An average of 0.5 degrees above the norm is huge. (They don’t explicitly state it, but I’m assuming they are centigrade measurements).
Will governments change their commitments? No. They aren’t capable. They’re institutionally locked in to what they do – promote and protect ‘the market’; seek a market solution to a non-market phenomenon. Risible really.
New Zealand news at its most cringe-worthy.
After weeks off the radar, the European refugee crisis hits the news in the Herlad again.
Why?
Because its travel writer was on a luxury cruise on the Mediterranean and bumped into them.
Our MSM’s standard of news is just so bad.
The ink is barely dry on the TPP and New Zealand has the prospect of another giant free trade deal in the offing with the European Union taking the first steps towards an FTA with New Zealand.
It was announced early this morning that the EU Commission will seek to negotiate separate FTAs with both New Zealand and Australia as part of its trade strategy for the next four years.
The caveat is that talks will take in account “EU agricultural sensitivities.”‘
Looks like an interesting talk.
But is Jim Mora the right person to be MCing a debate on dumbing down the media?
Maybe this was intended irony.
‘Is the media being dumbed down, and what alternatives can online media offer audiences? What’s happening with quality journalism? Where’s it all heading and what are the implicatons for ordinary New Zealanders? Does it actually matter?
Radio New Zealand and Massey University are hosting a discussion about the future of journalism and the shape of the media today.
Auckland Art Gallery
What: The Shape of the Media
Where: Auckland Art Gallery Auditorium
When: 6:30 – 8pm, Friday 23 October 2015
Your MC for the evening will be Jim Mora, who along with Professor Graeme Turner – one of the leading figures in cultural and media studies in Australia and internationally – and a panel of locals, will debate the quality and value of the media.’
About 50,000 New Zealanders have hepatitis C, a blood-borne virus that causes inflammation of the liver.
Long term about 10% of people with Hepatitis C will die of complications including cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer. Most people with the disease suffer a long term chronic fatigue and carry with them an ever present fear of infecting close contacts.
Until recently, treatment was difficult – but now everything has changed.
Working with researchers around the world, including New Zealand’s Dr Ed Gane, a US pharmaceutical company called Pharmasset developed a tablet medication called Sofosbuvir which provides a high cure rate with far fewer side effects than everything previously used to treat hepatitis C .
We are now close to being able to think about eradicating hepatitis C entirely, in the same way that we eradicated smallpox and have nearly eradicated polio.
In November 2011, Pharmasset was acquired by Gilead for $11 billion. Since then, Gilead have made over $22 billion marketing Sofosbuvir under its brand name ‘Sovaldi’.
Gilead is asking $1,000 per tablet, around $84,000 per patient.
That means it would cost $4,200,000,000 to cure nearly everyone in NZ who has hepatitis C – and we all know that is not going to happen.
There is an alternative. Manufacturers in places like China and India who do not recognize patents, are producing these drugs at around 1/50th of Gilead’s price – that’s around $2,000 per treatment.
For that price, New Zealand could cure nearly all of its 50,000 or so hep C sufferers for around $100 mil instead of $4,200 mil.
Think about that for a moment – it means that for the money that John Key spent on the flag – so far, we could have cured 1 in 4 of New Zealand’s hep C sufferers – already.
This tells us what the TPPA is going to cost us. We will pay more, much more for medical treatment and very few of us will be treated. And perhaps worst of all, our aspirations for a better life for all of us through science will be ruthlessly choked back.
If you, or anyone you know has hep C, then you should check out the FixHepC Buyers Club which is helping people access the medication that they need to clear hep C and testing it, for less than $3,000 Aus.
“It’s possible and in fact highly probably that patents will run for a little bit longer and that means the Government will have to pay for the original drug as opposed to the generic for a little bit longer,” Key said on Tuesday as he headed into National’s mid-morning caucus meeting.
Tracey I’ve explained the difference between data exclusivity and patents from a pharmaceutical point of view previously. I’ll try to link back to previous comment latter today.
would you also be able to explain the motivation for the industry’s desire for extended data protection IF it has no impact on financial return? a return derived almost exclusively from publicly funded purchases? Oh and a brief discourse on “evergreening’ wouldnt go amiss either.
“The extra costs to PHARMAC under the TPP are a nothing. Your comment regarding business was usual for access to biologics has more to do with PHARMACs operating policies and procedures and the way they manage their budget than any trade agreement and will continue to do so.”
“There was extended – and quite informative – discussion”
From the very limited perspective I was discussing, I had three concerns:
1. A trade deal should improve access and that is not happening with the TPP. I don’t like that we’ve traded away improved access to biologics now for primary produce exports in the future. It’s cetainly not a ‘free’ trade deal.
2. The cost of administration and a possible delay in the availability of generics has to be met, even if it isn’t much in overall health system spending. I worry (not expect) health funding – who knows for what – will be affected by an increased (at best, no reduction in) cost of Pharmac doing business. Specifically that it may be met through reduced, rather than improved access to biologics for people with auto-immune diseases. The effect may not be much in health system terms, but in personal terms it is huge.
3. I don’t agree that three biologics, as NZ has, for treating inflammatory arthritis is sufficient given the variable nature of the disease. This has bugger all to do with superiority of one drug over another and much to do with how a patient responds to the biologic they’re given.
As an aside – maybe if social and wider government costs were taken into account in Pharmac decision criteria there would be a bit more money available for these very expensive drugs.
I may have led you slightly astray Miravox, apparently we have rituximab and tociluzimab available and funded in NZ for appropriate patients as well..so five agents not three.
I also completely agree with your comment regarding pHARMAC’s decision criteria which is not just an issue in this area of medicine.
I still think you misunderstand the effect of the trade deal on the availability of medicines which are more influenced by the PHARMAC ‘ops’ and budget in the first place, patent law in the second place and whether the companies in question actually registering the medicine in NZ.
define “very small”….esp. in terms of a health budget already under extreme pressure?
the subsequent discussion which highlighted purchases practices of Pharmac reinforces the role price plays on availability of treatments to NZ health practitioners…so yes we can keep to minor costs to Pharmac…but at what cost in terms of treatment options?…and if we ignore the likely legal challenges and chilling effect as demonstrated by Australias experience post FTA.
I dunno. Less than the cost of bribing Saudi princes? Less than the cost of passing legislative favours to the National Party’s owners? Less than the costs of having a massively incompetent bunch of self-interested troughers leveraging their time as MPs to build lucrative business careers (h/t Blabbermouth Lusk)…
Data exclusivity in its most basic interpretation is the protection of clinical test/trial data (safety and efficacy) required to be submitted to a regulatory agency and prevention of generic drug manufacturers from relying on this data in their own applications.
In NZ this is 5 years at present and moving to 8 years for biologics under this agreement.
To take the discussions on the Hep C drug discussed above (Yes it is outrageously priced in the regulated jurisdictions) the first major patent on this medicine which will be the substance patent expires in the middle of the 2020s, however the data exclusivity will have expired from a NZ perspective 5 years from the date it was registered by Medsafe – 2014.
Patent products the product, the process of producing it etc and applies to anyone copying that in toto for the period of the patent (which can be renewed) and data exclusivity relates to testing regimes as opposed to the creation.manufacturing processes of the drug itself?
If yes, thanks for the clarification. If no. Help.
Not quite, data exclusivity relates to the data generated from the testing.
When the medicine is registered by the regulator in a country like NZ they look at the manufacturing data regarding process, good manufacturing practices, sterility etc etc as well as the actual data from trials in animals and humans looking at safety and efficacy.
