we started to see other clusters, or other unrelated cases, that would change things."…
The Government will reveal Auckland's lockdown future at 5:30pm.
Danyl Mclauchlan has good piece in The Spinoff where he argues that doubling down on the Alt-Right conspiracy theory stuff is a very deliberate ploy from Collins and Brownlee. Essentially he’s saying that National knows this election is a goner and that the mythical ‘centre’ has decamped to Jacinda for the duration at least. So the party’s only hope now to save as many seats as possible, is to try and hoover up every single right wing loony vote they can.
Doesn't matter when Scientology uses the same cold-call tactics. You just need to be made aware and that's that.
[I have no idea what you are on about. But because you were on my mod radar the other day for similar, you’re getting it again now. You appear to have reference thieves and Scientology and my comments, but without explaining what you mean. You’ve also told me that I need to be aware of something and I don’t know what. This is tedious. My suggestion is you start explaining what you mean clearly – weka]
Yeah, you, are, using, the, same, cold, call, tactics, as, any, Scientology, recruiter, would, too, acquire, assets under management – a textbook con as ancient as religion.
There are risks involved when appealing to the population for funding. Not the least problem when full-time hours ease to part-time or casual hours so whatever productivity is generated from the nzd$150 billion corona recovery package, just 1% of that rise in productivity would fund the Welfare Groups wishlist. Not asking, just doing, would fix this.
Simon Barnet calls for all businesses to be allowed to stay open under Levels 3 and 4.
We all know how that has worked out in the rest of the world.
It's about time some of these business leaders started showing some responsibility and consideration of the negative effects of their ill conceived brain farts.
I don’t see Level 4 happening if the outbreak is contained to one cluster. And given that means we’re not dealing with widespread infections and not flying blind like we were with the first lockdown I do think there is some scope to tweak the rules for Level 3 to keep as many businesses going as possible without compromising the outcome.
I agree that Level 4 is unlikely from what we know so far but we'll know for sure this evening.
Keeping all businesses open increases the risks considerably, you only need to look at the Melbourne experience, the cost of keeping the economy open has exceeded the benefit, and now have a long way back to security before they can open again.
A statement yesterday from Hipkins claimed once more that " Going hard early was the best strategy"
Sure there’s increased risk associated with keeping more businesses open. But I do think it’s worth putting some effort into managing that risk to allow, for example, a butcher shop to keep trading under whatever lockdown we get. The rules around lockdown shouldn’t be completely inflexible (and are not necessarily the sales rules we needed for Lockdown mark 1) and remember Jacinda said in addition going hard and early we need to be nimble.
I agree you can try to centrally manage this for ever to control and close everything down and kill the economy and consequences of that or you can look to allow the country to adapt bottom up via spontaneous calibration supported by good education/ information and regulation / investment where needed ( as we have now re border , Health assets and resources, old people homes, social distancing, masks, hygiene, size of gathering ) People are not stupid, trust them, likewise there’s only so much control people will put up with and as per ScottGN we are not Victoria
It doesn't seem to be killing the economy. Longterm it may not play out too well for letters of commercial properties, so they may have to be flexible and agile 'n shit.
Quite. If there is a poorly-controlled virus out in the community – one that is very dangerous to the over 50's who tend to be among the wealthiest citizens – what is that going to do to consumer demand in the economy over a long period? Answer – a lot more harm than a few weeks of lockdown.
What sets this government apart from most others – and from the Nats – is the quality of the decision-making. Especially their repudiation of the false dilemma of health vs economy. You can quibble with elements of their execution, but the decision-making has been pretty exemplary.
My sense is that people who keep raising the false dilemma of economy vs health are motivated more by irritation/anger at being under personal restrictions, rather than any holistic view of the economy.
We're still dealing with Human beings, they don't all understand the risks or don't care, there is a huge risk where interactions occur between people, rules are usually made to the Lowest common denominator.
If that’s the case then the lowest common denominator is somewhere in the basement. Time to give up?
We have the capacity to learn about and manage the virus and contact risks. We should use that skill and knowledge to try and make the inevitable lockdown as painless as possible. An no, I’m not advocating some sort of Swedish open slather, herd immunity bullshit. Just that we try and remain as flexible and nuanced in dealing with covid as we can be.
And the Melbourne experience is characterised by a lack of focus and a timidity and inability to make decisions quickly and stick by them rather than open slather for the economy.
Look at the countries who have followed Barnetts Stupid Idea all have much worse economies as well as massive outbreaks overloaded health systems Doctors nurses dying.
These business leaders should read the science and facts before putting out unworkable ideas!
Yes, we live in bubble down here in the South Pacific, successfully eradicated the Virus for 100 days
A false security.
Sweden has a death toll now of nearly 6000 and a population of 10 million, a classic example of what happens when you except high rates of death and hospitals overwhelmed with infected people.
Yep, Sweden has Gambled that their strategy is acceptable, nearly 6000 deaths from a population of a little over 10 million
All those 6000 deaths had family members connected to them, I wonder if they think the strategy is acceptable, or just consider it as normal attrition.
I have my plague door set up, no one comes in, order online/phone, Curbside or deliery only. Please sanitze and scan the Covid Track App. Rinse repeat.
So yes, it can work, unless one is an idiot from elsewhere who thinks their Human rights are affected by being asked to wear a mask, sanitize and keep distance.
Unless you are saying that kiwis are as dumb as US Americans or Englanders and even like some germans.
However, when i look outside i see people with masks, kids with masks, men with masks, all happy to wait on their spot, sanitizing hands, and being polite about these embuggerances that covid causes.
edit: And i hope that green grocers and small butchers are allowed to be open during lockdown 4. If people can wait for their food shopping in a line for hours on end without risk then they should be able to do a online butcher order with curbside pick up.
Restos, Cafes, Hairdressers etc are a different thing due to close contact. But many other businesses should and could stay open.
I don't disagree with allowing shops who sell food products, ie the green grocers, butchers, fish shops, delicatessens on the proviso they keep to the rules.
yeah, because they would not. (insert face palm emoji)
Seriously i have more faith in my green grocer and local butcher then i have in the supermarket staff that gets a $ 2 hazard pay for working during lockdown.
Sometimes those smaller businesses don't follow the rules to the same extent.
I know a small dairy that was open during the last lockdown wasn't AS careful as the larger supermarkets, having said that, No infections were recorded within 100 kms of the area, so the risk was very low.
Large populated areas like Auckland require greater restrictions, for obvious reasons.
this is what i have had made for my shop door. Perspex door, sits on a table and covers the whole upper body – even for tall man – and a cubbyhole cut in. No one gets in unless they wear a mask, sign in and sanitze. I wear a mask when people come in. And i sanitize and i santize and i sanitze.
It works a treat. We have these little windows in buildings all over Europe.
But Goff is also an idiot. Money has never been cheaper to borrow, but Auckland Council still going ahead with austerity and job losses instead of revisiting their self-imposed debt cap
Exactly. As Goff explained in the interview Auckland is already at the limit of its debt to borrowing ratio. Even a low interest loan from Govt could not be accepted. The reason for such a cap in borrowing is essential. I live in a municipality that borrowed heavily for infrastructure in the 1920's – early 30's and immediately following the start of the Depression went bankrupt when a high proportion of its residents became unemployed. The town was placed into administration from which it did not emerge until 1947. The results of the austerity are still evidenced today in the poor civil engineering work around the town generally.
We already have borrowed 50b as a country, just because it’s cheap it does not mean you just borrow more. People should not loose site of what 50b is, while technically not the case this represent a claim by overseas investors on 200 years of Fonterra (our largest exporter)profits
You can’t just keep borrowing or printing money, eventually lenders work it out or you have hyper inflation The economic capacity of your economy To produce good and services must keep up with the debt and money supply, to not to do so it will end in tears (
Ahh … no. The handout is to maintain essential services and ensure the much needed restructuring work can continue. To close them down would mean many thousands more out of work.
The council has already lost billions in revenue and had to borrow money to keep afloat. I don't want them loading any more debt onto us rate-payers.
Not necessarily. The mayor of tokoroa was informed last night and Chris Hipkins is quoted this morning as saying there is no reason to go to level 4 at the moment so they are probably linked to the existing cluster.
The Waikato DHB's public health unit said the two people who tested positive in Tokoroa are from the same household who had contact with two people from Auckland. They were the same people who visited the Kingswood Resthome in Morrinsville on a trip out of Auckland.
Anyone seen up to date info on how many of New Zealand's COVID cases actually got the virus genome fully sequenced, and what the rate is for fully sequencing the recent arrival cases?
The latest I've seen is an August 7 preprint saying 649 cases, which would be a bit over half of all the confirmed cases by then.
If that dataset is complete, and the genome of the latest case doesn't match any previous cases, then that points towards a non-human means of transmission such as the coolstore idea. Good luck finding traces there BTW, any infected articles likely moved on a while ago.
I’d be interested to see the genome sequence compared to the cases that were picked up after flying out of NZ. The Korean dude and woman who tested positive in Sydney. Then you’d know if it had been circulating here for ages undetected.
Well, yeah, but they would have had to have got false negatives on their day 3 and day 12 tests, and then at least one link of a transmission chain within New Zealand that hasn't been detected. Or maybe aircrew plus an undetected link in NZ. Very unlikely looking at any particular individual, but considering the thousands of people that have come through the border, sheer weight of numbers certainly makes it possible.
I’ve not read on The Standard of anyone’s experiences getting a Covid test, so here goes.
I’m in the virus free South Island (which should be still on Level 1 IMO) but I had a headcold and my GP suggested I get tested.
I wasn’t allowed into the medical practice, but had to use the tradesman’s entrance around the side.
The nurse came out looking like a nurse in an ICU in a hospital! Full face visor and plastic from head to toe. Was I that infectious?
I wasn’t really looking forward to the swab, for who likes anything stuck right up your nose, but she told me the swallow (distraction therapy I think, by the time I’d accomplished one swallow and was thinking about the second, it was all over). She'd backed me up against the building's wall so I couldn't ride with the thrust and twist!
Not particularly unpleasant, and of very short duration. Not even particularly intrusive.
Now I’ve got to consider myself infected with Covid until my test result comes back. I’ve been banished to the spare bedroom!
As I joked with my wife, if the result comes back positive, damn it all, we’ll have to spend 2 weeks in a 5 star hotel, courtesy of the government.
We were instructed to knock on the front door of the medical clinic to let them know we had arrived then go wait in our cars. A receptionist came out and called our names and one by one we disappeared round the back to be met by a nurse who emerged from a shed dressed like she'd just stepped off a Sputnik spaceship. We sat in a wooden chair on the pavement and instructed to turn our face away from the nurse while the jab was executed. The nurse disappeared back inside the shed and we were free to trundle back to our cars where we waited 10 mins in case we started frothing at the mouth. (oh, that's a wee bit of a lie.)
On the face of it, it must have looked like there was an awful lot of hanky-panky going on.
"if the result comes back positive, damn it all, we’ll have to spend 2 weeks in a 5 star hotel, courtesy of the government."
I expect people will be looking at the polls a week or two before the election and deciding whether or not to get tested.
If Jacinda is well ahead and the virus is not in the headlines, I'll deal with any symptoms by hiding under the duvet until taking my test the day after the election …
I had a test the first week back at work under level 2. I’d been sent home from work with a sore throat and was asked to get a test, which I did at the White Cross in St Luke’s. Certainly a bit uncomfortable but nothing major and I would rather have it than the thing the optometrist sticks right on my eyeball when I’m having an eye test – that really freaks me out.
I was advised to get one during the last L4 lockdown because of some run of the mill viral symptoms, but in context of the times…so happily agreed to and they set up the appointment for me.
It was a bit of a hassle for me. In my own bubble, can't drive so no choice but to get a taxi there. I didn't want to tell the driver where I was going, just got him to drop me off nearby! Checked in and was given a mask to wear, then went to the tent. Like you said Tony, the nurses in full PPE- pretty scarey stuff to be that close to, knowing why it has to be like that. Got asked tonnes of questions and had the test process explained to me very well.
I'd heard a couple of horror stories about the pain involved with the nose swab, but the reality was I didn't even realise he'd done it. It was the throat one that had me gagging, but I would have no problem at all doing it again if necessary.
Came back south from Auckland 3 weeks ago, faint cold erupted next day (from grandkids) A few days later as cold was leaving me testing regime seems to tighten and I half thought about it.
Now that we have new cases and I had a slight residual cough, I happened to drive past a testing centre and went in. No queue, all done in 2 minutes, easy peasy, don't know what the fuss is about. Certainly not a brain probe (not that I've ever had one)
I will probably be the most unpopular person in New Zealand should that come back positive in the next 48hrs
Here's a good piece that's explores the difference between agonistic opposition, where one acts in the interests of the country by exploring flaws in what the government is doing and working to find better ways and boost one's own prospects by demonstrating better skills, and antagonistic opposition where the goal is simply to try to harm the government to boost one's own relative prospects and the interests of the country be damned.
Indeed, the Oppos have got their heads stuck so far and they think it is all and only about them; they don’t give a toss about NZ and Kiwis. Instead of minimising Government screw-ups, they live and feed off them, like blood-sucking parasites, as do the Media; a hellish alignment.
No. But the antagonism has been of varying degrees. For instance, I don't recall the opposition being anywhere near as uselessly spitefully antagonistic after the Christchurch earthquakes as we're seeing now.
It cannot see it being Soper, IMO he waits for the calls to be informed what the news is. And I cannot see him ferreting out a story like this, and So promptly. That would involve old fashioned getting out beyond the Wellington Beltway. Perhaps he will take one for the team to stay within the circle. I recall how upset the poor boy was when he was unable to accompany Key on an official visit with ALL that goes with a business trip like that.
And remember his distraught newscasts when Jacinda went to Rarotonga and neglected to advise him in advance. Much complaining to his wife on air about that.
They should be setting up a COVID test site at the Mangere church ; enough people of interest there to warrant immediate investigation. Rather than have them all trundle down to the local test sites to wait for hours and possibly pass COVID on to others.
Yes, and the religious leaders should be the first to get tested followed by their families to remove any negativity.
Again from friends in the State, considering the way the virus travels and sets up shop, it is the singing which is the most dangerous part of the exercise.
A lot of Pasifica and also Maori go to church – for some it is the biggest part of their social life. So yes, when i heard South Auckland i was like, go call the local religious leaders – all of them – and call for tests.
That National has bled a few points to ACT in recent months suggests that a loony RW libertarian strain has always been present in National. This confirms it.
"Countries that have implemented successful lockdowns are generally doing much better economically than countries that have not – illustrating that the ‘choice’ between ‘health and economy’ was always a false dichotomy.”
