Remember the chorus of "Should have been Level 1 weeks ago"? They spoke for just 12% (that's plenty for Winston, who only needs 5%, but it's a disaster for National).
Obviously it would be amazingly stupid for National MPs to keep complaining about Ardern and the Covid response. So that's what they're doing.
Winston is marching into National territory today.
"We won't pander to the woke brigade" said today by Winston Peters re BLM protests is music to the ears of conservative New Zealand.
Muller and Kaye are trying to distance themselves from that sentiment which is giving Winnie an opening.
I thought he was a gonner a month ago, but I am now thinking he will pick up some of National's conservative base and return in September. He's like a fucking cockroach
The drum beat of corporate media stories around opening the border has been a classic example of lobbyist with money who owned journalists like Fran O'Sullivan trying to manufacture consent.
Me watching: The build up to the rugby on Sunday…
Melanie Robinson: "We've seen outstanding leadership from the prime minister in recent months, I expect Beauden will bring outstanding leadership to the Blues"
Me thinking: "I hope Gerry isn't watching."
And the above is the least of it. (because the problem is now so big it can only focus on a couple of examples – e,g, the RSE workers
I L-G: Rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb dither dither dither. I have complete faith in my officials (even the ones that have bullshitted to me) Rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb
INZ: Rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb the commodity of people as a human resource all wrapped up in a risk-managed (unofficial) demographic spreadsheet.
Commentariat: Pearl clutch pearl clutch pearl clutch
This has been speculated to result from the 'joys' of coalition government, and the art of the possible. If so, there are less than one hundred days to hopefully fix that and have a consistently kinder government . . ..
Yep. It was those two noble savages Shane and Winston what dunnit.
Even though many/most of those affected by the policies have a closer affinity and understanding of lil 'ole NuZull that punches above its weight's first people.
S&W are us though eh? and those are them. And its not as though people were warning us all about what has now come to pass 4 years ago.
A possible solution, pay local marae (who often get utilised in emergency situations anyway) to provide board for those stranded, now that the Covid threat has been eliminated.
A double win. These migrants get provided with what they need, for the short term, and local marae get some income to help support them through these times.
A bloody good short term solution @ Molly – as you're more often than not prone to come up with.
In some places, relationships such as you suggest are already happening (without the payments), and long term friendships are in the making
Meanwhile back at the INZ ranch, officials are worrying about how such phenomenon could take hold – it could completely undermine their thinkings going forward (based on learnings from the past)
That would be good short term but air travel is slowly opening up again (Singapore airlines for one is reopening the Singapore hub ) so I do see a need to keep working with the various embassies and Airnz to put on some charter flights to assist some of the larger groups back to where they want to go, or to facilitate an onwards connection.
Charters or even scheduled flights can be one way flights only as we don't have the capacity to quarantine full return planes so would be a more expensive but not ridiculous prices. A lot of the extended one year visa's expire in Sept. Frankly I think I L-G needs to largely bypass his department and get MFAT, AirNZ and the embassies to advertise the charter flights (backed up by onwards travel agreements with maybe Singapore Air) so that we can give some certainty to travellers and move them towards Auckland airport.
Well if you don't like that link @ Anne, I have plenty of others. And as you will know, many of those officials don't have a vindictive bone in their bodies. (/sarc)
I happen to think both JA and H1 will probably go down in history as being two of NZ's best PMs. (Or should that be one of NZs best PMs?)
However IF JA really wants to be kind and transformative, she needs to get herself a decent H2 style shit kicker, otherwise the recent history of the Labour Party will be just one damn thing after another, and a waste of another bloody harsh virus (neo-liberalism being one of the others)
I start to question my sanity when I find myself agreeing with the Taxpayer's Union – (albeit knowing that they are just Government bashing as they do).
"The cost of SkyPath has already blown out multiple times, to $200 for every household in the country.
"Giving this project an RMA exemption doesn't turn it into a good investment. Funding would be better spent on infrastructure that improves productivity for the many, not just a subset of Takapuna-based lycra enthusiasts."
The Skypath proposal is one that could stay shovel-ready and not get done, until other investment in our infrastructure is complete – health and mental health investment for instance. They’ve been ready and waiting for investment for years.
While I disagree on the shape of the reforms to the RMA that they endorse, I do agree that shovel-ready projects, follows the BAU approach to infrastructure investment. And we should be requiring a new perspective before putting such money into "nice to haves" instead of "need to haves" or resilience projects.
The fact that they are "shovel ready" doesn't guarantee good investment outcomes that are shared as equitably as possible. It also doesn't prioritise spending wisely – just spending.
" Very few pt or cycling projects would survive a solid Treasury Value For Money review. "
For a start, including SROI (Social Return on Investment) or an environmental return on investment, should see this change. And if cycling projects still don't meet the value for money review – then they shouldn't happen at present. We have a lot of NZers looking for basic needs and support, look after them first. The Skypath is not a basic need.
Molly – the middle class have decided that cycling is their thing, suits their individualism and is healthy and clean-living,fit, modern people do it.; the very example of 'going forward'. And they tend to ride their bikes fast, and generally behave as they would in a car. But biking being an agreed benefit to all, ticking the above boxes of health etc., it has become a sacred icon for the said m/c.
It also allows them to trespass on public spaces for room to carry out its aggressive side, mountain biking, BMX racing and dirt jumping. There they throw themselves round knowing that they will be fixed by free hospital treatment and helped by ACC. Areas agreed for mountain bike tracks have cleared areas that are treed and were part of the environment enjoyable for walkers in Nelson. But that isn't enough for these bikers – they have cut and cleared illegally to make new tracks to suit themselves. Looked at dispassionately, they are just land clearers repeating the colonial measures of the past but with a greenwash, that of being a healthy sport in the outdoors.
The bike sport fraternity are often destructive and really just a different version of the petrolheads, demolition derby fans, mud plugs and racing car enthusiasts; though most of those are contained to agreed tracks. The advent of 4Wdrives, with tv ads showing them driving in the outdoors like real men, up rivers destroying and polluting them, if they want to go there, have further encouraged this idea of misuse of the countryside for the machine-mad male with no appreciation of nature or being a natural human either.
The problem with the SROI is that typically the cycling calculations assume a slow climb in usage compared to what actually happens. Quite unlike the NZTA or treasury approach to roads with always assumes a exponential car usage growth – that usually doesn’t happen.
If either used realistic analysis based on their continuous past failures, then most of the roads that have done recently it wouldn’t be funded. If they used the actual results from their previous screwups of estimating ROIs from PT or cycle lanes than almost all would be.
The growth in traffic on most installed cycle lanes and effective PT invariably climbs more rapidly than NZTA expectations. Just the same as what happens when the public transport is upgraded – which is why the northern busway now has continuous double decker buses at peak hours – and we don’t need a new uber expensive bridge or tunnel. Similarly the double tracking and electrification of the Auckland has exceeded expectations in almost every year since they were done. The only thing that seems to slow them down is the work being done on the next upgrade.
But it is a chicken and egg as can be easily seen when the cycle lanes are put in. You have to have cycle lanes before you get much cycle traffic on them. You find out the need after you put them in. But typically they are incredibly cheap.
In Auckland, all cyclists and scooter riders are scared shitless of the ignorant dangerous drivers and their parked cars. We’ve all had near death experiences from drivers inadvertently trying to kill us. Put in a cycle way and watch the cyclist traffic increase massively over several years. Try walking on the north western cycle way or even the grafton gully cycleway at 5pm and you’ll see what I mean. I’m looking forward to being able to actually ride down K Rd without the fear of imminent death or injury. Be nice if they did the same thing on Ponsonby Road.
Where there aren’t cycleways, many cyclists and virtually all scooter riders prefer to ride on pedestrian paths – thereby endangering pedestrians. Somehow this social saving isn’t anywhere in the SROI – along with most of the other real social benefits.
Nor a re most of the economic benefits because they are unknowable before the project is put into place. In the case of the SkyPath, it simply means that a whole area who currently have no ability to commute to the north shore by bike (in my case) or from the north shore can now start to do so. Trying to even figure out the effects of that are damn near impossible to figure out in advance. It is simply guesswork. About the only thing that is obvious is that it’d be way cheaper than any possible roading project in Auckland.
In short – your position is just spurious bullshit based on a selective unthinking analysis of how the SROI is currently calculated.
My family are cyclists, not so much commuter cyclists now because of commuting distances, so I agree we have some way to go regarding cyclist safety.
However, I disagree with the method currently used for identifying, prioritising and implementing projects.
