Heart of Glass is a New Wave/Disco crossover. Blondie got lots of shit for doing Disco but hey it's a great song. The original demo version had reggae influence:
Man, that’s certainly a different version from their more well-known hit version. Debbie Harry’s got the voice & the superb timing to carry it off, tho.
I like Reggae as well as Blues; in fact I learned how to combine them in one original song “Blues Done In Reggae”.
I especially like Bob & The Wailers, as well as a few UB40 songs.
My favourite UB40 song (apart from “Ivory Madonna” – not the correct name but YouTube finds it) is this one – after I witnessed it performed live by Porirua’s Whitireia University Music Class Band during their concert at the Cozzie Club in Upper Hutt. They did a fantastic job of it:
A global push for sharp cuts in methane emissions will be a major feature of the UN’s COP26 climate negotiations beginning in Glasgow in three weeks’ time. This will put a harsh spotlight on New Zealand
Rod Oram anticipates an increasing focus on methane – a political shift consequent of perceptions of increasing urgency. BAU advocates will feel even more paranoid. Having pointed out here a couple of years ago that methane breaks down into CO2, I've been mystified by the long-standing tendency to discount it, but I suppose that's just another symptom of climate change inducing mass irrationality & hysteria.
Kennedy Graham, a former NZ diplomat, UN official and Green Party MP, notes in his recent research paper for Victoria University’s Institute for Governance and Policy Studies…
“There is no valid reason to avoid identifying New Zealand’s 2050 Target in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent. There is an associated lack of clarity over the 2050 Target, discernible in the media and even in official statements by government leaders. A ‘transparency gap’ is developing between the domestic presentation of climate policy (the 2019 legislation and the 2021 Commission Report) and the international requirements of New Zealand’s reporting of the Target and progress towards it.”
Reminds us why there's a huge pakeha male deficit in the Greens & their voter base. "Huh?? What are you trying to say?" would be their typical response. Can't get political support for policy shifts without communicating in language folks are familiar with. Duh!
“Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a warming potential more than 28 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2). But when it comes to livestock and climate change, there are many other characteristics that set biogenic methane (methane from cattle) apart from CO2. Here are an important four:
* It stays in our atmosphere for about 12 years
* It’s derived from atmospheric carbon, such as CO2
* It’s part of the biogenic carbon cycle
* It eventually returns to the atmosphere as CO2, making it recycled carbon
…
Methane has a relatively short life of 12 years compared to the hundreds or even thousands of years that CO2 hangs around. After about 12 years, 80 to 89 percent of methane is removed by oxidation with tropical hydroxyl radicals (OH), a process referred to as hydroxyl oxidation. As a result of its short lifespan, methane is only significantly warming our atmosphere for those 12 years, which is why it is considered a short-lived climate pollutant (SLCP).
Its short lifespan is further relevant in regard to warming, because it means that as methane is being emitted it is also being destroyed in the atmosphere, making it a flow gas.
This illustrates that methane’s warming impact isn’t determined by how much is being emitted – since it’s destroyed relatively quickly – but by how much more or less methane is being emitted over a period of time. This is a change in the rate of emission.
What is notable about methane, is that it’s possible the amount being emitted can equal the amount being destroyed. For example, if a herd of cattle emits the same amount of methane over 12 years, they are contributing to warming for those 12 years. But afterward the same amount being emitted is the same that is being destroyed through oxidation, and thus warming is neutral.”
But afterward the same amount being emitted is the same that is being destroyed through oxidation, and thus warming is neutral.
Yeah, this neutrality thesis is what's in question. Well, that's the impression I get anyway. We await any new consensus of experts! I'll just restate my point about oxidation by pointing out that CO2 is the product. How anyone in academia can spin that into neutrality is a bit beyond me. Do they use an equation?
If it’s not shown in that article, there are others around on the web that proponents have posted to us on other blogs.
It was hard enuf to find that one, because so many “experts” who dispute or refuse to accept this methane > CO2 cycle thesis have ensured that articles talking up the methane contribution to global warming (as opposed to it being a self-neutralising process) predominate in Google searches.
Oh well, let's hope that the winds of change blown up by the climate summit dispell the fog. Disclosure of interest: I graduated BSc in physics. But that was in a bygone era. I got good at feeding back to the profs whatever line of bullshit they fished for in the design of exam questions. Worked like a charm.
Ever since, I tend to just scan stuff to get the gist of it. Going any further means taking the author seriously – usually a waste of one's valuable time!
If the farmer keeps producing the same amount each year as gets neutralised by the 12th year, that means the farmer is providing a permanent store of Methane heating the atmosphere over 28 times worse than CO2 – the whole bloody time. Bring back lynch mobs!
Well, the time for being critical of farmers is long gone really. Political focus ought to be shifting to solutions and implementation. Farmer's reps have been in the media rating farmer compliance at more than 80% during the past year. I'd like to get a reality check procedure adopted for that compliant majority, plus an enforcement procedure to apply to the remainder.
That means Lab/Nat leaders have to pull finger, eh? Laziness from politicians ought not to be tolerated further by the public. Effective politics is still possible via the use of intelligent design of decision-making processes to extend consensus on solutions & implementation method. Dumb & dumber is institutionalised by democracy, true, but we can get around that with goodwill & serious intent.
That's related. The zero-sum thinkers will do trad reductionism: "Forget about climate-fixing, we must fix BAU!" Holists will go "Please extract your head from the 19th century, we need you to help the transition to sustainability. There Is No Alternative. If humanity is to survive…"
Energy is so hard to come by right now that some provinces in China are rationing electricity, Europeans are paying sky-high prices for liquefied natural gas, power plants in India are on the verge of running out of coal, and the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the United States stood at $3.25 on Friday — up from $1.72 in April.
As the global economy recovers and global leaders prepare to gather for a landmark conference on climate change, the sudden energy crunch hitting the world is threatening already stressed supply chains, stirring geopolitical tensions and raising questions about whether the world is ready for the green energy revolution when it’s having trouble powering itself right now.
Our failing response to the covid pandemic, reminds me of our response to climate change.
We are told, "Well we must open up eventually, don't we?"
Well what if we didn't?
What if instead of jetting off to the Gold Coast for the weekend, at the cost of one old person catching the infection and dying, we holidayed at home at one of this country's many attractions?
Before the 60's and even into the 70's mass air travel wasn't even a thing. Air travel was a rare luxury for the wealthy, or something you saved up for that once in a lifetime vacation.
I think we need to personalise the experience of air travel in the age of covid. Before you are allowed to fly overseas for that weekend on the beach at Surfers or Bondi, you have to agree to go into an old folks home and personally euthanise one old person.
And if you think Covid is bad, the climate crisis is going to be worse.
While your high emissions lifestyle is more likely to kill someone in the Third World and not you, again I think we need to personalise the experience of air travel in the age of climate change.
Alighting at that exotic tropical holdiday destination, before you get to relax on the beach with that maitai in your hand, you have to agree to drown one local child in the nearest river.
I'll go with the principle of moral responsibility. It tends to operate as sub-text for political activists. Make it explicit & folks immediately start complaining that thinking about it makes their brain hurt.
