I imagine that we’re going to get a delay to the election today. And probably it’s for the best, if only to shut the Opposition up. But part of me really wants Jacinda to call the bluff of all those losers. Especially Winston (he practically is part of the Opposition now) with his empty threats and posturing. Just had Judith on Morning Report acting like it’s up to her.
This Stuff piece goes into some of the details of what could come of the political silly buggers games Peters could play. In short, Peters could actually force a delay and trigger some weird shit by withdrawing confidence and bringing down the government. But that's in Winnie's hands, not Judthulhu's.
He said yesterday though that he wouldn’t withdraw confidence from the government. He can wave the threat around all he likes but it’s the nuclear option and will likely blow up in his face.
Welcome humour in these difficult times is Jane Bowron's column in DomPost today.
To quote "Brownlee as former Canterbury earthquake recovery minister went lower than a base isolator when he said he was puzzled….. and "Collins having to put her eyebrows into managed isolation after a bruising and brow-beating interview with Kim Hill on RNZ's Morning Report".
But what's the chance they got the PM in the numbers she's an Aucklander too – what's she going to have said "I love it, it's simply marvellous"? I doubt it she thinks it's anything other than a big pain in the butt like anyone else. I wonder how it was worded?
How many people actually believe that this latest outbreak came from frozen food? How many people believe that it came from a breach of the border measures? The revelation that 63% of those working on the border had NOT been tested was a real indication that despite fervent declarations that the borders were tighter than a duck's posterior, the "system" had failed. This, despite, a senior Labour MP installed as Minister of Border Control or Managed Isolation. And the problem is, if the borders are not tight, then this virus will spread like wildfire. We have been compromised and I get the real sense that there are a few people scrambling as hard as they can to cover up failings.
Pretty much no-one. FFS this dimwit seems to be using troll techniques that were old in 2008.
For starter in their breathless stupidity, they neglected to distinguish between front-facing border staff and those who have no realistic way to pick up the virus. Why stick a large swab up peoples noses when they have no realistic way of getting the virus – by that definition you'd want to do it to every person in NZ.
Of course with Goodgrief that would probably just find vacant space.
Sounds like a thick as pigshit troll – but hey everyone should have a chance to learn. I'd suggest educating the dimwit to the limits of their capabilities.
After all with this kind of antique breathless waffling, he is almost as amusing as Gerry Brownlee trying to do the same trick. Look that where it got him.
Essentially be dumb enough to think that simple insinuation with no details and no backing or links just means that everyone will ignore their ranting, except as an opportunity to play the comedian. Minless waffle like this simply isn’t a basis for robust debate.
Gee Lprent, it would be great if you were able to make a post occasionally that was not comprised of infantile abuse linked together to vaguely resemble a thought.
And you criticise Goodgrief? Goodgrief indeed.
[lprent: *sigh* Read the policy again, and read my reply to gsays further down this thread.
If you don’t like it, then leave. Next time I see you do this again – under any name, I’ll assume you’re trying to tell us how to run this site and I’ll ban you under any name until well after any possible election date. Your writing style is so consistent that it isn’t hard to recognize.
I’m getting a bit annoyed with dealing with someone who after all these years still can’t think rationally and is most noticeable for their considerable abilities at whining. ]
It’s called a “stress test” and sorts out genuine commenters who might be lacking adequate language skills from genuine trolls who lack in other departments.
It ain’t pretty, like a bowel dissection to remove a huge tumour, but it is effective and needs to be done from time to time.
Don’t watch it if you cannot stand the gore and don’t get involved is my advice 😉
This 'stress testing' has an awful lot in common with bullying.
From Bullyingfree NZ "Most widely-accepted definitions of bullying are based on four elements: bullying is deliberate, harmful, involves a power imbalance, and has an element of repetition."
Yeah, it carries a small risk but nobody is chasing this ‘victim’ on-line on this site. If they change their commenting behaviour, they will be left alone here, except for the ‘counter opinions’ from other commenters, of course, which can be equally if not more harmful.
I think we should leave this between the people involved.
You're correct in the intent. However it is a pretty specific tactic on my part. I just try to reflect the behaviour of whomever I am bullying, not only as they present themselves, but also as I expect them to continue. I've been in online forums for more than 40 years now – the tactics are pretty obvious after you've seen them tens of thousands of times.
I just do it harder, much more personally and in a exaggerated level to push the message home that the behaviour is both obvious and I'm perfectly willing to escalate it. This is a classic sysop ploy to get people to either shape up to the sites expectations or to leave the site without dumbarse flame wars.
In this case, if you read roughly through GG's comment and mine and bother to look past the obvious you'd see exactly what I did. I'll paraphrase the two sets of comments together, GGs sentence preface and my replacement assertion.
"How many people actually believe that…" GoodGrief is a "dimwit".
"The revelation that …" that GoodGrief is "thick as pigshit troll".
"This, despite …" the remote possibility that GoodGrief "should have a chance to learn".
"And the problem is …" "with this kind of antique breathless waffling, he is almost as amusing as Gerry Brownlee".
"… and I get the real sense that …" GoodGrief would be "dumb enough to think that simple insinuation with no details and no backing or links..".
In other words, I just played back GoodGrief's playbook – but I substituted them as the target and then pushed an extreme version of the kind of unsubstantiated assertion crap they were pushing into their comment directly back on to them. I made it immediately personal.
If you don't do this kind of approach then people using GG's tactics will try to take over the site in the comments section. The standard play is by making straight assertions that are in effect slogans with bothering to argue the basis of their opinion. Mostly anyone who does this will then proceed on to attacking anyone who argues against them – and they will do it personally. It then usually deteriorates into boring flame wars.
It is the standard playbook on online forums. I just abbreviate the process for a selected few who exhibit the boring predictable behaviours.
While bans will work – they are a lot of work. You also find that the whiners sit around revving each other up in their local sewer to try to count coup by occasional forays to get a ban.
With my approach, I find the reputation of what behaviour is expected on this site gets around and we have less moderation work. Also fewer bans.
I've been doing it since I saw that comments section here was going to the dogs after the first quarter of 2008. It took 2 years of work to get the message across and for the workload to diminish. I still pick the worst 'new' offenders out and demonstrate that the site hasn't changed that approach – if it needs to be handled that way.
peter chch There, there, dear, dear. We are all a bit overwrought what with the decline in political standards, our election looming, Covid 19 twisting our health system, stressing our relationships even in families and wrecking our economy. Better put up if you can stand the strain, it won't get better for some time to come. Otherwise take a powder, try sherbert.
…distinguish between front-facing border staff and those who have no realistic way to pick up the virus. Why stick a large swab up peoples noses when they have no realistic way of getting the virus – by that definition you'd want to do it to every person in NZ….
That is the point which has not been clearly outlined enough by Hipkins. If I deliver
Goodgrief – the saying actually is 'those who will not see', and it is an old saying from the times when 'will' meant 'want to', as it still does in modern German. (English and German come from the same roots.)
So, the point is that the person who does not want to see is blindest of all. It seems to me that it is you who have strong, naive, youthful visions, rather than the far more cultured Robert.
Refuse is a conscious decision, which ruins the saying. Not wanting to reflects the all too frequent practice of wishful thinking. To me you sound more wishful.