This is my objection to this project, and the SROI needs to be applied to others areas of Auckland as well in order to help prioritise. This doesn't happen.
Cycle lanes are the classic example of "if you build it they will come" with the sum being greater than it's parts. Fully connected, separated cycleways that go to useful places see huge growth.
The problem is people see them as a cheap panacea for noisy MAMILs & a recreational frippery rather than an important piece of commuter infrastructure. Yet using an e-bike on a proper cycle way to commute in your work clothes is as different from weaving in and out of traffic, footpaths and bits of cycle way on a racing bike whilst clad in your full lycra panoply as taking a guided the great walk in summer is from hacking your way up to the tops on an unmaintained track in the Kawekas in winter.
Yes, and Parker was certainly emphatic when being interviewed on Natrad both last night and this morning. Seems happy to sudeline climate change issues, and I'm wondering if he is aware that in the Far North there are already rumblings from domestic water users (aka 'the people') that horticulture and agriculture (aka corporate interests)have more right to water.
And along with the water requirements is the very real potential for adverse effects of nutrient runoff and heavy agrochemical use.
As you say Molly, would have been nice to see spending on our tired and dysfunctional health infrastructure prioritised.
Your concern Molly is much appreciated by this resident who lives on a popular by-route which eventually leads to the harbour bridge and is sick and tired of lycra clad enthusiasts who assume they own the road and its up to the rest of us to get out of their way.
Any proposal that is going to increase their numbers in my neck of the woods will not be appreciated by locals trying to go about their daily business without cycling fashionistas strung across the road impeding progress for the rest of us.
That kind of investment warrants better scrutiny at this time, especially as it has been a continually growing budget. The reason it is shovel ready is because there has been a staunch group of supporters continually banging on about it for years. Not because it is an equitable and valuable use of government budget.
(I also note the inclusion of numbers in terms of the pitiful amount of jobs intended to be created, but nothing in terms of the actual spend being reported.)
I call them 'lycra louts'. That generally gets them going.
Not all cyclists belong to this genus. These ones, apart from the skin tight and unfaltering plumage are most often found in inner city Wellington on a Saturday morning crawling 2/3/4 abreast up Raroa Road presumably on a run out to Makara/Ohariu Valley/J'ville. They wiggle slowly up this steep street failing to pull over. On my way to work some times I have counted 14 cars behind me, some at stalling speed.
They are able to multi task, ie give the finger to anyone who wishes to go past them.
They mob cafes to the exclusion of others. Their cry is distinctive too with the sounds of entitlement being the top notes.
Got no problems with unproblematic riders who respect other road users just as I do.
The general way to deal with them is to put in some cheap cycle paths that separate cars from cycles. Or an even simpler method would be just get rid of parked cars on roads.
I know when I am commuting (usually in work jeans) I use the cycle lanes where they are available.
But if I have to cycle on the road, I leave at least a metre from the parked cars. That is because of the idiots who seem to try to open doors on me every day. That provides enough room to avoid the doors that get flung open in front of me by drivers who neither look in their wing mirror nor partially open the door and look back.
These self-entitled idiots are the primary reason why cyclists ride so far out into the lane.
That means that I take up a third of the usual car lane and means that cars going around me and passing at metre put at least half their body into the incoming lane (2/3rds for the SUV trucks).
So i went and googled skypath and ended up with this
"The Northern Pathway project will provide a seamless dedicated walking and cycling link between Auckland’s City Centre and the North Shore which will connect with existing local paths to extend the region’s walking and cycling network."
As far as i am concerned i dont care how much it costs it has to be done and should have been long ago!
To suggest that we should instead put the money into health and mental health shows a complete disconnect from reality
I've been following the Skypath discussion for years, and at no time, does it ever go into the realms of providing an equitable use of transport monies across the region, or seek to justify the spend in terms of social returns. It has always been a case of:
" As far as i am concerned i dont care how much it costs it has to be done and should have been long ago! "
Great justification…
This has been highlighted as shovel-ready projects to be invested in. There are other needs and projects that are awaiting funding, some in health and mental health.
"To suggest that we should instead put the money into health and mental health shows a complete disconnect from reality"
But if you are insistent on keeping the funding sector appropriate – we could instead invest the money into improving the pitiful service and access to public transport and alternative transport infrastructure in other areas of Auckland that exist without the vocal ranting brigade.
The continual rubber-band bounceback to BAU in terms of prioritising infrastructure, is going to continue the path of inequitable access that we were previously on.
10 years of moaning from the small minded objectors to SkyPath. It's painful how obvious the need is to expand the harbour crossing to active modes of transport. Public demand is driving the project, car addicts need to learn to share public space for a change.
The difference with the "Northern Pathway" is that the mode share over the harbour bridge is currently 0% ; you could do lots of other little projects all over Auckland with similar funding but there is still a fundamental disconnect with the North Shore. If it's fairness you're concerned about, the models indicate that the proposed pathway will get even more usage than the Northwestern cycleway. It's the cheapest possible alternative to a new harbour crossing.
After numerous news stories on the National Party donation fraud case not guilty pleas in Feb, & other than a Parliamentary privileged comment by JLR in March that was reported on, there has been no mention of the case due to be in court last week on the 10th June. It's surprising there has been no mention in media of it whatsoever, whether the case has started as intended or not?
Media's very economical when it comes to any untoward news around brand national.
Watching Tova tell Clarke even labour voters don't trust him (another survey) and constantly bleating out the gotcha questions shows where they're heading.
For many years it has been apparent that the NZ Police need a major shakeup. Ever try dealing with them? Lazy and incompetent at best. Lying and deceitful at worst. From the idiot Commissioner Bush who thought the corrupt cops in the Arthur Allen Thomas case had 'integrity beyond reproach' to the blatantly corrupt Doone, the rot clearly starts at the top and trickles down.
The lazy p****s who approved this licence should be in court charged with vicarious liability. But we all know they won't. there will be an internal Police inquiry, which will drag on for two years or so and then be quietly buried.
Just to show that you can get recreational shooting, conservation, national parks, and foodbanks in the one sentence …
…. Fiordland Wapiti Foundation, Game Animal Council, and Department of Conservation (DOC) are partnering to provide 18,000kg of free-range wild Fiordland venison to New Zealand foodbanks and families in need. Each year the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation, working with DOC, conducts a deer cull in Fiordland National Park removing up to 1000 animals.
“Weather permitting, by the end of next month, we will have removed 600 deer from Fiordland National Park for processing into 18,000 1kg wild venison mince packets. These are being distributed by a charitable supply chain distributor to foodbanks throughout the country. This will feed thousands of New Zealand families in need,” says Roy Sloan, Fiordland Wapiti Foundation President.
Last time I stopped in Haast, there was a little hamburger stand selling the most awesomest, juiciest, sweetest venison steak hamburgers I've ever had, and they came straight out of the Fiordland culling programme.
Todd made National policy lurch to the left in his Te Puna speech. I do wonder what the likes of Collins and Goldsmith make of this. Should the next poll still show National in the low 30's and Muller below 15, will there be another coup?
Covid 19 would have been an absolute disaster had it not been stopped in its tracks.
National are largely to blame with its sinking lid policies and leaky buildings by way of defunding and wrecking the building codes.
After 9 years we were left with the worst health system in the OECD. National wanted a privatized health system given Woodhouse now a former private hospital middle manager and Coleman another private health hawk.
By running down the health system to push people into buying private health insurance.
Private health insurance is always a bridgehead from which the public system can be attacked. If you don't eradicate it, you will spend a lifetime fighting its incursions. Neither option is pleasant.
It isnt the shake up that it is made out to be. I read the 274 page report. It is bascially just changing a few letterheads and re-writing a few contracts.
It doesnt recommend reducing or scrapping co-payments, for a start, which is one of the big barriers of access to services.
Idiot/Savant is attacking the Greens, saying that they are "footstools", for supporting Labour's draconian 2-year ditching of RMA requirements for major projects, shutting the public out of the process (except for seldom heard submissions to the select committee). David Parker should hang his head in shame-he had a bit of a train-wreck interview on Morning Report trying to justify this today.
In fact the Greens have only supported this to the first reading. It is quite normal to support legislation to the first reading where the details can then be seen as to what is proposed.
I doubt very much they will give it support any further. At least I hope not. It will probably pass with the help of the Nats and NZF, which says it all.
Meanwhile submissions in opposition should be lodged (by those who care about democracy) at the select committee stage.