When a company producing a generic copy of the medicine wants to get registration and supply the medicine they only have to supply the manufacturing data.
Don’t you think it is misleading to put this statement into your intro?
“Key said on Tuesday as he headed into National’s mid-morning caucus meeting.”
I, and probably most other people, read that as meaning Tuesday 13 October but when I looked at the link I discover it was about three months ago. Many things have changed since them haven’t they, and as NSD points out the longer period of patents, and hence increased prices, will not apply to these drugs.
Obviously Tim Groser did good work on holding the drug patents to existing times.
Are you saying you don’t think the IP provisions under the TPP would leave Pharmac (and our Govt) open to being sued by a company from a TPP country for buy a drug in breach of patent law?
Pharmac don’t buy drugs in breach of patent law. If they do, I,m assuming they and the company breaching the patent could be sued as of now anyway. You would know the law better than me I expect.
Individuals can purchase offshore and import for personal use to avoid these issues and medsafe rarely gets involved – need a reputable offshore supply obviously.
Understood, for clarity I was referring tot his part
“There is an alternative. Manufacturers in places like China and India who do not recognize patents, are producing these drugs at around 1/50th of Gilead’s price – that’s around $2,000 per treatment.”
People do need to be careful of sourcing overseas and from countries avoiding patents. There is a double-edged sword in here regarding drug efficacy.
For a so called Doctor Doh! Join the dots between USA high medicine for profit and TPP regulations on patents. Even Mr Liar Key has had to concede that medicine will cost more with TPP.
and there within is the problem savenz…northshore doc is that….not a patent attorney working for the most litigious industry in the world…even with the entire text of the patent provisions the overwhelming majority will not be able to foretell the potential for big pharma to protect their position….but one thing is for certain they are not seeking to reduce their return and they have had partial success….IT WILL COST THE TAXPAYER MORE.
Whether you think its justified to protect that data is a whole other argument, but it is disingenuous in the extreme (or perhaps naive) to hold that it is not going to have a financial cost.
Nope patent law in NZ remains unchanged – data exclusivity for biologic meds, which this is not, may be extended from 5 to 8 years.
I can join the dots because I understand the meaning of the word “not”. Do you?
The “logic” around here is along the lines of “The TPP is bad, so everything bad that I can think of must be in the TPP”. It makes it very difficult to discuss the real issues, and in doing so, undermines informed protest.
“There is an alternative. Manufacturers in places like China and India who do not recognize patents, are producing these drugs at around 1/50th of Gilead’s price – that’s around $2,000 per treatment.”
…. and doesn’t that just show that the TTPA is NOT actually about free trade the neo-libs are supposedly so fond of ….. and competition …. all those capitalist ideals.
I wonder where Simon Upton stands on this.
It seems to me we let ideology get in the way of practical concerns, and its a bloody lazy (and anti-intellectual) approach that’ll guarantee us some serious social problems in the very near future.
The pro-TTPA protectionists should try nursing a liver cancer sufferer till they pass on and watch their body eat itself up (much like an AIDS sufferer).
Of course they are. they might not find India as much of a push over as they suspect.
Corruption and a host of other problems aside, sovereignty and the way other nations treat their citizenry are liable to become big issues in any negotiations.
In a funny sort of way, perhaps thats because they understand (i.e. live with and respect) diversity, and all that comes with it. That’s something the ‘ism’ of the neoliberal doesn’t understand.
I imagine there’ll be a bloody big shit fight.
You can make a tablet for $1 after you’ve figured out what the tablet needs to have in it. You can’t do the figuring out part, which is the actual work involved, for $1 per tablet, which is why the company that did the actual work involved doesn’t charge $1 per tablet. It’s also why pharmaceutical companies don’t want people who didn’t spend the time, effort and money figuring out what the tablet needs to have in it, selling the tablets for $1. It’s not a difficult concept to grasp.
Gilead, the company asking us to pay $1,000 a tablet is not the company that did ‘actual work involved in figuring out what to put in the tablet.
The company that ‘figured out what what the tablet needs to have in it’ was Pharmasset. They did that figuring out with help from people like Prof Ed Gane, whose research is funded by us, the people of New Zealand.
In November 2011, Pharmasset was acquired by Gilead for $11 billion. Since then, Gilead have made over $22 billion marketing Sofosbuvir under its brand name ‘Sovaldi’.
Gilead is the company that is using the monopoly power that a patent gives it to market a tablet that costs $1 to manufacture for $1,000.
Gilead didn’t pay directly for the work involved in figuring out what the tablet had to have in it, but they sure as shit paid for it. If they paid $11 bil for Pharmasset, that’s effectively $11 bil for Pharmasset’s work in figuring out what tablets need to have in them. It’s lucky we have publicly-funded researchers like Ed Gane contributing to that figuring out, because otherwise it would have been an extra unknown $X bil on top for Pharmasset and that would be going directly on to the price of the tablets. Thanks to the public research contribution, Gilead has only the $1 manufacturing cost of the tablet, plus their operating costs, plus $11 billion to recover. If they’re gouging on top of that, sure it merits a complaint – but saying they could sell the tablets for $1 is ridiculous.
The $11 billion has already been recouped, so it’s manufacture plus operating costs plus prift for shareholders. We don’t know how far above $1/pill the latter is.
I’m also wondering if the developed world is subsidising the lesser profit in places like India which are getting the pills cheaper.
Anyone like to comment on why Labour has caved in so pathetically on the TPPA?
Is there a joint letter/ petition that could be sent to Shearer, Goff, Nash and King asking that they either come out in opposition to the TPP or they’ll be booted out next election?
Anyone like to comment on why Labour has caved in so pathetically on the TPPA?
Maybe they’ve come around to the same conclusion as Helen?
It has some pro’s and con’s, and it ain’t the greatest deal, but overall we are better in than out?
It is just a pity they at first they came out strongly opposing the TPPA and said they want nothing to do with it. Then Little does a complete turnaround and shows everyone that he is not a leaders arse. I know National will not want to see Little kicked out as leader as with him there, the election in 2017 is a sure win for them. Labour need to get a leader that is going to take a stand and enforce Labours policies and if National adopt one of their policies, they must not then turn around and call it bad just because National are doing it. As was mentioned on this site yesterday, Labour are in disarray and need to regroup fast if they want to avoid another humiliating defeat.
Opposing something you disagree with is fine, opposing something merely because the government is doing it is dumb
Labour needs to stop acting like a dog chasing every single car that goes past hoping to get some traction and concentrate on the issues that they really don’t agree with
National bad hasn’t worked for the last 7 years so its not going to suddenly start working now
Well ok fair enough but I guess what I mean is at the moment Labour seems to have a negative opinion and every single thing National put out and it makes Labour look negative for the sake of being negative
A better idea for them would be to ignore some of the small issues and focus on the big issues instead of trying to spread themselves so thin
After 7 years in Opposition they should not have to be told this shit.
Plus, they aren’t going to get into government in 2017 unless they start looking and acting like an alternative government. That means common media positions with Greens and NZFirst.
I see no poll shift starting that gets the current lot out until 2020. That’s a lot to play for.
Actually I think most supporters believe the opposite to Puckish Rogue that the Labour party’s problem is that it is NOT chasing National’s bad decisions at all, merely passively supporting them by a lack of effective action or a half baked measure like changing surveillance to 24 hrs without a warrant instead of 48 hours without a warrant. The idea of privacy and lack of accountability seems to have escaped them.