"Lockdown 2.0” would deal a significant blow to the New Zealand economy but allowing the virus to take hold would be much worse," economists say.
Chief economist Dominick Stephens said, "the long-term impact of another lockdown would be only incremental.
Apart from the travel and tourism sectors, the economy had shown to be capable of bouncing back “very rapidly”.
” ..economist Shamubeel Eaqub said the idea that New Zealand would be better off with a lighter lockdown and higher rates of Covid in the community was “bulls…”.
International data from recent months had shown that New Zealand’s economy had rebounded through 100 days of no community transmission much more strongly than countries that still had it ( covid19) circulating."
It would be better for the economy to eliminate the virus each time it flared up, he said.
If you don’t eliminate you’ve just lost a lot of output [and] jobs, for no reason.”
Stephens said stringent lockdowns were still the best economic plan because the country could not afford to let the virus take hold.
At 6.1.2 I put up one that had a look at the effect of lockdown and economic conditions as opposed to lite lockdown. Also put up one that goes through to The Telegraph which is ranting about Sweden doing a bit better than UK and only a few more deaths. Mind you a thick layer of opinion over a thin layer of actual numbers.
Thanks for that, I did read your posts and sought to look at the NZ predictions: later waiting for the Treasury report put up each Friday. Treasury also publishes commentary on the international outlook each week.
Of interest was the Chief economists view that lighter type lockdowns are considered detrimental to the economy based on NZ scenario vs what has happened in economies in other countries. China’s .position now was also a comparitive study
edit
I thought while people are thinking about it they could pick up on various comments already in the line especially as I had gone to the net for some outside stats.
And AB further up by 15 makes the point that the 50s and up are both those being hit by the virus in increasing numbers as age goes up, but also the bigger spenders in the economy which is another objective reason for not going too hard on lockdowns for the 'older person'.
In the New Scientist above they make the point that the Swedes shopping etc during lockdown did not spend enough to keep the economy high, and resulted in more cases; so the game was not worth the candle, old saying.
Oh if you are looking up something solid for facts, could you pass the link on, or in some cases the keywords – if the link foes from here to the moon. It is helpful not to have to search around for the right mix of words to get onto a source.
Pinning the whole Covid19 impacts down to any data has its shortfalls as any links found are only a limited 'snapshot' of a particular time and place and arguably within a day swiftly changes.
On the view of lighter lockdown methods vs strict lockdown my choice is strict lockdown for reasons in prior posts.
For one, a rolling the dice method of light lockdown, plays at the idea of choosing whose lives matter.
A yeah nah , it's mainly old people and a tiny fraction of others who will die so whatever, but "I" can have my freedoms and $$$, is deplorable imo for NZers to contemplate. As in link in prior post it was under 65s who suffered most in Mexico and India.
The other unpredictable for round 2, how will NZers behave ? Anecdotal I know, but in the first days of L4 last time a whole group of neighbours acted defiantly and held regular ' beersies' at each other's houses.
Mmm Chesswas who did he play rugby for? Golly thinks young up-and-coming Chairman of local Nat political party, 'This job is easy. All you have to do is question whether the government is doing anything right? Easy as, same question whatever they are doing. Everyone here is behind me, thinks I'm the cat's pjs. Nothing to this political lark.'
Follow the links, they were not MY findings, but the current snapshot of the chief economist and Treasury.
You can compile all your analysis of what was predicted in the last 3 months by the actual what really did happen with Treasury hard data as one source to solve your dilemma.
So Roger Bridge has stood down. I think that Merv fellow should have the decency to step forward and clear poor Roger of any suspicions of devious behaviour.
Jacinda Ardern has consistently raised her shield against the slings and arrows of her outrageous political fortune, drawn her sword, and marched forward unflinchingly. Perhaps it also explains why so many New Zealanders have been willing to follow her.
Many, but not all.
It is the dirtiest of Humanity’s multitude of dirty secrets: that any display of genuine and unselfconscious excellence is bound to inspire the envy of those who, deep in their hearts, know they cannot – and will never – match it. This envious response to demonstrable talent is so deeply ingrained in a certain type of New Zealander that our culture has given it a name: “The Tall Poppy Syndrome”. It is our country’s curse: so few lofty flowers; so many secateurs."
I see that a secrecy control imposed on killer of cop is to be lifted.
Do we know who killed the Uk woman Grace Mullane? Has his name suppression been lifted? Why was it allowed for him, even after he was found guilty. The secrecy is unsettling, when others have to bear the brunt.
Was the Court feeling sorry for him, so unfair that he should have to take responsibility for killing a woman while he was merely taking his pleasure on her? The whole thing has been horrid, and why he should be protected is amazing. Has anyone kept up with this?
There is obviously money to be made when Lawyers and Judges keep open defences for patently obvious Criminals.
The unfortunate person Grace Mullane, has weirdly been blamed for not having a live body or a death.
Her loss of breath, death and burial was apparently her own fault. Even though I believe she had no weapons with which to save herself. Not strength, nor Gun, nor Help, nor Police.
So the Lawyers, seemed to claime the Killer was just having fun.
So much so, that he actually dug a hole in the ground and hid his victim.
Then proceeded to find another would be women within hours.
Good money for the Crims defenders. Outrageous. Family Mullane had to wait many months for a decent Hearing.
There is far too much Criminal activity in New Zealand. Vile Vicious Murders. It is time we put a Distinct end to it ….Pronto
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The melody from the classic movie Wizard of Oz echoes as Jacinta Ruru explains what inspired her to attend university, and her ambition to help create a more just society in Aotearoa. Jacinta, who affiliates to Raukawa and Ngāti Ranginui, specialises in the research areas of indigenous peoples and the law. ...
Stuff reports that National is refusing to back the Climate Change Commission's recommendations, which is apparently a Bad Thing: The National Party says it can’t support the Climate Change Commission’s draft plan to cut New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions unless changes are made. If National maintains this position when ...
Driven, accountable, unafraid to test limits and connected to the communities she serves are traits that come to mind when thinking about Dr Anne-Marie Jackson. (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu o Whangaroa, Ngāti Wai) She specialises in Māori physical education and health research disciplines while incorporating tikanga Māori and Te ...
This is my first post for a while. I have been a bit overwhelmed by other work in the last several weeks, with teaching and other commitments, and the blog has sadly suffered. But I’m still here. This morning, while sitting in a car in the permanent traffic jam through ...
Predatory Morality: Is geopolitical consultant, Paul Buchanan, right? Does the rest of the world truly monitor New Zealand’s miniscule contribution to the international arms trade so closely? Are foreign chancelleries truly so insensitive to their own governments’ complicity in the world’s horrors that they expect all other sovereign states to ...
Anna Källén, Stockholm University and Daniel Strand, Uppsala University A middle-aged white man raises his sword to the skies and roars to the gods. The results of his genetic ancestry test have just arrived in his suburban mailbox. His eyes fill with tears as he learns that he is “0.012% ...
March 2021 The housing crisis right now in New Zealand is one of our biggest contributors to income and wealth inequality. “With the explosive increase in sales and prices, those with houses have their income and/or wealth rapidly increasing, and those who are not on the property ladder are falling ...
Samoans went to the polls on Friday, and delivered a stinging blow to Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi one-party state. Pre-election Malielegaoi's Human Rights Protection Party had controlled 44 of 49 seats in Parliament, while using restrictive standing orders to prevent there from even being a recognised opposition in ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Jennifer Summers, Prof Michael BakerIn this blog we briefly consider a new Report from a European think tank that aims to identify an optimal COVID-19 response strategy. It considers mortality data, GDP impacts, and mobility data and suggests that COVID-19 elimination appears to be superior ...
Something I missed on Friday: the Māori Party has been referred to police over failure to disclose donations over $30,000. Looking at the updated return of large donations, this is about $320,000 donated to them by three donors - John Tamihere, the National Urban Māori Authority, and Aotearoa Te Kahu ...
Stormy Seas: Will Jacinda Ardern's Labour Government stand behind the revolutionary proposals contained in He Puapua – the 20-year plan devised by a government appointed working group to realise the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand?“GETTING AHEAD of the story” is one of the most ...
We have not been fans of the Climate Change Commission’s draft report. New Zealand has an Emissions Trading Scheme with a binding cap, and a declining path for net emissions in the covered sector. Measures taken within the covered sector cannot reduce net emissions. NZU not purchased by one sector get ...
For several decades under Labour and National-led governments New Zealand has claimed to have an independent (and sometimes autonomous) foreign policy. This foreign policy independence is said to be gained by having a “principled but pragmatic” approach to international relations: principled when possible, pragmatic when necessary. More recently NZ foreign ...
This video produced in Seattle looks at the gender identity curriculum used in schools in the US. A thin veneer of pseudoscience is being used to indoctrinate children with an ideology based on scientific and medical inaccuracies. ...
For once, I have written my submission on a bill with enough time to spare to both enocurage any of you who wants to make a submission to do so as well, and to give you time to spot the typos in mine.Louisa Wall's Harmful Digital Communications (Unauthorised Posting of Intimate ...
A friend found a concerning FB post (see below – this is a public post & so I have not redacted the name) & – as you do – immediately queried it with Southern Cross Life & Health Insurance as well as sending the screenshot to me¹. We both read ...
Judith Collins’ National Party leadership is under more scrutiny, with increased talk in the media of her being replaced by brand new MP Christopher Luxon. For many commentators it’s just a question of “when” rather than “if” Collins is replaced. While others ponder whether Luxon really has what it takes ...
‘Tis the season for unearthing the rarest gems in Tolkien adaptation – which, considering that the fandom has been dominated by Peter Jackson for nigh on two decades, is a positively heart-warming development. It is why I have devoted so much blog space to the obscure and weirdly wonderful ...
Whatever the damage, especially to the British economy, Brexit has done us a service by illustrating the complexity of trade.Brexit is the only example we have of two closely integrated sophisticated economies severing trading ties. The European Union and Britain still do not have tariffs or import quotas between them ...
The Palmerston North City Council has voted for Māori wards: Palmerston North Māori will be guaranteed one or two seats on the city council from 2022, and this time, there is nothing opponents can do about it. The council decided by an 11-5 vote at its monthly meeting this ...
Kids are striking for the climate today, demanding a decent, liveable future. Meanwhile, the National Party, the reliable servant of the farm lobby and other polluting businesses, is calling for action to be delayed: National has written to Climate Change Minister James Shaw calling for him to extend the ...
Today tens of thousands of schoolkids have walked out of school to strike for a future free from climate change. And tens of thousands of older New Zealanders have joined them. Their demands are clear: eliminate fossil fuels, implement 100% renewable energy with a just transition, and support our Pacific ...
The Gods That Failed.We studied the dialecticRead the whole of ‘Capital’So we could follow youSo we could follow youHow we shoutedHow we scrawledPainted slogans on city wallsOn prison wallsProof we had followed youBut, we still didn’t find what we’re looking forAnd we still haven’t found what we’re looking forWhen they ...
Conventional Wisdom? The Republican Right is convinced that to “go woke” is to “go broke”. It simply does not believe sufficient Americans feel strongly enough about social justice to make any kind of boycott remotely effective. Clearly, the Boards of Directors of more and more American corporations disagree. RECENT MOVES by ...
On November 25, 2020 Skeptical Science Inc. became a registered nonprofit organization and on March 17, 2021 our application to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for 501(c)(3) status was approved. In this blog post, we’ll explain why we went down this path and what will come next. Since its ...
Blowing Hot And Cold: Mike Hosking’s bosses should, perhaps, ask themselves what message Newstalk-ZB (and NZME) is sending to the people of New Zealand if Mike Hosking, their self-appointed “People’s Prosecutor”, is accorded bragging rights for “cancelling” the democratically-elected Prime Minister of New Zealand. Especially when said Prime Minister’s only ...
Ali Boyle, University of CambridgeIf you ask people to list the most intelligent animals, they’ll name a few usual suspects. Chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants are often mentioned, as are crows, dogs and occasionally pigs. Horses don’t usually get a look in. So it might come as a surprise that ...
Selwyn Manning and I dedicated this week’s video podcast to the potential emergence of rival blocs within the transitional process involved in the move from a unipolar to a multipolar international system currently underway. However one characterises the phenomenon–autocracies versus democracies, East versus West, colonial versus post-colonial–the global order is ...
With the rediscovery of the lost Soviet Lord of the Rings, the time has come for the important things in life. Specifically, compiling the Tom Bombadil scenes from the three known screen adaptations that feature him: This is a collection of scenes from:– Sagan om Ringen (1971: ...
Back in February the Climate Change Commission recommended a ban on new coal-fired boilers, and a phase out of existing ones by 2037. And today, the government has said they will implement that policy, and backed it up with funding to help transition some of our large pollution sources: ...
A ballot for three members bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Income Tax (Adjustment of Taxable Income Ranges) Amendment Bill (Simon Bridges) Regulatory Standards Bill (David Seymour) Human Rights (Disability Assist Dogs Non-Discrimination) Amendment Bill (Ricardo Menéndez March) The first two ...
Back in 2014, the police raided and searched journalist Nicky Hager's home over his book Dirty Politics, seizing his journalistic work in an effort to identify his sources to please their political masters in the National party. The raid - and much of the police's related investigative work - was ...
By Professor Tony Blakely, Dr Tim Wilson, Luke Thorburn and Professor Nathan Grills, University of MelbourneA new web tool, COVID-19 Pandemic Trade-offs, allows people to weigh the costs and benefits of different policy responses as Australia rolls out vaccines and considers opening borders.See here for an associated explanatory ...
This evening I was engaging in polite conversation (well, I was polite, anyway) on an RNZ Facebook post about – you guessed it! – the covid19 vaccination program. One of those present offered up a link to a blog post by Joseph Mercola to support a claim he was making ...
by Jordan Levi (Contributed) I don’t remember when I first came across the concept of gender identity, but it was definitely before Caitlyn Jenner (formerly Bruce Jenner) came out as transgender because I’m sure that would’ve confused me way more if it was my first acquaintance with the phenomenon. The ...
The fact that the much vaunted “most advanced, richest Nation on the planet, ever”, that being America, ran into a brick wall in its responses to the problems across the world of late is because, at its heart, of the economic system that we’ve all been largely forced to ...
The EPA has commenced the 2021 “denewing” of new organisms. Their New Organisms team explain what this means, and ask you to put forward your proposals. The places we inhabit are shared with thousands of different kinds of organisms. They’re in the trees, flying in the sky, in our yoghurt, ...