Palestine Bleeds: Execution of Autistic Man is the Norm, not an Exception
by RAMZY BAROUD, Counterpunch, 12 June 2020
A 32-year-old man with the mental age of an 8-year-old child was executed by Israeli soldiers on May 30, while crouching behind his teacher near his special needs school in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The cold-blooded murder of Iyad al-Hallaq might not have received much attention if it were not for the fact that it took place five days following the similarly heartbreaking murder of a 46-year-old black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis, at the hands of American police.
The two crimes converge, not only in their repugnancy and the moral decadence of their perpetrators, but also because countless American police officers have been trained in Israel, by the very Israeli ‘security forces’ that killed al-Hallaq. The practice of killing civilians, with efficiency and callousness, is now a burgeoning market. Israel is the biggest contributor to this market; the US is the world’s largest client.
When thousands of people rushed to the streets in Palestine, including hundreds of Palestinian and Israeli Jewish activists in Jerusalem, chanting “Justice for Iyad, justice for George”, their cry for justice was a spontaneous and heartfelt reaction to injustice so great, so blatant.
Al-Hallaq’s story might appear particularly unique, as the ‘suspected terrorist’ was killed while merely walking in King Faisal Street in Jerusalem, on his way to take out the trash. He was afraid of soldiers and terrified of blood.
“He was also afraid of the armed police officers who stood along the route to the special needs center he went to, where he participated in a vocational training program,” the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, reported.
Al-Hallaq’s many fears, which may have appeared exaggerated by his family, turned out to be true. Even an autistic person in Palestine is not safe from the vengeance of soldiers. ….
I wonder if they have considered maybe retraining some of the airline employees in the next couple of months. The cropping season is still a little way away so time to do some workforce planning maybe. Drive a Boeing – maybe they could drive these too
But it does look like we could do with some serious rural workforce planning. In the last few months we have had concerns about a workforce for vineyard machinery, calving and the flush of the dairy season, the harvesting machinery and general overall harvesting workforce. That way these could be end to end jobs and I know soem already do that in the horticultural field.
Also have any of these considered the jobs they are offering. I know that machinery needs to be worked dawn to dusk in season but running the workforce in 40 hour shifts may be more acceptable. Plus looking at providing some half time roles or encouraging more women/ older people into the rural workforce.
Training or retraining people costs more than importing some someone else has trained. If it takes two years to be ready, as they say, then train now and there will be no more problem in two years time. But this problem of 'cant find workers' has persisted for far longer than two years, hence it's safe to conclude that no permanent solution is desired. Just cost cutting.
Some how for this I seriously doubt that it takes two years of training if "some farmer friends can jump in and help". Being able to drive a tractor doubtless helps a lot but a HT licence, good spatial and motor skills and a few brains would go a very long way. A boeing pilot should be very retrainable.
And if it was so skilled then any contingent travelling from country to country would include a fair few NZer's who have been trained here plus a great deal higher wage.
Looks like they are over cooking the skills and training needed coupled with, as McFlock puts it lousy wages, to keep up the cost cutting. Perhaps they could solve their own problem by dealing with the upgraded government training courses and lend their machines for some practice runs
Inevitable I guess, but let's just hope the quarantine procedures are a lot better than was reported on TV1 news last week. Any system is only as good as its weakest link, and clearly the Hotel quarantine was the weak link.
Not sure how else to read that other than TVNZ understands they were given an exemption from isolation to go spread it around at a funeral here. Wait and see what Bloomfield says, I guess.
We had a funeral here yesterday an aussie family member was allowed in , hearsay is they were allowed down here from Auckland and got20 mins with family and to see the coffin closed. Not sure about ppe etc . Apparently the funeral had well in excess of 1000 attending.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield explained in the briefing this afto that people are not given exemptions to go to a funeral.
Dr Bloomfield said they had applied for an exemption on Friday 12 June to visit their dying parent and were allowed to travel to Wellington in a private vehicle to do so the following day, on 13 June. Their parent died that night.
"They were in a managed isolation hotel in Auckland and were permitted on compassionate grounds to leave managed isolation to travel to Wellington via private vehicle."
He said there one only one additional family member who may be at risk, and they were being tested and isolated. Other potential contacts included people on the same flight from Brisbane and people who were in or had been in the same managed isolation facility in Auckland, including staff.
"There was an agreed plan in place as a part of the approval process for the compassionate exemption and that included the travel arrangements."
He said the funeral for the parent would be delayed until family members had completed their next 14-day minimum isolation period.
From watching the briefing the parent died the evening the two arrived in Wellington. I had a similar experience with my mother. I got a call at work that my mum was dying, caught a plane from Auckland to Wellington that afternoon, and was with her for about half an hour before she died.
Hmm that puts a different spin on it. I'm not sure – having listened to Dr Bloomfield's briefing – that that is a fair representation. The RNZ report, I feel, is more accurate.
Dr Bloomfield said they had applied for an exemption on Friday 12 June to visit their dying parent and were allowed to travel to Wellington in a private vehicle to do so the following day, on 13 June. Their parent died that night.
Now it could be argued that the "that night" refers to 12 June, the day they applied for the exemption, to visit a dying parent. But the juxtaposition of the last sentence with the statement that they travelled to Wellington on the 13th strongly implies that the Parent died on the night of the 13th
The media are not above trying to stir up controversy for the sake of it. Especially Stuff.
Peter if you are referring to the Avatar team's arrival at the Quarantine hotel, it would be good to get your facts right. The mixing in the foyer was with an American family staying at the hotel.
The arriving Avatar team were bussed to the hotel. They were taken in small groups through a separate door each wearing face shields into a separate room for debriefing and instruction. They were then taken under escort one at a time in the lift to each individual's room where they stayed for 2 weeks, finishing yesterday. They did not even mix with their colleagues during the time in seclusion or allowed out for a walk anywhere.
Ianmac, how about YOU get YOUR facts right. Just Google it. Absolutely nothing to do with Avatar. It was Kiwis returning to NZ.
They mixed throughout their stay on crowded city streets on guided walks. Newly arrived returnees were mixing with those on their last day or days of quarantine.
Ianmac. All good! And thank you for addressing that, for which I respect you! I was surprised, as I always enjoy your posts which are well thought out. Cheers!
Since we reached zero the media have run various stories about the heartless government not making a quarantine exception (and another, and another exception, and so on). And of course the opposition demands for borders opening ASAP.
But don't worry, nothing bad could happen, job done, blah blah …
Peter Chch (15) … Disappointing to read this news of two new cases of Covid-19.
IMO our borders should be closed … full stop, no exceptions, no negotiation, until there is a means of controlling this paricular virus. These two new cases demonstrate the need for doing so.
Pull yourself together – there are legitimate grounds for compassion – in this case, the exemption conditions may very well have worked as designed – if not, I am sure it will be valuable grist for the mill in reviewing future procedures at our 'bo(a)rders'.
Yes happy to put my hand up on this one that I don't feel a lot of compassion. terrified with good reason about Covid getting a hold here and think everyone will/might have to make scarifices.
Given this situation and the situation with two teenagers given leave to go to a funeral and then absconding time to make it real simple. No exception to isolation.
A funeral is for a dead person. A stiff. Their metabolic processes are history. Shuffled off this mortal coil. 4 million volts isn't enough to create an interaction with them.
Giving people exemptions from isolation to go spread disease in order to go hang out with a corpse is NOT GOOD ENOUGH. To go say their last goodbyes while someone still lives – fair enough. But not once they've already passed.
Apologies Andre – I didn't intend to support your over reaction or wind you up. Nobody has a script for this, not even Jacinda and Ashley, who you appear to have put on a pedestal. This is an error at worst – a learning which will modify the border procedures and compassionate exemption policies.
I'm coming down slowly. Give me a couple days and I should be back on an even keel.
I think Ashley and Jacinda have done an absolutely outstanding job – but this was a really dumb unforced error. I hope the lesson and action taken is to assume everyone arriving is a raging hotbed of maximum infectiousness, until proven otherwise. The common good of 5 million people has to come ahead of compassion for situations that aren't absolutely time-critical. Someone in their last days is time-critical, after they've passed is not.
I have a nephew and sister-in-law in France that got COVID early on. They're still suffering severe aftereffects. I have a cousin in the US that's a doctor in respiratory intensive care, and her husband is a doctor in the emergency department. From what I've heard from them, mainstream reports about COVID seem somewhat sanitised and downplayed.
The elimination we had achieved is immensely valuable, risking it needs to only be done for something equally valuable.
Yes, the lockdown has cost NZ billions, and to throw it away so easily? Kiss of death for this government and Ashley NY honours list. And deservedly so.