Likewise agreeing with the Nats to keep TPP (if that is what he said and since there have been zero retractions from Labour that I can see we have to assume that is his intent) but flout the rules, which is plain stupid especially when you put forward a late half baked opposition to TPP but then appear too lazy to pull out later if someone actually voted you in.
That is why their ex supporters are angry and upset. Labour Fucked up yet again!
National is a comprehensive moral, economic and intellectual failure.
Labour could do a lot worse than promise to imprison all of them and audit everything they’ve done. Gerry would certainly have a lot of explaining to do – and I imagine Stephen Joyce’s media adventures are very far from the scrupulous standards required of real governments.
There may be lower and dirtier lifeforms than Gnats, in the unplumbed abysses off the Marianas Trench or the chthonic depths of the Krubera Caves, but they are by far the worst things that have ever sullied the light of day in NZ.
The reflex damning of Gnats is if anything an under-reaction.
IF that was the case then why not make that your publicly stated position and defend it….why prevaricate with “bottom lines” that are nothing more than scotch mist?
Using occams razor I’d suggest that Labour thought the TPPA deal was going to be really bad, thanks to all the doom and gloom spouted by all the “experts” (Jane Kelsey) and so they gambled and hoped it would make them look like a government
However they severly underestimated John Key (again) and he played Labour like a violin (remember all the talk about Pharmac?) and so now because the deal isn’t nearly as bad as anyone thought Labour have to start the dead rat swallowing…again
As I wrote in a previous comment, the models in use that ‘predict’ likely consequences are all over the show. On the TTIP, the one used by the governments had ridiculous assumptions built in and still only showed a marginal up-side.
When the same data was thrown through the UN Policy Model – a model that holds up quite well in real world scenarios apparently – everything was on the down side.
Labour share of gdp – down.
Government tax take – down
gdp – down.
Employment – down.
Financial instability – up.
The only winners were the corporates who get increased profit from that drop in labour’s share of gdp and who also get enhanced access to, among other things, formerly public service provision.
I don’t know what model was used to give a scenario for the TPPA. I have looked. I certainly haven’t seen any mention of the UN Policy Model.
We won’t know until everyone can lay their eyes on the detail. At the moment we have selective releases of information and selective figures and so far only a discussion of financial good or bad. People and society are more than just the financial implications of something.
Cleared out my mobile cookies, so posting again so it remembers me.
While I’m at it – Lynn the mobile theme is self-defeating. If you scroll to the bottom of the screen there’s a button to select whether you want the mobile site or the desktop one. But when you scroll down, it also stats loading new pays, which them pushes the mobile / desktop buttons out of view. It took me 4 attempts before I was able to successful press on the desktop link before it ran away from me.
Can the desktop option be placed at the top please as the device determines which theme it gets so often it switches back to mobile theme and is hard to get back to the more readable desktop theme.
Infinite scroll on the front page is a pain for that. I usually change using a page from the menu drop down or a short post.
My development time for TS this year has been severely constrained by colds, new jobs, and my parents getting fragile. All of which cut into the evening, weekend and holiday time required. But that is one that i should have done long ago. I brought a full license for the toolkit at the start of the year to do that and other tasks.
A while back I called into Kelvin Davis’ electoral office in Kaitaia. The lady fronting the office was approachable, informed, intelligent and respectful. She gave me useful answers to my inquiries and provided me with contact details of a couple of folk who might give further info.
With electoral staff like that….
This was shortly after Kelvin had done the walk against domestic violence.
And…he DID walk, with a small support crew. We saw them a couple of times on our peregrinations in the Far North.
Sadly….his electoral office has a thick glass or perspex security screen to protect staff from attack. There has been incidents.
Some folk just can’t see when they have something of real value available to them.
…”Pfizer and other pharmaceutical giants source antibiotics from dirty, dangerous factories in China.
These factories dump raw antibiotic waste straight into the environment.
That creates a perfect breeding ground for antibiotic resistant “superbugs” — which spread globally.
These superbugs have been called a “catastrophic threat” to public health, and could kill millions.
Months of behind-the-scenes digging into big pharma’s secretive operations has revealed these links for the first time. Pfizer and others are putting their profits ahead of our health, by buying cheap antibiotics from dangerous factories with a string of serious environmental and safety violations…
Overprescription of antibiotics and widespread use in factory farms are two of the known culprits behind antibiotic resistance. But pollution generated by the massive antibiotics production industry is an overlooked hidden killer. By dumping antibiotic waste into the environment, these factories create huge breeding grounds for superbugs. Concentrations of antibiotics in polluted waterways can be as high as in the bloodstream of someone on a full strength dose of antibiotics. And these are the factories that Pfizer, McKesson, Teva and other Western pharma giants are buying from.
…”This isn’t just a problem for China or for Pfizer customers. Modern air travel and trade mean that the rapid spread of infectious diseases is the new reality. Infectious superbugs that thrive in the waste dumped by these polluting factories in China quickly find their way into the bodies of children, adults and the elderly around the world, with fatal consequences.
The reason this happens is simple — Pfizer and other big pharmaceutical corporations make more money by relying on cheap, mass-produced antibiotics without strong environmental and safety procedures in place. And until now, no one has known. If we can change that, by generating a global outcry, we can get big pharma to stop buying from these dangerous factories.”…
Chooky
Thanks for that heads up. On top of Salvoj Zizer noting that there is eugenics thinking going on there, It is time that they started to come out of their materialistic nation-strutting phase of being big and better, and come into their philosophical stage of being respectful of people, ethical, wise, fair and responsible. There have to be some large nations that can hold to these tenets with more than devious lip-service.
I woke up this morning about 5am to get ready for work & on Stuff.co.nz was an article & headline on the frontpage “John Key supports euthanasia bill”, I just had a look online a few minutes ago & now it’s gone, curious.
The Curia or Curious polling must have come in and its now safe for the leader to say something. Conservative nz will think he’s a hero while the people who have dedicated their lives to get this on the radar get forgotten for now.
Imagine what a competent progressive government could have achieved with the $105 billion Bill English has pissed away like the ketone laden residue of an after match function.
“We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace–business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me–and I welcome their hatred.”
I think we will only get a leader of that kind when a groundswell of grass roots opposition produces one. At the moment we still expect managerial politics to make the sort of waves that can only be made with the backing of forceful political movements. Even Corbyn, with the People’s Assembly behind him, now treads a precarious path among a well networked mob with highly placed allies, media contacts, favours to call in, etc, etc.
FDR’s backbone was stiffened and his hand strengthened by massively popular socialist, communist and union movements of the day. Sit down strikes and worker riots.
Annette King is “excellent in the role – loyal, experienced, sensible in public statements, liked and respected by friend and foe, a safe pair of hands. ”
….but Jacinda Ardern is ” young, presentable and appears to have a popular following.”
Which is kinda what National has done, only in reverse.
Global inequality is growing, with half the world’s wealth now in the hands of just 1% of the population, according to a new report.
Under the purely competitive free-market paradigm then everyone would have an almost identical income and it would be a subsistence living (until we ran out of resources at which point most would simply die).
This growing inequality that we see is proof that we don’t have such a paradigm and that the paradigm that we do have is tilted in favour of the very few.
“Another theory is that megastructures have been placed in orbit, perhaps solar collectors catching energy from the star. Such hypothetical structures are known as Dyson swarms or spheres.
The weird star was the only one of 150,000 stars watched over four years to behave the way it does.
Kepler was looking for tiny dips in the amount of light emitted by the stars. The dips can be shadows cast by orbiting planets. Normally, they happen regularly and for a few days at most.
But the light from KIC 8462852, 1480 light years away, darkens at irregular intervals by as much as 20 per cent and can stay dark for up to 80 days.”