The balance of probabilities Robert it is the border. Americold manager tells us that order have not been shipped from their Vic site to Mt Wtgn for weeks. It may not be anybody’s fault, all it would take is a false negative on the last test Does any one know how reliable is the test re false positives and negatives Saying all of that inexcusable mistakes have been made
Americold manager tells us that order have not been shipped from their Vic site to Mt Wtgn for weeks
That would be useful to know if the genomic sequence said that this strain of the virus had come from Victoria. Since that hasn't been stated, then that would have to be considered as being irrelevant. Essentially the statement was issued because some mindless fools in the advance of data had been speculating wildly and irresponsibly.
What would be relevant would be a list of destinations from which freight had been received, when it was dispatched and what temperatures they were stored at.
Viable corona viruses have been detected years after being frozen. At low but not freezing temperatures, they have been detected as being viable more than a month (and even months) after being chilled.
The outbreak strain is called the B.1.1.1 strain, which is found in Oz and the UK, as well as places like Peru, Uruguay, Bangladesh etc. But not in the US or China or India.
It is going to be interesting if they can track it down. If it got picked up by a warm body handling chilled or frozen goods, they may find it on goods stored.
But it may also show up in an associated shipment without an infected warm body link back to the cold storage. Which hopefully that chain could show the link.
What doesn't seem likely at present is that it came from our warm body border protection system. But if that did happen, then we should see showing up in further infections already from the possible earlier index source than the one we know about already. They caught this cluster really early.
The worst case would be that no source was found. Then it means tat we're probably going to need to start testing cold imports and more intense warm body testing as well.
Well, suppose B.1.1.1 is found in Americold's Melbourne staff. Is that a smoking gun, or one that just feels maybe a bit warmish to the touch?
Suppose they find it on something in the cold store here. Is that a smoking gun, or maybe it's from our local staff that got infected and transferred it while pre-symptomatic?
I don't find it implausible it came through the border in self-propelled meat. Suppose patient zero got it in transit and the virus was a bit slow to take hold. So day 3 test is negative (quite reasonably). Then for whatever reason the day 12 test is a false negative (false negative rates for PCR testing have sometimes been stated as high as 5%). Now patient zero is out loose. Suppose patient zero then passes it on to someone that is asymptomatic/low symptom that doesn't get checked (maybe 50% of cases). Who then passes it on to our first known index case, with no traceability to the border.
Sure that's a longish chain of low probability bad-luck links so it's very unlikely, looking at it from the perspective of an individual. But looking at it from the perspective of the country with thousands of people coming through the border, it's a bit more plausible that something like that has happened once or more.
Let alone the possibility it came in on aircrew on the Oz run (who haven’t been routinely tested before now because Oz was allegedly safe) who passed it on while asymptomatic to an asymptomatic/low symptom link.
I kinda look at it as a heads up that there's a lot of gaps we've left for the virus to get through, including maybe a frozen goods gap we hadn't thought of. We're never going to plug them all, but we certainly can do a better job of plugging the biggest gaps.
And maybe the first person with it at Americold was asymptomatic and work was pretty much their only "close contact", that could add another full generation to the timeframe.
If "weeks" means "mid-March", that would make it doubtful because I'd have expected the phenomenon to have been discovered earlier as a source of multiple clusters around the world.
But if "weeks" means "a month", the math is close enough to keep it in mind as a slim but valid possibility when the cluster seems to heavily involve a freight agency.
People have an odd relationship with probability. If there's an 80% chance it was a border control issue, and a 20% chance it was imported food, then both have to be addressed given the nature of the risk.
They're actually excusable and understandable mistakes. Everyone is on a big learning curve here and as far as I can see nearly every time a mistake has been made, the relevant people have stepped up and remedied it. There are some exceptions to that. The MoH handling of PPE for disabled people and care workers being notable. But those came about because of systems that existed before covid that we were apparently happy enough to live with despite the negative impacts.
Not testing front line staff and been told by the MOH is inexcusable Weka. On the basis of it is hardly and unknown risk, likewise it is highly likely and a high risk so government a f ministry should have all over it. If this was an OSH case the managing and mitigating risk the kitchen sink works be thrown at you. The minister of health told us he was advised by the ministry this was happening and it wasn’t There is also a similar theme with PEP, flu vaccine distribution etc hence possibly a systemic issue her the needs to be addressed and some accountability as with our it, things won’t change
Not testing front line staff and been told by the MOH it is happening and it is not is inexcusable Weka. On the basis of it is hardly and unknown risk, likewise it is highly likely and a high risk so government and the ministry should have been all over it. If this was an OSH investigation re the managing and mitigating of risk, the kitchen sink would be thrown at you. There is also a similar theme with PEP, flu vaccine distribution etc hence possibly a systemic issue here that needs to be addressed and some accountability as with out it, things won’t change
If it's inexcusable, what should happen? All the people involved should be fired? How will that help?
As I said, there were pre-existing issues in our health system and people weren't jumping up and down about those before covid.
Not testing more at the border wasn't a high risk, or we would have had an outbreak much earlier. It's good they've looked at it and have tightened up. This is what we do when mistakes are made, we learn from them, remedy them and create more robust situations. It's all new, there are going to be mistakes and things people haven't thought about.
Red…my understanding is that the 37% of the workers that were tested on the border were the high risk people who had face to face (or close to) contact with incoming travellers.
The other 63% were not tested because they had no direct contact with travellers.
Approx 40% of cases need to be determined by medical observation and assessment of symptoms hence why our numbers are about 40% higher than that reported to WHO, Testing only gives assurance of incidence in about 63% of cases although I did hear a figure of 80% confidence yesterday by Bloomfield. The true front line staff have been getting daily temperature and symptom interviews since this shit fight stared.
The government might be making deliberate mistakes just to keep a heightened sense of anxiety and caution going to prevent complacency! Not likely; I think they felt they had done with that and were looking at the next thing, but leaky politics will turn up when new ways are being tried, just like leaky roofs.
Be still wild and woolly Gg, government is still here trying to get it right and watertight, not like the pesky private sector who could sail away on The Crimson Permanent Assurance.
Where'sthe border leak?
"50,468 vehicles had been stopped at checkpoints and of those 676 were turned around for undertaking non-essential travel". And these figures are only after the set up of road blocks around the Auckland region. Travellers' reasons at the border stops are taken at face value.
I don't see grounds for pointing the finger at any one of the several possibilities for how the new outbreak started. Nor do I see grounds to exclude that it got in through the coldstore or through the border somehow.
In all of the feasible scenarios, it's a very very small probability of something happening multiplied by a large number of times for that tiny probability to come through. Kinda like buying Powerball tickets, realistically you're almost certainly going to be better off just burning that cash for a bit of warmth on a cold day than buying the ticket, but dozens of people win multiple millions each year.
"Illusory knowledge" – had a good chat to the tweens about all this, beware of any "This is stuff THEY don't want you to know" statements, there's only a few amongst us (like GG above) that know the TRUTH!!!!
You're the type of person who, during a war, would complain that not all of our defence personnel have bullets flying at them aren't you?
To put that in context I once heard that it required 8 support personnel to put one front-line person on a battlefield. That was awhile ago admittedly and it may have changed since but there's still going to be more support personnel than soldiers.
Now, here's an important point: If all of our defence personnel actually had bullets flying at them there would only be one reason – that we'd lost.
Same goes with our quarantine facilities. If we need to have the support personnel tested its because the virus is rampant and we're all fucked.
