Guyon Espiner really is flogging a dead horse. Basically, Lester grey has givenn him all the financial records of NZ First and he is using them to sling mud and innuendo in the hope something – anything – sticks. This mornings episode described a perfectly ordinary select committee process where Labour, National and NZ First MPs on the committee all agree a routine submission was received from a donor to NZ First that was dealt with entirely normally and resulted in an outcome that was totally transparent across the select committee process.
But Espiner is insisting in on implying something dodgy has gone on. It is a quite disgraceful exhibition of a political vendetta from a journalist with an axe to grind.
When there is no story, they’ll manufacture one; it is their job, after all. They are doing the public a disservice but all that matters is the revenue.
Espiner is a sort of special roving reporter. He has clearly invested a lot of time into this NZ First stuff. I would imagine that he sold the "scoop" to his paymasters at RNZ on the basis it was a scandal that would put RNZ in the middle of the biggest political story of the year, with drip feed of stories designed to keep RNZ – and him – front and centre of the election year narrative.
So far, the best thing that has happened has been the idiocy of NZ First's reaction and the shrieking thin skinned petulance of the establishment media response.
The actual story -so far – is a series of swing and miss smears but it won't stop him pushing it.
Milk it for as long and as hard as you can and keep it in the public eye for as long as possible. Public interest is a fickle beast with an attention span shorter than the average tweet.
Paul Goldsmith was an astonishing return to the 1990s on RNZ this morning. The guy looks and sounds like a throwback to buttoned down neolib wideboys of the 1990s, jerking off to the sound of his own business jargon laden voice.
And really, that sums up the bankruptcy of National's economic policies. They've not bee updated for thirty years. Tax cuts for the rich, wealth transfer from the poor to the rich, a punitive surveillance state for the poor, slashing government spending and crony capitalism is all the modern right everywhere have to offer. They know this is a bankrupt, cronyist economic prescription so they've tried to ignite culture wars to hide it with Soimon's angry tram conductor chin jut and meaningless divide and rule slogans.
Epsomistan is a small isolated republic where democracy was replaced decades ago and is now characterised by rigid, top-down ideological control. Its citizens can come across as curiously dated throwbacks. Current leader, Paul Goldsmith, is notable only as the Guinness world record holder for the "smallest election billboard ever" – a postage-stamp sized, illegible cardboard offering last seen disappearing up David Seymour's nether regions.
Paul Goldsmith also let slip on RNZ that National are "looking at" abandoning the planned increases in minimum wage. Wonder if he ran that one past the leader, as it sits a bit uncomfortably with yesterday's grand announcement that National's policies are all about putting more money in the pocket of the kiwi battler. In reality, what National is looking at will probably be a net zero for the "kiwi battler" (lower wages offset by lower taxes, before cuts to public service are factored in), and double win for the wealthy who will get to pay their staff less and a nice fat tax cut to go with it.
Northlands going to be a battleground but I'm predicting National will hold it which will make it a straight shootout between the National/Act (I'm predicting Act will have three MPs) and Labour/Greens
Will the Greens lose more votes to Labour, stay tuned!
Winnie's win in the by-election had a few unique factors that won't be replicated in the upcoming general election. So I'm skeptical that Northland is actually somehow in play.
Just a partial list:
The previous National occupant of the seat left under a particularly odious cloud.
The National candidate was quite uninspiring, and got very little support from the Nats as a whole
The result of the by-election would not change the government, so not a huge incentive for Nats to get out and vote. Similarly the opportunity cost to a Labour voter to vote for Winnie was zero.
However, for the opposition, winning the by-election would be symbolically huge. So there was a big incentive for all the oppo to coalesce around Winnie.
Being in government with WinnieFirst carries huge baggage and headaches for Labour in a way that the ACT puppetry show does not for National. So there's definite upsides for Labour if WinnieFirst falls out of parliament.
Wouldn't be surprised if Simon's leadership become untenable long before that, like in a couple of weeks, but suppression wrangles could kick the can for a while before it all blows to bits.
Fairy tale? Shakespearean tragedy, more like. As soon as the first knife goes in Bridges' back, all the pretenders will be thinking about drawing their blades.
Many will cower, but I reckon a few will have a good stab at it.
You said it!!!!!