Well,I would have thought that the star passing through an interstellar dust cloud wouldn’t have the same behaviour, because the dust cloud wouldn’t be that dense. Hmmm. Unless the interstellar cloud was beginning to gather around a planet or something. So a mix of cloud and planet.
“Police in Israel are moving to quell a WAVE of Palestinian attacks…”
Did someone from the Israeli consulate write that for Warwick Burke to read out?
Radio NZ National, Thursday 15 October 2015
That nasty piece of hysterical distortion was intoned, as ominously as possible, by veteran newsreader Warwick Burke halfway through the 4 p.m. news. I’m sure that whoever wrote that crap for him was consciously stirring up that image of feral untermenschen descending as “a wave” on the poor citizens of Jerusalem, but surely only the most brutally committed, ideologically blind, ignorant-beyond-all-hope zealot would actually believe it.
The idea that the Palestinians are inflicting terror on Israelis is, of course, the exact inversion of the truth…..
That’s a very lazy “analysis”, tinfoilhat. You sound just like the late Garth George.
The violence in the Occupied West Bank is almost entirely one-way. Pretending there is a “cycle” of violence only minimizes what the IDF and the fanatical, heavily armed illegal “settlers” do every day.
The robots are hard at it, recycling the same crap…
“Coming up after the break: A new WAVE of attacks sees Israel RAMP up security!”
—-Simon Dallow, Television One news, 6:15 p.m., Thursday 15.10.15
The orgy of ignorance continues….
After the break, Wendy “Fist Pumper” Petrie tells her viewers of the “worrying upsurge” in violence, “as Israel tries to stop a WAVE of violence!”
She cuts to a simply outrageous report by an MSNBC churnalist, who notes in apparent high seriousness: “This deadly escalation has also seen PALESTINIAN victims… The fear is that this is not part of the REGULAR CYCLE OF VIOLENCE….”
They also get kinda mad when people occupy their country and bomb them, looking for terrorists that didn’t exist in that country until the above behaviour.
Gabby, I know you’re being light-hearted, and yes it’s okay to make jokes, even about the occupation—but let’s bear in mind that the Palestinians suffer extreme mob violence every day, year after year, and have suffered that violence since the illegal occupation of the West Bank began in 1967.
That this violence is systematically ignored by the Israeli police and the media does not make it any less real.
radionz is increasingly a political disinformation mouthpiece for the right wing:
…..only this morning on Morning Report did they have on a USA commentator who argued at length that Hillary Clinton won the debate against with Bernie Sanders ( link not put up…wonder why?)
…and the other day Catherine Ryan had on a Jewish commentator who concluded at length that the Syrian problems were all about Russia and how bad it is and how bad Putin is…all the bad things he has done in other areas
…no mention of Israel’s claims to the Golan Heights …a large part of which belongs to Syria…and the other part is under Israel control…a trophy after one of their wars…and is contested by the UN
…no doubt Israel would like ALL of the Golan Heights….so why was USA stirring up trouble in Syria again?….and against the democratically elected Assad? ( nothing said unsurprisingly)
He was young and dumb, and couldn’t resist temptation. As smart as he is, even Assange never came to grips with how depraved, dishonest and desperate the British and U.S. elite actually are.
“The damage caused by shrapnel to the aircraft involved in flight MH17 could not have been caused by a modern Russian BUK missile, the manufacturers of the weapon Almaz-Antey have stated….
I am not a criminologist or organisational sociologist, so I cannot offer a data-driven opinion on the effectiveness of military-syle so-called ‘boot camps” when it comes to rehabilitating juvenile delinquents and youth offenders. They are popular in the US and … Continue reading → ...
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Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
RNZ News New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s security detail has cut a media briefing short over protesters in Auckland. He was holding a press conference yesterday after a walkabout with police to discuss concerns with businesses in the CBD. Luxon was talking with media when one of his security ...
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I wonder………will information like this change our government’s commitment to do something about climate change?
Global heat records tumble again as El Nino boosts September warmth
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/73030055/global-heat-records-tumble-again-as-el-nino-boosts-september-warmth
An average of 0.5 degrees above the norm is huge. (They don’t explicitly state it, but I’m assuming they are centigrade measurements).
Will governments change their commitments? No. They aren’t capable. They’re institutionally locked in to what they do – promote and protect ‘the market’; seek a market solution to a non-market phenomenon. Risible really.
New Zealand news at its most cringe-worthy.
After weeks off the radar, the European refugee crisis hits the news in the Herlad again.
Why?
Because its travel writer was on a luxury cruise on the Mediterranean and bumped into them.
Our MSM’s standard of news is just so bad.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11529301
Another deal that is NOT a free trade deal.
‘NZ – EU FTA takes giant step
The ink is barely dry on the TPP and New Zealand has the prospect of another giant free trade deal in the offing with the European Union taking the first steps towards an FTA with New Zealand.
It was announced early this morning that the EU Commission will seek to negotiate separate FTAs with both New Zealand and Australia as part of its trade strategy for the next four years.
The caveat is that talks will take in account “EU agricultural sensitivities.”‘
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11529418
Looks like an interesting talk.
But is Jim Mora the right person to be MCing a debate on dumbing down the media?
Maybe this was intended irony.
‘Is the media being dumbed down, and what alternatives can online media offer audiences? What’s happening with quality journalism? Where’s it all heading and what are the implicatons for ordinary New Zealanders? Does it actually matter?
Radio New Zealand and Massey University are hosting a discussion about the future of journalism and the shape of the media today.
Auckland Art Gallery
What: The Shape of the Media
Where: Auckland Art Gallery Auditorium
When: 6:30 – 8pm, Friday 23 October 2015
Your MC for the evening will be Jim Mora, who along with Professor Graeme Turner – one of the leading figures in cultural and media studies in Australia and internationally – and a panel of locals, will debate the quality and value of the media.’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/about/events
The Fix Hep C Buyers Club
About 50,000 New Zealanders have hepatitis C, a blood-borne virus that causes inflammation of the liver.
Long term about 10% of people with Hepatitis C will die of complications including cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer. Most people with the disease suffer a long term chronic fatigue and carry with them an ever present fear of infecting close contacts.
Until recently, treatment was difficult – but now everything has changed.
Working with researchers around the world, including New Zealand’s Dr Ed Gane, a US pharmaceutical company called Pharmasset developed a tablet medication called Sofosbuvir which provides a high cure rate with far fewer side effects than everything previously used to treat hepatitis C .
We are now close to being able to think about eradicating hepatitis C entirely, in the same way that we eradicated smallpox and have nearly eradicated polio.
In November 2011, Pharmasset was acquired by Gilead for $11 billion. Since then, Gilead have made over $22 billion marketing Sofosbuvir under its brand name ‘Sovaldi’.
Gilead is asking $1,000 per tablet, around $84,000 per patient.
That means it would cost $4,200,000,000 to cure nearly everyone in NZ who has hepatitis C – and we all know that is not going to happen.
There is an alternative. Manufacturers in places like China and India who do not recognize patents, are producing these drugs at around 1/50th of Gilead’s price – that’s around $2,000 per treatment.
For that price, New Zealand could cure nearly all of its 50,000 or so hep C sufferers for around $100 mil instead of $4,200 mil.
Think about that for a moment – it means that for the money that John Key spent on the flag – so far, we could have cured 1 in 4 of New Zealand’s hep C sufferers – already.
This tells us what the TPPA is going to cost us. We will pay more, much more for medical treatment and very few of us will be treated. And perhaps worst of all, our aspirations for a better life for all of us through science will be ruthlessly choked back.