There's another lesson here as well that you need to learn. That lesson is just how important those support personnel are to have an effective front-line which is why, in any good organisation, there's more support personnel.
Those leaky borders will be a thing of the past….Hone Harawira is on the case. Iwi should in in charge of checkpoints….the army and the cops are just too soft, polite.
“The police, the army and Ngāti Whātua’s massive checkpoints just north of Te Hana, they’ve done a good job, a very bold effort. Unfortunately, because it’s driven by the police, with the support of iwi, rather than by iwi with the support of police, the tenor of the questions has been a little light. Not as demanding as they would be if we were running them,” he said.
Harawira says that plans are now being made on “how best to get rid of” those who shouldn’t be sheltering in Northland.
“We can put in the check points we had last time. We can work with the police as another option, with mobile patrols, or we might consider other action like a sweep right through Te Tai Tokerau, from the Cape [Reinga] all the way down. Basically call in at every tourist camp and holiday park and say ‘pack up you’re moving’.
Despite his reputation as a man of action, Harawira’s not looking to be a vigilante. “We’ve worked really well with the police and our aim is to maintain that good relationship with them. Our aim is not to be kicking down doors and throwing people out onto the road. But it is to be firm and positive and clear. Who cares what their reasons are, we really don’t care. They shouldn’t have come up in the first place.”
Many Kiwis who live in their campervans and caravans winter over up here…bringing steady income to the campgounds and a casual labour force for some of the local businesses. There must be a better way.
Interesting. I can see the point for L3 Aucklanders. Not sure about everyone else, and they presumably could to a 2 week self isolation with a bit of planning. Would be interested to see what other Māori are saying. I certainly went through a bit of a thing about the rumours that Aucklanders were escaping and flying south, so I get the impetus to close regional borders. I'd be good with that the other way too, if it had been my area that had an outbreak.
If you were the opposition or an opposition sympathiser, suffered from severe Jacinda Derangement Syndrome and was determined to sabotage her re-election chances by re-introducing Coronavirus to the country, how would you do it?
Q: What are the variables for how long the virus stays on certain surfaces?
Dr. Nasia Safdar: It depends on how wet the environment is. It tends to dry up pretty quickly. That's one reason why, in the case of a confirmed COVID-19 case, the recommendation is not to rush in to clean that right away, but actually to leave the room be for a little bit so the viral particles can dry out and be less infectious. Then, the individual can go in and clean. So a few days, I would say is the best we can say, but it's not a few weeks, by any means.
You must suffering from something much worse than “severe Jacinda Derangement Syndrome” to willingly and knowingly put the lives of fellow Kiwis at risk and cause huge economic damage. That said, drug smugglers/traffickers put their own lives at risk so those sorts of people are out there, tormented & desperate souls that are ripe for the picking by unscrupulous agents of death & doom 🙁
NZ is rife with conspiracy theories at the moment. Some spread by senior politicians no less, for political purposes. Thought I would just add another one, holding up a mirror to that.
But they, the authorities, still seem focussed on patient zero at the Mt Wellington cool-store. In the absence of a patient further down the tree, what else have they to go on?
It's been suggested by other conspiracy theorists that they are just covering up a MIQ breach but I don't think their behaviour so far supports this theory. MoH so far have been very careful to get as much information out there as possible, consistent with their Covid eradication approach throughout. I think they'd own up to a verified mistake if that is confirmed.
While the mystery around the August outbreak continues there will be speculation.
One other thing to note is the hardcore testing of port workers and truck drivers out of Tauranga…
There are two things here: 1) containing the outbreak; 2) finding the source and prevent it from happening again.
If it was an ‘accident’ then the chances of this happening again could be quite slim given that we enjoyed 102 days of no community outbreak.
Wider, more frequent, and less intrusive (and laborious!) testing might be a good way forward even if it comes with a slightly lower accuracy and sensitivity.
Whenever anyone takes time off because of symptoms – they inform the workplace and their colleagues are stood down until the test result is known. This would speed up people getting tests and reduce the risk of spread at the workplace (and related homes – partners workplaces and childrens schools). Thus we prevent cluster growth at the begining.
In addition to doubling sick leave to 2 weeks, the government should compensate business for the days staff are not at work while waiting for a colleageu's test result.
Another WTAF moment from Doltistan. After all the ranting from the Fanta Fascist about how fraudulent mail-in voting is, his campaign in North Carolina sends out forms for requesting mail-in ballots to voters. With the genital-grabbing gargoyle's mug plastered all over them.
It's an interesting question as to why Kim Jong Orange has any say whatsoever over the postal service. Article 1 section 8 clause 7 of the constitution specifically tells congress to set up a postal service, and doesn't say anything about the preznit having anything to do with it.
I'spose the likeliest explanation is congressional laziness and once they had set it up, they figured job done, and handed it over the the prez to run. That a prez might choose to sabotage it to try to gain electoral advantage would never have occurred to anybody.
There are some laws making it a felony to interfere with the postal service. It'll be worth a few tubs of popcorn if anyone tries to invoke those in the pushback against the vandalism that's happening.
Trump is desperate and he will use any tactic to increase his chance of being re elected. Postal interference from the Prez and everything was well thought out.
Our global leadership moment about Covid-19 hasn’t popped …….. yet.
ABC news puts it like this:
"For 102 days New Zealand stood out as the global poster child of the COVID-19 era.
It was a nation at one with its "elimination" strategy, with a leader who enlisted the cooperation of citizens while Facetiming in lockdown from the frontline of her family life, and in turn delivered a virus-free return to business-as-more-or-less-usual in record time.
There are plenty of experts who agree that the Ardern Government's approach to coronavirus offers a masterclass in the management of a public health crisis.
The urgent question now facing Jacinda Ardern and New Zealanders — as cases appear to be growing quickly in a nation with a population the size of Sydney — is what this second wave will reveal about the broader effectiveness of that strategy and perhaps most importantly, how sustainable it is — politically, as well as for public health.
Apart from the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, Covid-19 is just a mild illness, isn’t it? Think again. JUDITH GRANT, who was to have presented at this year’s Safeguard conference, outlines her personal experience.
In a review published online in JAMA Neurology, researchers from Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut examined available case reports and clinical studies and found that the most commonly observed neurological effects in COVID-19 to date are headache, anosmia, and ageusia.5 Headache may affect up to one-third of patients, while prevalence rates of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction vary widely across settings. In addition, more severe events including impaired consciousness, seizure, stroke, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and encephalopathy have also been noted in COVID-19 patients.
The symptoms of ischaemia in a limb cannot be ignored and the sooner symptoms are reported the greater the chance of saving a limb. Blood clots else where can be missed.
Why blood clots form in Covid needs to be understood.
Why the blood clots form does need to be understood and it looks like inflammation is a major factor. Reassuringly, trials to explore treatment options for people at risk for covid-linked blood clots are underway.
"The triggers responsible for COVID-19–associated coagulopathy remain elusive. Potential triggers include cytokine-induced overexpression of tissue factor, endothelial dysfunction with loss of its antithrombotic phenotype, stasis, and hypoxia (see figure). This study confirms the correlation between markers of inflammation and coagulation and supports the concept that inflammation is a major driver of the hypercoagulable state. An inflammation-driven hypercoagulable state has also been reported in critically ill patients with viral pneumonia caused by H1N1 or SARS-CoV-1.7 The VTE rate in such patients ranged from 5% to 25%, which is similar to the rates observed in patients with COVID-19.8–10Although intensified anticoagulation regimens may reduce the risk of a thrombotic event, the results of this study raise the possibility that they may increase major bleeding rates to unacceptable levels in critically ill patients. As the world waits for the second wave of COVID-19, randomized trials comparing anticoagulation dosing strategies are urgently needed. Fortunately, several such trials are under way."