Sad as PM did a great job with a hard task, but this is beyond stupidity.
9 days on the loose. How many are now infected? Nz was in the privileged position of having eliminated the virus and being able to control the entry or exclusion of the virus.
From way back in early March, we knew the borders were our vulnerable point, yet, from early March, time and time again we have learned, from th MSM, that what this government says about the borders and what is actually happening is vastly different.
Peter, take a breath. Watch the full press conference with Bloomfield, if you haven't already. Really detailed answers, with a whole range of safeguards in place.
It's not at all surprising that an individual case has happened. It's the policy that matters. Opening up our borders now would be stupid, and so we're not doing it.
I don't get it either. Apparently we have testing to burn so why were we not testing on arrival, 5 days later and then again at 10 days and 14 days. These people were in the managed quarantine between it appears the 5th and the 13th of June so surely they would have been symptomatic? Is quarantine being managed in pods or did they have contact with people between 5th-13th that have been released already? What about the family contact in wellington – who have they had contact with? What about border staff – and quarantine staff and airline staff. And it's taken 16 days to find this out when symptoms can be tested for in the 5-10 day range. And how do we "know" they followed all the rules when they didn't bother to report symptoms- big fail right there. As others say FFS – there are so many obvious gaps in the arrangements..
A similar conversation has gone down in this household.
Apparently there are 2 hour tests available.
A baby with a sniffle, that had barely left it's home environment, no visitors, got swabbed in ED last night because Covid…
And yet…
From what has been said so far, the one that has tested positive, either fibbed when asked the ubiquitous screening questions or answered a different question to that which was asked.
Yes Peter Chch and Andre. It's what you get when you don't have black and white, hard and fast, delineated rules which are meticulously enforced.
When factors to do with 'humanity' and exemptions and judgements and assessments come into it you get problems.
Trouble is numbers in the population screamed about hard and fast rules mitigating against humanitarian factors over months.
If we had hard and fast rules mentality, no weighing up of factors involved, everyone doing 51kph would be fined heavily pro forma, cars would be permanently taken off those doing 10kph over the limit and so on according lists of rules.
The no exemptions thing for those coming into the country would go on at least until a vaccine is developed however long that is.
Of course this shocking turn of events wouldn't have happened under Simon Bridges' watch. (Remember him?)
Andre is right, a funeral is for a dead person, a stiff shuffled off this mortal coil. This situation shows though that it's not the dead that are the worry or whatever their loved ones do but the hysteria about that from deadshits.
The funeral was not for a parrot, but for a fellow human being. I'm not convinced the risk is worth it either, but in your anger, don't lose all your humanity.
During Level 4, people within New Zealand were prohibited from going to say their last goodbyes to loved ones. I count myself very fortunate my dad survived his medical emergency during that time that I was prohibited from travelling to go see him when he was on the edge. FFS, my mother was prohibited from going to see him in the hospital, in a region that had zero cases at that time.
To put us all at risk of having to go back to that for the sake of an already dead body – just plain unacceptable
Yes, you are right, but have faith in our capacities to learn from a mistake. I would far prefer that the error stemmed from having too much compassion than the opposite – otherwise we are no different to the right wingers.
Fair enough but they can’t attend the funeral now anyway so there was no point in releasing them. All it’s done is needlessly expose us. No exemptions from now on, people living here couldn’t get them during lockdown.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield showed why he is a doctor, not a politician or reporter or "commentator". And a good human being.
He calmly explained the details of the case, and refused to throw the two women under the bus. They will be feeling like sh*t right now, and Bloomfield understands that. They did not break the rules, they followed them. If there was a loophole it was in the NZ system. He takes responsibility for that (as he should).
I hope that the focus is now on highlighting the complacency of those who want open borders, not on hounding two victims of the virus, already bereaved.
Well, I won't be casting a stone. I'm sure that hypothetically we all would have acted differently. In reality … when you've crossed the world to see a dying loved one? When the system tells you it's all under control? When you look around and you're the only ones wearing face masks and you're still following the rules?
Observer. You are clearly a better person than me, and that i respect.
Ashley Bloomfield is, as you say, is a doctor and a compassionate person.but right now, maybe we need someone who is also a little bit of a dictator. Level 4 was a dictate. Now I feel what's the point?
The elite say one thing, we are coerced to do another. To say I am disappointed in our PM and Ashley would be an understatement.
I think the key point is that the women were not tested, and they should have been, and that is NZ's fault, not theirs. It is not their job to say to health professionals "hang on, your system isn't good enough". Especially when they are in emotional distress. Now Bloomfield is suggesting that the procedures have been / will be changed. Good.
A good doctor does not blame patients. Nor should we.
I suspect they watered the landscape as so many of us have done in past times. The trick is to check the sight lines – thought I had once – then along came the train.
There seems to be far more media interest in women's bladders at Level 1 than in Simon Bridges' bladder at Level 4. I don't know why he got a free piss – er, pass.
I have seen what it's like in Tamiki Makaru a lot of people were looking down on Maor.
Interesting but I have a good idea who has treated all tangata whenua the best and has the best interest for our Mokopuna futures That's who Eco Maori tau toko.
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
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Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
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Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
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“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
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Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
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Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 25 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
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The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
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Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
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A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The “financial sustainability target”, which was “allocated” to Waitaha, is consistent with what’s happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
Since March, public support for the government's response to Covid19 has been 80%, 83%, 86%, 84% and today, 84% according to the latest survey (SpinOff site).
We can add to that the TV1 and TV3 polls at 91%.
Remember the chorus of "Should have been Level 1 weeks ago"? They spoke for just 12% (that's plenty for Winston, who only needs 5%, but it's a disaster for National).
Obviously it would be amazingly stupid for National MPs to keep complaining about Ardern and the Covid response. So that's what they're doing.
Winston is marching into National territory today.
"We won't pander to the woke brigade" said today by Winston Peters re BLM protests is music to the ears of conservative New Zealand.
Muller and Kaye are trying to distance themselves from that sentiment which is giving Winnie an opening.
I thought he was a gonner a month ago, but I am now thinking he will pick up some of National's conservative base and return in September. He's like a fucking cockroach
Yet Ron Mark is happy to go soft on Violent gun toting gangs by disarming police.
I am happy with that too.
I reckon there are more than two of us.
The drum beat of corporate media stories around opening the border has been a classic example of lobbyist with money who owned journalists like Fran O'Sullivan trying to manufacture consent.
Me watching: The build up to the rugby on Sunday…
Melanie Robinson: "We've seen outstanding leadership from the prime minister in recent months, I expect Beauden will bring outstanding leadership to the Blues"
Me thinking: "I hope Gerry isn't watching."
Was Rio Tinto really sorry about blowing up a 46,000 year old Aboriginal heritage site to get at a few bucks worth of iron ore? Yeah, nah.
https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/06/mining-company-not-sorry-for-destroying-46000-year-old-aboriginal-site-report/
The sooner these malicious orcs fuck off from Tiwai Point, the happier I'll be.
With aircraft sales dead in the water Aluminium sales will plummet.
Shameful! :
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018750729/trapped-migrant-workers-nz-s-new-underclass
And the above is the least of it. (because the problem is now so big it can only focus on a couple of examples – e,g, the RSE workers
I L-G: Rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb dither dither dither. I have complete faith in my officials (even the ones that have bullshitted to me) Rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb
INZ: Rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb the commodity of people as a human resource all wrapped up in a risk-managed (unofficial) demographic spreadsheet.
Commentariat: Pearl clutch pearl clutch pearl clutch
This has been speculated to result from the 'joys' of coalition government, and the art of the possible. If so, there are less than one hundred days to hopefully fix that and have a consistently kinder government . . ..
Yep. It was those two noble savages Shane and Winston what dunnit.
Even though many/most of those affected by the policies have a closer affinity and understanding of lil 'ole NuZull that punches above its weight's first people.
S&W are us though eh? and those are them. And its not as though people were warning us all about what has now come to pass 4 years ago.
A possible solution, pay local marae (who often get utilised in emergency situations anyway) to provide board for those stranded, now that the Covid threat has been eliminated.
A double win. These migrants get provided with what they need, for the short term, and local marae get some income to help support them through these times.
A bloody good short term solution @ Molly – as you're more often than not prone to come up with.
In some places, relationships such as you suggest are already happening (without the payments), and long term friendships are in the making
Meanwhile back at the INZ ranch, officials are worrying about how such phenomenon could take hold – it could completely undermine their thinkings going forward (based on learnings from the past)
That would be good short term but air travel is slowly opening up again (Singapore airlines for one is reopening the Singapore hub ) so I do see a need to keep working with the various embassies and Airnz to put on some charter flights to assist some of the larger groups back to where they want to go, or to facilitate an onwards connection.