If you, or anyone you know has hep C, then you should check out the FixHepC Buyers Club which is helping people access the medication that they need to clear hep C and testing it, for less than $3,000 Aus.
http://fixhepc.com/getting-treated.html
Here’s a Sydney Morning Herald article about the Fix Hep C Buyers Club
Good on them but under our new regime the imperial masters should be suing them into oblivion any day now
Don’t see what this has got to do with the tppa at all.
For those with an interest Pharmac is currently working on this area.
This is what it has to do with TPPA:
“It’s possible and in fact highly probably that patents will run for a little bit longer and that means the Government will have to pay for the original drug as opposed to the generic for a little bit longer,” Key said on Tuesday as he headed into National’s mid-morning caucus meeting.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/70605894/john-key-says-nzs-drug-bill-set-to-rise-under-tpp-but-patients-protected
Northshoredoc in denial about the TPP.
No, NSD prefers to debate issues using facts rather than ill-informed rhetoric.
Knowing how Pharmac works is not shilling for the man.
Nope patent law in NZ remains unchanged – data exclusivity for biologic meds, which this is not, may be extended from 5 to 8 years.
BUT won’t that be one law that needs to be changed to accommodate the TPP agreement IF its provisions on patent protection are different?
Tracey I’ve explained the difference between data exclusivity and patents from a pharmaceutical point of view previously. I’ll try to link back to previous comment latter today.
would you also be able to explain the motivation for the industry’s desire for extended data protection IF it has no impact on financial return? a return derived almost exclusively from publicly funded purchases? Oh and a brief discourse on “evergreening’ wouldnt go amiss either.
Who said it would have no impact on financial return? I appreciate you think NSD did. He didn’t.
“The extra costs to PHARMAC under the TPP are a nothing. Your comment regarding business was usual for access to biologics has more to do with PHARMACs operating policies and procedures and the way they manage their budget than any trade agreement and will continue to do so.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-06102015/#comment-1079772
So in fact NSD said “a nothing” – ie: very small. There was extended – and quite informative – discussion with Miravox.
“There was extended – and quite informative – discussion”
From the very limited perspective I was discussing, I had three concerns:
1. A trade deal should improve access and that is not happening with the TPP. I don’t like that we’ve traded away improved access to biologics now for primary produce exports in the future. It’s cetainly not a ‘free’ trade deal.
2. The cost of administration and a possible delay in the availability of generics has to be met, even if it isn’t much in overall health system spending. I worry (not expect) health funding – who knows for what – will be affected by an increased (at best, no reduction in) cost of Pharmac doing business. Specifically that it may be met through reduced, rather than improved access to biologics for people with auto-immune diseases. The effect may not be much in health system terms, but in personal terms it is huge.
3. I don’t agree that three biologics, as NZ has, for treating inflammatory arthritis is sufficient given the variable nature of the disease. This has bugger all to do with superiority of one drug over another and much to do with how a patient responds to the biologic they’re given.
As an aside – maybe if social and wider government costs were taken into account in Pharmac decision criteria there would be a bit more money available for these very expensive drugs.
I may have led you slightly astray Miravox, apparently we have rituximab and tociluzimab available and funded in NZ for appropriate patients as well..so five agents not three.
I also completely agree with your comment regarding pHARMAC’s decision criteria which is not just an issue in this area of medicine.
I still think you misunderstand the effect of the trade deal on the availability of medicines which are more influenced by the PHARMAC ‘ops’ and budget in the first place, patent law in the second place and whether the companies in question actually registering the medicine in NZ.
define “very small”….esp. in terms of a health budget already under extreme pressure?
the subsequent discussion which highlighted purchases practices of Pharmac reinforces the role price plays on availability of treatments to NZ health practitioners…so yes we can keep to minor costs to Pharmac…but at what cost in terms of treatment options?…and if we ignore the likely legal challenges and chilling effect as demonstrated by Australias experience post FTA.
I dunno. Less than the cost of bribing Saudi princes? Less than the cost of passing legislative favours to the National Party’s owners? Less than the costs of having a massively incompetent bunch of self-interested troughers leveraging their time as MPs to build lucrative business careers (h/t Blabbermouth Lusk)…
Thanks Doc, much appreciated. Not trying to dis you just trying to understand
Hi Tracey
Data exclusivity in its most basic interpretation is the protection of clinical test/trial data (safety and efficacy) required to be submitted to a regulatory agency and prevention of generic drug manufacturers from relying on this data in their own applications.
In NZ this is 5 years at present and moving to 8 years for biologics under this agreement.
To take the discussions on the Hep C drug discussed above (Yes it is outrageously priced in the regulated jurisdictions) the first major patent on this medicine which will be the substance patent expires in the middle of the 2020s, however the data exclusivity will have expired from a NZ perspective 5 years from the date it was registered by Medsafe – 2014.
Bear with me
Patent products the product, the process of producing it etc and applies to anyone copying that in toto for the period of the patent (which can be renewed) and data exclusivity relates to testing regimes as opposed to the creation.manufacturing processes of the drug itself?
If yes, thanks for the clarification. If no. Help.
Not quite, data exclusivity relates to the data generated from the testing.
When the medicine is registered by the regulator in a country like NZ they look at the manufacturing data regarding process, good manufacturing practices, sterility etc etc as well as the actual data from trials in animals and humans looking at safety and efficacy.
When a company producing a generic copy of the medicine wants to get registration and supply the medicine they only have to supply the manufacturing data.
8 years is better than what the drug companies wanted – they get 12 years of data protection in the US.
Don’t you think it is misleading to put this statement into your intro?
“Key said on Tuesday as he headed into National’s mid-morning caucus meeting.”
I, and probably most other people, read that as meaning Tuesday 13 October but when I looked at the link I discover it was about three months ago. Many things have changed since them haven’t they, and as NSD points out the longer period of patents, and hence increased prices, will not apply to these drugs.
Obviously Tim Groser did good work on holding the drug patents to existing times.
Are you saying you don’t think the IP provisions under the TPP would leave Pharmac (and our Govt) open to being sued by a company from a TPP country for buy a drug in breach of patent law?
Pharmac don’t buy drugs in breach of patent law. If they do, I,m assuming they and the company breaching the patent could be sued as of now anyway. You would know the law better than me I expect.
Individuals can purchase offshore and import for personal use to avoid these issues and medsafe rarely gets involved – need a reputable offshore supply obviously.
Understood, for clarity I was referring tot his part
“There is an alternative. Manufacturers in places like China and India who do not recognize patents, are producing these drugs at around 1/50th of Gilead’s price – that’s around $2,000 per treatment.”
People do need to be careful of sourcing overseas and from countries avoiding patents. There is a double-edged sword in here regarding drug efficacy.
The FixHepC Buyers Club doesn’t buy drugs, it tests them.
http://fixhepc.com/blog/item/16-testing-provisions-patient-safety.html
http://fixhepc.com/getting-treated/supply-chain-integrity.html
For a so called Doctor Doh! Join the dots between USA high medicine for profit and TPP regulations on patents. Even Mr Liar Key has had to concede that medicine will cost more with TPP.
and there within is the problem savenz…northshore doc is that….not a patent attorney working for the most litigious industry in the world…even with the entire text of the patent provisions the overwhelming majority will not be able to foretell the potential for big pharma to protect their position….but one thing is for certain they are not seeking to reduce their return and they have had partial success….IT WILL COST THE TAXPAYER MORE.
Whether you think its justified to protect that data is a whole other argument, but it is disingenuous in the extreme (or perhaps naive) to hold that it is not going to have a financial cost.