Martyred Saint Julian will be feeling the sting of betrayal. Especially since Jules actually worked to help Twitterfinger J. Putinpussy and Snowden didn't.
OMG Ashley Bloomfield displaying the patience of a saint in answering the inane questions from the journos – intent on finding some fault in the government's management of the borders.
I feel like McFlock from the other day – a deep temptation to fell them to fuck off!
If you've ever had to deliver a difficult project, or recover one that was in a mess, then had to endure ignorant senior managers question your competence and integrity and demand impossible levels of certainty – you've had a tiny taste of what Ashley is enduring. (Disclaimer: my handle is only coincidentally the same Dr B's initials)
Something that I have not heard put forward as a possibility is the dumping of frozen shit from an aircraft. It used to happen but may have been contained in more modern systems.
Any aircraft experts about?
Mt Wellington off course close to the flightpath to Mangere
It'd been a very very long time since waste dumping from commercial aircraft was a routine thing. Nowadays it needs valves to fail and leak. So blue ice incidents are only a few per year worldwide.
Also there’s very few passengers on inbound flights these days, so well within the holding capacity of the aircraft’s systems. Those passengers are all being tested as well and that strain hasn’t come up in border testing. Still a possibility from crew but they wouldn’t be going to the loo over Auckland
Those dickhead reporters are trying hard to discredit Dr Bloomfield or trying to trip him up on the testing at the border, this seems to be their angle to help the Nats to make inroads for their election chances, but it's a bit boring listening to some of these reporters questions, lots of those questions have previously asked and answered, but still they persist on this line. Where is the quality of reporters at. Fn zero.
Government should note the questions with answers and present them at the start of every media show with the FAQ and if the same question comes up again, that person goes to the back of the queue – that'd larn them.
While it makes sense to delay I believe if labour werent forced by nzf with threats of a no confidence vote they would have stayed the course, Winston needs to be fired from Cabinet, he's been spreading conspiracy's to foreign media and threatening govt instability. We need an upper house (NZs parliament has far too much centralized executive power, do we really want the likes of a Nat/act coalition under Collins having unchecked power? Extend the parliamentary term by a year and add two extra boxes to tick (under MMP or STV ) Australia and USA can do it why not us?
A constitution (the fact that Winston could install Judith Collins if he really wanted to just because he doesn't like the election date needs to be a law, should he able to do that to a dying govt in the middle of a crisis or show the no Waka jumping extend to coalition partners , if a small party jumps ship should an election immediately be required? )
i believe jacinda was forced by Winston otherwise its interesting because The American left is busy trying to prove to the world that social distanced voting and postal voting is reliable, Jacinda one of the most popular world leaders inadvertently gave Trump a gift, Trump can now say "the kiwis delayed their election because they don't trust mail voting or social distancing voting during a pandemic, why should the USA"
What a mess. I just want the NZ election and the us election over. We've been hearing about both for years. Let's keep moving I guess.
Other countries have had elections in the last few months, some have delayed, it's really no big deal, at least now it's been delayed, we have a date, hopefully plans in place if further lockdown, the opposition want dissent and confusion, Adern once again shuts the trap.
Same if a time travel machine were possible, wouldn't one have popped up sometime in our past (unless, of course, it got stomped on by a dinosaur and is on an endless loop).
& here's proof we have slipped into a parallel universe, there are 5 Young Ones, not 4, in the first series there's another long haired hippy flatmate who just sits there and doesn't say anything, he pops up in every episode, it's bloody spooky!!! (Father Time has to step around him in the Time episode).
We are always thinking and watching the USA and Trump. Let's ignore Trump and replace him with Julian Assange. Now there is a martyred hero who deserves support.
US decision to file new charges against Julian Assange ‘astonishing and potentially abusive’
Lawyer for WikiLeaks founder slams US decision to serve a second indictment at the 11th hour alleging that Assange conspired with hackers, as a potential abuse of process
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It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
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For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
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The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
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I imagine that we’re going to get a delay to the election today. And probably it’s for the best, if only to shut the Opposition up. But part of me really wants Jacinda to call the bluff of all those losers. Especially Winston (he practically is part of the Opposition now) with his empty threats and posturing. Just had Judith on Morning Report acting like it’s up to her.
This Stuff piece goes into some of the details of what could come of the political silly buggers games Peters could play. In short, Peters could actually force a delay and trigger some weird shit by withdrawing confidence and bringing down the government. But that's in Winnie's hands, not Judthulhu's.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300083701/election-2020-decision-day-looms-for-jacinda-ardern-as-winston-peters-threatens-retaliation-if-election-not-delayed
He said yesterday though that he wouldn’t withdraw confidence from the government. He can wave the threat around all he likes but it’s the nuclear option and will likely blow up in his face.
It is kind of irrelevent if the writ day was immediate.
He would effectively be withdrawing confidence in his own party as being part of the "Government"
Pretty silly idea on his part.
Welcome humour in these difficult times is Jane Bowron's column in DomPost today.
To quote "Brownlee as former Canterbury earthquake recovery minister went lower than a base isolator when he said he was puzzled….. and "Collins having to put her eyebrows into managed isolation after a bruising and brow-beating interview with Kim Hill on RNZ's Morning Report".
Tonight DPF will release his "exclusive scientific poll" (!!!) on what Aucklanders think of their lockdown. He's very excited!
DPF has some scientific ! That's funny, are we sure it's not scientology ?
But what's the chance they got the PM in the numbers she's an Aucklander too – what's she going to have said "I love it, it's simply marvellous"? I doubt it she thinks it's anything other than a big pain in the butt like anyone else. I wonder how it was worded?
Geddis on Morning Report just now picking Oct 17 for Election Day.
Lucky pick.
How many people actually believe that this latest outbreak came from frozen food? How many people believe that it came from a breach of the border measures? The revelation that 63% of those working on the border had NOT been tested was a real indication that despite fervent declarations that the borders were tighter than a duck's posterior, the "system" had failed. This, despite, a senior Labour MP installed as Minister of Border Control or Managed Isolation. And the problem is, if the borders are not tight, then this virus will spread like wildfire. We have been compromised and I get the real sense that there are a few people scrambling as hard as they can to cover up failings.
How many people actually believe Goodgrief's breathless scaremongery?
How many people believe Goodgrief's intentions here are good. Good grief!
Pretty much no-one. FFS this dimwit seems to be using troll techniques that were old in 2008.
For starter in their breathless stupidity, they neglected to distinguish between front-facing border staff and those who have no realistic way to pick up the virus. Why stick a large swab up peoples noses when they have no realistic way of getting the virus – by that definition you'd want to do it to every person in NZ.
Of course with Goodgrief that would probably just find vacant space.
Sounds like a thick as pigshit troll – but hey everyone should have a chance to learn. I'd suggest educating the dimwit to the limits of their capabilities.
After all with this kind of antique breathless waffling, he is almost as amusing as Gerry Brownlee trying to do the same trick. Look that where it got him.