Charters or even scheduled flights can be one way flights only as we don't have the capacity to quarantine full return planes so would be a more expensive but not ridiculous prices. A lot of the extended one year visa's expire in Sept. Frankly I think I L-G needs to largely bypass his department and get MFAT, AirNZ and the embassies to advertise the charter flights (backed up by onwards travel agreements with maybe Singapore Air) so that we can give some certainty to travellers and move them towards Auckland airport.
I must say OWT your overall description of the situation came through more succinctly than the link you provided.
Well if you don't like that link @ Anne, I have plenty of others. And as you will know, many of those officials don't have a vindictive bone in their bodies. (/sarc)
I happen to think both JA and H1 will probably go down in history as being two of NZ's best PMs. (Or should that be one of NZs best PMs?)
However IF JA really wants to be kind and transformative, she needs to get herself a decent H2 style shit kicker, otherwise the recent history of the Labour Party will be just one damn thing after another, and a waste of another bloody harsh virus (neo-liberalism being one of the others)
Move those workers to where they are needed ie tourist workers to vineyards and orchards give them a campervan most are sitting idle.
I start to question my sanity when I find myself agreeing with the Taxpayer's Union – (albeit knowing that they are just Government bashing as they do).
Shovel-ready projects get the green light to go ahead under new infrastructure law
The Skypath proposal is one that could stay shovel-ready and not get done, until other investment in our infrastructure is complete – health and mental health investment for instance. They’ve been ready and waiting for investment for years.
While I disagree on the shape of the reforms to the RMA that they endorse, I do agree that shovel-ready projects, follows the BAU approach to infrastructure investment. And we should be requiring a new perspective before putting such money into "nice to haves" instead of "need to haves" or resilience projects.
The fact that they are "shovel ready" doesn't guarantee good investment outcomes that are shared as equitably as possible. It also doesn't prioritise spending wisely – just spending.
What's an investment outcome supposed to look like for a cycling project?
Very few pt or cycling projects would survive a solid Treasury Value For Money review.
" Very few pt or cycling projects would survive a solid Treasury Value For Money review. "
For a start, including SROI (Social Return on Investment) or an environmental return on investment, should see this change. And if cycling projects still don't meet the value for money review – then they shouldn't happen at present. We have a lot of NZers looking for basic needs and support, look after them first. The Skypath is not a basic need.
Molly – the middle class have decided that cycling is their thing, suits their individualism and is healthy and clean-living,fit, modern people do it.; the very example of 'going forward'. And they tend to ride their bikes fast, and generally behave as they would in a car. But biking being an agreed benefit to all, ticking the above boxes of health etc., it has become a sacred icon for the said m/c.
It also allows them to trespass on public spaces for room to carry out its aggressive side, mountain biking, BMX racing and dirt jumping. There they throw themselves round knowing that they will be fixed by free hospital treatment and helped by ACC. Areas agreed for mountain bike tracks have cleared areas that are treed and were part of the environment enjoyable for walkers in Nelson. But that isn't enough for these bikers – they have cut and cleared illegally to make new tracks to suit themselves. Looked at dispassionately, they are just land clearers repeating the colonial measures of the past but with a greenwash, that of being a healthy sport in the outdoors.
The bike sport fraternity are often destructive and really just a different version of the petrolheads, demolition derby fans, mud plugs and racing car enthusiasts; though most of those are contained to agreed tracks. The advent of 4Wdrives, with tv ads showing them driving in the outdoors like real men, up rivers destroying and polluting them, if they want to go there, have further encouraged this idea of misuse of the countryside for the machine-mad male with no appreciation of nature or being a natural human either.
The problem with the SROI is that typically the cycling calculations assume a slow climb in usage compared to what actually happens. Quite unlike the NZTA or treasury approach to roads with always assumes a exponential car usage growth – that usually doesn’t happen.
If either used realistic analysis based on their continuous past failures, then most of the roads that have done recently it wouldn’t be funded. If they used the actual results from their previous screwups of estimating ROIs from PT or cycle lanes than almost all would be.
The growth in traffic on most installed cycle lanes and effective PT invariably climbs more rapidly than NZTA expectations. Just the same as what happens when the public transport is upgraded – which is why the northern busway now has continuous double decker buses at peak hours – and we don’t need a new uber expensive bridge or tunnel. Similarly the double tracking and electrification of the Auckland has exceeded expectations in almost every year since they were done. The only thing that seems to slow them down is the work being done on the next upgrade.
But it is a chicken and egg as can be easily seen when the cycle lanes are put in. You have to have cycle lanes before you get much cycle traffic on them. You find out the need after you put them in. But typically they are incredibly cheap.
In Auckland, all cyclists and scooter riders are scared shitless of the ignorant dangerous drivers and their parked cars. We’ve all had near death experiences from drivers inadvertently trying to kill us. Put in a cycle way and watch the cyclist traffic increase massively over several years. Try walking on the north western cycle way or even the grafton gully cycleway at 5pm and you’ll see what I mean. I’m looking forward to being able to actually ride down K Rd without the fear of imminent death or injury. Be nice if they did the same thing on Ponsonby Road.
Where there aren’t cycleways, many cyclists and virtually all scooter riders prefer to ride on pedestrian paths – thereby endangering pedestrians. Somehow this social saving isn’t anywhere in the SROI – along with most of the other real social benefits.
Nor a re most of the economic benefits because they are unknowable before the project is put into place. In the case of the SkyPath, it simply means that a whole area who currently have no ability to commute to the north shore by bike (in my case) or from the north shore can now start to do so. Trying to even figure out the effects of that are damn near impossible to figure out in advance. It is simply guesswork. About the only thing that is obvious is that it’d be way cheaper than any possible roading project in Auckland.
In short – your position is just spurious bullshit based on a selective unthinking analysis of how the SROI is currently calculated.
My family are cyclists, not so much commuter cyclists now because of commuting distances, so I agree we have some way to go regarding cyclist safety.
However, I disagree with the method currently used for identifying, prioritising and implementing projects.
This is my objection to this project, and the SROI needs to be applied to others areas of Auckland as well in order to help prioritise. This doesn't happen.
Cycle lanes are the classic example of "if you build it they will come" with the sum being greater than it's parts. Fully connected, separated cycleways that go to useful places see huge growth.
The problem is people see them as a cheap panacea for noisy MAMILs & a recreational frippery rather than an important piece of commuter infrastructure. Yet using an e-bike on a proper cycle way to commute in your work clothes is as different from weaving in and out of traffic, footpaths and bits of cycle way on a racing bike whilst clad in your full lycra panoply as taking a guided the great walk in summer is from hacking your way up to the tops on an unmaintained track in the Kawekas in winter.
Yes, and Parker was certainly emphatic when being interviewed on Natrad both last night and this morning. Seems happy to sudeline climate change issues, and I'm wondering if he is aware that in the Far North there are already rumblings from domestic water users (aka 'the people') that horticulture and agriculture (aka corporate interests)have more right to water.
And along with the water requirements is the very real potential for adverse effects of nutrient runoff and heavy agrochemical use.
As you say Molly, would have been nice to see spending on our tired and dysfunctional health infrastructure prioritised.
Your concern Molly is much appreciated by this resident who lives on a popular by-route which eventually leads to the harbour bridge and is sick and tired of lycra clad enthusiasts who assume they own the road and its up to the rest of us to get out of their way.
Any proposal that is going to increase their numbers in my neck of the woods will not be appreciated by locals trying to go about their daily business without cycling fashionistas strung across the road impeding progress for the rest of us.
That concern should be increased by the knowledge the current budget is $360 million to provide it.
That kind of investment warrants better scrutiny at this time, especially as it has been a continually growing budget. The reason it is shovel ready is because there has been a staunch group of supporters continually banging on about it for years. Not because it is an equitable and valuable use of government budget.
(I also note the inclusion of numbers in terms of the pitiful amount of jobs intended to be created, but nothing in terms of the actual spend being reported.)
You got my attention with lycra clad.
I think I am old now, as some 'trends' get me all curmudgeonly.
Active wear does it. Especially on waiting staff. I have no desire for a camel-toe with my lasagne nor a broccoli stalk with my coffee.
I call them 'lycra louts'. That generally gets them going.