Nope patent law in NZ remains unchanged – data exclusivity for biologic meds, which this is not, may be extended from 5 to 8 years.
I can join the dots because I understand the meaning of the word “not”. Do you?
The “logic” around here is along the lines of “The TPP is bad, so everything bad that I can think of must be in the TPP”. It makes it very difficult to discuss the real issues, and in doing so, undermines informed protest.
Own goal.
Oops – here’s the Sydney Morning Herald link:
‘Dallas buyers club’ site for hepatitis C drug inundated with inquiries http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/fixhepc-the-buyers-club-for-hepatitis-c-drug-inundated-with-inquiries-20151002-gjzud9.html via @smh
“There is an alternative. Manufacturers in places like China and India who do not recognize patents, are producing these drugs at around 1/50th of Gilead’s price – that’s around $2,000 per treatment.”
…. and doesn’t that just show that the TTPA is NOT actually about free trade the neo-libs are supposedly so fond of ….. and competition …. all those capitalist ideals.
I wonder where Simon Upton stands on this.
It seems to me we let ideology get in the way of practical concerns, and its a bloody lazy (and anti-intellectual) approach that’ll guarantee us some serious social problems in the very near future.
The pro-TTPA protectionists should try nursing a liver cancer sufferer till they pass on and watch their body eat itself up (much like an AIDS sufferer).
China and India are the primary targets for future ‘trade agreements’
Of course they are. they might not find India as much of a push over as they suspect.
Corruption and a host of other problems aside, sovereignty and the way other nations treat their citizenry are liable to become big issues in any negotiations.
In a funny sort of way, perhaps thats because they understand (i.e. live with and respect) diversity, and all that comes with it. That’s something the ‘ism’ of the neoliberal doesn’t understand.
I imagine there’ll be a bloody big shit fight.
“”It’s not OK that you can make a $1 tablet and market it for $1000. That’s obscene,”
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/big-pharmaceuticals-and-the-hepatitis-c-drug-trail-dubbed-a-miracle-cure-20150924-gjtupf.html#ixzz3oZVCempS
Hands up all those who still think Big Pharma are in it for the good of human kind.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention Huggin.
There are these little wars going on, largely under the radar, that deserve much higher profiles.
You can make a tablet for $1 after you’ve figured out what the tablet needs to have in it. You can’t do the figuring out part, which is the actual work involved, for $1 per tablet, which is why the company that did the actual work involved doesn’t charge $1 per tablet. It’s also why pharmaceutical companies don’t want people who didn’t spend the time, effort and money figuring out what the tablet needs to have in it, selling the tablets for $1. It’s not a difficult concept to grasp.
Gilead, the company asking us to pay $1,000 a tablet is not the company that did ‘actual work involved in figuring out what to put in the tablet.
The company that ‘figured out what what the tablet needs to have in it’ was Pharmasset. They did that figuring out with help from people like Prof Ed Gane, whose research is funded by us, the people of New Zealand.
In November 2011, Pharmasset was acquired by Gilead for $11 billion. Since then, Gilead have made over $22 billion marketing Sofosbuvir under its brand name ‘Sovaldi’.
Gilead is the company that is using the monopoly power that a patent gives it to market a tablet that costs $1 to manufacture for $1,000.
Gilead didn’t pay directly for the work involved in figuring out what the tablet had to have in it, but they sure as shit paid for it. If they paid $11 bil for Pharmasset, that’s effectively $11 bil for Pharmasset’s work in figuring out what tablets need to have in them. It’s lucky we have publicly-funded researchers like Ed Gane contributing to that figuring out, because otherwise it would have been an extra unknown $X bil on top for Pharmasset and that would be going directly on to the price of the tablets. Thanks to the public research contribution, Gilead has only the $1 manufacturing cost of the tablet, plus their operating costs, plus $11 billion to recover. If they’re gouging on top of that, sure it merits a complaint – but saying they could sell the tablets for $1 is ridiculous.
The $11 billion has already been recouped, so it’s manufacture plus operating costs plus prift for shareholders. We don’t know how far above $1/pill the latter is.
I’m also wondering if the developed world is subsidising the lesser profit in places like India which are getting the pills cheaper.
The cost of manufacture for the last tablet is $1.
The parallel imported tablet costs around $10
Gilead’s tablet costs $1,000
Gilead has already recouped the $11 billion that it paid for Pharmasset.
That’s what capitalism does. It chokes back the life of the many so that a few can have much.
Anyone like to comment on why Labour has caved in so pathetically on the TPPA?
Is there a joint letter/ petition that could be sent to Shearer, Goff, Nash and King asking that they either come out in opposition to the TPP or they’ll be booted out next election?
Chris Trotter says it so clearly.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/10/14/flouting-the-rules-why-has-andrew-little-rejected-a-winning-tppa-strategy-for-a-guaranteed-loser/
Do you know if Labour have listed the Law changes they will NOT support which will be needed to enforce/enact the TPP
Anyone like to comment on why Labour has caved in so pathetically on the TPPA?
Maybe they’ve come around to the same conclusion as Helen?
It has some pro’s and con’s, and it ain’t the greatest deal, but overall we are better in than out?
It is just a pity they at first they came out strongly opposing the TPPA and said they want nothing to do with it. Then Little does a complete turnaround and shows everyone that he is not a leaders arse. I know National will not want to see Little kicked out as leader as with him there, the election in 2017 is a sure win for them. Labour need to get a leader that is going to take a stand and enforce Labours policies and if National adopt one of their policies, they must not then turn around and call it bad just because National are doing it. As was mentioned on this site yesterday, Labour are in disarray and need to regroup fast if they want to avoid another humiliating defeat.
I sure as hell won’t be donating to Labour leading to 2017 unless they can figure out how to be an Opposition and Oppose something.
With regard to Labour’s positioning, I think CV was more on the money with disdain and rage compared to Trotter’s perplexed surprise.
Opposing something you disagree with is fine, opposing something merely because the government is doing it is dumb
Labour needs to stop acting like a dog chasing every single car that goes past hoping to get some traction and concentrate on the issues that they really don’t agree with
National bad hasn’t worked for the last 7 years so its not going to suddenly start working now
Yeah nah. TPPA was the biggest story on the political landscape for months, and essentially Labour passed on it.
There’s stuff worth having a crack at. That was one of them.
Labour’s nuance ended up just looking like lack of political guts.
Well ok fair enough but I guess what I mean is at the moment Labour seems to have a negative opinion and every single thing National put out and it makes Labour look negative for the sake of being negative
A better idea for them would be to ignore some of the small issues and focus on the big issues instead of trying to spread themselves so thin
After 7 years in Opposition they should not have to be told this shit.
Plus, they aren’t going to get into government in 2017 unless they start looking and acting like an alternative government. That means common media positions with Greens and NZFirst.
I see no poll shift starting that gets the current lot out until 2020. That’s a lot to play for.
+1
You’ve forgotten 2002 to November 2008 aye PR. Cos negative clearly DOES work but it needs a decent and well financed machine along side it.
+1
Nah, National were wrong then as well…all they did was build Helen Clark into an almost mythological entity
Mind you a bouyant interantional economy certainly doesn’t hurt getting reelected either
Do you read what you write afterwards?
“Opposing something you disagree with is fine, opposing something merely because the government is doing it is dumb”
Which doesn’t explain
a. your support of this government on all it does (or most);
b. your failure to have voted once for Labour between 1999 and 2008
opposing something merely because the government is doing it
So when you’re making decisions you only ever consider the pros and pay no attention to the cons?
