Apparently the government is going to launch a war style campaign to mobilise and empower the population. It is important to understand this isn't just a rhetoric – it will require the whole nation to do it's bit to save lives from COVID-19.
Meanwhile, in the dystopian UK, billionaire Richard Branson (worth eight billion NZ dollars) is asking for a 15 billion dollar bailout for his airline whilst demanding the 8,500 Virgin Atlantic employees take eight weeks unpaid leave. If he paid his staff $1000 a week it would cost $68,000,000 for eight weeks or about .85% of Branson's personal fortune.
Given that much of his wealth will be Virgin Airline shares, it is highly unlikely his current wealth is anything like $8 billion. How likely is it that he has a spare $68 million in actual cash?
Thats the thing with most billionaires. Most of their wealth is in the companies they own. Sure they will have a lot of cash, but probably way less than you think. A lot of their spending is from lines of credit which they have due to their wealth of their shareholdings. That is all going to dry up.
This whole thing is a bit like the GFC (except much worse). The govt has to prop up companies and banks as much as it does individuals. Otherwise you get a complete system wide crash. And then even governments can't help, at least not to the extent they could if the system wide crash can be avoided.
You are misreading the point I am making. The challenge right now is to avoid a system wide crash, not precipitate it.
I know a bunch of commenters, including you, on The Standard see this crisis as an opportunity to herald in the revolution. But that is not going to happen. The govt is going to do its best to sustain the economy, not destroy it.
But in the aftermath it (the economy and all of us in it) will be different. Will global tourism ever fully recover, at least within the next 3 to 5 years? Maybe all airlines will be smaller for many years to come. Far less cruising holidays. Way more local tourism. Way less eating out. The hundreds of billions (including Kiwisaver investments in these sectors) invested in all these industries will be gone forever.
It is not hard to think of other changes. But I am pretty sure that New Zealand farming as a source of export food will continue in essentially the same form as at present. The world will still need our food. As indeed does our economy and all of us in the towns and cities who are indirectly dependent on it. Bomber Bradbury's hope for the destruction of the export farming sector is not going to happen.
Branson and his 'billionaire' ilk, and the aspirational middle class are the problem.
I am sure Bransons business interests are arranged in ways that one can not impact on the other. Trusts or some other legal jiggery pokery that keeps him rich.
It is time for this 'not as cash rich as I may think' business leader to realise (sell) some companies and pay his staff the redundancies they are due, not coming across all socialist when it suits him.
How do you sell an airline at the moment?
Given that Branson is asking for state support so soon, probably shows how indebted he is. I am pretty certain the government will be expecting major shareholders (the likes of Branson and his cash) to step up as a condition of providing support to the airline, or any other business.
I imagine the govt will be taking a bigger stake in Air NZ and any other large business that needs a special bailout. But they are hardly going to take equity stakes in all New Zealand business, big and small across all sectors. Way too complicated. On that point the Tax Payers Union has got it wrong.
And subsidiaries of foreign companies, or ones with large foreign shareholdings?
Do we socialise losses there to get continued "foreign investment"?
The losses some local companies face is going to result in them being under-capitalised – in normal times they offer a share issue or seek a white knight partner. These are not normal times.
A government partner and later sale of the shareholding – on the market, or to one party is not unreasonable.
There is a good argument for wage subsidies, allowance for later tax payments, for sole traders and small firms to keep them going.
Based on previous tax paid income, of course.
It is in banks, and suppliers, interest for businesses to continue, rather than default into bankruptcy, so in general a business has more options to help cashflow, than a wage earner, or welfare recipient.
As any rich person could tell you – you don't get something without paying for it- any govt subsidy anywhere around a billionaire should come with a reciprocal transfer of wealth in the form of equity or property transfer. The uk govt may end up owning a carribean island or two but hey…
you obviously feel content in your uselessness, but i am relieved to see that you find no issue with Socialism when it is obscenly weatlhy people who are hanging of the government tit.
lesser known is this,….the man does not make his money only on airplanes he does make a good portion of it in Healthcare, and thus stands to make much money from the current health crisis.
Someone yesterday told you to go fuck yourself with your low concern trolling about 'socialism' for the poor. And i can only second that.
As for airlines, they too can be nationalised, grounded, and when the world returns to something resembling normal people might go back to flying in a year of several. As for Richard Branson, he can get fucked too.
Branson is an excellent example of an entrepreneur who has created remarkable wealth in many fields. He's done things beyond the capacity of the vast majority of people, yet envy of him is both palpable and deplorable. You are quite correct of course, wealthy people don't necessarily have a lot of spare cash lying around, and if his businesses goes under permanently, a lot of people will lose jobs. Yet it seems some commenters here would prefer these people lose their jobs, rather than a successful business they deeply resent get tided over a bad patch.
There is of course a balance here. Many people have good reason to be angry about the way big banks were bailed out during the GFC, an event caused by their own actions, and yet were never held accountable for in any meaningful way. In the meantime millions of ordinary people lost a great deal. By all means consider bailing out Virgin, but there has to be a quid pro quo of some kind.
For some years now I've been exploring the deeper nature of the so-called 'mixed model' economy. Why is it that societies which embrace both commercialism and socialism seem to deliver the best outcomes? What are the limits on both, when do they both go too far? What are the good features of both, and how do we construct social models that develop synergy between them?
While my starting point is socialism, I'm increasingly frustrated by narrow ideologues here on the left whose obvious agenda is 'smash capitalism'; while at the same time I've never had a moment for those right wingers who refuse to acknowledge that all human success is built on a platform of social trust and cohesion.
In this light I appreciate many of your comments here Wayne. Not that I always agree with you but that you do reach out across this deplorable political divide with good intent.
Branson is a "prime example" of how to get rich by "socialising your loses" and privatising profits. While lowering wages and avoiding taxes at the same time.
Finding a more original way of extracting wealth from the community.
Not dissimilar to New Zealand's asset strippers and the runners down of former public assets
Entrepreneurs, real ones, find something to sell that benefits people.