The place needs a bit of humour. At times these days it feels like a school room where you have to get teacher’s approval etc. and woebetide if you don’t.
If it spreads to 60% of the Population … and around 15-20% of those have a severe case needing hospitalisation (oxygen therapy / respirators / ventilators) … then hospitals will be completely overwhelmed … and we'll see many (otherwise preventable) deaths from Convid-19 -related Pneumonia.
Hopefully it won't come to that … but it's a distinct possibility.
I suspect a lot of the problems in China are the result of them being the first to get it (everyone else now knows what to look for), a slow and possibly uncoordinated initial response (because there's a fine line between responding to a potential outbreak and being arrested for fearmongering), a high population density (even for city living), and intranational refugees when the problem became evident to the population but the state was still in denial.
There are many possible explanations. Take a look at this one. It's clearly flagged as speculative but there is nothing unreasonable about it either. I'm not endorsing it, but neither can it be ruled out. There is a huge amount of semi-informed speculation on the net at the moment, much of it filling in the information/trust vacuum created by rather obvious CCP propaganda.
Still even using the official numbers we are seeing around a 3% fatality rate in Hubei, yet other provinces such as Guandong with 1328 confirmed cases are reporting only 4 deaths instead of the 40 you would expect. There is a clear discrepancy between the rates being reported within Hubei and other provinces.
One reasonable explanation for this is the kind of complex latency period outlined in my link above. All I'm pointing out is that relying on anodyne official reports when we still don't really understand this new virus is probably not justified.
Frankly, it reminds me of the "if these trends continue" thing we had for ebola.
Comparing this virus with a completely different one that has a totally different character is bs. Ebola is actually rather hard to catch, it depends on direct bodily fluid exchange or eating bushmeat. It requires a specific set of social circumstances to become a pandemic.
Covid19 is the exact opposite, it's seems easily caught via multiple pathways and is still spreading actively despite a month of draconian efforts within China.
WHO are estimating 18 months for a vaccine, but even best case claims I’ve seen are around 4 months. That’s quite long enough for a global pandemic to gain momentum.
I agree it could be controlled outside of China; indeed one of the peculiarities in the data at this point in time is that it hasn’t spread as dramatically or lethally outside of China yet as might be expected. We still don’t properly understand this.
We can hope you are right; but this tragedy has a way to run yet.
It wasn't the diseases I was comparing, but the zero-information panic.
Talking about 10% per capita hospitalisation rates in NZ is pretty pessimistic based on what we see so far.
Internationally, the virus does not seem to have the same infection growth rate as it does in China. Which is what we'd expect, because the control measures were introduced at a far earlier stage in the rest of the world's exposure. (Also on that timeline page, China went the first two weeks in january with no new cases? – yeah, right.)
China's house is on fire and it's well established. Everyone else has the hoses out and has called the fire department, so their houses are unlikely to receive substantial damage.
I've got a work conference in May, in NZ. Small one, a hundred or so attendees from around the country.
Now, at this stage there is no reason to cancel it. Am I saying we won't pull the plug between now and then? Nope. But nobody is holding the cable in anticipation, either.
If the situation calls for it, we can change our behaviour. It's all a process. There's a time to stock up on emergency supplies and meds beyond what everybody probably has lying around since the earthquakes. There's a time to start avoiding theatres and crowded places and air transport.
But all this worst-case scenario stuff is a bit weird, frankly. Focus on the next three steps rather than worrying about the state of the bridge three miles down the path.
The alarm bells went off for me seeing those ominous crows.A fake news video was circulated recently, claiming those crows were at the epicentre of the epidemic, and was later exposed as being some thousands of miles away and a perfectly common phenomenon
"The WHO’s director of emergencies, Dr Michael Ryan, said the outbreak should not be described as a pandemic, even though it has spread to 25 countries outside China. “The real issue is whether we are seeing efficient community transmission outside of China and at the present time we are not observing that,” he said."
OK so the crows. But no mention of the WHO official speaking to the point.
Of the various sources scrutinising the CCP official narrative this one has a track record and reasonable credibility. We have a close Chinese connection who is confirming much of what is being said here; so far everything she is telling us is about one week ahead of the news.