Yeah nah – opposing argument is essential to good decision making.
Actually I think most supporters believe the opposite to Puckish Rogue that the Labour party’s problem is that it is NOT chasing National’s bad decisions at all, merely passively supporting them by a lack of effective action or a half baked measure like changing surveillance to 24 hrs without a warrant instead of 48 hours without a warrant. The idea of privacy and lack of accountability seems to have escaped them.
Likewise agreeing with the Nats to keep TPP (if that is what he said and since there have been zero retractions from Labour that I can see we have to assume that is his intent) but flout the rules, which is plain stupid especially when you put forward a late half baked opposition to TPP but then appear too lazy to pull out later if someone actually voted you in.
That is why their ex supporters are angry and upset. Labour Fucked up yet again!
That’s why they are called Nat LIte, ged it?
National is a comprehensive moral, economic and intellectual failure.
Labour could do a lot worse than promise to imprison all of them and audit everything they’ve done. Gerry would certainly have a lot of explaining to do – and I imagine Stephen Joyce’s media adventures are very far from the scrupulous standards required of real governments.
There may be lower and dirtier lifeforms than Gnats, in the unplumbed abysses off the Marianas Trench or the chthonic depths of the Krubera Caves, but they are by far the worst things that have ever sullied the light of day in NZ.
The reflex damning of Gnats is if anything an under-reaction.
IF that was the case then why not make that your publicly stated position and defend it….why prevaricate with “bottom lines” that are nothing more than scotch mist?
Using occams razor I’d suggest that Labour thought the TPPA deal was going to be really bad, thanks to all the doom and gloom spouted by all the “experts” (Jane Kelsey) and so they gambled and hoped it would make them look like a government
However they severly underestimated John Key (again) and he played Labour like a violin (remember all the talk about Pharmac?) and so now because the deal isn’t nearly as bad as anyone thought Labour have to start the dead rat swallowing…again
given that TPP was initiated by Labour occams razor would suggest that their position was likely to be support and defend.
Thats true, kudos to Phil Goff and Helen Clark for their work on it
or shared blame…depending on your viewpoint.
Can’t see any positives at all.
As I wrote in a previous comment, the models in use that ‘predict’ likely consequences are all over the show. On the TTIP, the one used by the governments had ridiculous assumptions built in and still only showed a marginal up-side.
When the same data was thrown through the UN Policy Model – a model that holds up quite well in real world scenarios apparently – everything was on the down side.
Labour share of gdp – down.
Government tax take – down
gdp – down.
Employment – down.
Financial instability – up.
The only winners were the corporates who get increased profit from that drop in labour’s share of gdp and who also get enhanced access to, among other things, formerly public service provision.
I don’t know what model was used to give a scenario for the TPPA. I have looked. I certainly haven’t seen any mention of the UN Policy Model.
“but overall we are better in than out?”
We won’t know until everyone can lay their eyes on the detail. At the moment we have selective releases of information and selective figures and so far only a discussion of financial good or bad. People and society are more than just the financial implications of something.
Cleared out my mobile cookies, so posting again so it remembers me.
While I’m at it – Lynn the mobile theme is self-defeating. If you scroll to the bottom of the screen there’s a button to select whether you want the mobile site or the desktop one. But when you scroll down, it also stats loading new pays, which them pushes the mobile / desktop buttons out of view. It took me 4 attempts before I was able to successful press on the desktop link before it ran away from me.
Can the desktop option be placed at the top please as the device determines which theme it gets so often it switches back to mobile theme and is hard to get back to the more readable desktop theme.
Infinite scroll on the front page is a pain for that. I usually change using a page from the menu drop down or a short post.
My development time for TS this year has been severely constrained by colds, new jobs, and my parents getting fragile. All of which cut into the evening, weekend and holiday time required. But that is one that i should have done long ago. I brought a full license for the toolkit at the start of the year to do that and other tasks.
Got to give a shoutout to Kelvin Davis for flying over to Australia about the NZ citizens held in camps.
There’s a guy who knows how to make a good fist of a small portfolio.
Most other Labour spokespeople could learn a good lesson from him.
A while back I called into Kelvin Davis’ electoral office in Kaitaia. The lady fronting the office was approachable, informed, intelligent and respectful. She gave me useful answers to my inquiries and provided me with contact details of a couple of folk who might give further info.
With electoral staff like that….
This was shortly after Kelvin had done the walk against domestic violence.
And…he DID walk, with a small support crew. We saw them a couple of times on our peregrinations in the Far North.
Sadly….his electoral office has a thick glass or perspex security screen to protect staff from attack. There has been incidents.
Some folk just can’t see when they have something of real value available to them.
Thanks for the great feedback! Just to let you know I have changed that horrible Perspex security screen – it was too constricting!
You take care Chrissy, and keep up the good work!
The Western corporate BIG Pharmaceutical industry is contributing to the global rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs
‘Drug giant Pfizer buying antibiotics from dangerous factories’
http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/corporatenews/storyoftheday/entryid/1822/drug-giant-pfizer-buying-antibiotics-from-dangerous-factories.aspx
…”Pfizer and other pharmaceutical giants source antibiotics from dirty, dangerous factories in China.
These factories dump raw antibiotic waste straight into the environment.
That creates a perfect breeding ground for antibiotic resistant “superbugs” — which spread globally.
These superbugs have been called a “catastrophic threat” to public health, and could kill millions.
Months of behind-the-scenes digging into big pharma’s secretive operations has revealed these links for the first time. Pfizer and others are putting their profits ahead of our health, by buying cheap antibiotics from dangerous factories with a string of serious environmental and safety violations…
Overprescription of antibiotics and widespread use in factory farms are two of the known culprits behind antibiotic resistance. But pollution generated by the massive antibiotics production industry is an overlooked hidden killer. By dumping antibiotic waste into the environment, these factories create huge breeding grounds for superbugs. Concentrations of antibiotics in polluted waterways can be as high as in the bloodstream of someone on a full strength dose of antibiotics. And these are the factories that Pfizer, McKesson, Teva and other Western pharma giants are buying from.
‘Corporate Death Factory’
http://paov.ca/mediamenu/alternative-news/4098-corporate-death-factory1434046503
…”This isn’t just a problem for China or for Pfizer customers. Modern air travel and trade mean that the rapid spread of infectious diseases is the new reality. Infectious superbugs that thrive in the waste dumped by these polluting factories in China quickly find their way into the bodies of children, adults and the elderly around the world, with fatal consequences.
The reason this happens is simple — Pfizer and other big pharmaceutical corporations make more money by relying on cheap, mass-produced antibiotics without strong environmental and safety procedures in place. And until now, no one has known. If we can change that, by generating a global outcry, we can get big pharma to stop buying from these dangerous factories.”…
Well that sucks. China needs the rule of law now more than ever.
Chooky
Thanks for that heads up. On top of Salvoj Zizer noting that there is eugenics thinking going on there, It is time that they started to come out of their materialistic nation-strutting phase of being big and better, and come into their philosophical stage of being respectful of people, ethical, wise, fair and responsible. There have to be some large nations that can hold to these tenets with more than devious lip-service.
I woke up this morning about 5am to get ready for work & on Stuff.co.nz was an article & headline on the frontpage “John Key supports euthanasia bill”, I just had a look online a few minutes ago & now it’s gone, curious.
The Herald says so too.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/72994662/voluntary-euthanasia-bill-launched-by-david-seymour
I guess polling shows people want euthanasia looked at by govt but it’s better for ACT to pick it up than National.