Branson has, like bankers, almost certainly has destroyed more real wealth, than he has created.
"Wealth creators" my arse.
By all means bail out the soon to be jobless Virgin staff.
Spending money on bailing out billionaire tax dodgers, sticks in my craw.
The govt has to prop up companies and banks as much as it does individuals.
Why?
…governments can't help, at least not to the extent they could if the system wide crash can be avoided.
How so?
Is your thinking on what constitutes "government" limited to a box that's jam packed with immovable notions of capitalism as some natural or inevitable expression of order?
Coronavirus might be our last best chance to change the path we're on and stop with this crazy warming of the plant "because" bullshit. If you lack the imagination to envisage any way other than the same old way, then perhaps it's time for you to spend your days watching soaps because you have nothing of worth to offer.
Alternatively, push at the constraints of the box that contains your patterns of thoughts, and you never know, you might be in line for a pleasant surprise or two.
Billionaire Sir Richard Branson has been urged by Labour politicians to cover the wages of Virgin Atlantic staff forced to take unpaid leave due to the coronavirus.
EXCLUSIVE: Virgin Healthcare has been exposed as a 'parasite' on the NHS as a campaigner slams the firm as it's revealed it paid no corporation tax
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin healthcare group has not paid a penny in corporation tax while being handed £2billion worth of NHS and local authority deals.
but essentially what our National Party Mouth (i guess they consider Benefit, Oravida and NO Bridges just too toxic for these trying times) Wayne wants is socialism, as without it non of these super rich and their rich man tit sucking Toadies would be where they are.
Branson/Virgin are also into trains, taking over some of the British Rail network – calls for the UK government to step in as there aren't any passengers any more.
I note that a billionaire like the Democrat former presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg promised to give away $8 billion of his $62 billion wealth, so it must therefore be possible for him and billionnaires like Branson to liberate large amounts of wealth.
How else do you give away 8% of your wealth? It must be available as cash.
Secondly, Branson must have huge ability to borrow cash against his holdings.
It's a bit rich to put 8500 employees on 8 weeks unpaid employment and cry poverty for yourself.
If Virgin is so indebted that it is going to fold – it may be better to let it fold and bail out the employees rather than Branson and the shareholders. This won't apply to all industries or companies, but the future of airlines has to be problematic.
As a rule of thumb – helicopter money in a crisis should go to the bottom of the tree. Companies with reduced revenues can lay off staff, temporarily reduce labour costs and cut operations. Helicopter money shouldn't be used to prop up companies with bad fundamentals – or (as in the GFC) crooks who should be in gaol.
Most people know it as chronic fatigue syndrome, or just ME. All serious viral infections have the potential to cause long-term damage that is poorly understood and treated.
In my late 20's I got a very serious 3 month long attack of mononucleosis that decades later still comes back to bite me as a bout of deep fatigue if I overdo it. On the wider scale of things I consider myself fortunate, but from time to time it's proven a real bugger.
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disabling and complex illness.
People with ME/CFS are often not able to do their usual activities. At times, ME/CFS may confine them to bed. People with ME/CFS have overwhelming fatigue that is not improved by rest. ME/CFS may get worse after any activity, whether it’s physical or mental. This symptom is known as post-exertional malaise (PEM). Other symptoms can include problems with sleep, thinking and concentrating, pain, and dizziness. People with ME/CFS may not look ill. However,
People with ME/CFS are not able to function the same way they did before they became ill.
ME/CFS changes people’s ability to do daily tasks, like taking a shower or preparing a meal.
ME/CFS often makes it hard to keep a job, go to school, and take part in family and social life.
ME/CFS can last for years and sometimes leads to serious disability.
At least one in four ME/CFS patients is bed- or house-bound for long periods during their illness.
As well as an after effect of various viral diseases etc it often goes hand in hand with a wide range of autoimmune conditions such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Thyroid authoimmune conditions, Pernicious Anemia, etc
I hope Jacinda (or the authorities) get tough and make an example of anyone deliberately not self isolating, although it is going to be extremely hard to police. Saw on the news a reporter interviewing people arriving at airport, and some said they would not be isolating and would continue their travels around the country.
I hope that before she gets tough on anyone trying to make a living, she will get herself in front of some cameras and announce that
a. there is a rent/mortgage/residential lease holiday for at the very least 3 month.
b. the Ird is to send a check to any household (fuck means testing) of at least 3 $ grand per month if there is no rent/mortgage/residential lease so that people who are at home, not working, having lost their jobs cause the businesses are closed, bankrupt etc, can still pay the landlords, electricity utilities and food. You know that thing that keep us alive in general.
and i hope she does it soon.
Because i can see ;people being evicted for non payment of rents, having their electricity cut for non payment of bills, and then you will have these same people out in the streets not caring much about your fear of infection.
Also, i would like to point out that our emergency services, Fire fighters, Ambulance Drivers, Nurses, Doctors, Police Officers and such are all equally at risk and so will be the Army.
So frankly, she may actually have issues clamping down hard on people who will venture out and about and if only for finding some food when they run out.
I'm on board with your hopes there Sabine. But I suspect the main focus will be on large economic players and tweaking broad economic indicators, with only a few inconsequential measures being announced that might positively impact real people in everyday real life.
In other words, I fully expect notions of financial economy to trump human economy and for there to be some ideological reliance on trickle down. I'd like to be wrong.
that is what i expect, but then i also expect sick people out and about, i expect a rise in crime with people breaking in and such in order to survive.
The lady has a choice to make, prop the economy up by giving people money that will spend it to survive, or go feral and only prop her ilk up and watch rioting break out in a few weeks.
her choice, and i hope she does have that brain, that kindness and that gentlerness that people have been raving about.
Because if she does not, this is going feral very quickly. People don't take kindly to government sanctioned starvation.
All those suggestions seem reasonable and doable. Essentially we hit a giant PAUSE button on the wider economy and then go to some form of Emergency UBI to keep core services running, and people in place so that we can recover when the virus finally burns out.