What if it were to be incorporated into a code of ethics for economists and accountants? Then you'd get the real costs of business & policies impacting onto political decisions. Both left- and right-wingers would hate that! Since democracy was designed to privilege both tribes of wrongdoers, gonna be real hard to make progress on an ethical basis.
Yes, millions of individuals acting selfishly don't seem able to solve the big problems. Who would have thought (except 99% of mainstream economists and politicians)?
It don’t make no never mind (as US southerners might say) to the planet.
If we human apes don’t get our act together, the ecosytem & our social settings will change to make survival of the current huge numbers of our arrogant & untthinking species more difficult.
There will be other species which will likely survive better in a hotter workd, & / or new ones might arise or evolve to take advantage of the new niches, as always.
The most special thing about human apes is the danger they present to all other life forms, as well as their own.
Kim Hill uncharacteristically letting Chris Bishop, world authority on epidemiology, vaccination and nurse ICU training off the hook this morning , apparently there are 3000 nurses in the MIQ queue desperate to get home to work in ICU. Really? Just how many are only coming home to see mum and dad for a while, how many are ICU trained, a process that can take years or months just to be bought up to speed if with previous ICU experience, because techniques and equipment and drugs are constantly being upgraded. Or coming home to get the fuck away from nursing because of burnout?
Oh, and they can home isolate even if symptomatic because of an app on their phone with say, aged parents with compromised function or a sister with young, unvaxxed children, in fact all 30,000 can come home. Fuck off Bishop and take your vax avoider mate Goudie with you.
John Carter Northland Mayor?, another ex Nat railing about the two women sex workers, how about naming and shaming the Northland residents who aided and abetted the two to go to Northland in the first place? But hang on, they may be National Party donors or “ prominent in the community” , can’t have that eh. Arseholes.
Calm down, Adrian. One you got to John Carter you lost me, I’m afraid. Arseholes, I understood but the rest of it’s a bit too convoluted for me to follow, tbh. I am a bear of small brain. 🐼
There are going to be cases of people self isolating at home so they do not catch Covid. Some people are spending a lot of time in their home under level 2 even now and they are restructuring their interests.
The likes of mayors or opposition politicians do not need to tell me how to personally manage a Covid outbreak.
The urgency is in Auckland and the basics need to be provided, food, counselling, laptops and phone connections for school education, rental housing assistance, survival income and free sound business advice.
I was illustrating how easy it is to give grandstanders like Bishop and Carter room to put up straw theories that can fall apart at the first challenge. But first they must be challenged.
When Kim Hill wants to challenge or question someone’s statements, she’s usually very good at it – quite dogged & determined.
Perhaps she’s feeling off colour, or just not in the mood this morning? I’ll see if I can find the audio track when RNZ post it, & have a listen later.
How long is the Delta Covid wave likely to last in NZ?
Bishop and Carter can spit tacks all they like about individual rule breakers, once the rules are broken they cannot be reversed. The situation can only be contained and everyone is affected when rules are broken and infection control is not followed properly.
O Virus, look upon your mortal legions and despair.
1. You haven't risen beyond any other social ill. The mortality and morbidity effects are far less that car crashes per year. You're over-hyped.
2. Each crisis has made us stronger. Some of our more recent crises have rapidly accelerated human progress. Such as in global co-operation, medicine, mechanisation, and communications and information. You helped us kill you, again and again.
3. You told us nothing about the poor. Covid is eventually a disease of deprivation, but pretty much everything else is already.
4. We know better than you. Covid has been a strong positive axial point for human knowledge. It has confirmed the epistemic truth of science against social media, and simultaneously supported accelerated successful drug trials faster than we've seen in decades..
5. Our unity overcomes you. Social cohesion has remained remarkably strong – even in the United States. There is no underground lava flow of human anomie to reveal from Covid.
6. Our state is stronger than ever. Covid, even more than the GFC, has confirmed the necessity for strong and coherent government.
7. Our dominion continues to strengthen. Compared to the Spanish 'Flu a century ago, human hygiene and public health measures are vastly superior. Humans have gained power not weakened in that time. If this is one of the worst viral powers in modern operation, it's been dealt to very fast and with remarkable lack of fuss.
8 Capitalism, medicine, and government are united. Researchers invested and tested at speed. Regulators acted with appropriate speed. Few governments are afraid of debt anymore to achieve public health goals.
9. The world is re-opening and re-born. Your lessons such as they are have already been absorbed and the height of your doom has passed. You haven't had the longevity of human interest of two seasons of Days Of Our Lives.
10. You were the last of your kind, and you're done. Even Polio was stronger, Malaria more powerful and across more lives, and they too are being vaccined away. You were more than SARS, but less than most. Would you like a gold plated One Ring or something to make you feel better?
“Labour on 46 per cent (up one point from September), National on 22 per cent (down four points), Act up three points to 16 and the Greens up one at 7 per cent.”
Collins will survive until 2022 when parliament resumes. She will continue to be a liability as leader. National and Act could be neck and neck in the next Colmar Brunton poll.
All the National whingers and the ACT gossippers are not out trolling today.
After many claims that ACT was taking votes directly from labour.
Both Greens and Labour on steady ground National in more trouble those National MP's with slim majorities and lower on the list will want a new leader Pronto as business leaders say Collins is the best promoter for Labour.
How long can National keep bleeding votes to every other party.
Judith Collins is like a vulture sitting on a tree branch patiently waiting for the beautiful antelope to stumble.
Already she is preparing to swoop down on the wounded gazelle.
After health experts were sidelined in the decision to lower the Auckland Alert Level, with the resulting rise in cases they warned the government of. Some of these health experts demanded to see who's advice the government had been taking.
Despite the fact that lowering the level is what she had been demanding all along, Judith Collins has swooped down to peck at the fallen carcase of the Government's covid response. And is also now (belatedly) demanding that this policy advice be released.
Judith Collins wants advice on Auckland alert level drop released as Jacinda Ardern foreshadows 'doubling in cases'
12/10/2021
Zane Small
Auckland was shifted down from alert level 4 last month despite 22 new community cases reported the day before and against the advice of several experts. Ultimately, the Government had to consider the mental wellbeing of Aucklanders and the financial strain on businesses.
With more businesses able to operate at alert level 3, the virus has been able to transmit via food delivery, taxi services and construction workers.
"Case numbers were trending down but are now clearly on a steady rise since Auckland left level 4. When will the Prime Minister release the health advice relied on to make the decision to reduce restrictions?" Collins said on Tuesday.
I knew the picnic bubble was a bad idea. It gave people a licience to entertain inside the home. Having a nominated visitor like in L4 needed to be maintained and allowing 2 nominated visitors in L3.
As I mentioned Judith Collins was very late coming to the realisation that the government's decision to go out of Level 4 was a mistake, especially as this is just what she had been calling for.
In demanding the government release the advice they received before going down a level, Judith Collins is only echoing the Health experts' query.
New Zealand government’s pivot from Covid elimination ‘surprised’ top health experts
A number of epidemiologists and public health experts who have been central to helping chart and communicate New Zealand’s Covid response thus far say they were taken by surprise by its new direction, and not consulted by the government as it pivoted away from elimination and outlined a controversial set of “steps” out of level 3 restrictions last week.
The announcement was a shift in tack for New Zealand’s government, which has spent most of the pandemic in close to lock-step with public health professionals….