Essentially be dumb enough to think that simple insinuation with no details and no backing or links just means that everyone will ignore their ranting, except as an opportunity to play the comedian. Minless waffle like this simply isn’t a basis for robust debate.
Gee Lprent, it would be great if you were able to make a post occasionally that was not comprised of infantile abuse linked together to vaguely resemble a thought.
And you criticise Goodgrief? Goodgrief indeed.
[lprent: *sigh* Read the policy again, and read my reply to gsays further down this thread.
If you don’t like it, then leave. Next time I see you do this again – under any name, I’ll assume you’re trying to tell us how to run this site and I’ll ban you under any name until well after any possible election date. Your writing style is so consistent that it isn’t hard to recognize.
I’m getting a bit annoyed with dealing with someone who after all these years still can’t think rationally and is most noticeable for their considerable abilities at whining. ]
It’s called a “stress test” and sorts out genuine commenters who might be lacking adequate language skills from genuine trolls who lack in other departments.
It ain’t pretty, like a bowel dissection to remove a huge tumour, but it is effective and needs to be done from time to time.
Don’t watch it if you cannot stand the gore and don’t get involved is my advice 😉
Despite the advice in yr last sentence…
This 'stress testing' has an awful lot in common with bullying.
From Bullyingfree NZ "Most widely-accepted definitions of bullying are based on four elements: bullying is deliberate, harmful, involves a power imbalance, and has an element of repetition."
Deliberate check.
Power imbalance check.
Repetition check.
I can't speak for the harm in this case.
https://www.bullyingfree.nz/about-bullying/what-is-bullying/
Yeah, it carries a small risk but nobody is chasing this ‘victim’ on-line on this site. If they change their commenting behaviour, they will be left alone here, except for the ‘counter opinions’ from other commenters, of course, which can be equally if not more harmful.
I think we should leave this between the people involved.
Roger, wilco.
Just planting seeds.
You're correct in the intent. However it is a pretty specific tactic on my part. I just try to reflect the behaviour of whomever I am bullying, not only as they present themselves, but also as I expect them to continue. I've been in online forums for more than 40 years now – the tactics are pretty obvious after you've seen them tens of thousands of times.
I just do it harder, much more personally and in a exaggerated level to push the message home that the behaviour is both obvious and I'm perfectly willing to escalate it. This is a classic sysop ploy to get people to either shape up to the sites expectations or to leave the site without dumbarse flame wars.
In this case, if you read roughly through GG's comment and mine and bother to look past the obvious you'd see exactly what I did. I'll paraphrase the two sets of comments together, GGs sentence preface and my replacement assertion.
"How many people actually believe that…" GoodGrief is a "dimwit".
"The revelation that …" that GoodGrief is "thick as pigshit troll".
"This, despite …" the remote possibility that GoodGrief "should have a chance to learn".
"And the problem is …" "with this kind of antique breathless waffling, he is almost as amusing as Gerry Brownlee".
"… and I get the real sense that …" GoodGrief would be "dumb enough to think that simple insinuation with no details and no backing or links..".
In other words, I just played back GoodGrief's playbook – but I substituted them as the target and then pushed an extreme version of the kind of unsubstantiated assertion crap they were pushing into their comment directly back on to them. I made it immediately personal.
If you don't do this kind of approach then people using GG's tactics will try to take over the site in the comments section. The standard play is by making straight assertions that are in effect slogans with bothering to argue the basis of their opinion. Mostly anyone who does this will then proceed on to attacking anyone who argues against them – and they will do it personally. It then usually deteriorates into boring flame wars.
It is the standard playbook on online forums. I just abbreviate the process for a selected few who exhibit the boring predictable behaviours.
While bans will work – they are a lot of work. You also find that the whiners sit around revving each other up in their local sewer to try to count coup by occasional forays to get a ban.
With my approach, I find the reputation of what behaviour is expected on this site gets around and we have less moderation work. Also fewer bans.
I've been doing it since I saw that comments section here was going to the dogs after the first quarter of 2008. It took 2 years of work to get the message across and for the workload to diminish. I still pick the worst 'new' offenders out and demonstrate that the site hasn't changed that approach – if it needs to be handled that way.
Thanks for shining a light on yr motives and intent.
peter chch There, there, dear, dear. We are all a bit overwrought what with the decline in political standards, our election looming, Covid 19 twisting our health system, stressing our relationships even in families and wrecking our economy. Better put up if you can stand the strain, it won't get better for some time to come. Otherwise take a powder, try sherbert.
None so blind as those that refuse to see Robert.
That is the point which has not been clearly outlined enough by Hipkins. If I deliver
cabbages to a hotel need I be tested?
Goodgrief – the saying actually is 'those who will not see', and it is an old saying from the times when 'will' meant 'want to', as it still does in modern German. (English and German come from the same roots.)
So, the point is that the person who does not want to see is blindest of all. It seems to me that it is you who have strong, naive, youthful visions, rather than the far more cultured Robert.
Refuse is a conscious decision, which ruins the saying. Not wanting to reflects the all too frequent practice of wishful thinking. To me you sound more wishful.
The balance of probabilities Robert it is the border. Americold manager tells us that order have not been shipped from their Vic site to Mt Wtgn for weeks. It may not be anybody’s fault, all it would take is a false negative on the last test Does any one know how reliable is the test re false positives and negatives Saying all of that inexcusable mistakes have been made
That would be useful to know if the genomic sequence said that this strain of the virus had come from Victoria. Since that hasn't been stated, then that would have to be considered as being irrelevant. Essentially the statement was issued because some mindless fools in the advance of data had been speculating wildly and irresponsibly.
What would be relevant would be a list of destinations from which freight had been received, when it was dispatched and what temperatures they were stored at.
Viable corona viruses have been detected years after being frozen. At low but not freezing temperatures, they have been detected as being viable more than a month (and even months) after being chilled.
The outbreak strain is called the B.1.1.1 strain, which is found in Oz and the UK, as well as places like Peru, Uruguay, Bangladesh etc. But not in the US or China or India.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/08/it-s-b-1-1-1-kiwi-scientists-identify-virus-family-of-mystery-covid-19-outbreak.html
It is going to be interesting if they can track it down. If it got picked up by a warm body handling chilled or frozen goods, they may find it on goods stored.
But it may also show up in an associated shipment without an infected warm body link back to the cold storage. Which hopefully that chain could show the link.
What doesn't seem likely at present is that it came from our warm body border protection system. But if that did happen, then we should see showing up in further infections already from the possible earlier index source than the one we know about already. They caught this cluster really early.
The worst case would be that no source was found. Then it means tat we're probably going to need to start testing cold imports and more intense warm body testing as well.
Well, suppose B.1.1.1 is found in Americold's Melbourne staff. Is that a smoking gun, or one that just feels maybe a bit warmish to the touch?
Suppose they find it on something in the cold store here. Is that a smoking gun, or maybe it's from our local staff that got infected and transferred it while pre-symptomatic?
I don't find it implausible it came through the border in self-propelled meat. Suppose patient zero got it in transit and the virus was a bit slow to take hold. So day 3 test is negative (quite reasonably). Then for whatever reason the day 12 test is a false negative (false negative rates for PCR testing have sometimes been stated as high as 5%). Now patient zero is out loose. Suppose patient zero then passes it on to someone that is asymptomatic/low symptom that doesn't get checked (maybe 50% of cases). Who then passes it on to our first known index case, with no traceability to the border.