It nothing new really, just a modified version of wartime conditions where govt's involvement in the economy greatly expands to ensure collective survival. The difficulty in the Western world is that most of us were not alive and do not remember the last time this happened to us in WW2, so there may be pushback and irrational behaviour. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Its worth repeating, to put the lie to the official line that we don't need to test people without symptoms…
People without symptoms have been found to have higher virus loads than those with symptoms, meaning these unidentifiable carriers are more likely to spread the virus than those showing symptoms.
This is why we should be testing as much as we can.
The gate needed to be closed before the spread of coronavirus reached NZ. It's here, and if WHO and others are to be believed, most of us will contract it over coming weeks and months.
Widespread testing would be a sensible move. Question is whether the capacity exists to execute such an exercise. Obviously, given carriers can be asymptomatic, any testing would have to be random and geared more at understanding patterns of spread etc, (with appropriate broad measures taken or recommendations made in response to emerging patterns of infection) – rather than testing geared towards isolating known or identifiable individuals.
60 – 70 % will get it. Many will die. And there will not be enough hospital beds for all.
or as Governor Cuomo said about NY
He expects everyone to have been exposed to it and to get ill of it one a time, so no point in testing, but put all efforts into containment via isolation and triage those that arrive at hospitals.
Testing hopefully our Government looks at Germany and South Korea and their drive through testing.
But i believe that most of us have already been exposed one way or another. It has had at least since last year November to make the rounds.
And if the government could finally roll out plans that allow us to lowly tax paying citizen / worker / drones/ expendables to 'mitigate' this event, more people might be staying home. But so long as people have bills to pay people will go to work.
That is what the Director-General of the WHO was saying yesterday in his briefing introduction.
"But the most effective way to prevent infections and save lives is breaking the chains of transmission. And to do that, you must test and isolate.
You cannot fight a fire blindfolded. And we cannot stop this pandemic if we don’t know who is infected.
We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test.
Test every suspected case."
And what are we doing? There seems to be more interest in deciding that testing is not required than in facilitating it. I haven't seen anything indicating that it is a complicated or expensive process to carry out a test. In the same time as New Zealand has done 338 tests South Korea has done about 250,000. Sure, South Korea is a larger country. However if we measure the tests per million people they are doing about 70 times as many.
Part of the problem was that just weeks ago WHO was giving very mixed messages, telling us not to shut down global travel and so on. For many weeks Tedros seems to have been more concerned to not embarrass his Chinese friends than to give clear unambiguous guidelines.
part of the problem is that people watched China weld its citizens into apartment blocks and believed that this will not impact them, cause bugger supply chains, bugger people travelling, bugger this and bugger that. .
nothing to do with anything. The US is not in the predicament it is because of WHO but because of the shitstain in office who refused to acknowledge the issue since at the very least Jan 22nd when the first person was officially diagnosed in the US.
And we are in this predicament because like the US we did fuck all for the longest of time, in essence preventing people from preparing/saving/building food stocks up, putting family emergency plans into place and so on and so forth.
At some stage people have to either believe their own eyes, or they will continue to eat the shit that others shovel down their throats.
We've watched Western govts everywhere take far too long to respond to this threat. And honestly while Trump has made an art form of incompetency, I do think given the highly fractious and deeply dysfunctional state of US politics, expecting any US President to have acted effectively is optimistic to say the least.
We do enjoy shitting on Trump at every possible chance, and he certainly invites it … but he doesn't exist in a vacuum. The entire US political system from top to bottom has been sliding toward this febrile condition for decades.
part of the problem is that people watched China weld its citizens into apartment blocks and believed that this will not impact them, cause bugger supply chains, bugger people travelling, bugger this and bugger that.
And yes, that is a fair point. I personally still believe the real death toll in Wuhan is ten times bigger than the CCP has admitted to, but we will always lack solid evidence for this. Much of it was literally cremated.
The shitstain is because people wanted him to be. Otherwise he would be right now holed up in his tower refusing to meet with people.
the shitstain is because a political party lets him be. Otherwise they would have 25th him, demanded he resign over any of his many 'conflicts of interests'.
the shitstain is because the conservative class the world over is in essence no more and no less then the shitstain, Mr. Branson from Virgin this and that – known tax evader, known sucker of the government tit, who expects his workers to survive without wages, while at the same time demanding the same workers bail him and his Air Company out.
the shitstain is the result of 40 + years of vilifying the working class and elevating the idiocracy that modern conservatism needs to hide behind anti abortion, anti union, anti education, anti science and such.
the shitstain is because people wanted it. because it was easier for them to listen to lies and inuendo rather then opening their eyes and see how bad they are really doing.
As for China, China did what it believed it had to do, it did so very publicly, and i see no reason to engage in conspiracy theories when I can watch the current shitshow life online.
Well at the moment. there is a policy of banning public gatherings because there might be public spread, but not closing schools because there is no known public spread.
(NOTE The UK is going to have a lockdown without closing schools).
An apparent absurdity.
Why?
(UK is still operating a public immunity by infection policy – allowing school children to spread to parents so they can be home together when they all get it – but do not want you to know this. The lockdown they now have will only slow transfer between young and more active adults without children. They of course expect those over over 70 to totally isolate for a year or so).
The answer might be
They just want to allow parents to go to work while there is no known community spread – children are themselves not at risk, and they will only operate the lockdown, including schools, when community spread is known (beyond identification and targeted isolation) and impacting on the health system – acting to prevent cases overwhelming it.
I think testing locals with symptoms would mostly be pointless (99/100 or more have something else) – the ill will isolate anyhow. It is those without symptoms who would be spreading. It's more about obtaining a cross sample of test results from hotel, tourism, hospitality, sports workers etc to have knowledge if the young and active are spreading under the radar, or not?
“In the meantime, I advise top policymakers here in Korea and elsewhere to make data-informed mitigation at a national scale in a highly effective manner.”