…..“I don’t know what their consultation schedule was like – I certainly was not involved,” Pacific health expert and associate professor Collin Tukuitonga, of University of Auckland. Tukuitonga is a past director of public health at the Ministry of Health, and was on the ministry’s Covid-19 Technical Advisory Group.
“A number of us were surprised at the announcement last Monday, the change that happened,” he said. “I personally thought it was premature to have gone to level 3, given the fact that we had all those new cases and unlinked cases as well, and low vaccination coverage in Auckland – so no, I was not involved and I don’t know who they consulted with.”
He said further loosening of restrictions that were previewed on Monday, including the announcement – since rolled back – that schools would be reopening on 18 October – were also out of step with the realities of a growing outbreak.
“I thought it was a fairly risky strategy – and time has proven that,” he said. “On Sunday there were 60 cases. In other words, there’s still transmission going on and I would have thought that we would have held the line with our original plan and elimination, until we had vaccination rates up, [given] the risks would be borne by Māori and Pasifika people.”
Lab/Grn a smidgeon over 50; Nat/ACT a smidgeon under 40. A 10-15% gap between the blocs – pretty much what we have been seeing for a while. The Key years in reverse.
What will be the catalyst for that advantage flipping the other way – and what can be done to pre-empt it?
"You can be really hard on them [rule breakers], but you're probably not going to ever stop them.
"We have to make sure that our cars' brakes work, we need to make sure that we're doing everything and we're following all the rules because the more we do that, the more we can slow it down."
“I think we need to take our mandatory vaccination rules much further. I think it has to be the police, it has to be supermarkets.
Chris T houses they can't build properly you mean when National threw out building quality control and put in private building inspectors in 1991 allowing the leaky building catastrophe.
The Canterbury rebuild which is costing tax payers billions because of dodgy repairs and insurance underpayment.
Kiwibuild was worth a try but because of shortages of Labour Land and materials it failed,But the number of govt funded new state houses has seen more built since the 1970's. National said it was a mistake to sell off 7,000 state houses.
Kiwibuild was a joke. A flat out bribe that they knew perfectly well was impossible, because at the time they were under 30 in the polls.
Fair play to Shearer though. To his credit he managed to not burst out laughing when he announced it. Not a lot of parties politicians would have had the ability to do that.
Kiwibuild has delivered 1500 extra homes to the market while National had a massive deficit over 9 years Nicola Willis saying it was a mistake selling off 7,000 state houses .
Labour has built nearly 4,000 state houses plus funding for nearly 1,000 NGO houses.
When you add that all up its not enough but it's way better than National.If you take the Canterbury rebuild out of Nationals figures of state houses built. you will find Nationals housing efforts even worse but not as bad as the leaky building disasters like brand new hospitals and schools etc that still need fixing and demolition in many cases.
"Kiwibuild has delivered 1500 extra homes to the market while National had a massive deficit over 9 years Nicola Willis saying it was a mistake selling off 7,000 state houses ."
"Labour has built nearly 4,000 state houses plus funding for nearly 1,000 NGO houses."
All I can say is that you're being more honest than Megan Woods. As at 27th July, the number Labour have actually built is Kainga Ora 1952 + CHP's 1009 + Transitional Housing 755. So the total permanent additions are only 2961 as at 27/7.
This was a major policy platform of Labour's, and instead of fixing the problem they have made it worse.
Might be a case of Mike H picking the expert that fits the narrative. An official from the MoH said on RNZ today that the site had been security-audited by a third party consultancy.
Did Mike try being an actual journalist and get the contending experts together in a balanced way without any pre-conceptions? Presumably not, as he has a particular ideological function to fulfill.
And God knows what's actually true – IT is the wild west and it's best to doubt everyone involved in it.
71 cases today….I heard the expert interviewed by Kim hill just before 9am who said there really needs to be a vaccine that steralises covid, like the measles vaccine. Current covid vaccines allow transmission.
I think we should eliminate covid for another year until such a vaccine becomes available. Level 4 in akl till Xmas. That is my opinion
See what comes out of the serious Covid management discussion at the Beehive today. Top scientists and medical minds will be attending. No matter how good the plan is, even under level 4 their were rule breakers.
Not happening mate. Grant made that reasonably clear at 1pm. His comment that these are rule breakers, [so therefore it would be spreading at level 4 also] means Auckland is not going to bounce back up to 4.
The time has come for us all to prepare for this virus to rip. We are now very much on the Melbourne trajectory. Numbers will double week on week from here.
Its going to be a grim few weeks heading into Christmas.
I agree, I cant see them putting Auckland back to level 4 as they know there would be a public outcry. There is enough rule breakers already. One positive is it may speed up people getting the vaccine.
Maybe not Enough is.. but if your job is getting hot and sweaty while naked with multiple clients you would have to go a long way to find a better transmission enviroment than that. And it will only get down to the South via a non- compliant arsehole from guess where?.
Seems like half the country wants them all named & shamed, and the other half doesn’t want them & their families to have to face abuse from the public.
Might have to bring back public stocks for lockdown runners, but let them wear a bag over their heads?
We seem to be getting into situations where some lockdown runners’ names are publicly known & others aren’t.
Really great to hear of Littles optimism. So we will cut off the country at the Bombays ? No schooling , shops etc open this year and potentially April 22??, no holidays, Auckland north closed for what 6 months ???
Perhaps some govt ministers should get out to Auckland, There is plenty of evidence that the public are not adhering to the level 3 rules( just look at the spread of cases), remember what Coster said in Feb 21 regarding "policing by consent". IMO this outbreak is hanging on the consent of the public, and evidence that this consent is diminishing.
"Next year, even with a 90 per cent of the eligible population vaccinated, Covid cases in the area covering Auckland and Northland could hit 5300 a week for six weeks.The Government is not worried about this. In fact, it thinks it is entirely manageable."
Even though it's rule-breaking rather than workplaces that seem to be the main source of spread, this calls for serious consideration about pushing everyone up a covid level – and explicitly blaming rulebreakers for it. This is why we can't have nice things.
Unless they can guarantee cases will plateau in a fortnight (which they can't), this is going to get very ugly indeed.
You think areseholes breaking lockdown rules care about other people, or what they may think?
Teenagers (or some of then) who haven't seen their boyfriend or mates in 60 days won't care.
People who's livlihood rely on working in the black market won't care.
Short sharp lockdows are effective. But once you get to this point (as has been shown everywhere else in the world) universal compliance becomes the issue.
Of the unvaccinated I know, they also didn't pay much attention to the rules for level 4 either. They've been quite boastful about what they got up in level 4 and still doing in level 3.
The only thing I can see that might move them are "no jab, no job" and "no jab, no entry" policies. And that's only going to affect whether they get vaccinated, not whether they comply with level 3 or 4 rules.
Worth noting that this is the most recent, with polling until Monday. The commentators interviewed their keyboards and decided last week was terrible for Ardern instead, but the voters disagreed. How dare they.
"The Greens dropped 3.2 points to 6.4 per cent." Looks like their strategy of keeping a low profile is working well. Disclosure of non-interest: I allowed my GP membership to lapse last December. Their messaging has been too underwhelming for too long. I will never abandon my support for the Green movement, of course!