As we roll out the COVID-19 vaccine across NZ there will inevitably be people who experience adverse events after getting their jab. Here are some super important things to keep in mind about adverse events following immunisation. Terminology – words matter Any event that is undesirable and follows administration of ...
Nature Climate Change celebrates 10 years of obfuscation The Nature Publishing Group is distinguished not only by what we're told (most of us must take somebody's word for it) are exceptionally high quality research publications but also by what some might term an outlier, extremist policy on locked-down content. In many ...
How can we stop the Ministry of Health censoring and sanitising vital mental health statistics to make themselves (and Ministers) look good? Legislate for annual reporting: Green Party mental health spokeswoman Chlöe Swarbrick says the Ministry of Health should be legally required to produce a wide range of mental ...
Here’s a few short interesting developments or discussions I’ve seen recently. Loosely bundled together in a theme of “values.” Irregular labour Is the private sector the best provider and facilitator of “gig work”? That’s challenged in a New Yorker profile of Wingham Rowan, an English social entrepreneur. For many years ...
In 1997 the Law Commission reviewed the OIA. In the process, they identified a problem: decisions to transfer a request could not be investigated by the Ombudsman under the Act. They also identified a workaround: transfer decisions by agencies subject to the Ombudsmen Act could be investigated under that Act, ...
Today is a Member's Day, though with no particularly controversial bills up, it is likely to be a pretty boring one. First up is Maureen Pugh's Adverse Weather-affected Timber Recovery on Conservation Lands Bill, an attempt to sidestep the Forests (West Coast Accord) Act 2000 and allow the effective mining ...
The area of mental health has been a key strength for Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Government over the last few years. They campaigned strongly in 2017 on fixing up the dysfunctional system, and initially they made some vital strides forward in reforming the sector. An in-depth inquiry was instigated ...
By Jamie Stewart, Federated Mountain ClubsFederated Mountain Clubs (FMC), founded in 1931, represents 96 clubs, 22,000 members and 300,000 people that regularly recreate in the New Zealand backcountry. This article first appeared in the June 2020 issue of Backcountry magazine and is reproduced with permission. (Read the original article). ...
Stuff had an appalling story on Sunday about the Ministry of Health's attempts to hide unflattering mental health statistics and sanitise a regular report. The report came out last week, and showed a massive increase in the use of "seclusion", a practice which has been condemned by the UN Committee ...
Another unpleasant surprise at Tiwai Point: in addition to the declared stockpiles of toxic waste, they may have tens of thousands of tons secretly buried in the early 1990's to avoid the RMA: Investigators are looking into claims highly toxic waste has been buried in unmapped sites at Tiwai ...
This morning the government is deciding on the start-date for a trans-Tasman travel bubble. Note the way that that's phrased: the existence of such a bubble is taken as a given, and the only question is how to implement it. Obviously, we're going to have to re-open the borders eventually, ...
Qualified To Give - And Take - Advice: Most Labour MPs are self-conscious members of the meritocracy, meaning they have succeeded where the vast majority of their fellow citizens have failed. The primary political obligation, understood by all members of the First Labour Government, was to listen to the people. ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD A critical global shipping node – Egypt’s Suez Canal – was reopened on Monday, March 29, six days after being shut down when the 400-meter-long container ship Ever Given became lodged in the canal. A statement by the Suez ...
The Green Party is putting a Member’s Bill into the ballot today which will be a significant step towards overhauling the Social Security Act by embedding a tikanga Māori framework into the welfare system. ...
The Green Party have reaffirmed their strong commitment to the union movement in Aotearoa New Zealand by renewing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with E Tū. ...
Soon, more kids in Aotearoa will have access to the in-school mental health support that has boosted the resilience of tamariki and whānau in Canterbury. ...
The Green Party supports the open letter released today by a cross-sector coalition calling for the Government to treat all drug use as a health issue, to repeal and replace the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. ...
Small businesses are not only the heart of our economy – they’re also the heart of our communities. They provide important goods and services, as well as great employment opportunities. They know and love their locals. And after a tough year, they need our support! ...
Green Party spokesperson for Pacific Peoples Teanau Tuiono MP, supports the demand from Pasifika communities fighting for climate action as their homelands are more at risk in the Pacific region. ...
The Green Party supports the six demands for climate action put forward by School Strike for Climate NZ, who are striking across the country today. ...
The Ministry of Justice Māori victimisation report, released today, reinforces what we already know about the impact of systemic racism in Aotearoa and that urgent action is needed. ...
Ricardo Menéndez March’s Members Bill to ensure that disabled New Zealanders do not face discrimination for having a disability assist dog was today pulled from the biscuit tin to be debated in Parliament. ...
More than one million people will be better off from today, thanks to our Government’s changes to the minimum wage, main benefits and superannuation. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to do more for New Zealanders who continue to miss out, as main benefits are set to rise by less than $8 a week tomorrow, Thursday 1 April (at the start of the financial year). ...
Sunday 28th March 70 Rongomaiwahine descendants welcomed members of the Green Party’s Māori Caucus, Te Mātāwaka, Dr Elizabeth Kerekere and Teanau Tuiono, to discuss concerns about RocketLab’s operations on the Mahia Peninsula. ...
Pacific people in New Zealand will be better supported with new mental health and addiction services rolling out across the Auckland and Wellington regions, says Aupito William Sio. “One size does not fit all when it comes to supporting the mental wellbeing of our Pacific peoples. We need a by ...
New measures are being proposed to accelerate progress towards becoming a smokefree nation by 2025, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced. “Smoking or exposure to second-hand smoke kills around 12 people a day in New Zealand. Recent data tells us New Zealand’s smoking rates continue to decrease, but ...
More children will be able to access mental wellbeing support with the Government expansion of Mana Ake services to five new District Health Board areas, Health Minister Andrew Little says. The Health Minister made the announcement while visiting Homai School in Counties Manukau alongside Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate ...
The Government’s COVID-19 response has meant a record number of people moved off a Benefit and into employment in the March Quarter, with 32,880 moving into work in the first three months of 2021. “More people moved into work last quarter than any time since the Ministry of Social Development ...
A stocktake undertaken by France and New Zealand shows significant global progress under the Christchurch Call towards its goal to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. The findings of the report released today reinforce the importance of a multi-stakeholder approach, with countries, companies and civil society working together to ...
Racing Minister Grant Robertson has announced he is appointing Elizabeth Dawson (Liz) as the Chair of the interim TAB NZ Board. Liz Dawson is an existing Board Director of the interim TAB NZ Board and Chair of the TAB NZ Board Selection Panel and will continue in her role as ...
The Government has announced that the export of livestock by sea will cease following a transition period of up to two years, said Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “At the heart of our decision is upholding New Zealand’s reputation for high standards of animal welfare. We must stay ahead of the ...
WORKSHOP ON LETHAL AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS SYSTEMS Wednesday 14 April 2021 MINISTER FOR DISARMAMENT AND ARMS CONTROL OPENING REMARKS Good morning, I am so pleased to be able to join you for part of this workshop, which I’m confident will help us along the path to developing New Zealand’s national policy on ...
For the first time, all 18 prisons in New Zealand will be invited to participate in an inter-prison kapa haka competition, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. The 2021 Hōkai Rangi Whakataetae Kapa Haka will see groups prepare and perform kapa haka for experienced judges who visit each prison and ...
The Government has introduced the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Bill, designed to boost New Zealand's ability to respond to a wider range of terrorist activities. The Bill strengthens New Zealand’s counter-terrorism legislation and ensures that the right legislative tools are available to intervene early and prevent harm. “This is the Government’s first ...
Coal boiler replacements at a further ten schools, saving an estimated 7,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the next ten years Fossil fuel boiler replacements at Southern Institute of Technology and Taranaki DHB, saving nearly 14,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the next ten years Projects to achieve a total ...
Attorney-General David Parker today announced the appointment of Cassie Nicholson as Chief Parliamentary Counsel for a term of five years. The Chief Parliamentary Counsel is the principal advisor and Chief Executive of the Parliamentary Counsel Office (PCO). She is responsible for ensuring PCO, which drafts most of New Zealand’s legislation, provides ...
Every part of Government will need to take urgent action to bring down emissions, the Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw said today in response to the recent rise in New Zealand’s greenhouse emissions. The latest annual inventory of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions shows that both gross and net ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark says Aotearoa New Zealand has become the first country in the world to introduce a law that requires the financial sector to disclose the impacts of climate change on their business and explain how they will manage climate-related risks and opportunities. The Financial ...
Exceptional employment practices in the primary industries have been celebrated at the Good Employer Awards, held this evening at Parliament. “Tonight’s awards provided the opportunity to celebrate and thank those employers in the food and fibres sector who have gone beyond business-as-usual in creating productive, safe, supportive, and healthy work ...
Applications are now invited from all councils for a slice of government funding aimed at improving tourism infrastructure, especially in areas under pressure given the size of their rating bases. Tourism Minister Stuart Nash has already signalled that five South Island regions will be given priority to reflect that jobs ...
The Construction Skills Action Plan has delivered early on its overall target of supporting an additional 4,000 people into construction-related education and employment, says Minister for Building and Construction Poto Williams. Since the Plan was launched in 2018, more than 9,300 people have taken up education or employment opportunities in ...
An innovative new Youth Justice residence designed in partnership with Māori will provide prevention, healing, and rehabilitation services for both young people and their whānau, Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Whakatakapokai is located in South Auckland and will provide care and support for up to 15 rangatahi remanded or ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today expressed New Zealand’s sorrow at the death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. “Our thoughts are with Her Majesty The Queen at this profoundly sad time. On behalf of the New Zealand people and the Government, I would like to express ...
We, the Home Affairs, Interior, Security and Immigration Ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America (the ‘Five Countries’) met via video conference on 7/8 April 2021, just over a year after the outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Guided by our shared ...
Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni has today announced the opening of the first round of Ngā Puninga Toi ā-Ahurea me ngā Kaupapa Cultural Installations and Events. “Creating jobs and helping the arts sector rebuild and recover continues to be a key part of the Government’s COVID-19 response,” Carmel ...
Interim legislation that is already proving to keep people safer from drugs will be made permanent, Health Minister Andrew Little says. Research by Victoria University, on behalf of the Ministry of Health, shows that the Government’s decision in December to make it legal for drug-checking services to operate at festivals ...
Public consultation launched on ways to improve behaviour and reduce damage Tighter rules proposed for either camping vehicles or camping locations Increased penalties proposed, such as $1,000 fines or vehicle confiscation Rental companies may be required to collect fines from campers who hire vehicles Public feedback is sought on proposals ...
The Government is continuing to support Air New Zealand while aviation markets stabilise and the world moves towards more normal border operations. The Crown loan facility made available to Air New Zealand in March 2020 has been extended to a debt facility of up to $1.5 billion (an additional $600 ...
Christchurch’s Richmond suburb will soon have a new community hub, following the gifting of a red-zoned property by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) to the Richmond Community Gardens Trust. The Minister for Land Information, Damien O’Connor said that LINZ, on behalf of the Crown, will gift a Vogel Street house ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the reopening of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples’ (MPP) Languages Funding in 2021 will make sure there is a future for Pacific languages. “Language is the key to the wellbeing for Pacific people. It affirms our identity as Pasifika and ...
It is a pleasure to be here tonight. Thank you Cameron for the introduction and thank you for ERANZ for also hosting this event. Last week in fact, we had one of the largest gatherings in our sector, Downstream 2021. I have heard from my officials that the discussion on ...
Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods has today announced the 16 projects that will together get $3.9 million through the 2021 round of Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund, further strengthening the Government’s commitment to Māori knowledge in science and innovation. “We received 78 proposals - the highest ...
The Government is delivering on a key election commitment to tackle climate change, by banning new low and medium temperature coal-fired boilers and partnering with the private sector to help it transition away from fossil fuels. This is the first major announcement to follow the release of the Climate Commission’s ...
Six projects, collectively valued at over $70 million are delivering new schools, classrooms and refurbished buildings across Central Otago and are helping to ease the pressure of growing rolls in the area, says Education Minister Chris Hipkins. The National Education Growth Plan is making sure that sufficient capacity in the ...
Two more schools are now complete as part of the Christchurch Schools Rebuild Programme, with work about to get under way on another, says Education Minister Chris Hipkins. Te Ara Koropiko – West Spreydon School will welcome students to their new buildings for the start of Term 2. The newly ...
The Government is acting to ensure decisions on responding to the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic are informed by the best available scientific evidence and strategic public health advice. “New Zealand has worked towards an elimination strategy which has been successful in keeping our people safe and our economy ...
Six Māori scholars have been awarded Ngārimu VC and the 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial scholarships for 2021, Associate Education Minister and Ngārimu Board Chair, Kelvin Davis announced today. The prestigious Manakura Award was also presented for the first time since 2018. “These awards are a tribute to the heroes of the 28th ...
New Zealand’s aerospace industry is getting a boost through the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), to grow the capability of the sector and potentially lead to joint space missions, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods has announced. 12 New Zealand organisations have been chosen to work with world-leading experts at ...
The Government is backing more initiatives to boost New Zealand’s food and fibre sector workforce, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “The Government and the food and fibres sector have been working hard to fill critical workforce needs. We've committed to getting 10,000 more Kiwis into the sector over the ...
Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni has welcomed the first reading of the Social Security (Subsequent Child Policy Removal) Amendment Bill in the House this evening. “Tonight’s first reading is another step on the way to removing excessive sanctions and obligations for people receiving a Main Benefit,” says ...
The Government has taken a significant step towards delivering on its commitment to improve the legislation around mental health as recommended by He Ara Oranga – the report of the Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction, Health Minister Andrew Little says. The Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Amendment ...
Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta has welcomed the Local Government (Rating of Whenua Māori) Amendment Bill passing its third reading today. “After nearly 100 years of a system that was not fit for Māori and did not reflect the partnership we have come to expect between Māori and the Crown, ...
New Zealand’s successful management of COVID means quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and Australia will start on Monday 19 April, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed the conditions for starting to open up quarantine free travel with Australia have ...
Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little welcomed ngā uri o Ngāti Hinerangi to Parliament today to witness the third reading of their Treaty settlement legislation, the Ngāti Hinerangi Claims Settlement Bill. “I want to acknowledge ngā uri o Ngāti Hinerangi and the Crown negotiations teams for working tirelessly ...
Our Beehive bulletin Enhancing the wellbeing of people banged up in our prisons was the subject of one Beehive announcement yesterday. Enhancing the wellbeing of farm animals was the subject of another. And enhancing the wellbeing of all of us by protecting us from terrorists was the subject of a ...
Te Aka Matua o te Ture | Law Commission is proposing changes to succession law, which addresses who inherits a person’s property when they die. In an issues paper and a consultation website released today, the Commission has identified some ...