“When each county misses the golden time, – Washington, London, and Rome have all missed it and they are paying the terrible price – this C19 thing is rapidly moving…
“… to hit the most vulnerable group of people, including the elderly and those with the existing medical conditions.”
“The golden time”. That is perfect.
The golden time for wide scale social distancing is before you have a crisis. If you are reacting
To the crisis you are already too late.
Those who are sick were infected 2-3 weeks ago. They are a lagging indicator for exponentially increasing infections THAT HAVE ALREADY HAPPENED
Since some of our more conspiracy-minded regulars are not currently with us, I'll share this little gem to ensure everyone's eye-roll muscles are kept well-exercised.
I always wonder how they get online if they're so worried about electromagnetic waves. I kinda picture them all dollied up in a Faraday suit with their computers in steel boxes with lead glass windows for them to see the monitor. They wouldn't use phones, surely?
Phones? You'd think not given they can be tracked & monitored by the govt, in addition to the electromagnetic radiation factor. Maybe it's only 5G, 3G & 4G might be fine, cause, you know, whatever.
Lead glass makes me think of the old stupidly heavy CRT monitors. Almost caused a H&S incident once trying to lift a large one (definitely not a one person lift). Seriously heavyweight stuff reducing EM radiation …
There's been some calls to close schools but I worry about the effect on the kids.
Hipkins is right that it is the safest place for them right now, particularly mentally.
Hundreds of thousands of households have been placed under enormous pressure overnight and this has a big impact on the children. School is the one place they can be which has routines and stability.
To force them all home into a charged, uncertain and stressful environment will be very damaging for them.
I hope officials bear this in mind when making decisions.
Hong Kong also had rioting in the streets not long ago. Not the picture of a contented nation right now.
School Principals know the importance of schooling as a stable environment in the face of political hysteria and panicked mismanagement.
I think it underlines the importance … of taking a really sensible and measured and carefully-considered approach to what is happening so we’re not panicking each other into over-reacting.
Kind of like the mines rescue expert deferring to the healthy and safety advisor / worksafe, or the experienced building engineer deferring to the christchurch council.
I think it's good that the govt is pacing this, and agree that the changes are big and people need time to adjust. Once CV is in the community, then they will need to close schools, because kid collectives are basically incubators.
Keeping your sniffles secret in a post-pandemic world.
Found myself heading to the pharmacy on the weekend for some lozenges. Had anxiety that the simple action of buying cold relief medicine would label me a risk to society.
Reality is if I get a cold now my family loses thousands of dollars.
I am not sure what evidence they have that their products will actually be that effective when people actually use them for real. Have they actually tested if the hand sanitiser stays on all day, even when people have been properly washing their hands several times a day? Have they actually tested if the surfaces really can stay “germ-free” when those surfaces aren’t in a lab but are in people’s actual homes and people are going about their actual lives in and around them?
One of the concerns I have when people rush to buy products like this is that they may end up with a false sense of security and think they are more protected than they actually are, and then end up doing things that put them at higher risk of infection.
In other words, don’t feel like you are putting your family at risk by not buying these products. There are plenty of cheaper options that we definitely know work in the real world.
"Two of the new cases are in a Wellington family who recently returned from the United States, and the third is a Dunedin man who had recently travelled to Germany".
In Britain, feminists are facing being purged from the Labour Party. Here, Nick Rogers, chair of Tottenham constituency LP in London writes about what is happening and the need to defend the feminists facing purging.
Filming of Avatar also abandoned. That's every US studio now suspending operations in this country for the foreseeable future.
Local productions also either closed or under pressure to close.
That's probably about 3000 – 4000 contract workers instantly without work or any benefits. Often they are given less than 12 hours notice and are effectively sacked by memo.
Pity they don't have a strong union or better work conditions, I guess that's why we get the work huh? The Americans are unionised to fuck in their film industry.
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Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
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Apparently the government is going to launch a war style campaign to mobilise and empower the population. It is important to understand this isn't just a rhetoric – it will require the whole nation to do it's bit to save lives from COVID-19.
Meanwhile, in the dystopian UK, billionaire Richard Branson (worth eight billion NZ dollars) is asking for a 15 billion dollar bailout for his airline whilst demanding the 8,500 Virgin Atlantic employees take eight weeks unpaid leave. If he paid his staff $1000 a week it would cost $68,000,000 for eight weeks or about .85% of Branson's personal fortune.
Given that much of his wealth will be Virgin Airline shares, it is highly unlikely his current wealth is anything like $8 billion. How likely is it that he has a spare $68 million in actual cash?
Thats the thing with most billionaires. Most of their wealth is in the companies they own. Sure they will have a lot of cash, but probably way less than you think. A lot of their spending is from lines of credit which they have due to their wealth of their shareholdings. That is all going to dry up.
This whole thing is a bit like the GFC (except much worse). The govt has to prop up companies and banks as much as it does individuals. Otherwise you get a complete system wide crash. And then even governments can't help, at least not to the extent they could if the system wide crash can be avoided.
Right on cue – an apologist for the wealthy!
The pitchforks are coming!
TV,
You are misreading the point I am making. The challenge right now is to avoid a system wide crash, not precipitate it.
I know a bunch of commenters, including you, on The Standard see this crisis as an opportunity to herald in the revolution. But that is not going to happen. The govt is going to do its best to sustain the economy, not destroy it.
But in the aftermath it (the economy and all of us in it) will be different. Will global tourism ever fully recover, at least within the next 3 to 5 years? Maybe all airlines will be smaller for many years to come. Far less cruising holidays. Way more local tourism. Way less eating out. The hundreds of billions (including Kiwisaver investments in these sectors) invested in all these industries will be gone forever.
It is not hard to think of other changes. But I am pretty sure that New Zealand farming as a source of export food will continue in essentially the same form as at present. The world will still need our food. As indeed does our economy and all of us in the towns and cities who are indirectly dependent on it. Bomber Bradbury's hope for the destruction of the export farming sector is not going to happen.