Sure that's a longish chain of low probability bad-luck links so it's very unlikely, looking at it from the perspective of an individual. But looking at it from the perspective of the country with thousands of people coming through the border, it's a bit more plausible that something like that has happened once or more.
Let alone the possibility it came in on aircrew on the Oz run (who haven’t been routinely tested before now because Oz was allegedly safe) who passed it on while asymptomatic to an asymptomatic/low symptom link.
I kinda look at it as a heads up that there's a lot of gaps we've left for the virus to get through, including maybe a frozen goods gap we hadn't thought of. We're never going to plug them all, but we certainly can do a better job of plugging the biggest gaps.
also, "weeks" might well be in the right timeframe for this outbreak.
Why? Because of the B.1.1.1 divergence? I thought that was a reasonably early strain.
Long survival time on a frozen surface plus long incubation period in the index case.
And maybe the first person with it at Americold was asymptomatic and work was pretty much their only "close contact", that could add another full generation to the timeframe.
If "weeks" means "mid-March", that would make it doubtful because I'd have expected the phenomenon to have been discovered earlier as a source of multiple clusters around the world.
But if "weeks" means "a month", the math is close enough to keep it in mind as a slim but valid possibility when the cluster seems to heavily involve a freight agency.
Not sure what you consider a “reasonably early strain”. It is a few sub-lineages down from the main trunk, obviously.
From the Feeds, I happened to read this: https://sciblogs.co.nz/code-for-life/2020/08/17/covid-19-sequence-the-viral-genomes-of-all-border-cases/
In there, some links to tweets that contained these links to info on B.1.1.1:
https://nextstrain.org/ncov/oceania/2020-08-11?c=pangolin_lineage&d=tree&label=clade:20A [click on Pangolin lineage under Phylogeny in the top LH corner of the interactive graph to highlight B.1.1.1]
https://cov-lineages.org/lineages/lineage_B.1.1.1.html
BTW, the tweets themselves are informative too, not the usual Twitter ‘banter’.
Have fun 😉
Ah I see what you mean. On the timeline, it was pretty early.
For some reason, I usually look at the mutational divergence. That B1.1.x is one of the branches with quite a lot of generic divergence for covid-19.
People have an odd relationship with probability. If there's an 80% chance it was a border control issue, and a 20% chance it was imported food, then both have to be addressed given the nature of the risk.
They're actually excusable and understandable mistakes. Everyone is on a big learning curve here and as far as I can see nearly every time a mistake has been made, the relevant people have stepped up and remedied it. There are some exceptions to that. The MoH handling of PPE for disabled people and care workers being notable. But those came about because of systems that existed before covid that we were apparently happy enough to live with despite the negative impacts.
Not testing front line staff and been told by the MOH is inexcusable Weka. On the basis of it is hardly and unknown risk, likewise it is highly likely and a high risk so government a f ministry should have all over it. If this was an OSH case the managing and mitigating risk the kitchen sink works be thrown at you. The minister of health told us he was advised by the ministry this was happening and it wasn’t There is also a similar theme with PEP, flu vaccine distribution etc hence possibly a systemic issue her the needs to be addressed and some accountability as with our it, things won’t change
Sorry tidied above up
Not testing front line staff and been told by the MOH it is happening and it is not is inexcusable Weka. On the basis of it is hardly and unknown risk, likewise it is highly likely and a high risk so government and the ministry should have been all over it. If this was an OSH investigation re the managing and mitigating of risk, the kitchen sink would be thrown at you. There is also a similar theme with PEP, flu vaccine distribution etc hence possibly a systemic issue here that needs to be addressed and some accountability as with out it, things won’t change
If it's inexcusable, what should happen? All the people involved should be fired? How will that help?
As I said, there were pre-existing issues in our health system and people weren't jumping up and down about those before covid.
Not testing more at the border wasn't a high risk, or we would have had an outbreak much earlier. It's good they've looked at it and have tightened up. This is what we do when mistakes are made, we learn from them, remedy them and create more robust situations. It's all new, there are going to be mistakes and things people haven't thought about.
Red…my understanding is that the 37% of the workers that were tested on the border were the high risk people who had face to face (or close to) contact with incoming travellers.
The other 63% were not tested because they had no direct contact with travellers.
Approx 40% of cases need to be determined by medical observation and assessment of symptoms hence why our numbers are about 40% higher than that reported to WHO, Testing only gives assurance of incidence in about 63% of cases although I did hear a figure of 80% confidence yesterday by Bloomfield. The true front line staff have been getting daily temperature and symptom interviews since this shit fight stared.
Please try to keep up.
The government might be making deliberate mistakes just to keep a heightened sense of anxiety and caution going to prevent complacency! Not likely; I think they felt they had done with that and were looking at the next thing, but leaky politics will turn up when new ways are being tried, just like leaky roofs.
Be still wild and woolly Gg, government is still here trying to get it right and watertight, not like the pesky private sector who could sail away on The Crimson Permanent Assurance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYac8ngF1vg
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSO9OFJNMBA
+100 Robert.
Where'sthe border leak?
"50,468 vehicles had been stopped at checkpoints and of those 676 were turned around for undertaking non-essential travel". And these figures are only after the set up of road blocks around the Auckland region. Travellers' reasons at the border stops are taken at face value.
How is nearly 50000 vehicles of passengers as potential virus carriers crossing lock down borders to travel widely not a concern? If a person is an essential traveller presumably the Covid19 virus leaves them alone.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/122465088/two-auckland-men-crossed-checkpoints-to-visit-skycity-hamilton-casino?cid=app-android
I don't see grounds for pointing the finger at any one of the several possibilities for how the new outbreak started. Nor do I see grounds to exclude that it got in through the coldstore or through the border somehow.
In all of the feasible scenarios, it's a very very small probability of something happening multiplied by a large number of times for that tiny probability to come through. Kinda like buying Powerball tickets, realistically you're almost certainly going to be better off just burning that cash for a bit of warmth on a cold day than buying the ticket, but dozens of people win multiple millions each year.
The system has failed! and the virus is now pouring through the border. The public is panicing… Not!
Gerry GoodGrief . A concerned citizen with no ulterior motives. Just asking questions.
"Illusory knowledge" – had a good chat to the tweens about all this, beware of any "This is stuff THEY don't want you to know" statements, there's only a few amongst us (like GG above) that know the TRUTH!!!!
You're the type of person who, during a war, would complain that not all of our defence personnel have bullets flying at them aren't you?
To put that in context I once heard that it required 8 support personnel to put one front-line person on a battlefield. That was awhile ago admittedly and it may have changed since but there's still going to be more support personnel than soldiers.
Now, here's an important point: If all of our defence personnel actually had bullets flying at them there would only be one reason – that we'd lost.
Same goes with our quarantine facilities. If we need to have the support personnel tested its because the virus is rampant and we're all fucked.
There's another lesson here as well that you need to learn. That lesson is just how important those support personnel are to have an effective front-line which is why, in any good organisation, there's more support personnel.
Od Dear Old Jerry. What have you done lad? The first part of a poem by Victor Billot on Newsroom
There's poetic licence abounding. In The Press Jeff Bell calls on Dr Seuss's type of plain speaking, with rhyme and reason.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/114832270/jeff-bell-cartoons
Those leaky borders will be a thing of the past….Hone Harawira is on the case. Iwi should in in charge of checkpoints….the army and the cops are just too soft, polite.