From Flatmates to Popstars to Celebrity Treasure Island, New Zealand reality television was at its best when nobody really knew what they were doing. José Barbosa looks back wistfully and wonders: can we ever get that magic back?I don’t know about you, but I remember the late 90s and early ...
Our beginner’s guides are quick and simple explainers on everyday money topics hitting headlines right now. This week, we take a look at the new $20 minimum wage.What is the minimum wage and where did it come from?The minimum wage is the lowest amount of money employers can legally pay ...
Internet safety company Safe Surfer has commended Kiwibank for being the first bank to introduce a feature that lets customers block payments to gambling sites. Safe Surfer CEO and co-founder Rory Birkbeck says Kiwibank’s move to let ...
The 2021 Our Land report has raised serious warnings about our most productive food-growing land being turned over to housing. Alex Braae explains.What’s all this then?The environment ministry and Stats NZ have produced a new report called Our Land, which outlines exactly what New Zealand’s land is being used for, ...
The Ministry for the Environment’s latest environmental report presents a damning indictment of the way food is produced in New Zealand. “The Ministry for the Environment has told the country in plain terms the way we farm is eroding the foundations of ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. Click here to subscribe to Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup and New Zealand Politics Daily. Today’s contentLive animal export ban Stuff: Editorial – The tide goes out on animal exports Luke Malpass ...
*This story first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. The man convicted of the Christchurch mosque shootings has held off from initiating a judicial review of his prison conditions, and designation as a terrorist entity. He was due to represent himself in a fresh legal challenge at ...
Commodities are leading the global economic recovery. International demand for grains, dairy and forestry products is extremely strong – driven primarily by increased demand from China, ANZ Bank economists say in their latest NZ Agri Focus. Dairy markets shot up in March, driven by strong buying from China, among challenging ...
Yesterday Jacinda Ardern angrily declared that an MIQ worker had lied. That should not be a sufficiently sophisticated technique to get around our border defences, argues Duncan Greive.It emerged yesterday that “case B” in the small yet still concerning cluster of Covid-19 cases related to the Grand Millennium Hotel in ...
The Spinoff, in conjunction with Daylight Creative and Copyright Licensing New Zealand, is proud to announce a new monthly slot for great one-off comics by a rotating cast of New Zealand comic creators. Below, Toby Morris introduces the series and our first artist, Indira Neville.I’m a huge believer in comics. ...
The absolute last thing the National Party should be considering right now is another change in leadership – its third in less than a year were it to happen in the next few months. National has far more pressing tasks at hand. To have any prospect of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Freeland, Professorial Fellow, Bond University / Emeritus Professor of International Law, Western Sydney University, Western Sydney University Space is getting crowded. More than 100 million tiny pieces of debris are spinning in Earth orbit, along with tens of thousands of bigger ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Whittaker, Research Fellow, University of Technology Sydney Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and/or images of deceased people. Five Aboriginal people have died in custody in the last month in Australia. It’s been 30 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Archa Fox, Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow, University of Western Australia The world’s first mRNA vaccines — the COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna — have made it in record time from the laboratory, through successful clinical trials, regulatory approval and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Will Steffen, Emeritus Professor, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University In May 2011, almost precisely a decade ago, the government-appointed Climate Commission released its inaugural report. Titled The Critical Decade, the report’s final section warned that to keep global ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tom Hubble, Associate Professor, University of Sydney Last month’s flood in the Hawkesbury-Nepean River region of western Sydney peaked at a staggering 12.9 metres, with water engulfing road signs and reaching the tops of many houses. There hasn’t been a major flood ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Ziguras, Professor of Global Studies, RMIT University Victorian universities recently re-proposed a previously conceived plan to get international students back under a similar model used to fly in tennis players for the Australian Open. Under the proposal, universities would help pay ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gary Mortimer, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Queensland University of Technology When Marilyn Monroe was asked, “What do you wear to bed?”, she famously replied, “Just a few drops of No. 5″. Monroe was perhaps the most famous fan of the ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for April 14, bringing you the latest news throughout the day. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 8.00am: Hipkins won’t put all MIQ workers ‘under suspicion’ despite Case B ‘lying’ to employer There are no plans to increase monitoring of border workers after a security ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Calls made for return of Epidemic Response Committee, Māori wards coming in around the country, and police admit to illegal intelligence gathering tactics.Serious flaws in the government’s Covid response have been exposed on a day of sustained pressure at parliament. Hundreds ...
The Labour and Green government had a chance to introduce harsher penalties for people who assault our first responders, but voted it down and have shown once again just how out of touch and soft on crime they really are, says Darroch Ball co-leader ...
ACT Leader David Seymour has welcomed the Government’s decision to trial Datamine’s ëlarm with border workers. “ We’ve been urging the Government to adopt ëlarm for 314 days now ,” says Mr Seymour. “It shouldn’t have taken ten months for ...
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The right’s inclination towards dictatorship [or should that read ‘firm and effective government?’] is apparent and mirrors the stance taken by Trump and many other right wingers around the world.
My bold.
And the Media go along for the ride, supporting the born to rule meme.
Good point TonyV(notetc) Keep thinking and commenting won't you. Good understanding and we hope, resulting in good actions.
Repugs go next level beyond dead people voting: dead people tweeting.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/herman-cain-tweet-death-biden-kamala_n_5f355963c5b6fc009a62de15
It is surely time for the Govt. to action making cash payments to all citizens, administered by IRD. The scale of the shitstorm about to hit will be beyond WINZ/MSD capacity even if the funds are made available.
Wage subsidies seem pointless for some sectors that are moribund, and “Covid capitalists” had a field day rorting the high trust subsidy model.
A basic income for all citizens needs to kick in asap, so at least people can have food security.
Rent and food security – we need both. One or the other alone is not keeping society healthy.
Also needed is a legal way for people stuck in moribund leases of commercial property to get out withouth having to declare bankruptcy first or pay tens of thousands of dollars to the landlord to make up for his/her losses, while getting nothing for ones own losses. We are all in this together, right?.
Absent of that, a mortgage, rent, bill holiday for any period of Level 4 – 2 as most businesses can't operate and people don’t take home enough money to pay for both, residential live and business life. There is only so many times you can shut your businesses down (those that can not operate from home but must have commercial properties, licensed and inspected) until they shut down for good.
I have been saying that now for a few month.
As for he Labour campaign, please use the funds you wanted to use to entice us small businesses to re-hire staff, or to get some of the previously employed but newly unemployed to start their own businesses and use it for rent/lease/mortgage/bill relieve. It would be a better use then expecting someone to open a business in times like these.
Make it a Covid Payment – 480 pw to anyone not working and making money, and increase the payment for unemployed people to that amount. We know that that amount is enough to keep up a semblance of life and thus protect society.
Yes to all.
Good points Sabine. I did not want to write another list, just make the point that it is now time to just start delivering funds to those guaranteed to spend it, rather than filtering the borrowed billions through a hundred schemes and dreams–a pretence that normal still applies, or somehow will again. It won’t.
Also public transport could be designated fare free and free Wifi nationwide too would all assist. Who will pay for it? The workers of the country, paid and unpaid of course!
People are spending, we were in Akaroa for a few days and locals were saying it was their best trading winter ever. Look at the Auckland cluster family, they were spending around the north.
That is why i listed the 'bill holiday', most of it would be water, rent, electricity. If we can put a safeguard in that would allow people who default on these bills and allow for it to be paid back in increments – depending on income – that would take away the need for giving out money and keep our people in their homes.
Water, electricity are to some extend public / private goods and the government could put down a foot and demand that no utilities will be cut off during these trying times. Public health begins at home.
Public Transport should have been free to all for the longest of time, considering that it is us the workers that have paid for it. – Reminder, the government has no money, it gets it from us the Tax payer.
I understand the wage subsidy as a flattening of the unemployment curve. It did that well. But the second wave is coming as certain as night follows day.
So this time i hope for a decent UBI announcement paid for by the IRD as you said.
Last, i would like to see the government start putting out information on how to vote safely during a pandemic. This is what i came up withI.e. download your ballot online, ballot drop off boxes stationed by dairys with an armorguard dude – emptied once/twice a day. Just use your voter code, download the ballot, fill out and drop off. That would work for a very large part of the country. And social distancing standard voting for those that want to go in person.
Sabine. You need to be in parliament!
Rent control is coming, has come hasn't it? It should be reviewed six-monthly but not necessarily lifted.
Special circumstances for landlords to apply for interest-free loans to fix leaky roofs etc on ordinary houses might be good. For apartments, loans for tenants to take legal action to enforce work perhaps. They need to be able to challenge the positions of their unit agents (forgotten the right description), and the head builders, who can't just turn and blame their sub-contractors.
Food vouchers for supermarkets without total authority to scrutinise and control, except to limit cigarettes, and wine, beer to one bottle or 1 litre highest level.
Then stand behind regions that want to create local currency, with printing and material costs for weekly Spending Vouchers for say 10 credits, handed out to each caller each week at some central office, adults or children. Encourage them to be spent and circulated in that one week and leave to the local 'market' to find ways to use them; who will accept them having found themselves where they can on-spend them. Talk about it being a 'Treasure Hunt' for the search to find who will accept them. 'Pay with a Voucher and a Smile' would be the slogan.
Getting stats would come from printing numbered tick boxes used each transaction and write where, and report to the local paper radio station, on the highest numbers, give publicity each time to different businesses or groups accepting them.
Get a bunch of school kids or unemployed to do the office work. It is a working example of local economics, the way that official money works stripped down to view. Each week there would be a new colour, and they would have to be spent in a week. It would start slowly until people got used to it and networks built up for exchange of goods or services on a regular basis. They could act as full payment or part, like a discount. They would have to be noted in a register for tax purposes, as discounts or promotional give-aways.
If it became integrated and well-used in the community, there could be a meeting with locals, and see whether it could be expanded to be more for certain people. To see whether more people could be added to the business side, so that there were networks amongst businesses providing a satisfactory circulation for them, and overcoming prejudice against it amongst citizens. (It would seem like play money, insubstantial, to many as we have never understood what money actually is; just tokens or written agreements with an intrinsic promise to pay given official and legal backing, circulating in the economy and managed for maintenance of value using quantity measures, supply and demand, inflation controls etc.)
Nats have wheeled out their ‘Harvard trained doctor’ Reti to try and clean up after Judith and Gerry.
Harvard trained sociopath. That is what the elite schools stand for. Well trained sociopaths.
Ivy leaguers are from the ultra wealthy aloof Narcissistic elite.
They only care about their wealth no one else's
Shane Jones went to Harvard too. It seems to be like the elite school for capitalists or understanding how to work with them. Is it possible to go through one of these institutions without being overcome by the hegemony of the prevailing zeitgeist?
Watching him on TVNZ this morning he seemed to be refusing to back up Collins and Brownlee's rantings and bout non-co-operation and dark conspiracies.
Perhaps he is looking beyond the election, aware that he has a future – either in in politics or medicine – and Collins and Brownlee do not?
Well, Collins and Brownlee have displayed an degree of ineptitude that will have National caucus members shuffling backwards when it comes to answering the question "who did you vote for to be the leader?"
National's polling looks light of 35% minimum that Collins stated that validated a leader's credibility.
My guess is that party cohesion will continue to diminish as the Collins/Brownlee twinset fails to provide the firebreak it claimed it could achieve.
So who is next? Mark Mitchell? The mercenary stepped in US military and intelligence ties? Chris Luxton, freshly elected strongly carring Christian fundimentalist and corporate concerns?
Ugh
Hooton calling to let covid in on granny. Not read him, I’d need a shower if I did, so don’t know if he states how many deaths he'd be happy with ?
He's probably written out the national party election run sheet and now gets to provide 'comment' from his media soapbox. Granny keeps serving it up.
He should tell all the Doctors ,Nurses frontline workers older people those with compromised immune systems who are going to have the highest rates of contracting Covid 19 getting serious complications and dying ,Tell them to their faces the sniveling coward.
After his disastrous effort in Wellington
His opinions are those of a deranged man continuing in his own little bubble of complete ignorance.
I thought his article was realistic.
Lockdown life can't go on forever. A 1% risk to people in rest homes should not be cratering the economy and quality of life for everyone else.
It's not a 1% risk to people in rest homes, if you're in the rest home demographic and you get it, the most recent data I've seen suggests it's in the region of 15% to 20% likelihood it will finish you off terminally. That 1% is the current best rough estimate of the case fatality rate across the entire population.
It's deeply misrepresenting reality to claim that for most people, COVID is no worse than flu. Because COVID is known to cause significant numbers of long term disabilities even in young people that get it. My nephew is one of those still struggling with severe effects almost 6 months after getting it. Flu doesn't do that.
Right now, a bit of patience around the possibility of a vaccine is warranted. Several have already started phase 3 trials where it's given to tens of thousands of subjects to check how effective and long-lasting it is, and to check for potential rare safety issues. This is the final trial before initial rollout. If any of the candidates are actually successful, and there's enough candidates using enough different approaches that the chances are pretty good at least one will be, then early next year might see a vaccine available. That's not long to wait, weighed against the suffering and death that would be caused by letting the virus loose.
Thanks Andre for the fact checks. I am sick of lockdown
Yeah, the rules around what can and can't be done in lockdown could certainly do with some tuning. I get it that it's onerous for some people. Even if it's not for me, being an introvert an' all.
you are sick of lockdown. where do you live? if it is anywhere in New Zealand, you are a whinger. we havent had lockdown for two months! I am sick of self obsessed whingers.
So you feel that mental health and other negative impacts of lockdown should be ignored? That the government is beyond criticism? That reporters should not offer independent analysis?
Lockdown life can't go on forever. A 1% risk to people in rest homes should not be cratering the economy and quality of life for everyone else. – why yes it actually can. We have had lepers colonies, we have quarantine stations for superspreaders, we have the same with ebola etc etc etc. I know that the illnesses i just listed are commonly found in what we call affectionalty 'third world' countries, but Covid is no more no less deadly. 1% risk of the people in rest homes? and the doctors and nurses, and the children, and the healthy young people, and the healthy not yet in a retirment home ., and and and.
My guess is you are safe and secure enough to write a lot of people of as it won't happen to you, but what if you kid gets it and two weeks later its your wife on a respiarator in the hospital? Or maybe we just stop pretending to care and go all out Mrs. Oravida/Trump let it run rampants and if people die by the thousands it is what it is. So as long as it ain't you?
children and covid
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-kids-cases-increase-90-percent-four-weeks/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/07/coronavirus-infection-spread-in-children-cvd/
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-in-babies-and-children/art-20484405
Yup.