That must be the case Weka. It is not like Key to have an actual stance on something so black & white. He usually acts all weaselly & slippery.
The Curia or Curious polling must have come in and its now safe for the leader to say something. Conservative nz will think he’s a hero while the people who have dedicated their lives to get this on the radar get forgotten for now.
Imagine what a competent progressive government could have achieved with the $105 billion Bill English has pissed away like the ketone laden residue of an after match function.
“We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace–business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me–and I welcome their hatred.”
-FDR October 31, 1936
This is the Labour Leader we need.
I think we will only get a leader of that kind when a groundswell of grass roots opposition produces one. At the moment we still expect managerial politics to make the sort of waves that can only be made with the backing of forceful political movements. Even Corbyn, with the People’s Assembly behind him, now treads a precarious path among a well networked mob with highly placed allies, media contacts, favours to call in, etc, etc.
FDR’s backbone was stiffened and his hand strengthened by massively popular socialist, communist and union movements of the day. Sit down strikes and worker riots.
These forces no longer exist today.
Oooh look!
The Herald wants a new Deputy Leader for Labour.
Annette King is “excellent in the role – loyal, experienced, sensible in public statements, liked and respected by friend and foe, a safe pair of hands. ”
….but Jacinda Ardern is ” young, presentable and appears to have a popular following.”
Which is kinda what National has done, only in reverse.
Obviously the secret to political success….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11529269
Half of world’s wealth now in hands of 1% of population – report
Under the purely competitive free-market paradigm then everyone would have an almost identical income and it would be a subsistence living (until we ran out of resources at which point most would simply die).
This growing inequality that we see is proof that we don’t have such a paradigm and that the paradigm that we do have is tilted in favour of the very few.
+1 Draco
whoa this could be big
“Another theory is that megastructures have been placed in orbit, perhaps solar collectors catching energy from the star. Such hypothetical structures are known as Dyson swarms or spheres.
The weird star was the only one of 150,000 stars watched over four years to behave the way it does.
Kepler was looking for tiny dips in the amount of light emitted by the stars. The dips can be shadows cast by orbiting planets. Normally, they happen regularly and for a few days at most.
But the light from KIC 8462852, 1480 light years away, darkens at irregular intervals by as much as 20 per cent and can stay dark for up to 80 days.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/73043524/unusual-far-away-star-could-be-orbited-by-massive-alien-structures
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere
just in time for the end of the world 😉
I’d have thought it passing through an irregular dust cloud would be more likely.
Well,I would have thought that the star passing through an interstellar dust cloud wouldn’t have the same behaviour, because the dust cloud wouldn’t be that dense. Hmmm. Unless the interstellar cloud was beginning to gather around a planet or something. So a mix of cloud and planet.
It is the end of the world as we know it and the beginning of a different world.
“Police in Israel are moving to quell a WAVE of Palestinian attacks…”
Did someone from the Israeli consulate write that for Warwick Burke to read out?
Radio NZ National, Thursday 15 October 2015
That nasty piece of hysterical distortion was intoned, as ominously as possible, by veteran newsreader Warwick Burke halfway through the 4 p.m. news. I’m sure that whoever wrote that crap for him was consciously stirring up that image of feral untermenschen descending as “a wave” on the poor citizens of Jerusalem, but surely only the most brutally committed, ideologically blind, ignorant-beyond-all-hope zealot would actually believe it.
The idea that the Palestinians are inflicting terror on Israelis is, of course, the exact inversion of the truth…..
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2015-10-12/israel-is-a-terrorist-state/
+1 – yeah people do get angry when settlers steal their land and kill them.
Violence begets violence begets violence, will anyone be brave enough to give peace a chance ?
yep.
But then someone shot the last Israeli PM to try.
That’s a very lazy “analysis”, tinfoilhat. You sound just like the late Garth George.
The violence in the Occupied West Bank is almost entirely one-way. Pretending there is a “cycle” of violence only minimizes what the IDF and the fanatical, heavily armed illegal “settlers” do every day.
The robots are hard at it, recycling the same crap…
“Coming up after the break: A new WAVE of attacks sees Israel RAMP up security!”
—-Simon Dallow, Television One news, 6:15 p.m., Thursday 15.10.15
The orgy of ignorance continues….
After the break, Wendy “Fist Pumper” Petrie tells her viewers of the “worrying upsurge” in violence, “as Israel tries to stop a WAVE of violence!”
She cuts to a simply outrageous report by an MSNBC churnalist, who notes in apparent high seriousness: “This deadly escalation has also seen PALESTINIAN victims… The fear is that this is not part of the REGULAR CYCLE OF VIOLENCE….”
Repeaters, not reporters
They also get kinda mad when people occupy their country and bomb them, looking for terrorists that didn’t exist in that country until the above behaviour.
They do seem to have got a bit stabby of late.
Gabby, I know you’re being light-hearted, and yes it’s okay to make jokes, even about the occupation—but let’s bear in mind that the Palestinians suffer extreme mob violence every day, year after year, and have suffered that violence since the illegal occupation of the West Bank began in 1967.
That this violence is systematically ignored by the Israeli police and the media does not make it any less real.
+1 Thanks Morrisey what a sad state of existence for Israel and Palestine citizens to face every day of their lives.
+100 Morrissey @ 17
radionz is increasingly a political disinformation mouthpiece for the right wing:
…..only this morning on Morning Report did they have on a USA commentator who argued at length that Hillary Clinton won the debate against with Bernie Sanders ( link not put up…wonder why?)
http://usuncut.com/politics/6-reasons-bernie-sanders-actually-owned-the-debate-despite-what-pundits-claim/
…and the other day Catherine Ryan had on a Jewish commentator who concluded at length that the Syrian problems were all about Russia and how bad it is and how bad Putin is…all the bad things he has done in other areas
…no mention of Israel’s claims to the Golan Heights …a large part of which belongs to Syria…and the other part is under Israel control…a trophy after one of their wars…and is contested by the UN
…no doubt Israel would like ALL of the Golan Heights….so why was USA stirring up trouble in Syria again?….and against the democratically elected Assad? ( nothing said unsurprisingly)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/15/stephen-harper-master-manipulator
Possibly the most depressing article I have ever read about politics and democracy
Five Facts About The Assange Siege
1. Assange has not been charged.
2. Assange does not “believe” there is an espionage case against him, it is a fact.
3. Assange has not “refused to come to trial or indeed be questioned”.
4. Assange did not “flee”.
5. Assange has already been cleared and the woman says the police made it up in order to “get him”.
https://justice4assange.com/Cambridge-Union-Statement-Fact.html
+100..setup job…but why, given he was warned, did he fall into the trap?
He was young and dumb, and couldn’t resist temptation. As smart as he is, even Assange never came to grips with how depraved, dishonest and desperate the British and U.S. elite actually are.
The other side of the story:
‘BUK manufacturer says Russian-made air defenses ‘absolutely’ not involved in MH17 crash’
https://www.rt.com/news/318653-buk-manufacturer-outdated-warhead/
“The damage caused by shrapnel to the aircraft involved in flight MH17 could not have been caused by a modern Russian BUK missile, the manufacturers of the weapon Almaz-Antey have stated….
The Russians will say anything, and have in fact done so.
The real story is mostly here https://www.bellingcat.com
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/201774803/using-dodgy-data-proved-problematic-woodhouse
gives new meaning to the word farce
This government is satire-proof. When Woodhouse dies, they could make some sturdy boots out of his hide.
Someone should suggest that to the reigning intellectual of parliament, David Seymour, and he’ll get the government to agree to it.