Not all cyclists belong to this genus. These ones, apart from the skin tight and unfaltering plumage are most often found in inner city Wellington on a Saturday morning crawling 2/3/4 abreast up Raroa Road presumably on a run out to Makara/Ohariu Valley/J'ville. They wiggle slowly up this steep street failing to pull over. On my way to work some times I have counted 14 cars behind me, some at stalling speed.
They are able to multi task, ie give the finger to anyone who wishes to go past them.
They mob cafes to the exclusion of others. Their cry is distinctive too with the sounds of entitlement being the top notes.
Got no problems with unproblematic riders who respect other road users just as I do.
God forbid that you have to share the road.
I do. That is how I know that cyclists riding 4 abreast is not on and is being a menace to other road users.
The general way to deal with them is to put in some cheap cycle paths that separate cars from cycles. Or an even simpler method would be just get rid of parked cars on roads.
I know when I am commuting (usually in work jeans) I use the cycle lanes where they are available.
But if I have to cycle on the road, I leave at least a metre from the parked cars. That is because of the idiots who seem to try to open doors on me every day. That provides enough room to avoid the doors that get flung open in front of me by drivers who neither look in their wing mirror nor partially open the door and look back.
These self-entitled idiots are the primary reason why cyclists ride so far out into the lane.
That means that I take up a third of the usual car lane and means that cars going around me and passing at metre put at least half their body into the incoming lane (2/3rds for the SUV trucks).
So i went and googled skypath and ended up with this
"The Northern Pathway project will provide a seamless dedicated walking and cycling link between Auckland’s City Centre and the North Shore which will connect with existing local paths to extend the region’s walking and cycling network."
As far as i am concerned i dont care how much it costs it has to be done and should have been long ago!
To suggest that we should instead put the money into health and mental health shows a complete disconnect from reality
Oh, you googled Skypath and came up with …. what?
I've been following the Skypath discussion for years, and at no time, does it ever go into the realms of providing an equitable use of transport monies across the region, or seek to justify the spend in terms of social returns. It has always been a case of:
" As far as i am concerned i dont care how much it costs it has to be done and should have been long ago! "
Great justification…
This has been highlighted as shovel-ready projects to be invested in. There are other needs and projects that are awaiting funding, some in health and mental health.
"To suggest that we should instead put the money into health and mental health shows a complete disconnect from reality"
But if you are insistent on keeping the funding sector appropriate – we could instead invest the money into improving the pitiful service and access to public transport and alternative transport infrastructure in other areas of Auckland that exist without the vocal ranting brigade.
The continual rubber-band bounceback to BAU in terms of prioritising infrastructure, is going to continue the path of inequitable access that we were previously on.
I think this should change.
10 years of moaning from the small minded objectors to SkyPath. It's painful how obvious the need is to expand the harbour crossing to active modes of transport. Public demand is driving the project, car addicts need to learn to share public space for a change.
Vocal demand is driving the project.
Equitable access for prioritisation, funding and implementation is not.
That is my primary objection, and remains so.
The difference with the "Northern Pathway" is that the mode share over the harbour bridge is currently 0% ; you could do lots of other little projects all over Auckland with similar funding but there is still a fundamental disconnect with the North Shore. If it's fairness you're concerned about, the models indicate that the proposed pathway will get even more usage than the Northwestern cycleway. It's the cheapest possible alternative to a new harbour crossing.
After numerous news stories on the National Party donation fraud case not guilty pleas in Feb, & other than a Parliamentary privileged comment by JLR in March that was reported on, there has been no mention of the case due to be in court last week on the 10th June. It's surprising there has been no mention in media of it whatsoever, whether the case has started as intended or not?
Media's very economical when it comes to any untoward news around brand national.
Watching Tova tell Clarke even labour voters don't trust him (another survey) and constantly bleating out the gotcha questions shows where they're heading.
TV 3 is a goner $28 million loss no Stephen Joyce to bail them out.
'Mosque gunman wrongly granted firearms licence'.
For many years it has been apparent that the NZ Police need a major shakeup. Ever try dealing with them? Lazy and incompetent at best. Lying and deceitful at worst. From the idiot Commissioner Bush who thought the corrupt cops in the Arthur Allen Thomas case had 'integrity beyond reproach' to the blatantly corrupt Doone, the rot clearly starts at the top and trickles down.
The lazy p****s who approved this licence should be in court charged with vicarious liability. But we all know they won't. there will be an internal Police inquiry, which will drag on for two years or so and then be quietly buried.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-shooting/120285768/mosque-terrorist-was-wrongly-granted-firearms-licence-due-to-police-mistakes-sources-say
I heard on the tranny that the Police Commissioner wants gun licensing to be sub-contracted out.
Possibly making accountability less likely.
[Fixed typo in user handle]
Just to show that you can get recreational shooting, conservation, national parks, and foodbanks in the one sentence …
…. Fiordland Wapiti Foundation, Game Animal Council, and Department of Conservation (DOC) are partnering to provide 18,000kg of free-range wild Fiordland venison to New Zealand foodbanks and families in need. Each year the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation, working with DOC, conducts a deer cull in Fiordland National Park removing up to 1000 animals.
“Weather permitting, by the end of next month, we will have removed 600 deer from Fiordland National Park for processing into 18,000 1kg wild venison mince packets. These are being distributed by a charitable supply chain distributor to foodbanks throughout the country. This will feed thousands of New Zealand families in need,” says Roy Sloan, Fiordland Wapiti Foundation President.
Last time I stopped in Haast, there was a little hamburger stand selling the most awesomest, juiciest, sweetest venison steak hamburgers I've ever had, and they came straight out of the Fiordland culling programme.
Take them all out team.
barbaric.
Better that than 1080ing them out of existence, at least the protein gets recycled.
So what would your alternative solution be?
Good stuff. Wild venison is massive blind spot in nz at present.
The choppers are shooting and leaving them down the rd from home at this very moment to protect the young manuka
Had a guy telling me just recently they shot 40 plus deer to protect their feed crops in the autumn
Almost plaque proportions at work and at home around here
The decimate native regeneration, and must surely be a risk of spreading TB again .
If only idiots in positions of influence with public platforms for their inane mutterings WERE a minority…
'I am a minority': David Seymour criticises Andrew Little's response to Black Lives Matter protesters
Just not quite a small enough minority.
Didn't that moron Jacqui Dean say she was an "ethnic minority" … (because she is a woman).
As for David, he seems to be going after the white supremacist and sympathizers vote.
Todd made National policy lurch to the left in his Te Puna speech. I do wonder what the likes of Collins and Goldsmith make of this. Should the next poll still show National in the low 30's and Muller below 15, will there be another coup?
Health system in for massive shake up.
Long overdue.
Covid 19 would have been an absolute disaster had it not been stopped in its tracks.
National are largely to blame with its sinking lid policies and leaky buildings by way of defunding and wrecking the building codes.
After 9 years we were left with the worst health system in the OECD. National wanted a privatized health system given Woodhouse now a former private hospital middle manager and Coleman another private health hawk.
By running down the health system to push people into buying private health insurance.
Private health insurance is always a bridgehead from which the public system can be attacked. If you don't eradicate it, you will spend a lifetime fighting its incursions. Neither option is pleasant.
It isnt the shake up that it is made out to be. I read the 274 page report. It is bascially just changing a few letterheads and re-writing a few contracts.
It doesnt recommend reducing or scrapping co-payments, for a start, which is one of the big barriers of access to services.
Idiot/Savant is attacking the Greens, saying that they are "footstools", for supporting Labour's draconian 2-year ditching of RMA requirements for major projects, shutting the public out of the process (except for seldom heard submissions to the select committee). David Parker should hang his head in shame-he had a bit of a train-wreck interview on Morning Report trying to justify this today.
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2020/06/steamrolling-democracy.html
In fact the Greens have only supported this to the first reading. It is quite normal to support legislation to the first reading where the details can then be seen as to what is proposed.
I doubt very much they will give it support any further. At least I hope not. It will probably pass with the help of the Nats and NZF, which says it all.
Meanwhile submissions in opposition should be lodged (by those who care about democracy) at the select committee stage.
One of the fast track projects appears to be housing in Queenstown – not sure why?
Low hanging fruit.
Palestine Bleeds: Execution of Autistic Man is the Norm, not an Exception
by RAMZY BAROUD, Counterpunch, 12 June 2020
A 32-year-old man with the mental age of an 8-year-old child was executed by Israeli soldiers on May 30, while crouching behind his teacher near his special needs school in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The cold-blooded murder of Iyad al-Hallaq might not have received much attention if it were not for the fact that it took place five days following the similarly heartbreaking murder of a 46-year-old black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis, at the hands of American police.