Not so fast on those ' it's mainly old folks' notions.
In June: Individuals with age under <65 account for 4.5–11.2% of all COVID-19 deaths in European countries and Canada; 8.3–22.7% in the US locations, and WERE the majority in India and Mexico.
Covert eugenics for breakfast anyone ?
To be noted is that death rate varies in different locales and death rate also varies between communities of differing socio-ethnic makeup.
The unknown is how the virus WILL evolve and behave eg. Could gain more virulence and or a strain evolves that increases mortality rate.
Global tally now 20.6 M recorded known infections. To date 749 000 known deaths from Covid 19 is 3.6% death rate once infected.
Currently 8.5 M of these are infections are in only 2 countries the US and Brazil. Both countries letting the 'herd' type methods take its course.
So, who is to be a soothsayer predicting whether the Covid virus behaves itself in the same manner in NZ as other countries if we opt for herd methods– one and a half thousand deaths a day ?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7327471/
Radionz had Professor Sir David Skegg on this morning and he spoke truth to our difficulties. I'd put him alongside D-G of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield as very good on info.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/423526/covid-19-lack-of-testing-of-staff-at-border-extraordinary-skegg
I think it was Skegg that compared us to Sweden as an example of how well we have done. They have a population 5 times higher than us, and our figures by five are much lower.
But we just have to try harder, stop the gaps he said. I think one way is to do much more testing with more open criteria h at present older aged people in the community should have it more easily available – it starts to rise noticeably after 50!
Here are some North Europe figures:
So there was a substantial voluntary lockdown in Sweden – yet it wasn’t nearly as effective in reducing the spread of the coronavirus as the compulsory lockdowns in neighbouring Denmark and Norway. Cases and deaths rose faster in Sweden and have been slower to decline.
Sweden has about 8200 confirmed cases per million people as of 12 August, compared with 1780 in Norway and 2560 in Denmark. (For the UK it is 4600 and the US 15,400.)
Sweden has had 57 deaths per 100,000, compared with five in Norway and 11 in Denmark. (For the UK it is 70 and the US 50.)
Sheridan’s* analysis suggests that young people – whose spending makes little contribution to the overall economy – were least likely to change their behaviour and might have undermined the voluntary lockdown. Among people aged between 18 and 29, spending dropped far less in Sweden than in Denmark….
That said, Sheridan’s spending comparison suggest that the economic impact was only slightly reduced by not imposing a more effective compulsory lockdown. “It’s very little in economic costs for saving a larger number of lives,” he says. * Adam Sheridan at the University of Copenhagen
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2251615-is-swedens-coronavirus-strategy-a-cautionary-tale-or-a-success-story/
Also – https://eveningreport.nz/2020/08/07/keith-rankins-chart-analysis-covid19-comparing-australian-outbreak-with-high-incidence-european-countries/
Covid-19 and economies. In the comment above there is mention of Sweden compared to Denmark.
This from UK. Business rules okay!
The Telegraph hard-liner journo Allister Heath has written a scathing report blaming the Brits bad economy on 'arrogant quangocrats and state “experts”'. Sweden wins over Britain for less deaths per capita and Less recession. But doesn't mention Brexit at the beginning of the piece which is all I have access to.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/12/swedens-success-shows-true-cost-arrogant-failed-establishment/
Greywarshark
Sweden does NOT have a population 5 times larger than NZ.
It's current population is 10,860,350, ie 10 million.
The death rate is at 5800 as of today
Oh ta Just Is. I thought I heard the 5 number but only half-listening and then couldn't find the figures I wanted to verify it. Sorry about that, thanks for correction.
So say we have half the population of Sweden, and at their death rate, we would have had about 2900 deaths. A sharp contrast to our own number – 22! That extra number if we had let the virus roam free could have taken out all the thinking heads, and pointy-ones too, on The Standard. That would be a disaster for the country in my opinion.
All our stats nicely displayed! See under – covid 19 nz stats
and go on with the comparo's to sweden. along with there 1000% extra covid death rate, there economy has suffered far worse than ours as well.
" I think it was Skegg that compared us to Sweden as an example of how well we have done. "
Skegg was also highly critical of the recent testing regime. He's been joined by other health professionals like Des Gorman (https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12356368), who are critical of the governments recent responses.
Covid-19 is not going away, it will not be eliminated and will certainly not be eradicated.
As the WHO has said – we must learn to live with it.
Closing the country down everytime there is an outbreak is not a sustainable plan.
We need to be having the conversation about how we as a country live with and manage the disease.
This is true. I am hoping as more tools become available; better testing, improved treatment, vaccine etc, a more realistic plan will become achievable without major loss of life.
New Zealand has its unique challenges with respect to Covid-19; poor housing, underfunded health system, temperate climate. These things make us highly susceptible.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by underfunded in reference to the health system.
1. In 2016, NZ was 15th/35 OECD countries in health spending per capita (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_health_expenditure_per_capita).
2. In the most recent data, NZ was 20th/46 OECD nations, and right on the OECD average (https://data.oecd.org/healthres/health-spending.htm).
3. NZ's health expenditure per capita has risen substantially since 2000 (https://knoema.com/atlas/New-Zealand/Health-expenditure-per-capita), under both National and Labour governments.
Health systems are voracious beasts when it comes to spending, but the evidence shows NZ has delivered significant increases in spending over a sustained period.
Paddington you are wrong the cash amount on health spending doesn't mean there has been increases in health spending.
National increased health spending by 1% per year inflation was 2% on average so that is a 9 % decrease then the population increased by 20% over those 9 yrs .a reduction in health spending per capita of nearly 30%.That was where your tax cuts came from.
Health costs inflation runs at 7% per annually so to say we have had increases health spending is not true.Thats where your tax cuts came from.
“National increased health spending by 1% per year”
That simply isn’t correct, based on the per capita figures in the source I quoted. Do you have a cite for your figures?
" Health costs inflation runs at 7% per annually "
Can you provide a cite for that please?
Also you are comparing changes in health spending. Muttonbird was referring to ‘underfunding’. The two are related, but not the same.
Further to my comment above, if you are looking at changes in spending, this article from 2018 https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/102941246/do-we-put-enough-money-into-the-health-system
makes the point that "Our per capita spending is slightly below the OECD average, but health outcomes are good by OECD standards." Surely quality of outcomes are more important than the quantum of spend?
Relative outcomes aren't always quality measures, in the same way that "per capita" measures aren't always accurate when they don't account for exchange rate or interest rate variations, and include the private sector when the issue under discussion is government funding.
" and include the private sector when the issue under discussion is government funding "
The issue was never defined as being about government funding. Also, referreing to Tricledown's response, ACC, for example, is government funding.
" in the same way that "per capita" measures aren't always accurate when they don't account for exchange rate or interest rate variations "
Any data comparisons have limitations. However the comparisons I linked to show that, based on OECD comparisons, on a per capita basis NZ's health system is not under-funded.
lol
Nobody has claimed that we don't have a better health system than, say, the yanks.
The claim was that the NZ health system is underfunded, with a specific claim about 1%p.a. by the nats that none of your links are inconsistent with.
The ~3% average in your USD link is neither impressive if true nor out of the ballpark of ~1% depending on how one adjusts for exchange rate and inflation.Hell, your per capita link has different data to your wikipedia OECD link, and the difference seems to be bigger than the annual average in the per capita link.
FYI, Paddington is listening to music for two months, a special request by him.
Oh nice. I meant "ooo, argh, echochamber, free speech, first amendment, human rites, yada yada"Paddington those OECD figures include private insurance payments and private surgery most of that cosmetic.ACC funded surgery etc.
Check out govt statistics govt health spending.
Those are all part of 'health spending'.
That's the conclusion I'm coming to as well. The strategy of elimination sounds good in theory, but it will only work if we can hold out until there is a vaccine, and even then it relies on either compulsory vaccination of an extremely high uptake.
Winston in Aus telling them the outbreak was due to a Quarantine Breach, according to a reporter who spoke to him.
Just another reason to not vote for him.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/winston-peters-claims-current-auckland-covid-19-cluster-could-linked-quarantine-breach
If what he says is true,he and the reporter should be held to account for withholding vital information
Collins saying not enough notification before going to level 3 ,how dumb is that.
The quicker the response the less chance of spread.
Just as well everyone knows what an idiot she is.
and you can be sure that had the government given more notice she would be saying that they were pissing around allowing the virus to spread.
As Bloomfield said, they took 6 hours to a lockdown decision. Melbourne waited 4 weeks knowing they had community spread.
Well done team !
Well his guess/opinion is as good as yours or mine.
Point is we just do not know at this stage. I am sure that the tracing has not been been started/continuing on a predicated outcome as ruling out quarantine involvement. All cards/ideas will be on the table as to where this may have come from. It would not align with scientific method to rule anything out.
I gather, that like many out there – and given the speed that the spread has occurred. That Winny has just taken a guessed from where the source originated, and taken a gamble that this is the case. If he is wrong (as he has been in the past) so what, by then the media has moved on.
I would think that he wanted to say something positive though not immediately provable, and what he said would have been better than letting the idea that we have community spread get going and scaring the horses.
Likely a political white lie for the sake of the country. Everything is not cut and dried in politics as we know, they have to gain wiggle room sometimes.
Hipkins this morning denies any connection with a leak.
Just is @ 7
There's a consensus of opinion among the experts that it is likely a border breach of some kind and since we now know some 60% of border-based workers did not get themselves tested for Covid 19 (for whatever reason) then he could be right.
Not a fan of Winston but can't see it as a sackable offence.
oh but its Winston and then it can't be of value. Never mind that he worked quite well in the coalition, but then some seem to think that the coalition does not need him anymore, so burn the witch. Its quite dumb actually.
Sabine, my point was he made the statement while in Aus talking to the media, if it was me I would've waited for confirmation of what the reporter had suggested before announcing it in a foreign country.
Facts do matter
i don't know much about that i don't follow the news really.
I do get tired a bit about he bashing he receives, considering who he is, what he has done and achieved in his life, and the fact that without him we would be having a national government is just something people seem to forget.
I get that people might want to have labour alone, or supported only by the greens, but really unless that is a given, labour might need him again to form a government and maybe just maybe keep that in mind.
other then that, he has his own interests to pursue, and if the government has issues with winston then the government should address this. again, keeping in mind that htey might need him again.
Just heard Hipkins debunk Peters statement, as I said, don't leap before you look, confirm the remark Before you make a statement to a forign media.
This example reduces Peters credibility, even further.
Only if National's vote skyrockets. Their current desperate actions say they do not even believe that themselves.
i would keep my eyes on some of the conservative parties.
MMP can be a whole bunch of splinter parties – does not make for good governance but it can make a government. Germany is MMP, has been since the 50s. So i am quite aware of what can and can not be done in this environment.
"i don't know much about that i don't follow the news really."
That would make a difference to your understanding of current happenings and people's responses.
my understanding of the political happenings are fine. Thanks.
However i don't read in general is the yellow press, and updates on the national parties shenanigans and the he said she said bullshit coming from NZ finest stenographers aka journalists. I have no use for that crap. Case in point i don't often comment on the 'what are they doing National/Act/others …..threads, they have no value to me". I rather read the threads of 'what they (Government) will be doing'
But like it or not, the current labour government is courtesy of NZfirst.
And one thing i am very certain about it is that Jacinda Ardern knows who he is, and maybe has put him exactly where he is supposed to be being whom he is.
And again, maybe Labour will need this party again.
Winston Peters, born 11th April 1945.
So how many reputable trustworthy journalist friends does Winston actually have around him ? They did him no favours when his NZ Super mistake was leaked. I'm surprised he trusts any now.
Soper. Apart from the ‘reputable, trustworthy’ bit.
It'll be some tired old boozehag like Soper, fondly reminiscing their joint relevance.
snap
Reminiscing their relevance over joints perhaps.
Creaking joints
AND why did Peters NOT talk to bloomield or hipkins to trace the possble problem.
Seems extremely irresponsible.
Unstable Gerry
Is Gerry Brownlee under big stress ? Has his Boss Judith Collins been overloading him with work ?
Both Judith and Gerry are national attack personalities, but with Gerry openly wandering around everywhere, including parliament, with pitiful Conspiratory Dreams.
Both J and G are palpably showing unstable tendencies.
Yesterday, Distinguished Kim Hill, had to try and fathom what on earth Judith was saying on and on. It was sad really. I kid you not.
Judith eventually informed Kim Hill and the listeners, that she is a Lawyer.
Crikey!
Is age overtaking Judith? As soon as she was appointed Leader of national, over a dozen national politicians vacated her.
A strange entity – is national. Judith is demanding the coming election be bypassed. A whole new election to take place any old time in years to come.
Again – I kid you not. !
Unstable is – what unstable does !
When you're unstabled does that mean you get put out to pasture instead?
Nah. Waste of good pasture, the pet food knackers for Gerry.
Hey folks, I thought I would group source a couple of questions I have.
One of the main roads into Palmy is Railway Road, running from Bunnythorpe to PN. It is a 100km road. Over the last decade there has been a large distribution hub built on the southern side of Railway Rd.
Two days ago there was a double fatality in a truck vs car collision around the intersection with Roberts Line.
Our son was involved in a collision, with a fatality in the other vehicle in Dec 2018. The other vehicle failed to give way.
Which is the appropriate authority to lobby for road remediation? Council, NZTA or another body.
Are petitions effective or worthwhile? What is an effective way to get traction on change?
Cheers.
Good luck to you gsays…you're taking on a system that just loves to buck pass. Is is NZTA? Is is the local council? Is is the road surface or surrounding terrain or a speed factor or more to do with the type of traffic using the road. This will go on or some time.
Is this road used by the Heavy Transport Sector? Are there humoungous juggernauts thundering down this highway at 90 kph (yeah right)? 'Cos you can bet your bottom $ they will move heaven and earth to keep the speed limit at 100kph.
However…what is in your favour, unfortunately, is there is already a body count. This is what triggers a response from NZTA and there will be a person in your region who is the contact to get the ball rolling.
A FOAF had reason to contact NZTA on such a road safety issue the other day. They found that investing in a toll call to the Head Office in Welly was an excellent move. Have a pen at the ready 'cos my mate's mate was nearly caught short. Helpful person gave names, contact landline and cellphone numbers and took particular care that the correct email address was given.
In my mate's mate's case, although it concerns a state highway and there is as yet no body count in this particular area yet and it is a pedestrian/cyclist issue they were flicked to the local council.
Good luck. (Oh, and you didn't hear it from me…but an elderly gent sidled up and suggested that a citizens' intervention might also be part of the solution.
)
Thanks Rosemary.