Branson and his 'billionaire' ilk, and the aspirational middle class are the problem.
I am sure Bransons business interests are arranged in ways that one can not impact on the other. Trusts or some other legal jiggery pokery that keeps him rich.
It is time for this 'not as cash rich as I may think' business leader to realise (sell) some companies and pay his staff the redundancies they are due, not coming across all socialist when it suits him.
How do you sell an airline at the moment?
Given that Branson is asking for state support so soon, probably shows how indebted he is. I am pretty certain the government will be expecting major shareholders (the likes of Branson and his cash) to step up as a condition of providing support to the airline, or any other business.
The "revolution" is happening, look at the Tax Payers Union for eg.
I imagine the govt will be taking a bigger stake in Air NZ and any other large business that needs a special bailout. But they are hardly going to take equity stakes in all New Zealand business, big and small across all sectors. Way too complicated. On that point the Tax Payers Union has got it wrong.
And subsidiaries of foreign companies, or ones with large foreign shareholdings?
Do we socialise losses there to get continued "foreign investment"?
The losses some local companies face is going to result in them being under-capitalised – in normal times they offer a share issue or seek a white knight partner. These are not normal times.
A government partner and later sale of the shareholding – on the market, or to one party is not unreasonable.
There is a good argument for wage subsidies, allowance for later tax payments, for sole traders and small firms to keep them going.
Based on previous tax paid income, of course.
It is in banks, and suppliers, interest for businesses to continue, rather than default into bankruptcy, so in general a business has more options to help cashflow, than a wage earner, or welfare recipient.
By a long way you are our most qualified commenter here, so hang in there Wayne.
Do encourage your previous colleagues to support this government's recovery package.
As any rich person could tell you – you don't get something without paying for it- any govt subsidy anywhere around a billionaire should come with a reciprocal transfer of wealth in the form of equity or property transfer. The uk govt may end up owning a carribean island or two but hey…
you obviously feel content in your uselessness, but i am relieved to see that you find no issue with Socialism when it is obscenly weatlhy people who are hanging of the government tit.
Richard Branson Wealth as per 2020 – 4.1 billion
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/aug/05/how-virgin-became-one-of-the-uks-leading-healthcare-providers
lesser known is this,….the man does not make his money only on airplanes he does make a good portion of it in Healthcare, and thus stands to make much money from the current health crisis.
Someone yesterday told you to go fuck yourself with your low concern trolling about 'socialism' for the poor. And i can only second that.
As for airlines, they too can be nationalised, grounded, and when the world returns to something resembling normal people might go back to flying in a year of several. As for Richard Branson, he can get fucked too.
Branson is an excellent example of an entrepreneur who has created remarkable wealth in many fields. He's done things beyond the capacity of the vast majority of people, yet envy of him is both palpable and deplorable. You are quite correct of course, wealthy people don't necessarily have a lot of spare cash lying around, and if his businesses goes under permanently, a lot of people will lose jobs. Yet it seems some commenters here would prefer these people lose their jobs, rather than a successful business they deeply resent get tided over a bad patch.
There is of course a balance here. Many people have good reason to be angry about the way big banks were bailed out during the GFC, an event caused by their own actions, and yet were never held accountable for in any meaningful way. In the meantime millions of ordinary people lost a great deal. By all means consider bailing out Virgin, but there has to be a quid pro quo of some kind.
For some years now I've been exploring the deeper nature of the so-called 'mixed model' economy. Why is it that societies which embrace both commercialism and socialism seem to deliver the best outcomes? What are the limits on both, when do they both go too far? What are the good features of both, and how do we construct social models that develop synergy between them?
While my starting point is socialism, I'm increasingly frustrated by narrow ideologues here on the left whose obvious agenda is 'smash capitalism'; while at the same time I've never had a moment for those right wingers who refuse to acknowledge that all human success is built on a platform of social trust and cohesion.
In this light I appreciate many of your comments here Wayne. Not that I always agree with you but that you do reach out across this deplorable political divide with good intent.
Cheers
Straight from Ayn Rands. "Rich people, are wealth creators".
Yeah sure.
Next right wing meme?
Branson is a "prime example" of how to get rich by "socialising your loses" and privatising profits. While lowering wages and avoiding taxes at the same time.
Finding a more original way of extracting wealth from the community.
Not dissimilar to New Zealand's asset strippers and the runners down of former public assets
Entrepreneurs, real ones, find something to sell that benefits people.
Branson has, like bankers, almost certainly has destroyed more real wealth, than he has created.
"Wealth creators" my arse.
By all means bail out the soon to be jobless Virgin staff.
Spending money on bailing out billionaire tax dodgers, sticks in my craw.
Agree.
The tourism we retain is going to be narrower, and much wealthier.
Reminds me of Birch's first report after the oil crisis, which led to his Think Big.
Will be a very interesting package this afternoon.
For once you are quite right, Wayne, I do hope this economic crisis will herald a revolution.
I'd like to see the obscene inequality of this country levelled a little, by taxing the rich and closing the loopholes.
I'd like to see the poor and those on welfare be able to live with dignity and have access to the occasional treat (whatever that may be).
I'd like to see this country begin to take climate change seriously.
In other words, a complete reset.
I'm not holding my breath.
The govt has to prop up companies and banks as much as it does individuals.
Why?
…governments can't help, at least not to the extent they could if the system wide crash can be avoided.
How so?
Is your thinking on what constitutes "government" limited to a box that's jam packed with immovable notions of capitalism as some natural or inevitable expression of order?
Coronavirus might be our last best chance to change the path we're on and stop with this crazy warming of the plant "because" bullshit. If you lack the imagination to envisage any way other than the same old way, then perhaps it's time for you to spend your days watching soaps because you have nothing of worth to offer.
Alternatively, push at the constraints of the box that contains your patterns of thoughts, and you never know, you might be in line for a pleasant surprise or two.
nah, its all good. Captialism is what is gonna save us, one dead body at a time.