The two crimes converge, not only in their repugnancy and the moral decadence of their perpetrators, but also because countless American police officers have been trained in Israel, by the very Israeli ‘security forces’ that killed al-Hallaq. The practice of killing civilians, with efficiency and callousness, is now a burgeoning market. Israel is the biggest contributor to this market; the US is the world’s largest client.
When thousands of people rushed to the streets in Palestine, including hundreds of Palestinian and Israeli Jewish activists in Jerusalem, chanting “Justice for Iyad, justice for George”, their cry for justice was a spontaneous and heartfelt reaction to injustice so great, so blatant.
Al-Hallaq’s story might appear particularly unique, as the ‘suspected terrorist’ was killed while merely walking in King Faisal Street in Jerusalem, on his way to take out the trash. He was afraid of soldiers and terrified of blood.
“He was also afraid of the armed police officers who stood along the route to the special needs center he went to, where he participated in a vocational training program,” the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, reported.
Al-Hallaq’s many fears, which may have appeared exaggerated by his family, turned out to be true. Even an autistic person in Palestine is not safe from the vengeance of soldiers. ….
Read more….
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/12/palestine-bleeds-execution-of-autistic-man-is-not-an-exception-but-the-norm/
I wonder if they have considered maybe retraining some of the airline employees in the next couple of months. The cropping season is still a little way away so time to do some workforce planning maybe. Drive a Boeing – maybe they could drive these too
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/121833517/contractors-fear-lack-of-local-workers-to-fill-hundreds-of-harvest-roles
But it does look like we could do with some serious rural workforce planning. In the last few months we have had concerns about a workforce for vineyard machinery, calving and the flush of the dairy season, the harvesting machinery and general overall harvesting workforce. That way these could be end to end jobs and I know soem already do that in the horticultural field.
Also have any of these considered the jobs they are offering. I know that machinery needs to be worked dawn to dusk in season but running the workforce in 40 hour shifts may be more acceptable. Plus looking at providing some half time roles or encouraging more women/ older people into the rural workforce.
Paying a decent wage might help, too.
Training or retraining people costs more than importing some someone else has trained. If it takes two years to be ready, as they say, then train now and there will be no more problem in two years time. But this problem of 'cant find workers' has persisted for far longer than two years, hence it's safe to conclude that no permanent solution is desired. Just cost cutting.
Some how for this I seriously doubt that it takes two years of training if "some farmer friends can jump in and help". Being able to drive a tractor doubtless helps a lot but a HT licence, good spatial and motor skills and a few brains would go a very long way. A boeing pilot should be very retrainable.
And if it was so skilled then any contingent travelling from country to country would include a fair few NZer's who have been trained here plus a great deal higher wage.
Looks like they are over cooking the skills and training needed coupled with, as McFlock puts it lousy wages, to keep up the cost cutting. Perhaps they could solve their own problem by dealing with the upgraded government training courses and lend their machines for some practice runs
Two new covid 19 cases in NZ.
Inevitable I guess, but let's just hope the quarantine procedures are a lot better than was reported on TV1 news last week. Any system is only as good as its weakest link, and clearly the Hotel quarantine was the weak link.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12340250
I'm going to be particularly interested in what Bloomfield has to say at 3:00 today about this little wrinkle:
If they were let out before their two weeks to spread it in public here, Imma gonna be pissed.
[headdesk]
what the fuck is the point of isolation if there are exemptions.
ah, misread – thought they'd been given an exemption from isolation – that is so far not addressed.
What TVNZ says is:
Not sure how else to read that other than TVNZ understands they were given an exemption from isolation to go spread it around at a funeral here. Wait and see what Bloomfield says, I guess.
We had a funeral here yesterday an aussie family member was allowed in , hearsay is they were allowed down here from Auckland and got20 mins with family and to see the coffin closed. Not sure about ppe etc . Apparently the funeral had well in excess of 1000 attending.
I guess the next funeral cluster will sort out the "exemptions".
Dr Ashley Bloomfield explained in the briefing this afto that people are not given exemptions to go to a funeral.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/419134/two-new-covid-19-cases-in-nz-visited-dying-parent-bloomfield
Ah, ok – fair call then. Not ideal, but human.
The wording is a little ambiguous as to when they traveled and when their parent died.
If they left to drive to Wellington before their parent died, then I withdraw and apologise for my comments today.
If their parent died before they started their drive, I stand by my comments because the exemption should have been withdrawn.
From watching the briefing the parent died the evening the two arrived in Wellington. I had a similar experience with my mother. I got a call at work that my mum was dying, caught a plane from Auckland to Wellington that afternoon, and was with her for about half an hour before she died.
Stuff is reporting a different timeline:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/121851190/coronavirus-our-expectations-have-not-been-met-says-pm
Hmm that puts a different spin on it. I'm not sure – having listened to Dr Bloomfield's briefing – that that is a fair representation. The RNZ report, I feel, is more accurate.
Now it could be argued that the "that night" refers to 12 June, the day they applied for the exemption, to visit a dying parent. But the juxtaposition of the last sentence with the statement that they travelled to Wellington on the 13th strongly implies that the Parent died on the night of the 13th
The media are not above trying to stir up controversy for the sake of it. Especially Stuff.
I really really hope that the rumour is not true.
Peter if you are referring to the Avatar team's arrival at the Quarantine hotel, it would be good to get your facts right. The mixing in the foyer was with an American family staying at the hotel.
The arriving Avatar team were bussed to the hotel. They were taken in small groups through a separate door each wearing face shields into a separate room for debriefing and instruction. They were then taken under escort one at a time in the lift to each individual's room where they stayed for 2 weeks, finishing yesterday. They did not even mix with their colleagues during the time in seclusion or allowed out for a walk anywhere.
Read the linked article. It's not paywalled. Stuff says the same things. Doesn't look like anything to do with Avatar.
The TV1 news report Peter refers to showed how loose the quarantine was.
That was the initial story.
Apparently, though, they fucked it up and there was indeed a <2M contact.
Ianmac, how about YOU get YOUR facts right. Just Google it. Absolutely nothing to do with Avatar. It was Kiwis returning to NZ.
They mixed throughout their stay on crowded city streets on guided walks. Newly arrived returnees were mixing with those on their last day or days of quarantine.
OK Peter. I assumed wrongly though the Avatar story was published wrongly. Sorry.
Seems as though they were taking all the precautions in today's pair. Hope so.
Ianmac. All good! And thank you for addressing that, for which I respect you! I was surprised, as I always enjoy your posts which are well thought out. Cheers!
Since we reached zero the media have run various stories about the heartless government not making a quarantine exception (and another, and another exception, and so on). And of course the opposition demands for borders opening ASAP.
But don't worry, nothing bad could happen, job done, blah blah …
Idiots.
+100 – hopefully that bleating will stop now.
And given the clusterfuck the UK and USA is, lets just throw into the sea anyone who arrive from there.
Watch all the various 'giants' of the NZ media swing from previously saying the restrictions were too harsh, to now saying they are too loose.
Peter Chch (15) … Disappointing to read this news of two new cases of Covid-19.
IMO our borders should be closed … full stop, no exceptions, no negotiation, until there is a means of controlling this paricular virus. These two new cases demonstrate the need for doing so.
Agree mary about the boarders.
during lockdown so furious with selfish people who bleated on about attending funerals or visiting sick and dying loved ones. And now this
"bleated on…" – not very compassionate Anker.
Pull yourself together – there are legitimate grounds for compassion – in this case, the exemption conditions may very well have worked as designed – if not, I am sure it will be valuable grist for the mill in reviewing future procedures at our 'bo(a)rders'.
Yes happy to put my hand up on this one that I don't feel a lot of compassion. terrified with good reason about Covid getting a hold here and think everyone will/might have to make scarifices.
Given this situation and the situation with two teenagers given leave to go to a funeral and then absconding time to make it real simple. No exception to isolation.
One of the new C19 patients said that in retrospect, they displayed symptoms. But they're allowed to self isolate.
FFS.
What the ACTUAL FUCK, Jacinda and Ashley??!!???
A funeral is for a dead person. A stiff. Their metabolic processes are history. Shuffled off this mortal coil. 4 million volts isn't enough to create an interaction with them.
Giving people exemptions from isolation to go spread disease in order to go hang out with a corpse is NOT GOOD ENOUGH. To go say their last goodbyes while someone still lives – fair enough. But not once they've already passed.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300036071/covid19-directorgeneral-of-health-gives-detail-on-two-new-cases
Not very impressed, I must say.