There are trucks but their speed isn't really the issue. There are lots of 'em.
The increase in volume of traffic, the roads intersecting with Railway Road, driver speed and impatience are bigger issues.
I do like the direct action approach. In a younger day, with mates, tagging the Manawatu Gorge with GE FREE PLEASE didn't change politics, but felt real good.
These folk…https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/300059289/hundreds-march-in-auckland-cbd-for-hkoi-protesting-dome-valley-dump-proposal puttheir protest signs all along te highway through Dome Valley. Due to Aucklanders being unable to 'drive to the conditions' NZTA had to reduce the speed limit in that area to 80kph…more time for the passing motorists to get the message. Very effective.
And also with the awesome Manawatu Gorge…even the posted speed limit was too fast for me…pulled the Bus over so I could better admire the brilliant engineering.
Sometimes, the signs are put in the 'wrong' place, or display the 'wrong' info…sometimes a traffic island is required to slow the traffic….all sorts of ways pro active folks can make a difference.
Thank you for taking that on. May not be a quick result.
I think your regional council may be the relevant roading agency, rather than PN City Council?
ACC used to sometimes get involved in road safety improvements, especially including fatalities.
NZTA may also have an interest through the proposed huge rail/road interchange hub near the airport. PN Council may have a lead councillor involved in that project, though not necessarily with much clout I'd assume. The regional council may be motivated more by the big project than the current defect, though if you can paint fixing one as making the other go more smoothly that may help. Signs of an engaged local community can help, though that takes effort.
Your local MP might be able to help cut through if you prepare something concise for them. May be most efficient avenue. Their electorate office staffers can be smart about who to approach.
The Minister responsible for road safety (Genter in this last govt) may also apply some pressure downwards.
Media can help when engaged at the right time, usually after you have got some evidence of pushback or neglect from officialdom. But they need someone to front and you need to be sure the public attention is worth it to you.
Thanks for the leads, Sacha. Your second and last sentences are very important.
It is known as a grim area – cops, ambos, ED, locals.
The local MP is very promising, Roberts Line is the boundary between PN and Rangitikei electorates.
All strength to you. It felt a lot busier the last time I went that way than I remember as a child.
Petitions get a bit lost.
NZTA are spending a whole bunch of money near Palmerston North at the moment. It's a good time to push for safety upgrades.
Email Emma Speight who is the NZTA Director Lower North Island, and arrange a meeting on site with the head of Transport at New Plymouth Council. That will get the wheels in motion. It's their job to attend to black spots on the network.
Cheers, Ad good info.
I wonder what Cleangreen would recommend as likely to get a quick hearing leading to action and not the brush-off. Are you out there Cleangreen, hello?
Ahh, there is a petition.. incidentally, started after my sons collision.
https://www.change.org/p/palmerston-north-city-council-make-the-intersection-of-railway-road-and-roberts-line-safer
There is a bit of traction as the recent victims were much loved and respected doctors.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300082332/victims-of-car-crash-were-doctors-at-palmerston-north-hospital
Palmerston North City Council is the road controlling authority, suggest contacting them. As well as speed, the lack of right turn bays at the Roberts Line intersection is poor (particularly with the large relatively new Foodstuffs distribution centre close to intersection).
Longer term, Railway Road north of Roberts Line will close if KiwiRail's major Freight Hub project goes ahead (replaced by new road further west).
Thanks Alice, you are right about the layout and trucks turning.
In the collision my son was involved in, the other vehicle was coming over the railway line on Roberts Line. The driver said he just didn't see the Stop sign after crossing the rail line.
They were being guided by Google maps travelling between Hawkes Bay and Taranaki.
I know another place in another town with additional buildings and business that don't seem to have been planned for in roading design. It's dangerous, and also it's bad for citizens blood pressure as well when you think of the usual salary that gets allocated to these blokes and blokesses for their marvellous expertise.
Ta for that. Did not know PNCC's sphere would extend to there, though I guess with the airport precinct it makes sense.
the news.
a friend of mine had people regularly drive onto his property as he was at the end of a t section and people just missed their turns ending up on his front lawn or house if too fast.
calling council/nzta did nothing, going to the news after it happened for the third time did help. He now has a big chyron (yellow black metal thingy?) before the pedestrian walkway and since then no one missed the turn right or left anymore.
Call the local news reporter.
Thanks Sabine, I do know one of the local stuff journos.
Got the ball rolling by e-mailing both Tangi Utikere (L) and PN Deputy Mayor and Ian McKelvie (N) MP for Rangitikei.
TBF, Utikere has more levers to pull as he is on the local council and has replied with his PNCC hat on. He will take it to council and look at opinions about lowering speeds or other mitigations as a short term fix.
McKelvie extended sympathies and referenced Collins' recent announcement that the road will be sorted with urgency if elected.
Onya.
Simpson’s admits on ZB no compulsory testing of people working at border, unsubstantiated but numbers out their
that 60pc of people never had a test, From yesterday now compulsory. You could ;not make this stuff up
Homer?
Doh!
Just on Radionz –
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/423547/border-worker-appalled-at-lack-of-testing-and-safety-measures
Rock and a hard place for the health ministry though. Imagine if they had forced border and quarantine staff to get tested and we’d not had an outbreak? The same people crying madness in the media right now would be screaming blue murder about the fascist’s government’s attack on our democracy.
I took it for granted that border workers would get periodic testing, until Hipkins explained that you can't force people to take tests.
It's a medical procedure, and I think this has already been covered weeks ago when it was brought up that if anyone in quarantine refused the day 3 and/or day 12 test, they would remain in quarantine for an additional 14 days.
Bloomfield will no doubt bring this matter up this afternoon at 1pm
Gorman on RNZ at the moment suggesting border workers who refuse routine covid tests should be fired, not that I consider his pronouncements to come from the Mount.
https://www.findlaw.co.nz/articles/4308/workplace-drug-and-alcohol-testing.aspx
I can see no reason why the same Health and Safety legislation won't apply in his situation.
I too assumed these staff would be tested regularly. From what I understand…so did the PM.
Still can’t force anyone to take a test though.
What happens if the employee refuses to give consent?
Most policies will state what will happen in the event an employee who is asked to take a drug or alcohol test refuses to do so. Usually, refusal without good cause will be treated by the employer as being failure to follow a reasonable and lawful instruction that is considered to be serious misconduct.
The employer must follow a fair and reasonable process when investigating and taking action against an employee who refuses to take a drug test. If it ends up in the Employment Relations Authority (or Court), the test of justification will be applied.
The government was passing legislation hither and thither…under the circumstances you'd think if the existing legislation is insufficient…
Besides…I think it is pretty much a consensus that it was understood that strict, routine testing was being done all along.
Beggars belief they cocked this up.
Rosemary the document you’re quoting from is one legal firm’s guide for employers and their employment agreements. Nothing in there has force of law. And we know that individual employment agreements are often overridden by other acts of parliament like The Bill of Rights for example.
will you also call for mandatory vaccinations?
or is personal choice only a thing when it suits?
A Covid test is not for drug or alcohol; different Law.
I find it incomprehensible that staff wouldn't be clamouring for daily tests, rather than cavilling about their rights. Saying we can't force them, doesn't preclude not asking them in the first place.
Gorman I thought? Professor Des Gorman – Auckland University's Professor Des Gorman says he can't understand why government rhetoric about Covid preparedness and testing, wasn't matched with action.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018759470/low-testing-of-high-risk-staff-mind-boggling
I feel that complacency with our success has left more than the general public in a happy state. I enquired about circumstances for testing as an older person, with connections to an essential services person, and was told no probs, wait till you have symptoms. I thought this sounds like over-confidence and unwillingness to be precautionary. A bit like the case of the Samoan back in earlier lockdown who kept being excluded despite being sick, until he was on the point of collapse. He was only a young adult.
The trouble could be that hospitals may still be on austerity budgets, along with their capital charges amounting to ground lease of what is public land. No wonder that it is so hard to get proper provision for mental health funding.
If you insisted on testing airline staff, immigration, drivers, hotel workers and nurses every week you'd soon have no workers.
Well it seems to be compulsory now, so what’s changed
"What's changed?" What do you think?
I will make it a bit simpler especially for you
Whats changed in that it is now possible to be Legally compulsory and practical to test, where yesterday it wasn’t
Make it as simple as possible, but no simpler. You made it simpler.
A 5sec swab once a week and they wouldn't turn up for work ? You have a very low opinion of the NZ workforce.
It's pretty invasive and some of these people will be on or near minimum wage. You don't appear to have much of a grasp on reality.
🙄
Is it a public health failure though? Or is it just another example of how in western democracies an ideal pandemic response sometimes finds itself at odds with democratic norms? Managing that tension is the thing.
What does your salary have to do with testing for a potentially lethal disease when you are on the front lines of it?
Do you really think people are going to quit their jobs because of a weekly test but are happy to stay in work when they have a high potential of getting infected and NOT being tested?
I don't think you have thought this through
Like supermarket workers these people should be on a pandemic bonus. As further explained this morning, many of the thousands working 'on the border' never have close contact with the incoming people.
But I'd have thought anyone with regular close contact should have a periodic test. It does bring up how often tests would be needed, and I think you will find that they would need to be taken every 3-5 days to ensure total capture of any virus infection. That would be quite onerous, and still may not avoid someone catching it and quickly becoming infectious for 1 or 2 days before the next test. So on reflection I'm less inclined to bag the MoH over this. This is one VERY tricky virus.
Anyone in close contact with people coming in from overseas should be tested regularly.
Reposting a comment from elsewhere which I think sums it up well:
Reposting comments from NZ's foremost public health expert I think sums it up even better..
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12356542
Bloomfield is NZ's foremost public health expert, I think. Gorman and Skegg weren't advising the government, were they?
Ashley is not NZ's foremost public health expert he is NZ's top health bureaucrat his main area of interest is is non-communicable disease prevention and control.
I would be appalled (but not surprised) if the Ministry of Health was not taking advice from David Skegg.
Clearly they haven't been because he's 'surprised, stunned, flabbergasted' weekly testing of MIQ staff wasn't in place.
Skegg seems removed somehow and is one of the media's go to 'experts' when they want a story. Gorman is the other one.
I'd be surprised if these guys weren't invited on board but for whatever reason their hindsight advice was foresight advice.
Skegg is hugely respected, but not currently involved with the Ministry. Hence he was tapped as the expert advisor for the parliamentary Covid oversight committee chaired by Bridges. Gorman, on the other hand..
But the test results aren't instant are they? Like 24 hours? Which is why they were only testing if there were symptoms.
So, they really need the work, so you rickn they would up and leave if they had to be tested?
You'd think that the union would have raised this as a health and safety issue…
Fuck a competent opposition party would have found out weeks ago and called for mandatory testing ,all they ever do is chase bolting horses.
Red
All workers in "Quarintine" are tested around 10 day intervals, these people in Quarantine are high risk
The remainder of people entering NZ go into 14 day "Isolation", these people are not considered high risk and the workers are at much less risk and therefore are only tested if they have been in contact with a known infected case.
As stated by others, there are daily "Health Checks" on all staff comprising of temperature and having any symptoms consistent with the virus or flu.
🙄
Please piss off 😉
Sorry forgot that only sycophants are allowed at the standard…
Only mature adults who can start and engage in robust debate using clearly articulated thoughts by means of words constructed into logical sentences that convey meaningful contribution to said debate instead of relying on lazy emoticons only 😉
Best you ban the majority of commenters then..
Most respond well to a gentle hint, if necessary. Some don’t; these get weeded out (first) from time to time, like mowing a lawn. It’s all part of service & maintenance with the occasional PM.
One of the really nasty aspects of this virus is it seems likely that someone infected will have already been near peak infectiousness for a day or two by the time they start showing symptoms. Let alone the asymptomatic but infectious cases.
So the "health checks" of symptoms are obviously hopelessly inadequate. But then even say twice-weekly swab tests with results 24 hrs later will still let a lot through the gaps.
Can you let us know where you got that info from, and if true as you sound informed is process regularly audited against expectation and reality
what about immigration, MPI and customs at the border, the bus drivers security guards etc
What about you read what others write here and take in all (!) the information before you shoot your scattergun of questions?
Now I know what it feels like to be stalked and be on the end of a fatal attraction😊
before you reply if you decide to, I suggest with respect some self reflection
Don’t flatter yourself 😀
I’m doing a job here and you might want to view me as your parole officer helping you with your reintegration into the community 😉
All good bit I think I may be heading back to the clink as parole rules seem to differ were you sit on a ideological spectrum
@Red
Having done it myself for years I'm vividly aware of how difficult it is to keep everyone happy while moderating. While a good moderator will do their best to be even-handed, you have to keep in mind this is a left-wing site and it has it's own social norms. Steer against them and inevitably you'll face a head wind, and there is only just so much that a moderator can do to protect you from that.
Incognito is one of the best mods we've ever had, and I take the view that even when I disagree with him/her, I'd sooner help than hinder.
Fair enough
I’d like to follow on from RL’s superb comment by saying that indeed commenters who go against the ‘main stream’ (i.e. the centre-left and left of the political ideological spectrum) will find it a challenge here. But we (the Authors and Moderators, at least) do value opposing opinions that are well argued because they make for good robust debate, which is the raison d'être of this site. In other words, sharpen your pen, lift your game, and give it your best shot. You will earn respect for being a tough but fair opponent in debate. If you do that, Moderators will ‘look after you’. If you continue your ways, you will be “heading back to the clink”.
Had the usual Thursday dinner at the parents-in-law who are both big Judith fans and lifelong National voters, and even they were disappointed with the comments from the National leadership trying to undermine the health response, they even went so far as to call it Dirty Politics (don't think I've ever heard them use that term)
They are at a big risk of alienating a large part of their core support if they continue to let Brownlee peddle his conspiracy theories
Wouldn't be surprised to see the next public poll have them mid-20%
Brownlee going Trumpian.
An insult to people's Intelligence, he just doesn't understand that most people are more intelligent than he is, he seems to think he's the smart one and everyone else is stupid.
The fast track to oblivion for National, panic has set in and they're not thinking clearly about the long term negative effects.
A complete overhaul of the party is likely after the election, Collins and Brownlee are gonners.
If only they had Supported the Govt during this period their polling would still be at a respectable level, but Stupidity and undermining Govt policy that nearly everyone else in the country agrees with.
On the capitalist measure – 'If you're so smart why aren't you rich' he is the smart one cf to most. Someone said yesterday he makes $288,000 pa e&oe. So 'he seems to think he's the smart one and everyone else is stupid.' has worked for him so far, don't fix it until it breaks is his motto.