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/national/18309589.branson-criticised-virgin-atlantic-staff-forced-take-unpaid-leave/
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/richard-bransons-virgin-healthcare-paid-21366075
but essentially what our National Party Mouth (i guess they consider Benefit, Oravida and NO Bridges just too toxic for these trying times) Wayne wants is socialism, as without it non of these super rich and their rich man tit sucking Toadies would be where they are.
Privatise the profits and socialise the losses.
Branson/Virgin are also into trains, taking over some of the British Rail network – calls for the UK government to step in as there aren't any passengers any more.
I note that a billionaire like the Democrat former presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg promised to give away $8 billion of his $62 billion wealth, so it must therefore be possible for him and billionnaires like Branson to liberate large amounts of wealth.
How else do you give away 8% of your wealth? It must be available as cash.
Secondly, Branson must have huge ability to borrow cash against his holdings.
It's a bit rich to put 8500 employees on 8 weeks unpaid employment and cry poverty for yourself.
If Virgin is so indebted that it is going to fold – it may be better to let it fold and bail out the employees rather than Branson and the shareholders. This won't apply to all industries or companies, but the future of airlines has to be problematic.
As a rule of thumb – helicopter money in a crisis should go to the bottom of the tree. Companies with reduced revenues can lay off staff, temporarily reduce labour costs and cut operations. Helicopter money shouldn't be used to prop up companies with bad fundamentals – or (as in the GFC) crooks who should be in gaol.
The post-Covid-19 ramifications of contracting the virus seem to be quite drastic:
https://twitter.com/Dr_M_Guthridge/status/1238763122992631809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1238763122992631809&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecanary.co%2Fglobal%2Fworld-analysis%2F2020%2F03%2F15%2Fthe-other-potential-coronavirus-catastrophe-no-one-is-talking-about%2F
And what is mecfs when it's at home?
myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome
Most people know it as chronic fatigue syndrome, or just ME. All serious viral infections have the potential to cause long-term damage that is poorly understood and treated.
In my late 20's I got a very serious 3 month long attack of mononucleosis that decades later still comes back to bite me as a bout of deep fatigue if I overdo it. On the wider scale of things I consider myself fortunate, but from time to time it's proven a real bugger.
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome
More here https://www.cdc.gov/me-cfs/about/index.html
As well as an after effect of various viral diseases etc it often goes hand in hand with a wide range of autoimmune conditions such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Thyroid authoimmune conditions, Pernicious Anemia, etc
https://youtu.be/aox7CeOdmOY
The run on toilet paper explained.
Brilliant. A more sober reinforcement..
https://twitter.com/RBReich/status/1239322266309099520
I hope Jacinda (or the authorities) get tough and make an example of anyone deliberately not self isolating, although it is going to be extremely hard to police. Saw on the news a reporter interviewing people arriving at airport, and some said they would not be isolating and would continue their travels around the country.
I hope that before she gets tough on anyone trying to make a living, she will get herself in front of some cameras and announce that
a. there is a rent/mortgage/residential lease holiday for at the very least 3 month.
b. the Ird is to send a check to any household (fuck means testing) of at least 3 $ grand per month if there is no rent/mortgage/residential lease so that people who are at home, not working, having lost their jobs cause the businesses are closed, bankrupt etc, can still pay the landlords, electricity utilities and food. You know that thing that keep us alive in general.
and i hope she does it soon.
Because i can see ;people being evicted for non payment of rents, having their electricity cut for non payment of bills, and then you will have these same people out in the streets not caring much about your fear of infection.
Also, i would like to point out that our emergency services, Fire fighters, Ambulance Drivers, Nurses, Doctors, Police Officers and such are all equally at risk and so will be the Army.
So frankly, she may actually have issues clamping down hard on people who will venture out and about and if only for finding some food when they run out.
I'm on board with your hopes there Sabine. But I suspect the main focus will be on large economic players and tweaking broad economic indicators, with only a few inconsequential measures being announced that might positively impact real people in everyday real life.
In other words, I fully expect notions of financial economy to trump human economy and for there to be some ideological reliance on trickle down. I'd like to be wrong.
that is what i expect, but then i also expect sick people out and about, i expect a rise in crime with people breaking in and such in order to survive.
The lady has a choice to make, prop the economy up by giving people money that will spend it to survive, or go feral and only prop her ilk up and watch rioting break out in a few weeks.
her choice, and i hope she does have that brain, that kindness and that gentlerness that people have been raving about.
Because if she does not, this is going feral very quickly. People don't take kindly to government sanctioned starvation.
All those suggestions seem reasonable and doable. Essentially we hit a giant PAUSE button on the wider economy and then go to some form of Emergency UBI to keep core services running, and people in place so that we can recover when the virus finally burns out.
It nothing new really, just a modified version of wartime conditions where govt's involvement in the economy greatly expands to ensure collective survival. The difficulty in the Western world is that most of us were not alive and do not remember the last time this happened to us in WW2, so there may be pushback and irrational behaviour. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Great news, kinda. We are now testing people as they LEAVE New Zealand to go to the Pacific Islands.
WHY AREN'T WE DOING THE SAME TESTING ON PEOPLE WHO ARE ARRIVING HERE???
Travellers to Pacific Islands to undergo health check at Auckland Airport
WHY AREN'T WE DOING THE SAME TESTING ON PEOPLE WHO ARE ARRIVING HERE???
1. The relative numbers of tests involved.
2. Pacific Islands' much lower capacity to deal with an outbreak.
Its worth repeating, to put the lie to the official line that we don't need to test people without symptoms…
People without symptoms have been found to have higher virus loads than those with symptoms, meaning these unidentifiable carriers are more likely to spread the virus than those showing symptoms.
This is why we should be testing as much as we can.
Infected people without symptoms might be driving the spread of coronavirus more than we realized
There can only be one response to this knowledge: SHUT THE GATE. NOW.