Be interesting to know how many households are fracturing because of anti-vaxxers. The worry that they will get very sick if they contract covid and that families won't be able to help them. Christmas day will be fraught with angst with family members not being invited into the usual noisy rowdy train ride of a day. The simmering resentment which never goes away knowing that a loved one refuses to have the vaccine and is endangering their life and others around them.
Our PM has said often that we all need to "encourage" our loved ones who are "hesitant". In my opinion the lady hasn't got a clue what she is on about. Trying to get an anti-vaxxer to take one for the team is like painfully pulling teeth. The bloody mindedness is boundless when they have made their minds up. One can say well, you only sow what you reap but try telling that to parents who love their kids. Its heartbreaking.
Yeah, of the half-dozen unvaccinated I know, only one is showing any signs of considering getting vaxed. He's aware that there's a lot of shit on the internet, and that he may not have been getting his ideas from reliable sources.
But jeez, it's a lot of work going through every anti-vax talking point that he's bought into one by one and showing exactly how it's disinformation, and how to better interpret the actual facts of the actual situation the disinfo is built on. Something I find interesting is even after I've shown that a particular disinformation source is completely full of shit on several different topics, he still takes further ideas from that source as reliable.
"try telling that to parents who love their kids. Its heartbreaking."
Of the four there's only one.
She's joined a cluster and it's as though her whole being depends on not breaking out. Every illogical, un-founded bullshit claim or theory has been refuted with proof and still….
Oh, Ok. The headline and article have both now been updated. The guts of it is:
………………………………
"Police have taken three people into custody following a stolen-car incident where people fled the scene before a car was spiked.
Just after 2pm police said they were called to an incident after a person had their vehicle stolen in Massey.
The Eagle police helicopter located the stolen vehicle and tracked it to Westgate. A police spokesperson confirmed the offender got away in a waiting vehicle, with two others in the car.
"Eagle has continued to monitor the situation and police have been able to spike the car," the spokesperson said."
“A New Zealand journalist who has been reporting in Afghanistan’s capital since July for television network Al Jazeera has left the country amid growing concerns over safety.
Charlotte Bellis, a television reporter from Christchurch now based in Doha, Qatar, had been in Kabul covering the withdrawal of international forces as the country came under Taliban control.
Her father, Bruce Bellis, said he was unsure exactly when his daughter returned to Doha but it was “not long after the Americans left” at the end of August, marking the end of America’s involvement in the Afghanistan war.
“I believe she is now in Doha because of the Taliban’s attitude towards women … so it was safer for Al Jazeera to take her back to Doha … I understand that’s where she is,” he said.”
This is a bit strange. As the Stuff article goes on to note, Bellis had remained in Kabul & prided herself on having established good working relationships with Kabul’s Taliban leadership, which made her feel quite safe there to continue reporting.
I have noticed recently that one of Al Jazeera’s older hands, Stephanie Dekker, has taken over reporting from Kabul recently, instead of Charlotte, & wondered where she had gone to. Al Jazeera hasn’t said anything about her departure, as far as I know, on their tv news reporting.
It would not take more than a few cases of people one knows (contacts/Afghan journalists) being taken out to unnerve. Then she might have been warned to leave – her Taliban contacts were of the Doha diplomatic talks variety and there was a confrontation within the Taliban (over governing arrangements) around the time she left.
Hmmm. The Taliban has been having major problems with ISK bombings as well, this past week – in several cities, including Kabul. Altho the Taliban Security Services Interim Minister was featured on Aljaz tv news last night saying that their security services have made great progress tracking down IS fighters, given the number of bombings & people killed (mainly Shia/Hazaris) he wasn’t very convincing.
The Taliban are facing not just Islamic State attacks, but also the possible beginnings of an insurgency from other ethnic groups not represented in their government, including Masoud’s. They are discovering it’s not going to be just like the 1990s when they took control last time.
But the situation over there is now in really dire straits. There’s no funding for anything, gov’t workers have no salaries being paid (& they already hadn’t been paid for months, before the Taliban took over), there’s no work, people are selling what little they have left to buy food, over 90% of the population is on the brink of starvation.
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Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
The pressure is mounting on the Government as it finalises its Budget Policy Statement, but yet more predicted revenue ‘goes missing’. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Climate Commission has delivered another funding blow to the National-ACT-NZ First coalition Government’s tax-cutting plans, potentially carving $1.4 billion off the ‘climate ...
The Government now faces the prospect of having to watch another tax raise the price of petrol when, only six days ago, it abolished the Auckland Regional Fuel tax. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon argued that the regional fuel tax imposed costs on lower-income people with less fuel-efficient vehicles and that ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
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11th March 2018, 7.20 am.
Thump, thump, thump, on my roof. What the hell?
Oh. “Morning Aspen. God, you’re a character!” 😀
https://i.imgur.com/nQbokDe.gif
.
Giving a free Blues concert for the stream’s waterbirds:
https://i.imgur.com/c0hbO8E.gif
"I'd rather drink muddy water or sleep in a hollow log."
"If the river ran whisky and I was a diving duck"
"Good morning blues, blues how do you do? x2 well I feel alright good morning how are you?"
I wouldn't suggest any Howlin' Wolf, though.
the wolf is always worth the listen.
Oh yes. Yes indeed❗️ 👍🏼
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3gXpqpcnfIQ
Alan Lomax's archive.
https://archive.culturalequity.org/solr-search/content/grid?search_api_fulltext=Chester%20Burnett
https://archive.culturalequity.org/collections
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCInpAOuv6nqdf6EheU4Wfjg
You might like this then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOYZaiDZ7BM
Nah, that’s not Da Blues. That’s … I dunno …. White Boy Punk Country, or something.
I prefer the minimalist style of Ravi Shankar’s little girl & her lead guitarist on this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBseZ6y7hDQ
Heart of Glass is a New Wave/Disco crossover. Blondie got lots of shit for doing Disco but hey it's a great song. The original demo version had reggae influence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkjeAt0KrL8
My dog always sings along to both versions.
Blondie was also the first Rock band to do Rap.
Man, that’s certainly a different version from their more well-known hit version. Debbie Harry’s got the voice & the superb timing to carry it off, tho.
She certainly has, my dog not so much.
.
😄
Might just be the wrong song for your doggie:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k3u5E8XKPjg
My favorite Floyd album. But no that one doesn't do anything for her.
This one however:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jShX2lBwWfM
I like Reggae as well as Blues; in fact I learned how to combine them in one original song “Blues Done In Reggae”.
I especially like Bob & The Wailers, as well as a few UB40 songs.
My favourite UB40 song (apart from “Ivory Madonna” – not the correct name but YouTube finds it) is this one – after I witnessed it performed live by Porirua’s Whitireia University Music Class Band during their concert at the Cozzie Club in Upper Hutt. They did a fantastic job of it:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hgwr6eyLDlI
In a past life I had a small town pub.
We had Ronnie Taylor play on a Saturday night. His backing band Tainui Funk had finished setting up when Ronnie arrived.
He walked straight up to the bar and asked for a double Jack Daniels. I asked if he wanted ice in it. He replied "Don't start a fire then put it out".