Newshub (50 mins ago)
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/08/coronavirus-no-evidence-for-winston-peters-claim-new-outbreak-caused-by-quarantine-breach-health-minister-chris-hipkins.html
Danyl Mclauchlan has good piece in The Spinoff where he argues that doubling down on the Alt-Right conspiracy theory stuff is a very deliberate ploy from Collins and Brownlee. Essentially he’s saying that National knows this election is a goner and that the mythical ‘centre’ has decamped to Jacinda for the duration at least. So the party’s only hope now to save as many seats as possible, is to try and hoover up every single right wing loony vote they can.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/14-08-2020/the-ruthless-electoral-politics-behind-nationals-covid-conspiracy-baiting/
Thieves speak just as kindly as you've done here.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Trolls speak obliquely just as you have here.
Wekas get annoyed when people don't speak plainly.
Doesn't matter when Scientology uses the same cold-call tactics. You just need to be made aware and that's that.
[I have no idea what you are on about. But because you were on my mod radar the other day for similar, you’re getting it again now. You appear to have reference thieves and Scientology and my comments, but without explaining what you mean. You’ve also told me that I need to be aware of something and I don’t know what. This is tedious. My suggestion is you start explaining what you mean clearly – weka]
mod note.
Yeah, you, are, using, the, same, cold, call, tactics, as, any, Scientology, recruiter, would, too, acquire, assets under management – a textbook con as ancient as religion.
[yeah, you, are, permanently, banned, bot, bye – weka]
Thatsa lodda commas ya got dere matey.
I assume that is to reflect how slow they think.
There are risks involved when appealing to the population for funding. Not the least problem when full-time hours ease to part-time or casual hours so whatever productivity is generated from the nzd$150 billion corona recovery package, just 1% of that rise in productivity would fund the Welfare Groups wishlist. Not asking, just doing, would fix this.
The weka has a beak of steel and an eye to match!
I think someone is testing their latest beta version of a conversation bot.
They forgot to put the AI chip in and instead used the Gobbledygook one, which is clearly inferior.
Maybe the call routine to the Grammarly module got disabled.
no
QED 😀
lol, I was totally thinking bot but they said something half way intelligent the other day and fooled me.
First it was covid…now we have to deal with bot-ulism
Guru say – there is always some new 'ism' waiting round the corner.
He must be using a Samsung Huawei to argue
Simon Barnet calls for all businesses to be allowed to stay open under Levels 3 and 4.
We all know how that has worked out in the rest of the world.
It's about time some of these business leaders started showing some responsibility and consideration of the negative effects of their ill conceived brain farts.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/all-businesses-should-allowed-stay-open-if-nz-moves-level-4-auckland-business-leader
I don’t see Level 4 happening if the outbreak is contained to one cluster. And given that means we’re not dealing with widespread infections and not flying blind like we were with the first lockdown I do think there is some scope to tweak the rules for Level 3 to keep as many businesses going as possible without compromising the outcome.
I agree that Level 4 is unlikely from what we know so far but we'll know for sure this evening.
Keeping all businesses open increases the risks considerably, you only need to look at the Melbourne experience, the cost of keeping the economy open has exceeded the benefit, and now have a long way back to security before they can open again.
A statement yesterday from Hipkins claimed once more that " Going hard early was the best strategy"
Sure there’s increased risk associated with keeping more businesses open. But I do think it’s worth putting some effort into managing that risk to allow, for example, a butcher shop to keep trading under whatever lockdown we get. The rules around lockdown shouldn’t be completely inflexible (and are not necessarily the sales rules we needed for Lockdown mark 1) and remember Jacinda said in addition going hard and early we need to be nimble.
I agree you can try to centrally manage this for ever to control and close everything down and kill the economy and consequences of that or you can look to allow the country to adapt bottom up via spontaneous calibration supported by good education/ information and regulation / investment where needed ( as we have now re border , Health assets and resources, old people homes, social distancing, masks, hygiene, size of gathering ) People are not stupid, trust them, likewise there’s only so much control people will put up with and as per ScottGN we are not Victoria
It doesn't seem to be killing the economy. Longterm it may not play out too well for letters of commercial properties, so they may have to be flexible and agile 'n shit.
Quite. If there is a poorly-controlled virus out in the community – one that is very dangerous to the over 50's who tend to be among the wealthiest citizens – what is that going to do to consumer demand in the economy over a long period? Answer – a lot more harm than a few weeks of lockdown.
What sets this government apart from most others – and from the Nats – is the quality of the decision-making. Especially their repudiation of the false dilemma of health vs economy. You can quibble with elements of their execution, but the decision-making has been pretty exemplary.
My sense is that people who keep raising the false dilemma of economy vs health are motivated more by irritation/anger at being under personal restrictions, rather than any holistic view of the economy.
So what happens with schools under this 'management' .In US 97000 children infected in two weeks. They all go home don't they ?
But just a tiny fraction die
https://m.facebook.com/colbertlateshow/videos/216594433128795/
Scott
We're still dealing with Human beings, they don't all understand the risks or don't care, there is a huge risk where interactions occur between people, rules are usually made to the Lowest common denominator.
It's called Insurance.
If that’s the case then the lowest common denominator is somewhere in the basement. Time to give up?
We have the capacity to learn about and manage the virus and contact risks. We should use that skill and knowledge to try and make the inevitable lockdown as painless as possible. An no, I’m not advocating some sort of Swedish open slather, herd immunity bullshit. Just that we try and remain as flexible and nuanced in dealing with covid as we can be.
And the Melbourne experience is characterised by a lack of focus and a timidity and inability to make decisions quickly and stick by them rather than open slather for the economy.
Look at the countries who have followed Barnetts Stupid Idea all have much worse economies as well as massive outbreaks overloaded health systems Doctors nurses dying.
These business leaders should read the science and facts before putting out unworkable ideas!
Yes, we live in bubble down here in the South Pacific, successfully eradicated the Virus for 100 days
A false security.
Sweden has a death toll now of nearly 6000 and a population of 10 million, a classic example of what happens when you except high rates of death and hospitals overwhelmed with infected people.
Regarding Swedens herd immunity. Debates raging as to it's effectivness, it seems to be a punt rather than a proven strategy.
We now know covid leaves a mark, it's not like the flu, it attacks organs, causes blood clots, scars lungs etc.
Herd immunity now leaves Sweden dealing with that legacy.
tc
Yep, Sweden has Gambled that their strategy is acceptable, nearly 6000 deaths from a population of a little over 10 million
All those 6000 deaths had family members connected to them, I wonder if they think the strategy is acceptable, or just consider it as normal attrition.
Michael Barnett?
Yes, sorry, it is Michael.
We're only human…
We are open. 🙂
I have my plague door set up, no one comes in, order online/phone, Curbside or deliery only. Please sanitze and scan the Covid Track App. Rinse repeat.
So yes, it can work, unless one is an idiot from elsewhere who thinks their Human rights are affected by being asked to wear a mask, sanitize and keep distance.
Unless you are saying that kiwis are as dumb as US Americans or Englanders and even like some germans.
However, when i look outside i see people with masks, kids with masks, men with masks, all happy to wait on their spot, sanitizing hands, and being polite about these embuggerances that covid causes.
edit: And i hope that green grocers and small butchers are allowed to be open during lockdown 4. If people can wait for their food shopping in a line for hours on end without risk then they should be able to do a online butcher order with curbside pick up.
Restos, Cafes, Hairdressers etc are a different thing due to close contact. But many other businesses should and could stay open.
I don't disagree with allowing shops who sell food products, ie the green grocers, butchers, fish shops, delicatessens on the proviso they keep to the rules.
yeah, because they would not. (insert face palm emoji)
Seriously i have more faith in my green grocer and local butcher then i have in the supermarket staff that gets a $ 2 hazard pay for working during lockdown.
Sometimes those smaller businesses don't follow the rules to the same extent.
I know a small dairy that was open during the last lockdown wasn't AS careful as the larger supermarkets, having said that, No infections were recorded within 100 kms of the area, so the risk was very low.
Large populated areas like Auckland require greater restrictions, for obvious reasons.
so you're one piece of anecdotal evidence is enough for you to voice an opinion that all small businesses should remain shut?
fuckwit.
shilling for foodstuffs.
If your small business is selling products that aren't considered "essential" then maybe you should reconsider your thoughts.
The Govt has offered support for those Businesses that are effected, maybe, you should consider applying for assistance.
Or are you just making a lot of noise cos you disagree with the Govts Lockdown and would much rather be living in the states where Anything Goes
Jesus, inaction. Take a pill, and not the red one!
A chocolate window, perhaps.
Excellent idea joe90. Worth two faces.

this is what i have had made for my shop door. Perspex door, sits on a table and covers the whole upper body – even for tall man – and a cubbyhole cut in. No one gets in unless they wear a mask, sign in and sanitze. I wear a mask when people come in. And i sanitize and i santize and i sanitze.
It works a treat. We have these little windows in buildings all over Europe.
I see Phil Goff already has his hand out. Get to the back of the line, Phil.
We need to stand by Auckland in it's time of need as we are team players.
Auckland is the heart of our economy.
Muttonbird have a little heart.
Yes we need to stand with Auckland
But Goff is also an idiot. Money has never been cheaper to borrow, but Auckland Council still going ahead with austerity and job losses instead of revisiting their self-imposed debt cap
Isn’t the debt cap imposed by central government via the Supercity enabling Act?
Exactly. As Goff explained in the interview Auckland is already at the limit of its debt to borrowing ratio. Even a low interest loan from Govt could not be accepted. The reason for such a cap in borrowing is essential. I live in a municipality that borrowed heavily for infrastructure in the 1920's – early 30's and immediately following the start of the Depression went bankrupt when a high proportion of its residents became unemployed. The town was placed into administration from which it did not emerge until 1947. The results of the austerity are still evidenced today in the poor civil engineering work around the town generally.
We already have borrowed 50b as a country, just because it’s cheap it does not mean you just borrow more. People should not loose site of what 50b is, while technically not the case this represent a claim by overseas investors on 200 years of Fonterra (our largest exporter)profits
You can’t just keep borrowing or printing money, eventually lenders work it out or you have hyper inflation The economic capacity of your economy To produce good and services must keep up with the debt and money supply, to not to do so it will end in tears (
Key borrowed $120B, to pay for the Tax cuts, no one blinked an eyebrow.
Now we have a very good reason to borrow rather than incompetent Economic management.
When the Coalition Govt took the reigns in 2017 that debt from Key was still in the high $60B
That's when the books are balanced $55 billion net debt.
Only because the Cullen fund grew by $20 billion and the ACC fund grew by a$20 billion.
Core crown debt grew from $20 billion from 2008 to2017 to $120 billion subtracting assets and savings makes it look a lot smaller.
When Key took office there was zero crown debt
The Cullen fund was dipped into and contributions stopped under Key
I'm a jafa.
I thought there were 2 'f's in jaffa
Just-Another-Fucking-Aucklander
I had heard it as … fuckwit from….
That is a variation but not the original.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jafa
"… friendly, free-spending …
Given how important domestic tourism is now.
those are the ones we used to roll down a hill
Ahh … no. The handout is to maintain essential services and ensure the much needed restructuring work can continue. To close them down would mean many thousands more out of work.
The council has already lost billions in revenue and had to borrow money to keep afloat. I don't want them loading any more debt onto us rate-payers.
Thank you Anne … agreed 100% from another long suffering ratepayer.
So why the 5% rates increase then?
It’s 3.5%. And Muttonbird is right everybody pays rates either directly as a homeowner or indirectly as a renter.
Every resident is a ratepayer, Anne.
Interesting breakdown of Auckland City revenue here. Rates account for 40%, the rest is fees, fines, fares and dividends.
ha he is late, Rotorua and Taupo already send their incresases with the last bills.
3.5% – i am such a lucky girl i get to pay my rates and that of my commercial landlord.
So it might be easy to blame Phil, but please put some blame on all the other Mayors that have done exactly the same.
Goff can't control his own council's behaviour financially.
Sure let's help kiwis but not via nacts supershity
Damn, Murdoch is good.
😀
Man that is skewering. If these two and their media advisors, weren't so reckless with the little power they have, I would feel sorry for them.
same. They've moved into unforgivable for me.
LMFAO !!!!!!!!!!
RNZ Graphic
New cases in Tokoroa.
Bugger. That's certainly a wider lockdown then.
Not necessarily. The mayor of tokoroa was informed last night and Chris Hipkins is quoted this morning as saying there is no reason to go to level 4 at the moment so they are probably linked to the existing cluster.
Yep, thankfully. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/covid-19/423544/covid-19-update-12-new-confirmed-cases-one-probable-in-nz
Anyone seen up to date info on how many of New Zealand's COVID cases actually got the virus genome fully sequenced, and what the rate is for fully sequencing the recent arrival cases?
The latest I've seen is an August 7 preprint saying 649 cases, which would be a bit over half of all the confirmed cases by then.
If that dataset is complete, and the genome of the latest case doesn't match any previous cases, then that points towards a non-human means of transmission such as the coolstore idea. Good luck finding traces there BTW, any infected articles likely moved on a while ago.
Info on the genome of the current cases:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/08/it-s-b-1-1-1-kiwi-scientists-identify-virus-family-of-mystery-covid-19-outbreak.html
A piece from a while back with a lot of good info on what the genome tracking tells us:
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/the-new-zealand-strains-how-the-coronavirus-got-here
I’d be interested to see the genome sequence compared to the cases that were picked up after flying out of NZ. The Korean dude and woman who tested positive in Sydney. Then you’d know if it had been circulating here for ages undetected.
Or someone flew in from Australia and brought it with them.
Well, yeah, but they would have had to have got false negatives on their day 3 and day 12 tests, and then at least one link of a transmission chain within New Zealand that hasn't been detected. Or maybe aircrew plus an undetected link in NZ. Very unlikely looking at any particular individual, but considering the thousands of people that have come through the border, sheer weight of numbers certainly makes it possible.
I’ve not read on The Standard of anyone’s experiences getting a Covid test, so here goes.
I’m in the virus free South Island (which should be still on Level 1 IMO) but I had a headcold and my GP suggested I get tested.
I wasn’t allowed into the medical practice, but had to use the tradesman’s entrance around the side.
The nurse came out looking like a nurse in an ICU in a hospital! Full face visor and plastic from head to toe. Was I that infectious?
I wasn’t really looking forward to the swab, for who likes anything stuck right up your nose, but she told me the swallow (distraction therapy I think, by the time I’d accomplished one swallow and was thinking about the second, it was all over). She'd backed me up against the building's wall so I couldn't ride with the thrust and twist!
Not particularly unpleasant, and of very short duration. Not even particularly intrusive.