I'm fkn furious. Just as well I'm not voting today or tomorrow.
What you would vote for National? They would have gotten these difficult calls right wouldn't they!
You're not helping.
Apologies Andre – I didn't intend to support your over reaction or wind you up. Nobody has a script for this, not even Jacinda and Ashley, who you appear to have put on a pedestal. This is an error at worst – a learning which will modify the border procedures and compassionate exemption policies.
I'm coming down slowly. Give me a couple days and I should be back on an even keel.
I think Ashley and Jacinda have done an absolutely outstanding job – but this was a really dumb unforced error. I hope the lesson and action taken is to assume everyone arriving is a raging hotbed of maximum infectiousness, until proven otherwise. The common good of 5 million people has to come ahead of compassion for situations that aren't absolutely time-critical. Someone in their last days is time-critical, after they've passed is not.
I have a nephew and sister-in-law in France that got COVID early on. They're still suffering severe aftereffects. I have a cousin in the US that's a doctor in respiratory intensive care, and her husband is a doctor in the emergency department. From what I've heard from them, mainstream reports about COVID seem somewhat sanitised and downplayed.
The elimination we had achieved is immensely valuable, risking it needs to only be done for something equally valuable.
Yes, the lockdown has cost NZ billions, and to throw it away so easily? Kiss of death for this government and Ashley NY honours list. And deservedly so.
Sad as PM did a great job with a hard task, but this is beyond stupidity.
9 days on the loose. How many are now infected? Nz was in the privileged position of having eliminated the virus and being able to control the entry or exclusion of the virus.
From way back in early March, we knew the borders were our vulnerable point, yet, from early March, time and time again we have learned, from th MSM, that what this government says about the borders and what is actually happening is vastly different.
Move over Jacinda, your time is up.
Peter, take a breath. Watch the full press conference with Bloomfield, if you haven't already. Really detailed answers, with a whole range of safeguards in place.
It's not at all surprising that an individual case has happened. It's the policy that matters. Opening up our borders now would be stupid, and so we're not doing it.
Observer. Will do. I not in a position to do that at moment, but, in face value, I am angry. But will watch an hope safeguards are all good!
But yes, expected more cases, just hope process is good.
I don't get it either. Apparently we have testing to burn so why were we not testing on arrival, 5 days later and then again at 10 days and 14 days. These people were in the managed quarantine between it appears the 5th and the 13th of June so surely they would have been symptomatic? Is quarantine being managed in pods or did they have contact with people between 5th-13th that have been released already? What about the family contact in wellington – who have they had contact with? What about border staff – and quarantine staff and airline staff. And it's taken 16 days to find this out when symptoms can be tested for in the 5-10 day range. And how do we "know" they followed all the rules when they didn't bother to report symptoms- big fail right there. As others say FFS – there are so many obvious gaps in the arrangements..
A similar conversation has gone down in this household.
Apparently there are 2 hour tests available.
A baby with a sniffle, that had barely left it's home environment, no visitors, got swabbed in ED last night because Covid…
And yet…
From what has been said so far, the one that has tested positive, either fibbed when asked the ubiquitous screening questions or answered a different question to that which was asked.
Yes Peter Chch and Andre. It's what you get when you don't have black and white, hard and fast, delineated rules which are meticulously enforced.
When factors to do with 'humanity' and exemptions and judgements and assessments come into it you get problems.
Trouble is numbers in the population screamed about hard and fast rules mitigating against humanitarian factors over months.
If we had hard and fast rules mentality, no weighing up of factors involved, everyone doing 51kph would be fined heavily pro forma, cars would be permanently taken off those doing 10kph over the limit and so on according lists of rules.
The no exemptions thing for those coming into the country would go on at least until a vaccine is developed however long that is.
Of course this shocking turn of events wouldn't have happened under Simon Bridges' watch. (Remember him?)
Andre is right, a funeral is for a dead person, a stiff shuffled off this mortal coil. This situation shows though that it's not the dead that are the worry or whatever their loved ones do but the hysteria about that from deadshits.
The funeral was not for a parrot, but for a fellow human being. I'm not convinced the risk is worth it either, but in your anger, don't lose all your humanity.
During Level 4, people within New Zealand were prohibited from going to say their last goodbyes to loved ones. I count myself very fortunate my dad survived his medical emergency during that time that I was prohibited from travelling to go see him when he was on the edge. FFS, my mother was prohibited from going to see him in the hospital, in a region that had zero cases at that time.
To put us all at risk of having to go back to that for the sake of an already dead body – just plain unacceptable
Yes, you are right, but have faith in our capacities to learn from a mistake. I would far prefer that the error stemmed from having too much compassion than the opposite – otherwise we are no different to the right wingers.
Being absolutely filthy because someone's feelz about a piece of dead meat likely put multiple lives at risk isn't losing losing your humanity.
Cheers Joe – referring to a human corpse as dead meat is indeed akin to losing your humanity.
Odious comment from Joe there.
Hilarity from someone with a boner for murderous, totalitarian thugs.
Fair enough but they can’t attend the funeral now anyway so there was no point in releasing them. All it’s done is needlessly expose us. No exemptions from now on, people living here couldn’t get them during lockdown.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield showed why he is a doctor, not a politician or reporter or "commentator". And a good human being.
He calmly explained the details of the case, and refused to throw the two women under the bus. They will be feeling like sh*t right now, and Bloomfield understands that. They did not break the rules, they followed them. If there was a loophole it was in the NZ system. He takes responsibility for that (as he should).
I hope that the focus is now on highlighting the complacency of those who want open borders, not on hounding two victims of the virus, already bereaved.
One patient admitted to in retrospect feeling symptoms, yet decided to wing it.
They're to blame.
Well, I won't be casting a stone. I'm sure that hypothetically we all would have acted differently. In reality … when you've crossed the world to see a dying loved one? When the system tells you it's all under control? When you look around and you're the only ones wearing face masks and you're still following the rules?
Let's hope none of us ever find out what we do.
They knew they were symptomatic. Bury them.
Bury them?
In quarantine.
Observer. You are clearly a better person than me, and that i respect.
Ashley Bloomfield is, as you say, is a doctor and a compassionate person.but right now, maybe we need someone who is also a little bit of a dictator. Level 4 was a dictate. Now I feel what's the point?
The elite say one thing, we are coerced to do another. To say I am disappointed in our PM and Ashley would be an understatement.
I think the key point is that the women were not tested, and they should have been, and that is NZ's fault, not theirs. It is not their job to say to health professionals "hang on, your system isn't good enough". Especially when they are in emotional distress. Now Bloomfield is suggesting that the procedures have been / will be changed. Good.
A good doctor does not blame patients. Nor should we.
Here is the Ministry of Health media release about the two new cases reported today.
https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/media-releases/two-new-cases-covid-19-0
Strange visitors from another country, who came to Aoteoroa with powers and abilities far beyond those of mere mortals!
Akl – Well on a single tank! Cast iron bladders!
They are women.. of course they have cast iron bladders.
I suspect they watered the landscape as so many of us have done in past times. The trick is to check the sight lines – thought I had once – then along came the train.
There seems to be far more media interest in women's bladders at Level 1 than in Simon Bridges' bladder at Level 4. I don't know why he got a free piss – er, pass.
I honestly thought this was an "Onion"-type satire.
National MP defends Confederate Flag
What is wrong with these people?
Kia Ora
Newshub.
The apprentice program is good Aotearoa needs to keep training our youth to have a bright future.
That's the way using the Internet for new mahi.
It is quite warm for this time of the year and location
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
Te Ao Maori Marama.
You see what I have previously said about the system$ .
The positive thing about the tiki tour Wahine with the virus is there will better management off the virus quarantine facility's.
The hinaki sound like a good place for the person who let that happen.
Aroha is the correct way for the future.
PEE destroys tangata Mana.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora
The Am Show.
Its good to see more plastic being made biodegradable
Volunteers do good work in Aotearoa.
Wow 4 baby's at once looks like she has it sorted.
The in Australian dinosaur shows that humanity is a mire minute in time and we are making a huge mess of our environment.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
Newshub.
With some of the problems being flushed out for virus isolation I think that they will get it correct.
That's is cool video games helping Rangatahi with ADHD
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora
Te Ao Maori Marama.
I have seen what it's like in Tamiki Makaru a lot of people were looking down on Maor.
Interesting but I have a good idea who has treated all tangata whenua the best and has the best interest for our Mokopuna futures That's who Eco Maori tau toko.
Ka kite Ano