😀 👍🏼 ☘ 🍺
Rod Oram anticipates an increasing focus on methane – a political shift consequent of perceptions of increasing urgency. BAU advocates will feel even more paranoid. Having pointed out here a couple of years ago that methane breaks down into CO2, I've been mystified by the long-standing tendency to discount it, but I suppose that's just another symptom of climate change inducing mass irrationality & hysteria.
Reminds us why there's a huge pakeha male deficit in the Greens & their voter base. "Huh?? What are you trying to say?" would be their typical response. Can't get political support for policy shifts without communicating in language folks are familiar with. Duh!
“Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a warming potential more than 28 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2). But when it comes to livestock and climate change, there are many other characteristics that set biogenic methane (methane from cattle) apart from CO2. Here are an important four:
* It stays in our atmosphere for about 12 years
* It’s derived from atmospheric carbon, such as CO2
* It’s part of the biogenic carbon cycle
* It eventually returns to the atmosphere as CO2, making it recycled carbon
…
Methane has a relatively short life of 12 years compared to the hundreds or even thousands of years that CO2 hangs around. After about 12 years, 80 to 89 percent of methane is removed by oxidation with tropical hydroxyl radicals (OH), a process referred to as hydroxyl oxidation. As a result of its short lifespan, methane is only significantly warming our atmosphere for those 12 years, which is why it is considered a short-lived climate pollutant (SLCP).
Its short lifespan is further relevant in regard to warming, because it means that as methane is being emitted it is also being destroyed in the atmosphere, making it a flow gas.
This illustrates that methane’s warming impact isn’t determined by how much is being emitted – since it’s destroyed relatively quickly – but by how much more or less methane is being emitted over a period of time. This is a change in the rate of emission.
What is notable about methane, is that it’s possible the amount being emitted can equal the amount being destroyed. For example, if a herd of cattle emits the same amount of methane over 12 years, they are contributing to warming for those 12 years. But afterward the same amount being emitted is the same that is being destroyed through oxidation, and thus warming is neutral.”
https://clear.ucdavis.edu/explainers/why-methane-cattle-warms-climate-differently-co2-fossil-fuels
Yeah, this neutrality thesis is what's in question. Well, that's the impression I get anyway. We await any new consensus of experts! I'll just restate my point about oxidation by pointing out that CO2 is the product. How anyone in academia can spin that into neutrality is a bit beyond me. Do they use an equation?
It’s physics, so I imagine they do, Dennis.
If it’s not shown in that article, there are others around on the web that proponents have posted to us on other blogs.
It was hard enuf to find that one, because so many “experts” who dispute or refuse to accept this methane > CO2 cycle thesis have ensured that articles talking up the methane contribution to global warming (as opposed to it being a self-neutralising process) predominate in Google searches.
Oh well, let's hope that the winds of change blown up by the climate summit dispell the fog. Disclosure of interest: I graduated BSc in physics. But that was in a bygone era. I got good at feeding back to the profs whatever line of bullshit they fished for in the design of exam questions. Worked like a charm.
Ever since, I tend to just scan stuff to get the gist of it. Going any further means taking the author seriously – usually a waste of one's valuable time!
If the farmer keeps producing the same amount each year as gets neutralised by the 12th year, that means the farmer is providing a permanent store of Methane heating the atmosphere over 28 times worse than CO2 – the whole bloody time. Bring back lynch mobs!
Well, the time for being critical of farmers is long gone really. Political focus ought to be shifting to solutions and implementation. Farmer's reps have been in the media rating farmer compliance at more than 80% during the past year. I'd like to get a reality check procedure adopted for that compliant majority, plus an enforcement procedure to apply to the remainder.
That means Lab/Nat leaders have to pull finger, eh? Laziness from politicians ought not to be tolerated further by the public. Effective politics is still possible via the use of intelligent design of decision-making processes to extend consensus on solutions & implementation method. Dumb & dumber is institutionalised by democracy, true, but we can get around that with goodwill & serious intent.
The climate summit is being pushed into the corner by the reality of the global energy crisis.
Europe has a significant energy crisis going into winter,due to high prices and supply shortages (due to under investment).
interim measures such as subsidies are being implemented and discussion are underway to remove taxation on FF generators.
https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1448243868072386564?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1448243868072386564%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FJavierBlas2Fstatus2F1448243868072386564widget%3DTweet
https://www.dw.com/en/eu-unveils-toolbox-against-high-energy-prices/a-59488520
https://www.dw.com/en/europeans-brace-for-hard-winter-as-energy-price-surge-hits-households/a-59246714
That's related. The zero-sum thinkers will do trad reductionism: "Forget about climate-fixing, we must fix BAU!" Holists will go "Please extract your head from the 19th century, we need you to help the transition to sustainability. There Is No Alternative. If humanity is to survive…"
Flunk the challenge or engage it? Suit-wearers of the left & right would cope better if they stop wearing their 19th century uniform.
Our failing response to the covid pandemic, reminds me of our response to climate change.
We are told, "Well we must open up eventually, don't we?"
Well what if we didn't?
What if instead of jetting off to the Gold Coast for the weekend, at the cost of one old person catching the infection and dying, we holidayed at home at one of this country's many attractions?
Before the 60's and even into the 70's mass air travel wasn't even a thing. Air travel was a rare luxury for the wealthy, or something you saved up for that once in a lifetime vacation.
I think we need to personalise the experience of air travel in the age of covid. Before you are allowed to fly overseas for that weekend on the beach at Surfers or Bondi, you have to agree to go into an old folks home and personally euthanise one old person.
And if you think Covid is bad, the climate crisis is going to be worse.
While your high emissions lifestyle is more likely to kill someone in the Third World and not you, again I think we need to personalise the experience of air travel in the age of climate change.
Alighting at that exotic tropical holdiday destination, before you get to relax on the beach with that maitai in your hand, you have to agree to drown one local child in the nearest river.
I'll go with the principle of moral responsibility. It tends to operate as sub-text for political activists. Make it explicit & folks immediately start complaining that thinking about it makes their brain hurt.
What if it were to be incorporated into a code of ethics for economists and accountants? Then you'd get the real costs of business & policies impacting onto political decisions. Both left- and right-wingers would hate that! Since democracy was designed to privilege both tribes of wrongdoers, gonna be real hard to make progress on an ethical basis.
Yes, millions of individuals acting selfishly don't seem able to solve the big problems. Who would have thought (except 99% of mainstream economists and politicians)?
It don’t make no never mind (as US southerners might say) to the planet.
If we human apes don’t get our act together, the ecosytem & our social settings will change to make survival of the current huge numbers of our arrogant & untthinking species more difficult.
There will be other species which will likely survive better in a hotter workd, & / or new ones might arise or evolve to take advantage of the new niches, as always.
The most special thing about human apes is the danger they present to all other life forms, as well as their own.
Kim Hill uncharacteristically letting Chris Bishop, world authority on epidemiology, vaccination and nurse ICU training off the hook this morning , apparently there are 3000 nurses in the MIQ queue desperate to get home to work in ICU. Really? Just how many are only coming home to see mum and dad for a while, how many are ICU trained, a process that can take years or months just to be bought up to speed if with previous ICU experience, because techniques and equipment and drugs are constantly being upgraded. Or coming home to get the fuck away from nursing because of burnout?