“The police, the army and Ngāti Whātua’s massive checkpoints just north of Te Hana, they’ve done a good job, a very bold effort. Unfortunately, because it’s driven by the police, with the support of iwi, rather than by iwi with the support of police, the tenor of the questions has been a little light. Not as demanding as they would be if we were running them,” he said.
Harawira says that plans are now being made on “how best to get rid of” those who shouldn’t be sheltering in Northland.
“We can put in the check points we had last time. We can work with the police as another option, with mobile patrols, or we might consider other action like a sweep right through Te Tai Tokerau, from the Cape [Reinga] all the way down. Basically call in at every tourist camp and holiday park and say ‘pack up you’re moving’.
Despite his reputation as a man of action, Harawira’s not looking to be a vigilante. “We’ve worked really well with the police and our aim is to maintain that good relationship with them. Our aim is not to be kicking down doors and throwing people out onto the road. But it is to be firm and positive and clear. Who cares what their reasons are, we really don’t care. They shouldn’t have come up in the first place.”
https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/17-08-2020/iwi-leaders-are-hoping-for-the-best-and-preparing-for-the-worst/
Many Kiwis who live in their campervans and caravans winter over up here…bringing steady income to the campgounds and a casual labour force for some of the local businesses. There must be a better way.
Interesting. I can see the point for L3 Aucklanders. Not sure about everyone else, and they presumably could to a 2 week self isolation with a bit of planning. Would be interested to see what other Māori are saying. I certainly went through a bit of a thing about the rumours that Aucklanders were escaping and flying south, so I get the impetus to close regional borders. I'd be good with that the other way too, if it had been my area that had an outbreak.
With a nod to Gerry.
If you were the opposition or an opposition sympathiser, suffered from severe Jacinda Derangement Syndrome and was determined to sabotage her re-election chances by re-introducing Coronavirus to the country, how would you do it?
Through a frozen goods logistics firm?
Something in the post – same as calici. But introduced to South Auckland to benefit from the disparagement that end of town routinely suffers.
If that happened, the DNA testing must be scaring the pants off the perpetrator.
You'd have to have specialist temperature controlled transport rather than normal post..?
I wouldn't count on that – a little moisture could probably keep it viable long enough.
https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/sars-calculator
Nice. Or, for the less technical:
Q: What are the variables for how long the virus stays on certain surfaces?
Dr. Nasia Safdar: It depends on how wet the environment is. It tends to dry up pretty quickly. That's one reason why, in the case of a confirmed COVID-19 case, the recommendation is not to rush in to clean that right away, but actually to leave the room be for a little bit so the viral particles can dry out and be less infectious. Then, the individual can go in and clean. So a few days, I would say is the best we can say, but it's not a few weeks, by any means.
https://www.wpr.org/where-does-novel-coronavirus-hang-out-how-long-does-it-stay-and-how-do-i-get-rid-it
You must suffering from something much worse than “severe Jacinda Derangement Syndrome” to willingly and knowingly put the lives of fellow Kiwis at risk and cause huge economic damage. That said, drug smugglers/traffickers put their own lives at risk so those sorts of people are out there, tormented & desperate souls that are ripe for the picking by unscrupulous agents of death & doom 🙁
The outbreak strain was a new one in NZ.
NZ is rife with conspiracy theories at the moment. Some spread by senior politicians no less, for political purposes. Thought I would just add another one, holding up a mirror to that.
But they, the authorities, still seem focussed on patient zero at the Mt Wellington cool-store. In the absence of a patient further down the tree, what else have they to go on?
It's been suggested by other conspiracy theorists that they are just covering up a MIQ breach but I don't think their behaviour so far supports this theory. MoH so far have been very careful to get as much information out there as possible, consistent with their Covid eradication approach throughout. I think they'd own up to a verified mistake if that is confirmed.
While the mystery around the August outbreak continues there will be speculation.
One other thing to note is the hardcore testing of port workers and truck drivers out of Tauranga…
There are two things here: 1) containing the outbreak; 2) finding the source and prevent it from happening again.
If it was an ‘accident’ then the chances of this happening again could be quite slim given that we enjoyed 102 days of no community outbreak.
Wider, more frequent, and less intrusive (and laborious!) testing might be a good way forward even if it comes with a slightly lower accuracy and sensitivity.
On the issue of our past complacency.
It's time for a new workplace policy.
Whenever anyone takes time off because of symptoms – they inform the workplace and their colleagues are stood down until the test result is known. This would speed up people getting tests and reduce the risk of spread at the workplace (and related homes – partners workplaces and childrens schools). Thus we prevent cluster growth at the begining.
In addition to doubling sick leave to 2 weeks, the government should compensate business for the days staff are not at work while waiting for a colleageu's test result.
Another WTAF moment from Doltistan. After all the ranting from the Fanta Fascist about how fraudulent mail-in voting is, his campaign in North Carolina sends out forms for requesting mail-in ballots to voters. With the genital-grabbing gargoyle's mug plastered all over them.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/16/politics/postal-service-trump-absentee-ballot-request-mail-usps/index.html
If Trump cannot provide a postal service which is capable of handing postal votes, he does not deserve to be a nominated candidate for President.
It's an interesting question as to why Kim Jong Orange has any say whatsoever over the postal service. Article 1 section 8 clause 7 of the constitution specifically tells congress to set up a postal service, and doesn't say anything about the preznit having anything to do with it.
I'spose the likeliest explanation is congressional laziness and once they had set it up, they figured job done, and handed it over the the prez to run. That a prez might choose to sabotage it to try to gain electoral advantage would never have occurred to anybody.
There are some laws making it a felony to interfere with the postal service. It'll be worth a few tubs of popcorn if anyone tries to invoke those in the pushback against the vandalism that's happening.
Trump is desperate and he will use any tactic to increase his chance of being re elected. Postal interference from the Prez and everything was well thought out.
25 deaths overnight in Victoria. Jesus.
Scott…at least the case numbers are falling slowly…285 yesterday.
The fatalities obviously lag the case numbers.
There’s still over 2000 active cases in Victoria’s aged care sector. Sadly there will be many more deaths before this is over there.
There’s still over 2000 active cases in Victoria’s aged care sector. Sadly there will be many more deaths before this is over there.
When we do the right thing.
https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/1294722809621553152
going to be really interesting to see what the world makes of us getting a second outbreak under control (assuming that we do).
Our global leadership moment about Covid-19 hasn’t popped …….. yet.
ABC news puts it like this:
"For 102 days New Zealand stood out as the global poster child of the COVID-19 era.
It was a nation at one with its "elimination" strategy, with a leader who enlisted the cooperation of citizens while Facetiming in lockdown from the frontline of her family life, and in turn delivered a virus-free return to business-as-more-or-less-usual in record time.
There are plenty of experts who agree that the Ardern Government's approach to coronavirus offers a masterclass in the management of a public health crisis.
The urgent question now facing Jacinda Ardern and New Zealanders — as cases appear to be growing quickly in a nation with a population the size of Sydney — is what this second wave will reveal about the broader effectiveness of that strategy and perhaps most importantly, how sustainable it is — politically, as well as for public health.