The problem I have is that everything officially reported relies on CCP controlled sources; there does not appear to be any independent checking on the ground, and what leaks out via social media is very difficult to confirm.
But even the numbers we are being told are not good. And there is still a great deal about this virus we don’t really know.
I have a friend who is living in China too. He's under the radar running a language school and is married to a Chinese woman .He's fluent and reads well , but most of his information about China comes from the Guardian .Relying on those connections is daft, just as if a foreigner asked me to explain the NZ Health system I'd have a point of view, so would 4 million others
The worst thing about the virus is its unknown (yet) qualities
I suppose you've read what the Hong Kong coronavirus expert has had to say ?
The US 2017/18 flu epidemic seemed to rage on despite the US supposedly being an open and transparent democracy and therefore better equipped to deal with an outbreak…as opposed to the brutal and backward totalitarian CCP
"The 2017-2018 flu season was severe for all populations and resulted in an estimated 959,000 hospitalizations and 79,400 deaths. This is the highest number of patient claims since the 2009 flu season.[10] "
Anytime, anywhere there's an epidemic, the population can be guaranteed to decry the efforts of whatever govt is in power, paranoia and rumours, fake news and panic is the order of the day
I take what you say on board, but there are so many elements to all this and time will be the better judge
Yes I've seen several references to the reasonable expectation that increasing temperatures, sunlight and humidity will see a big reduction in new cases. As it does with the common cold. That's definitely a positive.
The negatives remain, what if like the common cold it mutates rapidly, reappears seasonally and re-infects frequently?
Not sure if this has aleardy been posted but I thought it was worth posting.
From what infomation we have available it appears that the talking point dragged out for the defence of a US airstrike against soleimani, that he was posing an 'imminent threat' to US soldiers stationed in the region was nothing more than a helpful little slogan to pretend that the attacks were justified under international law. Its sad to see cases like this were a weak defence for an illegal and wrong action lasts just long enough to outlive public and meida interst, before falling apart in the deathly silince of general disinterest.
That 'imminent threat' idea goes back to Tony Blair's need to justify supporting the GW Bush régime in destroying Saddam Hussein. Blair's government eventually found an ironically named lawyer, Daniel Bethlehem, who helpfully provided a clever new definition.
It is a careful choice of word. Pompeo is specifically referring to the Bethlehem Doctrine of Pre-Emptive Self Defence.
Developed by Daniel Bethlehem when Legal Adviser to first Netanyahu’s government and then Blair’s, the Bethlehem Doctrine is that states have a right of “pre-emptive self-defence” against “imminent” attack.
[…] the Bethlehem Doctrine is the formal policy position on assassination of Israel, the US and UK governments. So that is lie one. When Pompeo says Soleimani was planning “imminent” attacks, he is using the Bethlehem definition under which “imminent” is a “concept” which means neither “soon” nor “definitely going to happen”. To twist a word that far from its normal English usage is to lie. To do so to justify killing people is obscene.
I doubt anyone ever took seriously the "imminent threat" bullshit right from the get-go. Especially when it was about sixth in the line of incoherent nonsensical and contradictory explanations given by various known liars.
Dunno about a deathly silence of general disinterest. It's more like submerged beneath a firehose of fresh outrages. And even if there were a functioning mechanism to hold Darth Drumpf accountable (McTurtle has ensured all possible mechanisms for accountability have been smashed), it would be a fair way down on the list of outrages to hold him accountable for. Especially from an American viewpoint.
Your probably right Andre but it's still good to come to a proper conclusion with these kinds of event that get the publicity and scrutiny they deserve. That way we can all learn lessons and began to settle closer to a agreed upon history of events. As things are people who were for these attacks will probably never hear that they didn't have the legal justifications that it was said they had, and won't have that knowledge for next time something like this happens
London (CNN)A recently hired adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resigned, after backlash grew against his controversial past comments — notably for claims that black Americans have lower IQs than white Americans and that compulsory contraception could prevent the creation of a "permanent underclass."
Andrew Sabisky, a self-described "superforecaster," announced his resignation as a "contractor" on Twitter Monday, saying that he did not want the "media hysteria about my old stuff online" to be a distraction for Johnson's government.
It's possible that IQ tests themselves have a residual cultural bias, despite best attempts to eliminate them.