Oh, and they can home isolate even if symptomatic because of an app on their phone with say, aged parents with compromised function or a sister with young, unvaxxed children, in fact all 30,000 can come home. Fuck off Bishop and take your vax avoider mate Goudie with you.
John Carter Northland Mayor?, another ex Nat railing about the two women sex workers, how about naming and shaming the Northland residents who aided and abetted the two to go to Northland in the first place? But hang on, they may be National Party donors or “ prominent in the community” , can’t have that eh. Arseholes.
It's alright Adrian, I'll get Chris Faafoi to look into it for you.
Calm down, Adrian. One you got to John Carter you lost me, I’m afraid. Arseholes, I understood but the rest of it’s a bit too convoluted for me to follow, tbh. I am a bear of small brain. 🐼
🙄 *Once you got to John Carter…
There are going to be cases of people self isolating at home so they do not catch Covid. Some people are spending a lot of time in their home under level 2 even now and they are restructuring their interests.
The likes of mayors or opposition politicians do not need to tell me how to personally manage a Covid outbreak.
The urgency is in Auckland and the basics need to be provided, food, counselling, laptops and phone connections for school education, rental housing assistance, survival income and free sound business advice.
That's not fair on John Carter. He is genuinely angry about this.
He is not like Goudie.
In regards to Bisflap, it could be an example of 'Give 'em enough rope…'
I was illustrating how easy it is to give grandstanders like Bishop and Carter room to put up straw theories that can fall apart at the first challenge. But first they must be challenged.
As good as Kim can be she does operate within the RNZ ecosystem which got hobbled long ago by….3 guesses no prizes.
When Kim Hill wants to challenge or question someone’s statements, she’s usually very good at it – quite dogged & determined.
Perhaps she’s feeling off colour, or just not in the mood this morning? I’ll see if I can find the audio track when RNZ post it, & have a listen later.
How long is the Delta Covid wave likely to last in NZ?
Bishop and Carter can spit tacks all they like about individual rule breakers, once the rules are broken they cannot be reversed. The situation can only be contained and everyone is affected when rules are broken and infection control is not followed properly.
Two of them are Richard Griffin and Paul Thompson. The name of the newest rightie on the board escapes me.
Difficult reading over breakfast.
https://twitter.com/normanswan/status/1447891570934444033
Interesting tho. 👍🏼
O Virus, look upon your mortal legions and despair.
1. You haven't risen beyond any other social ill. The mortality and morbidity effects are far less that car crashes per year. You're over-hyped.
2. Each crisis has made us stronger. Some of our more recent crises have rapidly accelerated human progress. Such as in global co-operation, medicine, mechanisation, and communications and information. You helped us kill you, again and again.
3. You told us nothing about the poor. Covid is eventually a disease of deprivation, but pretty much everything else is already.
4. We know better than you. Covid has been a strong positive axial point for human knowledge. It has confirmed the epistemic truth of science against social media, and simultaneously supported accelerated successful drug trials faster than we've seen in decades..
5. Our unity overcomes you. Social cohesion has remained remarkably strong – even in the United States. There is no underground lava flow of human anomie to reveal from Covid.
6. Our state is stronger than ever. Covid, even more than the GFC, has confirmed the necessity for strong and coherent government.
7. Our dominion continues to strengthen. Compared to the Spanish 'Flu a century ago, human hygiene and public health measures are vastly superior. Humans have gained power not weakened in that time. If this is one of the worst viral powers in modern operation, it's been dealt to very fast and with remarkable lack of fuss.
8 Capitalism, medicine, and government are united. Researchers invested and tested at speed. Regulators acted with appropriate speed. Few governments are afraid of debt anymore to achieve public health goals.
9. The world is re-opening and re-born. Your lessons such as they are have already been absorbed and the height of your doom has passed. You haven't had the longevity of human interest of two seasons of Days Of Our Lives.
10. You were the last of your kind, and you're done. Even Polio was stronger, Malaria more powerful and across more lives, and they too are being vaccined away. You were more than SARS, but less than most. Would you like a gold plated One Ring or something to make you feel better?
Nothing can stop us.
For some reason my computer isn't copying, but here's the latest Talbot Mills (UMR) polling:
Labour 46
National 22
Act 16
Greens 7
What were the previous results?
Some details in the Herald:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/new-political-poll-act-six-points-behind-national-while-david-seymours-popularity-climbs-talbot-mills-research/
“Labour on 46 per cent (up one point from September), National on 22 per cent (down four points), Act up three points to 16 and the Greens up one at 7 per cent.”
That’s what I wanted. Thank you. 👍🏼
Collins will survive until 2022 when parliament resumes. She will continue to be a liability as leader. National and Act could be neck and neck in the next Colmar Brunton poll.
All the National whingers and the ACT gossippers are not out trolling today.
After many claims that ACT was taking votes directly from labour.
Both Greens and Labour on steady ground National in more trouble those National MP's with slim majorities and lower on the list will want a new leader Pronto as business leaders say Collins is the best promoter for Labour.
How long can National keep bleeding votes to every other party.
National is in limbo until 2022.
Judith Collins is not going anywhere.
Judith Collins is like a vulture sitting on a tree branch patiently waiting for the beautiful antelope to stumble.
Already she is preparing to swoop down on the wounded gazelle.
After health experts were sidelined in the decision to lower the Auckland Alert Level, with the resulting rise in cases they warned the government of. Some of these health experts demanded to see who's advice the government had been taking.
Despite the fact that lowering the level is what she had been demanding all along, Judith Collins has swooped down to peck at the fallen carcase of the Government's covid response. And is also now (belatedly) demanding that this policy advice be released.
I knew the picnic bubble was a bad idea. It gave people a licience to entertain inside the home. Having a nominated visitor like in L4 needed to be maintained and allowing 2 nominated visitors in L3.
Contact tracing would have been much easier.
John Key would be happy with labour opening the economy.
As I mentioned Judith Collins was very late coming to the realisation that the government's decision to go out of Level 4 was a mistake, especially as this is just what she had been calling for.
In demanding the government release the advice they received before going down a level, Judith Collins is only echoing the Health experts' query.
With the Auckand Nat MPs not returning to Wellington until the new year how long will they hold off?
Judith must be quietly hoping the lockdown lasts 2 years
Right track: 63
Wrong track: 30
As usual, the people disagree with those who are paid to tell the people what the people think.
Lab/Grn a smidgeon over 50; Nat/ACT a smidgeon under 40. A 10-15% gap between the blocs – pretty much what we have been seeing for a while. The Key years in reverse.
What will be the catalyst for that advantage flipping the other way – and what can be done to pre-empt it?
I'll be surprised in Labour still hold up their vote after the abandonment of elimination and the imminent overwhelming of our hospital services.
Rod Jackson speaking sense.
"You can be really hard on them [rule breakers], but you're probably not going to ever stop them.
"We have to make sure that our cars' brakes work, we need to make sure that we're doing everything and we're following all the rules because the more we do that, the more we can slow it down."
“I think we need to take our mandatory vaccination rules much further. I think it has to be the police, it has to be supermarkets.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018816323
Meanwhile from anti-vaxxer land:
'Despite having brakes, some cars still crash. Therefore I choose not to have any brakes'
Brakes make it less likely to cause serious harm, that is why cars need brakes.