Australia must watch closely."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-15/new-zealand-coronavirus-new-cases-elimination-ardern/12559070
it most certainly is nothing like the flu
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/doctors-see-rise-in-limb-threatening-blood-clots-during-19-crisis/
Indeed, it's frightening AF.
Apart from the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, Covid-19 is just a mild illness, isn’t it? Think again. JUDITH GRANT, who was to have presented at this year’s Safeguard conference, outlines her personal experience.
https://www.safeguard.co.nz/databases/modus/sgfree/sgmagfree/JRNL-182-SG-56?
In a review published online in JAMA Neurology, researchers from Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut examined available case reports and clinical studies and found that the most commonly observed neurological effects in COVID-19 to date are headache, anosmia, and ageusia.5 Headache may affect up to one-third of patients, while prevalence rates of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction vary widely across settings. In addition, more severe events including impaired consciousness, seizure, stroke, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and encephalopathy have also been noted in COVID-19 patients.
https://www.neurologyadvisor.com/topics/general-neurology/critical-insights-into-the-neurologic-effects-of-covid-19/
The symptoms of ischaemia in a limb cannot be ignored and the sooner symptoms are reported the greater the chance of saving a limb. Blood clots else where can be missed.
Why blood clots form in Covid needs to be understood.
Why the blood clots form does need to be understood and it looks like inflammation is a major factor. Reassuringly, trials to explore treatment options for people at risk for covid-linked blood clots are underway.
"The triggers responsible for COVID-19–associated coagulopathy remain elusive. Potential triggers include cytokine-induced overexpression of tissue factor, endothelial dysfunction with loss of its antithrombotic phenotype, stasis, and hypoxia (see figure). This study confirms the correlation between markers of inflammation and coagulation and supports the concept that inflammation is a major driver of the hypercoagulable state. An inflammation-driven hypercoagulable state has also been reported in critically ill patients with viral pneumonia caused by H1N1 or SARS-CoV-1.7 The VTE rate in such patients ranged from 5% to 25%, which is similar to the rates observed in patients with COVID-19.8–10Although intensified anticoagulation regimens may reduce the risk of a thrombotic event, the results of this study raise the possibility that they may increase major bleeding rates to unacceptable levels in critically ill patients. As the world waits for the second wave of COVID-19, randomized trials comparing anticoagulation dosing strategies are urgently needed. Fortunately, several such trials are under way."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7378461/
Trump raises the issue of a pardon for Snowden
One way to divide the neo-liberal multi-lateral global market Deep State from patriots – divide the opposition to the regime.
https://twitter.com/RachBlevins/status/1295004785003749376
i don't think anyone not planning on voting for the orange shitshow will do so because of this.
Martyred Saint Julian will be feeling the sting of betrayal. Especially since Jules actually worked to help Twitterfinger J. Putinpussy and Snowden didn't.
OMG Ashley Bloomfield displaying the patience of a saint in answering the inane questions from the journos – intent on finding some fault in the government's management of the borders.
I feel like McFlock from the other day – a deep temptation to fell them to fuck off!
If you've ever had to deliver a difficult project, or recover one that was in a mess, then had to endure ignorant senior managers question your competence and integrity and demand impossible levels of certainty – you've had a tiny taste of what Ashley is enduring. (Disclaimer: my handle is only coincidentally the same Dr B's initials)
Bloomfield is smart enough to know that the media would love it if he rose to the bait.
Tova, in particular, is a legend in her own mind.
Something that I have not heard put forward as a possibility is the dumping of frozen shit from an aircraft. It used to happen but may have been contained in more modern systems.
Any aircraft experts about?
Mt Wellington off course close to the flightpath to Mangere
It'd been a very very long time since waste dumping from commercial aircraft was a routine thing. Nowadays it needs valves to fail and leak. So blue ice incidents are only a few per year worldwide.
Also there’s very few passengers on inbound flights these days, so well within the holding capacity of the aircraft’s systems. Those passengers are all being tested as well and that strain hasn’t come up in border testing. Still a possibility from crew but they wouldn’t be going to the loo over Auckland
Those dickhead reporters are trying hard to discredit Dr Bloomfield or trying to trip him up on the testing at the border, this seems to be their angle to help the Nats to make inroads for their election chances, but it's a bit boring listening to some of these reporters questions, lots of those questions have previously asked and answered, but still they persist on this line. Where is the quality of reporters at. Fn zero.
In the US the health experts (Fauci etc) all need armed guards, get hate mail & death threats, heaps of them are quitting.
Government should note the questions with answers and present them at the start of every media show with the FAQ and if the same question comes up again, that person goes to the back of the queue – that'd larn them.
While it makes sense to delay I believe if labour werent forced by nzf with threats of a no confidence vote they would have stayed the course, Winston needs to be fired from Cabinet, he's been spreading conspiracy's to foreign media and threatening govt instability. We need an upper house (NZs parliament has far too much centralized executive power, do we really want the likes of a Nat/act coalition under Collins having unchecked power? Extend the parliamentary term by a year and add two extra boxes to tick (under MMP or STV ) Australia and USA can do it why not us?
A constitution (the fact that Winston could install Judith Collins if he really wanted to just because he doesn't like the election date needs to be a law, should he able to do that to a dying govt in the middle of a crisis or show the no Waka jumping extend to coalition partners , if a small party jumps ship should an election immediately be required? )
i believe jacinda was forced by Winston otherwise its interesting because The American left is busy trying to prove to the world that social distanced voting and postal voting is reliable, Jacinda one of the most popular world leaders inadvertently gave Trump a gift, Trump can now say "the kiwis delayed their election because they don't trust mail voting or social distancing voting during a pandemic, why should the USA"
What a mess. I just want the NZ election and the us election over. We've been hearing about both for years. Let's keep moving I guess.
Other countries have had elections in the last few months, some have delayed, it's really no big deal, at least now it's been delayed, we have a date, hopefully plans in place if further lockdown, the opposition want dissent and confusion, Adern once again shuts the trap.
Finally some good news for all those hard working citizens who have been gouged for decades by these non-performing troughers.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12357124
Just Wondering
If Judith Collins visited 51 Muslim deaths on mid March in Christchurch ?
A lot of Injuries. It would have been nice if Judith Collins had acknowledged the proceedings on Friday 15th March 2019, and its Awful carnage.
A very good restatement of the Fermi Paradox
Same if a time travel machine were possible, wouldn't one have popped up sometime in our past (unless, of course, it got stomped on by a dinosaur and is on an endless loop).
& here's proof we have slipped into a parallel universe, there are 5 Young Ones, not 4, in the first series there's another long haired hippy flatmate who just sits there and doesn't say anything, he pops up in every episode, it's bloody spooky!!! (Father Time has to step around him in the Time episode).
I always thought The Young Ones needed a science nerd as well.
Wouldn't you travel to the future?
We are always thinking and watching the USA and Trump. Let's ignore Trump and replace him with Julian Assange. Now there is a martyred hero who deserves support.
US decision to file new charges against Julian Assange ‘astonishing and potentially abusive’
Lawyer for WikiLeaks founder slams US decision to serve a second indictment at the 11th hour alleging that Assange conspired with hackers, as a potential abuse of process
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252487666/US-decision-to-file-new-charges-against-Julian-Assange-astonishing-and-potentially-abusive-court
https://7news.com.au/news/crime/lawyers-call-for-julian-assange-release-c-1243830
Trump is doing this (looking at pardoning Assange) to take the heat off the postal fiasco.