It's plausible that the systemic disadvantages that African-Americans have to deal with all their lives contributes to low scores on IQ tests.
It is probable that the number coming out of an IQ test is indeed meaningless, particularly over small differences.
It is certain that the distributions for the various populations overlap so heavily and the average differences so small that even if an IQ gap is a real thing, it's of zero practical significance for any real-world purpose. Particularly at an individual level.
On reading the wikipedia article I was genuinely struck at what an interestingly complex topic this is.
The point is that what Sabisky said isn’t really controversial, measured differences between groups and countries is well established. But understanding why these differences arise and persist isn’t.
Workers Now is a new slate of candidates contesting this year’s general election. James Robb and Don Franks are the people behind this initiative and they are hoping to put the spotlight on working people’s interests. Both are seasoned activists who have campaigned for workers’ rights over many decades. Here is ...
Buzz from the Beehive Politicians keen to curry favour with Māori tribal leaders have headed north for Waitangi weekend. More than a few million dollars of public funding are headed north, too. Not all of this money is being trumpeted on the Beehive website, the Government’s official website. ...
Insurers face claims of over $500 million for cars, homes and property damaged in the floods. They are already putting up premiums and pulling insurance from properties deemed at high risk of flooding. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: This week in the podcast of our weekly hoon webinar for paying subscribers, ...
Our Cranky Uncle Game can already be played in eight languages: English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. About 15 more languages are in the works at various stages of completion or have been offered to be done. To kick off the new year, we checked with how ...
The (new) Prime Minister said nobody understands what co-governance means, later modified to that there were so many varying interpretations that there was no common understanding.Co-governance cannot be derived from the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It does not use the word. It refers to ‘government’ on ...
It’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kaka. Jump on this link for our chat about the week’s news with special guests Auckland Central MP Chloe Swarbrick and Auckland City Councillor Julie Fairey, including:Auckland’s catastrophic floods, which ...
In March last year, in a panic over rising petrol prices caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the government made a poor decision, "temporarily" cutting fuel excise tax by 25 cents a litre. Of course, it turned out not to be temporary at all, having been extended in May, July, ...
This month’s open thread for climate related topics. Please be constructive, polite, and succinct. The post Unforced variations: Feb 2023 first appeared on RealClimate. ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two fresh press releases had been posted when we checked the Beehive website at noon, both of them posted yesterday. In one statement, in the runup to Waitangi Day, Maori Crown Relations Minister Kelvin Davis drew attention to happenings on a Northland battle site in 1845. ...
It’s that time of the week again when I’m on the site for an hour for a chat in an Ask Me Anything with paying subscribers to The Kaka. Jump in for a chat on anything, including:Auckland’s catastrophic floods, which are set to cost insurers and the Government well over ...
Australia’s Treasurer Jim Chalmers (left) has published a 6,000 word manifesto called ‘Capitalism after the Crises’ arguing for ‘values-based capitalism’. Yet here in NZ we hear the same stale old rhetoric unchanged from the 1990s and early 2000s. Photo: Getty ImagesTLDR: The rest of the world is talking about inflation ...
A couple of weeks ago, after NCEA results came out, my son’s enrolment at Auckland Uni for this year was confirmed - he is doing a BSc majoring in Statistics. Well that is the plan now, who knows what will take his interest once he starts.I spent a bit of ...
Kia ora. What a week! We hope you’ve all come through last weekend’s extreme weather event relatively dry and safe. Header image: stormwater ponds at Hobsonville Point. Image via Twitter. The week in Greater Auckland There’s been a storm of information and debate since the worst of the flooding ...
Hi,At 4.43pm yesterday it arrived — a cease and desist letter from the guy I mentioned in my last newsletter. I’d written an article about “WEWE”, a global multi-level marketing scam making in-roads into New Zealand. MLMs are terrible for many of the same reasons megachurches are terrible, and I ...
Time To Call A Halt: Chris Hipkins knows that iwi leaders possess the means to make life very difficult for his government. Notwithstanding their objections, however, the Prime Minister’s direction of travel – already clearly signalled by his very public demotion of Nanaia Mahuta – must be confirmed by an emphatic ...