Now I’ve got to consider myself infected with Covid until my test result comes back. I’ve been banished to the spare bedroom!
As I joked with my wife, if the result comes back positive, damn it all, we’ll have to spend 2 weeks in a 5 star hotel, courtesy of the government.
Well, there are worse things in life.
That was not unlike my flu jab during lockdown 4.
We were instructed to knock on the front door of the medical clinic to let them know we had arrived then go wait in our cars. A receptionist came out and called our names and one by one we disappeared round the back to be met by a nurse who emerged from a shed dressed like she'd just stepped off a Sputnik spaceship. We sat in a wooden chair on the pavement and instructed to turn our face away from the nurse while the jab was executed. The nurse disappeared back inside the shed and we were free to trundle back to our cars where we waited 10 mins in case we started frothing at the mouth. (oh, that's a wee bit of a lie.)
On the face of it, it must have looked like there was an awful lot of hanky-panky going on.
Thanks for that. Interesting insight.
"if the result comes back positive, damn it all, we’ll have to spend 2 weeks in a 5 star hotel, courtesy of the government."
I expect people will be looking at the polls a week or two before the election and deciding whether or not to get tested.
If Jacinda is well ahead and the virus is not in the headlines, I'll deal with any symptoms by hiding under the duvet until taking my test the day after the election …
I had a test the first week back at work under level 2. I’d been sent home from work with a sore throat and was asked to get a test, which I did at the White Cross in St Luke’s. Certainly a bit uncomfortable but nothing major and I would rather have it than the thing the optometrist sticks right on my eyeball when I’m having an eye test – that really freaks me out.
I was advised to get one during the last L4 lockdown because of some run of the mill viral symptoms, but in context of the times…so happily agreed to and they set up the appointment for me.
It was a bit of a hassle for me. In my own bubble, can't drive so no choice but to get a taxi there. I didn't want to tell the driver where I was going, just got him to drop me off nearby! Checked in and was given a mask to wear, then went to the tent. Like you said Tony, the nurses in full PPE- pretty scarey stuff to be that close to, knowing why it has to be like that. Got asked tonnes of questions and had the test process explained to me very well.
I'd heard a couple of horror stories about the pain involved with the nose swab, but the reality was I didn't even realise he'd done it. It was the throat one that had me gagging, but I would have no problem at all doing it again if necessary.
Came back south from Auckland 3 weeks ago, faint cold erupted next day (from grandkids) A few days later as cold was leaving me testing regime seems to tighten and I half thought about it.
Now that we have new cases and I had a slight residual cough, I happened to drive past a testing centre and went in. No queue, all done in 2 minutes, easy peasy, don't know what the fuss is about. Certainly not a brain probe (not that I've ever had one)
I will probably be the most unpopular person in New Zealand should that come back positive in the next 48hrs
Here's a good piece that's explores the difference between agonistic opposition, where one acts in the interests of the country by exploring flaws in what the government is doing and working to find better ways and boost one's own prospects by demonstrating better skills, and antagonistic opposition where the goal is simply to try to harm the government to boost one's own relative prospects and the interests of the country be damned.
Guess which one the current Nats are going for.
https://theconversation.com/the-covid-19-crisis-tests-oppositions-as-well-as-governments-ahead-of-new-zealands-election-national-risks-failing-that-test-144415
Thanks. I was meant to comment on it but hadn’t got around to it 🙁
The three comments so far are a ‘mixed bag’ …
At 10.3.3.1, wags gets to the nub of it …
Indeed, the Oppos have got their heads stuck so far and they think it is all and only about them; they don’t give a toss about NZ and Kiwis. Instead of minimising Government screw-ups, they live and feed off them, like blood-sucking parasites, as do the Media; a hellish alignment.
Question …. can you recall an opposition in NZ ever being of the non-antagonistic variety ?
I'm getting on and certainly can't recall one in the last 30 years or so.
No. But the antagonism has been of varying degrees. For instance, I don't recall the opposition being anywhere near as uselessly spitefully antagonistic after the Christchurch earthquakes as we're seeing now.
Yes, Jacinda Ardern's opposition, briefly before the appropriate rise to power.
If you can look through a different lens then you would see that the raising of the standard of politicking has continued by the PM's team since then.
Despite the 'bucket of crabs' type behaviour from Crushed's mob. eg Gerry 'Tin-Foil Man' Brownlee.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality
Wowee this virus is easily caught then… very easy.
Rotorua will be sweating on their results as well.
It seems that people so far are good about it.
Quite days, good compliance with mask wearing, signing in to get into places etc. '
Resigned that we be next on the list is what i would call it.
I am hoping there will be some form of apology from the government for this border botch up .
Why?
Coz, ideologically-whipped-up outrage!
Because perfect systems are the norm and human beings are without flaw – but only when operating for profit. By contrast – Gummint is always useless.
I will not have this Government apologizing for an odious frozen chicken.
Nah bro -you dont get the Covid from chicken -thats the Bird Flu.
Frozen chicken can also give you concussion, Imodium. That can severely hamper your thinking!
Not to mention food poisoning from contaminated chicken, that can give you … tummy aches.
Or peach pits that can choke or poison your dog.
https://www.vets-now.com/2019/05/dog-ate-peach-stone/
Chocolate and dogs don’t go together either, which is why I want to come back as a pet cat in my next life.
I really really hope something has gone whoosh over my head because chocolate really doesn't play nice with cats either.
Blast!! Now I have to rewrite my retirement plan and bucket list. Karma is such a bitch, sometimes 🙁
What? and spend a whole second life licking your arsehole.
Kissing up is what many do daily but few purrks 😉
Don't judge until you've tried it. Trust me.
My trust in you just has … nosedived.
😸
If that other description is too indelicate for you, just call it "playing the cello".
If and when the source is found, I am sure there will be some sort of announcement.
Winston said he'd have the info for us within a day…
Winstons source was Not an official source of info for the virus.
The PM should sack him immediately, and Soper (if it was him) should be banned from Parliament.
Unless of course there is an identified source of this cluster yet to be announced.
It cannot see it being Soper, IMO he waits for the calls to be informed what the news is. And I cannot see him ferreting out a story like this, and So promptly. That would involve old fashioned getting out beyond the Wellington Beltway. Perhaps he will take one for the team to stay within the circle. I recall how upset the poor boy was when he was unable to accompany Key on an official visit with ALL that goes with a business trip like that.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12032705
And remember his distraught newscasts when Jacinda went to Rarotonga and neglected to advise him in advance. Much complaining to his wife on air about that.
Pehaps Winston's source (sauce) is of the alcoholic type
the first thing i said to my partner was to go to the church of these guys from auckland. Surely they went to church i said.
just now https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/122447905/family-with-covid19-attended-mngere-church-congregation-told-to-get-tested
Some of the bigger outbreaks in hte US have been linked to church attendance.
They should be setting up a COVID test site at the Mangere church ; enough people of interest there to warrant immediate investigation. Rather than have them all trundle down to the local test sites to wait for hours and possibly pass COVID on to others.
Yes, and the religious leaders should be the first to get tested followed by their families to remove any negativity.
Again from friends in the State, considering the way the virus travels and sets up shop, it is the singing which is the most dangerous part of the exercise.
A lot of Pasifica and also Maori go to church – for some it is the biggest part of their social life. So yes, when i heard South Auckland i was like, go call the local religious leaders – all of them – and call for tests.
National party's strong united team, latest episode:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300082468/coronavirus-national-party-local-official-urges-party-to-oppose-lockdowns-as-breach-of-human-rights
I'd be fine with Ardern delaying the election until Oct/Nov, gives them more time to snipe at each other.
That National has bled a few points to ACT in recent months suggests that a loony RW libertarian strain has always been present in National. This confirms it.
perhaps the nats need to go into quarantine to isolate the loony virus. hah!
Hoo boy..
https://www.showbiz411.com/2020/08/13/read-the-foreword-to-michael-cohens-book-about-donald-trump-disloyal-which-talks-about-golden-showers-not-parachutes
Wow !!! 👓 🔖
It's going to be all on like donkey kong, happy days.
Strict lockdown vs Economy
"Countries that have implemented successful lockdowns are generally doing much better economically than countries that have not – illustrating that the ‘choice’ between ‘health and economy’ was always a false dichotomy.”
"Lockdown 2.0” would deal a significant blow to the New Zealand economy but allowing the virus to take hold would be much worse," economists say.
Chief economist Dominick Stephens said, "the long-term impact of another lockdown would be only incremental.
Apart from the travel and tourism sectors, the economy had shown to be capable of bouncing back “very rapidly”.
” ..economist Shamubeel Eaqub said the idea that New Zealand would be better off with a lighter lockdown and higher rates of Covid in the community was “bulls…”.
International data from recent months had shown that New Zealand’s economy had rebounded through 100 days of no community transmission much more strongly than countries that still had it ( covid19) circulating."
It would be better for the economy to eliminate the virus each time it flared up, he said.
If you don’t eliminate you’ve just lost a lot of output [and] jobs, for no reason.”
Stephens said stringent lockdowns were still the best economic plan because the country could not afford to let the virus take hold.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300082211/do-the-health-gains-of-lockdown-20-outweigh-economic-pain?cid=app-android
Treasury update today
https://treasury.govt.nz/publications/weu/weekly-economic-update-14-august-2020-htmlThe NZ Activity Index shows economic activity was above 2019 levels in July.
At 6.1.2 I put up one that had a look at the effect of lockdown and economic conditions as opposed to lite lockdown. Also put up one that goes through to The Telegraph which is ranting about Sweden doing a bit better than UK and only a few more deaths. Mind you a thick layer of opinion over a thin layer of actual numbers.
Thanks for that, I did read your posts and sought to look at the NZ predictions: later waiting for the Treasury report put up each Friday. Treasury also publishes commentary on the international outlook each week.
Of interest was the Chief economists view that lighter type lockdowns are considered detrimental to the economy based on NZ scenario vs what has happened in economies in other countries. China’s .position now was also a comparitive study
edit
I thought while people are thinking about it they could pick up on various comments already in the line especially as I had gone to the net for some outside stats.
And AB further up by 15 makes the point that the 50s and up are both those being hit by the virus in increasing numbers as age goes up, but also the bigger spenders in the economy which is another objective reason for not going too hard on lockdowns for the 'older person'.
In the New Scientist above they make the point that the Swedes shopping etc during lockdown did not spend enough to keep the economy high, and resulted in more cases; so the game was not worth the candle, old saying.
Oh if you are looking up something solid for facts, could you pass the link on, or in some cases the keywords – if the link foes from here to the moon. It is helpful not to have to search around for the right mix of words to get onto a source.
Pinning the whole Covid19 impacts down to any data has its shortfalls as any links found are only a limited 'snapshot' of a particular time and place and arguably within a day swiftly changes.
On the view of lighter lockdown methods vs strict lockdown my choice is strict lockdown for reasons in prior posts.
For one, a rolling the dice method of light lockdown, plays at the idea of choosing whose lives matter.
A yeah nah , it's mainly old people and a tiny fraction of others who will die so whatever, but "I" can have my freedoms and $$$, is deplorable imo for NZers to contemplate. As in link in prior post it was under 65s who suffered most in Mexico and India.
The other unpredictable for round 2, how will NZers behave ? Anecdotal I know, but in the first days of L4 last time a whole group of neighbours acted defiantly and held regular ' beersies' at each other's houses.
And the divisions inside the party make Judith look like a tightrope walker.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300082468/coronavirus-national-party-local-official-urges-party-to-oppose-lockdowns-as-breach-of-human-rights?cid=app-android
Mmm Chesswas who did he play rugby for? Golly thinks young up-and-coming Chairman of local Nat political party, 'This job is easy. All you have to do is question whether the government is doing anything right? Easy as, same question whatever they are doing. Everyone here is behind me, thinks I'm the cat's pjs. Nothing to this political lark.'
lets get all the economists projections over the last three months, and see how many were correct.I would think, very few.
Yes, you do that then ! Good luck.
Follow the links, they were not MY findings, but the current snapshot of the chief economist and Treasury.
You can compile all your analysis of what was predicted in the last 3 months by the actual what really did happen with Treasury hard data as one source to solve your dilemma.
So Roger Bridge has stood down. I think that Merv fellow should have the decency to step forward and clear poor Roger of any suspicions of devious behaviour.
So was it Roger who lied, on camera, about his alter-ego – or was it Merv what told the whopper?
….and even more National Party divisions….Roger Bridge (AKA "Merv") has just resigned.
The cheek of this guy! Australia's death toll went from 102 to 375 and counting under his watch and he lectures us?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12356678
Not only that but we are infected because of people coming from his country.
29 and 30
Sounds like the rats are jumping off the sinking ship
"
Jacinda Ardern has consistently raised her shield against the slings and arrows of her outrageous political fortune, drawn her sword, and marched forward unflinchingly. Perhaps it also explains why so many New Zealanders have been willing to follow her.
Many, but not all.
It is the dirtiest of Humanity’s multitude of dirty secrets: that any display of genuine and unselfconscious excellence is bound to inspire the envy of those who, deep in their hearts, know they cannot – and will never – match it. This envious response to demonstrable talent is so deeply ingrained in a certain type of New Zealander that our culture has given it a name: “The Tall Poppy Syndrome”. It is our country’s curse: so few lofty flowers; so many secateurs."
Pretty excellent stuff from Chris Trotter!
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2020/08/here-we-go-again.html
I see that a secrecy control imposed on killer of cop is to be lifted.
Do we know who killed the Uk woman Grace Mullane? Has his name suppression been lifted? Why was it allowed for him, even after he was found guilty. The secrecy is unsettling, when others have to bear the brunt.
Was the Court feeling sorry for him, so unfair that he should have to take responsibility for killing a woman while he was merely taking his pleasure on her? The whole thing has been horrid, and why he should be protected is amazing. Has anyone kept up with this?
The weird Innocence of defending Lawyers / Judges
There is obviously money to be made when Lawyers and Judges keep open defences for patently obvious Criminals.
The unfortunate person Grace Mullane, has weirdly been blamed for not having a live body or a death.
Her loss of breath, death and burial was apparently her own fault. Even though I believe she had no weapons with which to save herself. Not strength, nor Gun, nor Help, nor Police.
So the Lawyers, seemed to claime the Killer was just having fun.
So much so, that he actually dug a hole in the ground and hid his victim.
Then proceeded to find another would be women within hours.
Good money for the Crims defenders. Outrageous. Family Mullane had to wait many months for a decent Hearing.
There is far too much Criminal activity in New Zealand. Vile Vicious Murders. It is time we put a Distinct end to it ….Pronto