Scroll down for the kicker.
https://twitter.com/Te_Taipo/status/1448223319161860097
Labour again showing it is not just houses that they can't build properly
New My Covid website full of security holes.
Link has the interview with the ITguy
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/audio/daniel-ayers-it-security-expert-finds-issues-with-my-covid-website-within-a-few-minutes/
"IT expert finds issues with My Covid website 'within a few minutes'
A Christchurch IT expert has found security issues with the Government's My Covid website.
The My Covid Record website is now accessible to the public, initially just allowing people to view their vaccination record.
However, members of the public have reported the new site seems overloaded.
IT security expert Daniel Ayers told Mike Hoskin a brand new website shouldn't have….." issues like these.
Chris T houses they can't build properly you mean when National threw out building quality control and put in private building inspectors in 1991 allowing the leaky building catastrophe.
The Canterbury rebuild which is costing tax payers billions because of dodgy repairs and insurance underpayment.
Kiwibuild was worth a try but because of shortages of Labour Land and materials it failed,But the number of govt funded new state houses has seen more built since the 1970's. National said it was a mistake to sell off 7,000 state houses.
Are you wearing your whataboutism t-shirt today?
Kiwibuild was a joke. A flat out bribe that they knew perfectly well was impossible, because at the time they were under 30 in the polls.
Fair play to Shearer though. To his credit he managed to not burst out laughing when he announced it. Not a lot of parties politicians would have had the ability to do that.
Kiwibuild has delivered 1500 extra homes to the market while National had a massive deficit over 9 years Nicola Willis saying it was a mistake selling off 7,000 state houses .
Labour has built nearly 4,000 state houses plus funding for nearly 1,000 NGO houses.
When you add that all up its not enough but it's way better than National.If you take the Canterbury rebuild out of Nationals figures of state houses built. you will find Nationals housing efforts even worse but not as bad as the leaky building disasters like brand new hospitals and schools etc that still need fixing and demolition in many cases.
"Kiwibuild has delivered 1500 extra homes to the market while National had a massive deficit over 9 years Nicola Willis saying it was a mistake selling off 7,000 state houses ."
Kiwibuild is arguably the greatest policy failure in the history of NZ politics.
"Labour has built nearly 4,000 state houses plus funding for nearly 1,000 NGO houses."
All I can say is that you're being more honest than Megan Woods. As at 27th July, the number Labour have actually built is Kainga Ora 1952 + CHP's 1009 + Transitional Housing 755. So the total permanent additions are only 2961 as at 27/7.
This was a major policy platform of Labour's, and instead of fixing the problem they have made it worse.
Might be a case of Mike H picking the expert that fits the narrative. An official from the MoH said on RNZ today that the site had been security-audited by a third party consultancy.
Did Mike try being an actual journalist and get the contending experts together in a balanced way without any pre-conceptions? Presumably not, as he has a particular ideological function to fulfill.
And God knows what's actually true – IT is the wild west and it's best to doubt everyone involved in it.
2021 is…
Updating the security photo on your cell phone to one where you are wearing a mask.
Haha, I just tried that, and phone says "no face identified".
National has moderated its criticism trying to look mature. A bit late in the day a lot of work to do.
Unfortunately Collins has taken herself well beyond mature & is now ripe for cropping.
71 cases today….I heard the expert interviewed by Kim hill just before 9am who said there really needs to be a vaccine that steralises covid, like the measles vaccine. Current covid vaccines allow transmission.
I think we should eliminate covid for another year until such a vaccine becomes available. Level 4 in akl till Xmas. That is my opinion
See what comes out of the serious Covid management discussion at the Beehive today. Top scientists and medical minds will be attending. No matter how good the plan is, even under level 4 their were rule breakers.
The rule breakers are harming the community.
Not happening mate. Grant made that reasonably clear at 1pm. His comment that these are rule breakers, [so therefore it would be spreading at level 4 also] means Auckland is not going to bounce back up to 4.
The time has come for us all to prepare for this virus to rip. We are now very much on the Melbourne trajectory. Numbers will double week on week from here.
Its going to be a grim few weeks heading into Christmas.
I agree, I cant see them putting Auckland back to level 4 as they know there would be a public outcry. There is enough rule breakers already. One positive is it may speed up people getting the vaccine.
Oh great. Sounds like this was a lucky escape for the South Island.
Women who travelled to Blenheim have returned negative Covid results | Stuff.co.nz
Not surprising though. Just because someone is from Auckland, it doesn't mean they have COVID.
Problem being there seems to be more and more rule breakers!
True, still a tiny number of Aucklanders have the disease though, so the South would be very unlucky if one of the very few peole travelling had it.
But its going to get down there at some stage over the coming week.s Numbers are about to explode which will means its heading south before Christmas.
Maybe not Enough is.. but if your job is getting hot and sweaty while naked with multiple clients you would have to go a long way to find a better transmission enviroment than that. And it will only get down to the South via a non- compliant arsehole from guess where?.
Seems like half the country wants them all named & shamed, and the other half doesn’t want them & their families to have to face abuse from the public.
Might have to bring back public stocks for lockdown runners, but let them wear a bag over their heads?
We seem to be getting into situations where some lockdown runners’ names are publicly known & others aren’t.
The odds are still very low.
Working person first needs to have got hot and sweaty with someone who had covid to then start spreading it. Thats about a 1 in 1000 chance.
Good to hear Minister Little so optimistic about New Zealand getting to the 90% vaccinated rate nationwide.
At 71 cases and rising, there aren't many more reasons to be optimistic.
Let’s hope he’s right. Little has never inspired optimism in me.
Really great to hear of Littles optimism. So we will cut off the country at the Bombays ? No schooling , shops etc open this year and potentially April 22??, no holidays, Auckland north closed for what 6 months ???
Perhaps some govt ministers should get out to Auckland, There is plenty of evidence that the public are not adhering to the level 3 rules( just look at the spread of cases), remember what Coster said in Feb 21 regarding "policing by consent". IMO this outbreak is hanging on the consent of the public, and evidence that this consent is diminishing.
"Next year, even with a 90 per cent of the eligible population vaccinated, Covid cases in the area covering Auckland and Northland could hit 5300 a week for six weeks.The Government is not worried about this. In fact, it thinks it is entirely manageable."
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/covid-19-delta-outbreak-next-year-thousands-of-people-will-get-covid-most-will-stay-at-home/LQZ3WPSZD5WQKTQNOZ4YHHQZXE/
For a lifetime, not a person of good character.
Reckon the Aussies will deport him? Brown people who own motorbikes have been sent back for less than his "hoarding disorder".
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/126675998/ron-brierley-sentenced-to-14-months-in-jail-over-childabuse-images
$200 million buys him an easy seven months in the kid-fuckers wing and someone to fold the sheets down when he arrives home in Wunulla Rd.
A slow moving nightmare comin' down the track.
https://twitter.com/radionz/status/1448440481642266629
https://twitter.com/RawiriTaonui/status/1448440496674652163
Why did she say the numbers were not unexpected?
I am trying to look back and can't find where they said they were expecting these numbers
Well, they've said today they expect numbers to double in a couple of weeks.
Even though it's rule-breaking rather than workplaces that seem to be the main source of spread, this calls for serious consideration about pushing everyone up a covid level – and explicitly blaming rulebreakers for it. This is why we can't have nice things.