The gate needed to be closed before the spread of coronavirus reached NZ. It's here, and if WHO and others are to be believed, most of us will contract it over coming weeks and months.
Widespread testing would be a sensible move. Question is whether the capacity exists to execute such an exercise. Obviously, given carriers can be asymptomatic, any testing would have to be random and geared more at understanding patterns of spread etc, (with appropriate broad measures taken or recommendations made in response to emerging patterns of infection) – rather than testing geared towards isolating known or identifiable individuals.
i would take it as the Germans did.
60 – 70 % will get it. Many will die. And there will not be enough hospital beds for all.
or as Governor Cuomo said about NY
He expects everyone to have been exposed to it and to get ill of it one a time, so no point in testing, but put all efforts into containment via isolation and triage those that arrive at hospitals.
Testing hopefully our Government looks at Germany and South Korea and their drive through testing.
But i believe that most of us have already been exposed one way or another. It has had at least since last year November to make the rounds.
And if the government could finally roll out plans that allow us to lowly tax paying citizen / worker / drones/ expendables to 'mitigate' this event, more people might be staying home. But so long as people have bills to pay people will go to work.
That is what the Director-General of the WHO was saying yesterday in his briefing introduction.
"But the most effective way to prevent infections and save lives is breaking the chains of transmission. And to do that, you must test and isolate.
You cannot fight a fire blindfolded. And we cannot stop this pandemic if we don’t know who is infected.
We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test.
Test every suspected case."
And what are we doing? There seems to be more interest in deciding that testing is not required than in facilitating it. I haven't seen anything indicating that it is a complicated or expensive process to carry out a test. In the same time as New Zealand has done 338 tests South Korea has done about 250,000. Sure, South Korea is a larger country. However if we measure the tests per million people they are doing about 70 times as many.
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-testing
Why are we so slow in this matter?
Part of the problem was that just weeks ago WHO was giving very mixed messages, telling us not to shut down global travel and so on. For many weeks Tedros seems to have been more concerned to not embarrass his Chinese friends than to give clear unambiguous guidelines.
part of the problem is that people watched China weld its citizens into apartment blocks and believed that this will not impact them, cause bugger supply chains, bugger people travelling, bugger this and bugger that. .
nothing to do with anything. The US is not in the predicament it is because of WHO but because of the shitstain in office who refused to acknowledge the issue since at the very least Jan 22nd when the first person was officially diagnosed in the US.
And we are in this predicament because like the US we did fuck all for the longest of time, in essence preventing people from preparing/saving/building food stocks up, putting family emergency plans into place and so on and so forth.
At some stage people have to either believe their own eyes, or they will continue to eat the shit that others shovel down their throats.
We've watched Western govts everywhere take far too long to respond to this threat. And honestly while Trump has made an art form of incompetency, I do think given the highly fractious and deeply dysfunctional state of US politics, expecting any US President to have acted effectively is optimistic to say the least.
We do enjoy shitting on Trump at every possible chance, and he certainly invites it … but he doesn't exist in a vacuum. The entire US political system from top to bottom has been sliding toward this febrile condition for decades.
part of the problem is that people watched China weld its citizens into apartment blocks and believed that this will not impact them, cause bugger supply chains, bugger people travelling, bugger this and bugger that.
And yes, that is a fair point. I personally still believe the real death toll in Wuhan is ten times bigger than the CCP has admitted to, but we will always lack solid evidence for this. Much of it was literally cremated.
there is one thing you are right about
The shitstain is because people wanted him to be. Otherwise he would be right now holed up in his tower refusing to meet with people.
the shitstain is because a political party lets him be. Otherwise they would have 25th him, demanded he resign over any of his many 'conflicts of interests'.
the shitstain is because the conservative class the world over is in essence no more and no less then the shitstain, Mr. Branson from Virgin this and that – known tax evader, known sucker of the government tit, who expects his workers to survive without wages, while at the same time demanding the same workers bail him and his Air Company out.
the shitstain is the result of 40 + years of vilifying the working class and elevating the idiocracy that modern conservatism needs to hide behind anti abortion, anti union, anti education, anti science and such.
the shitstain is because people wanted it. because it was easier for them to listen to lies and inuendo rather then opening their eyes and see how bad they are really doing.
As for China, China did what it believed it had to do, it did so very publicly, and i see no reason to engage in conspiracy theories when I can watch the current shitshow life online.
Trump rejected the so called academic advice (also WHO)on travel bans from China in January,and implemented one anyway,
https://twitter.com/ProfMJCleveland/status/1239399258689806336
Are we not testing every suspected case?
As in clinically suspected, not pandemic anxiety?
NZ:
We have a positive test ratio of ~1% of all tests we conduct in people most likely to have it. 99% of tests are negative.
Well at the moment. there is a policy of banning public gatherings because there might be public spread, but not closing schools because there is no known public spread.
(NOTE The UK is going to have a lockdown without closing schools).
An apparent absurdity.
Why?
(UK is still operating a public immunity by infection policy – allowing school children to spread to parents so they can be home together when they all get it – but do not want you to know this. The lockdown they now have will only slow transfer between young and more active adults without children. They of course expect those over over 70 to totally isolate for a year or so).
The answer might be
They just want to allow parents to go to work while there is no known community spread – children are themselves not at risk, and they will only operate the lockdown, including schools, when community spread is known (beyond identification and targeted isolation) and impacting on the health system – acting to prevent cases overwhelming it.
I think testing locals with symptoms would mostly be pointless (99/100 or more have something else) – the ill will isolate anyhow. It is those without symptoms who would be spreading. It's more about obtaining a cross sample of test results from hotel, tourism, hospitality, sports workers etc to have knowledge if the young and active are spreading under the radar, or not?
thread
https://twitter.com/DFisman/status/1239134892975427586
“In the meantime, I advise top policymakers here in Korea and elsewhere to make data-informed mitigation at a national scale in a highly effective manner.”