Unless they can guarantee cases will plateau in a fortnight (which they can't), this is going to get very ugly indeed.
I do not want NZ crematoria running overtime.
I think the point being made is rule breakers don't care what level we are at. If they don't stay home at 3 why would they stay home at 4.
Because even most rule breakers would care about what someone thinks.
And those someones getting pissed at rulebreakers because they're the ones responsible for the lockdown, that might work.
You think areseholes breaking lockdown rules care about other people, or what they may think?
Teenagers (or some of then) who haven't seen their boyfriend or mates in 60 days won't care.
People who's livlihood rely on working in the black market won't care.
Short sharp lockdows are effective. But once you get to this point (as has been shown everywhere else in the world) universal compliance becomes the issue.
Most people have someone – flatmate, family member, friend.
And most people have neighbours, flatmates or exes who might be fucked off about rulebreaking keeping them in L4.
What's your solution – abandon levels and watch the cases rise?
Of the unvaccinated I know, they also didn't pay much attention to the rules for level 4 either. They've been quite boastful about what they got up in level 4 and still doing in level 3.
The only thing I can see that might move them are "no jab, no job" and "no jab, no entry" policies. And that's only going to affect whether they get vaccinated, not whether they comply with level 3 or 4 rules.
Cases are going to rise. That's inevitible. We can't put the genie back in the bottle now.
My solution, encourage everyone I know, friends, family collegues, neighbours to get the jab, because the virus is coming.
It is simply wishful thinking that we can have a COVID free New Zealand agian. That is a waste of energy as it will never be the case again.
By that logic, it was always a waste of energy.
But I'd rather live in Auckland than Melbourne or Sydney right now.
Not really – Delta is a new beast. We gave it a good crack, which was the right thing to do, but we are now onto the next stage of this fight.
No, really. I have family over there. fuck that.
There will be a few weeks of more initial doses of vaccine, but then there's a few more weeks before the second dose.
The next stage of this fight can be overloaded hospitals, or if folks can stick it out for a few more weeks we might be able to avoid that.
The main marathon's end is in sight, but don't fall over before we get there.
The latest poll only confirms the terrible results for National:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/new-taxpayers-union-poll-has-national-just-six-points-ahead-of-act/
Worth noting that this is the most recent, with polling until Monday. The commentators interviewed their keyboards and decided last week was terrible for Ardern instead, but the voters disagreed. How dare they.
"The Greens dropped 3.2 points to 6.4 per cent." Looks like their strategy of keeping a low profile is working well. Disclosure of non-interest: I allowed my GP membership to lapse last December. Their messaging has been too underwhelming for too long. I will never abandon my support for the Green movement, of course!
Be interesting to know how many households are fracturing because of anti-vaxxers. The worry that they will get very sick if they contract covid and that families won't be able to help them. Christmas day will be fraught with angst with family members not being invited into the usual noisy rowdy train ride of a day. The simmering resentment which never goes away knowing that a loved one refuses to have the vaccine and is endangering their life and others around them.
Our PM has said often that we all need to "encourage" our loved ones who are "hesitant". In my opinion the lady hasn't got a clue what she is on about. Trying to get an anti-vaxxer to take one for the team is like painfully pulling teeth. The bloody mindedness is boundless when they have made their minds up. One can say well, you only sow what you reap but try telling that to parents who love their kids. Its heartbreaking.
Yeah, of the half-dozen unvaccinated I know, only one is showing any signs of considering getting vaxed. He's aware that there's a lot of shit on the internet, and that he may not have been getting his ideas from reliable sources.
But jeez, it's a lot of work going through every anti-vax talking point that he's bought into one by one and showing exactly how it's disinformation, and how to better interpret the actual facts of the actual situation the disinfo is built on. Something I find interesting is even after I've shown that a particular disinformation source is completely full of shit on several different topics, he still takes further ideas from that source as reliable.
"try telling that to parents who love their kids. Its heartbreaking."
Of the four there's only one.
She's joined a cluster and it's as though her whole being depends on not breaking out. Every illogical, un-founded bullshit claim or theory has been refuted with proof and still….
I just don't know how to fix it.
Oh Brigid, my heart goes out to you. Keep loving and talking with, but decide on your rules. All the best to you both. xx
Christ. More sht goin' down in Tamaki Makaurau?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/armed-police-chase-man-at-western-springs/GHHL4OW2XCUF3HRWJPM623GM34/
Looking foward to an update…
Oh, Ok. The headline and article have both now been updated. The guts of it is:
………………………………
"Police have taken three people into custody following a stolen-car incident where people fled the scene before a car was spiked.
Just after 2pm police said they were called to an incident after a person had their vehicle stolen in Massey.
The Eagle police helicopter located the stolen vehicle and tracked it to Westgate. A police spokesperson confirmed the offender got away in a waiting vehicle, with two others in the car.
"Eagle has continued to monitor the situation and police have been able to spike the car," the spokesperson said."
“A New Zealand journalist who has been reporting in Afghanistan’s capital since July for television network Al Jazeera has left the country amid growing concerns over safety.
Charlotte Bellis, a television reporter from Christchurch now based in Doha, Qatar, had been in Kabul covering the withdrawal of international forces as the country came under Taliban control.
Her father, Bruce Bellis, said he was unsure exactly when his daughter returned to Doha but it was “not long after the Americans left” at the end of August, marking the end of America’s involvement in the Afghanistan war.
“I believe she is now in Doha because of the Taliban’s attitude towards women … so it was safer for Al Jazeera to take her back to Doha … I understand that’s where she is,” he said.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/126677293/kiwi-journalist-charlotte-bellis-leaves-afghanistan-amid-heightened-taliban-tension
…………………………………
This is a bit strange. As the Stuff article goes on to note, Bellis had remained in Kabul & prided herself on having established good working relationships with Kabul’s Taliban leadership, which made her feel quite safe there to continue reporting.
I have noticed recently that one of Al Jazeera’s older hands, Stephanie Dekker, has taken over reporting from Kabul recently, instead of Charlotte, & wondered where she had gone to. Al Jazeera hasn’t said anything about her departure, as far as I know, on their tv news reporting.
It would not take more than a few cases of people one knows (contacts/Afghan journalists) being taken out to unnerve. Then she might have been warned to leave – her Taliban contacts were of the Doha diplomatic talks variety and there was a confrontation within the Taliban (over governing arrangements) around the time she left.
Hmmm. The Taliban has been having major problems with ISK bombings as well, this past week – in several cities, including Kabul. Altho the Taliban Security Services Interim Minister was featured on Aljaz tv news last night saying that their security services have made great progress tracking down IS fighters, given the number of bombings & people killed (mainly Shia/Hazaris) he wasn’t very convincing.
The Taliban are facing not just Islamic State attacks, but also the possible beginnings of an insurgency from other ethnic groups not represented in their government, including Masoud’s. They are discovering it’s not going to be just like the 1990s when they took control last time.
But the situation over there is now in really dire straits. There’s no funding for anything, gov’t workers have no salaries being paid (& they already hadn’t been paid for months, before the Taliban took over), there’s no work, people are selling what little they have left to buy food, over 90% of the population is on the brink of starvation.