“When each county misses the golden time, – Washington, London, and Rome have all missed it and they are paying the terrible price – this C19 thing is rapidly moving…
“… to hit the most vulnerable group of people, including the elderly and those with the existing medical conditions.”
“The golden time”. That is perfect.
The golden time for wide scale social distancing is before you have a crisis. If you are reacting
To the crisis you are already too late.
Those who are sick were infected 2-3 weeks ago. They are a lagging indicator for exponentially increasing infections THAT HAVE ALREADY HAPPENED
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1239134892975427586.html
Jonathan Pie nails it.
Sorry wrong link above. This is the right one.
Since some of our more conspiracy-minded regulars are not currently with us, I'll share this little gem to ensure everyone's eye-roll muscles are kept well-exercised.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/keri-hilson-5g-did-not-cause-coronavirus_n_5e6f8ba7c5b6dda30fce0348
Out stocking up on trolley loads of tinfoil? After all, panic buying is taking many forms…
Apparently it's a fact that if you wear a tinfoil hat 5G doesn't fry your brain.*
(* also works without the tinfoil hat)
I always wonder how they get online if they're so worried about electromagnetic waves. I kinda picture them all dollied up in a Faraday suit with their computers in steel boxes with lead glass windows for them to see the monitor. They wouldn't use phones, surely?
Phones? You'd think not given they can be tracked & monitored by the govt, in addition to the electromagnetic radiation factor. Maybe it's only 5G, 3G & 4G might be fine, cause, you know, whatever.
Lead glass makes me think of the old stupidly heavy CRT monitors. Almost caused a H&S incident once trying to lift a large one (definitely not a one person lift). Seriously heavyweight stuff reducing EM radiation …
I'm undecided, but have stocked up on tinfoil to address more pressing problems![wink wink](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/wink_smile.png)
https://www.newcoldwar.org/5g-cell-phone-radiation-how-the-telecom-companies-are-losing-the-battle-to-impose-5g-against-the-will-of-the-people/
Some thoughts on where and to whom helicopter money should be distributed during a pandemic. The advice is "go big now or go home" .
There's been some calls to close schools but I worry about the effect on the kids.
Hipkins is right that it is the safest place for them right now, particularly mentally.
Hundreds of thousands of households have been placed under enormous pressure overnight and this has a big impact on the children. School is the one place they can be which has routines and stability.
To force them all home into a charged, uncertain and stressful environment will be very damaging for them.
I hope officials bear this in mind when making decisions.
The wonderful Hong Kong closed all it's schools when it had less confirmed cases than NZ currently has. Time is ticking…
Hong Kong also had rioting in the streets not long ago. Not the picture of a contented nation right now.
School Principals know the importance of schooling as a stable environment in the face of political hysteria and panicked mismanagement.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/03/coronavirus-principals-frustrated-with-parents-refusing-to-send-their-children-to-school.html
Hong Kong has done an excellent job of containment.
Principals know F all about public health, however this man does:
"University of Otago public health professor Michael Baker said it was time to act to ensure the virus didn't take hold in the community.
"Now is the time for maximum effort. We really need to maximise social distancing [with] school closures and potentially stopping public transport." "
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120330254/coronavirus-time-to-increase-social-distancing-and-close-schools-expert-says
New Zealand isn't Hong Kong or Singapore and I hope it never will be.
Each public health expert will love their day in the sun right now. But has he spoken to the education or mental health experts across the hall?
Kind of like the mines rescue expert deferring to the healthy and safety advisor / worksafe, or the experienced building engineer deferring to the christchurch council.
Tragically 29 miners died at Pike River. 115 people lost their lives in the CTV building collapse. 14 people at Cave Creek. 257 on Erebus…
…and 500 New Zealanders die from flu every single year.
I think it's good that the govt is pacing this, and agree that the changes are big and people need time to adjust. Once CV is in the community, then they will need to close schools, because kid collectives are basically incubators.
The kids at my kids school are counting the day til school is closed, holidays coming up too.
Keeping your sniffles secret in a post-pandemic world.
Found myself heading to the pharmacy on the weekend for some lozenges. Had anxiety that the simple action of buying cold relief medicine would label me a risk to society.
Reality is if I get a cold now my family loses thousands of dollars.
What kind of world do we live in?
a bloody strange one and overnight. I haven't followed today's announcement, is there anything there that will help your family?
We got some of this a while back, I do recommend getting some before it's all gone
Put it on your hands in the morning and you've got protection for 24 hours, far superior to hand sanitizer.
https://zoono.co.nz/collections/home
https://thespinoff.co.nz/science/07-03-2020/how-to-get-rid-of-covid-19-from-surfaces-the-right-way/
Don't really have anything to say about it other than please don't rely on it if you are in contact with vulnerable people.
Three new Covid-19 cases diagnosed in NZ today.
"Two of the new cases are in a Wellington family who recently returned from the United States, and the third is a Dunedin man who had recently travelled to Germany".
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/03/coronavirus-3-new-covid-19-cases-in-new-zealand.html
Also first tourist detained & deported for having no self isolation plans
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120344713/coronavirus-tourist-to-be-deported-from-nz-for-having-no-plans-to-selfisolate
Good work immigration and police.
In Britain, feminists are facing being purged from the Labour Party. Here, Nick Rogers, chair of Tottenham constituency LP in London writes about what is happening and the need to defend the feminists facing purging.
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2020/03/10/british-labour-party-leaders-pledge-purge-of-feminists/
Filming of Avatar also abandoned. That's every US studio now suspending operations in this country for the foreseeable future.
Local productions also either closed or under pressure to close.
That's probably about 3000 – 4000 contract workers instantly without work or any benefits. Often they are given less than 12 hours notice and are effectively sacked by memo.
All because of an over-reaction to the flu…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120337742/coronavirus-avatar-filming-takes-hiatus-due-to-virus-fears
Is there 'flu about as well?
Yeah, haven't you heard, Gobby?
Pity they don't have a strong union or better work conditions, I guess that's why we get the work huh? The Americans are unionised to fuck in their film industry.