Open access notables Via PNAS, Ceylan, Anderson & Wood present a paper squarely in the center of the Skeptical Science wheelhouse: Sharing of misinformation is habitual, not just lazy or biased. The signficance statement is obvious catnip: Misinformation is a worldwide concern carrying socioeconomic and political consequences. What drives ...
Mark White from the Left free speech organisation Plebity looks at the disturbing trend of ‘book burning’ on US campuses In the abstract, people mostly agree that book banning is a bad thing. The Nazis did us the favor of being very clear about it and literally burning books, but ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has undergone a stern baptisim of fire in his first week in his new job, but it doesn’t get any easier. Next week, he has a vital meeting in Canberra with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese, where he has to establish ...
As PM Chris Hipkins says, it’s a “no brainer” to extend the fuel tax cut, half price public subsidy and the cut to the road user levy until mid-year. A no braoner if the prime purpose is to ease the burden on people struggling to cope with the cost of ...
Buzz from the Beehive Cost-of-living pressures loomed large in Beehive announcements over the past 24 hours. The PM was obviously keen to announce further measures to keep those costs in check and demonstrate he means business when he talks of focusing his government on bread-and-butter issues. His statement was headed ...
Poor Mike Hosking. He has revealed himself in his most recent diatribe to be one of those public figures who is defined, not by who he is, but by who he isn’t, or at least not by what he is for, but by what he is against. Jacinda’s departure has ...
New Zealand is the second least corrupt country on earth according to the latest Corruption Perception Index published yesterday by Transparency International. But how much does this reflect reality? The problem with being continually feted for world-leading political integrity – which the Beehive and government departments love to boast about ...
TLDR: Including my pick of the news and other links in my checks around the news sites since 4am. Paying subscribers can see them all below the fold.In Aotearoa’s political economyBrown vs Fish Read more ...
TLDR: Including my pick of the news and other links in my checks around the news sites since 4am. Paying subscribers can see them all below the fold.In Aotearoa’s political economyBrown vs Fish Read more ...
In other countries, the target-rich cohorts of swinging voters are given labels such as ‘Mondeo Man’, ‘White Van Man,’ ‘Soccer Moms’ and ‘Little Aussie Battlers.’ Here, the easiest shorthand is ‘Ford Ranger Man’ – as seen here parked outside a Herne Bay restaurant, inbetween two SUVs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / ...
In other countries, the target-rich cohorts of swinging voters are given labels such as ‘Mondeo Man’, ‘White Van Man,’ ‘Soccer Moms’ and ‘Little Aussie Battlers.’ Here, the easiest shorthand is ‘Ford Ranger Man’ – as seen here parked outside a Herne Bay restaurant, inbetween two SUVs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / ...
Transport Minister and now also Minister for Auckland, Michael Wood has confirmed that the light rail project is part of the government’s policy refocus. Wood said the light rail project was under review as part of a ministerial refocus on key Government projects. “We are undertaking a stocktake about how ...
Sometime before the new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced that this year would be about “bread and butter issues”, National’s finance spokesperson Nicola Willis decided to move from Wellington Central and stand for Ohariu, which spreads across north Wellington from the central city to Johnsonville and Tawa. It’s an ...
They say a week is a long time in politics. For Mayor Wayne Brown, turns out 24 hours was long enough for many of us to see, quite obviously, “something isn’t right here…”. That in fact, a lot was going wrong. Very wrong indeed.Mainly because it turns ...
One of the most effective, and successful, graphics developed by Skeptical Science is the escalator. The escalator shows how global surface temperature anomalies vary with time, and illustrates how "contrarians" tend to cherry-pick short time intervals so as to argue that there has been no recent warming, while "realists" recognise ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Here’s a quick roundup of the news today for paying subscribers on a slightly frantic, very wet, and then very warm day. In Aotearoa’s political economy today Read more ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Here’s a quick roundup of the news today for paying subscribers on a slightly frantic, very wet, and then very warm day. In Aotearoa’s political economy today Read more ...
Tomorrow we have a funeral, and thank you all of you for your very kind words and thoughts — flowers, even.Our friend Michèle messaged: we never get to feel one thing at a time, us grownups, and oh boy is that ever the truth. Tomorrow we have the funeral, and ...
Lynn and I have just returned from a news conference where Hipkins, fresh from visiting a relief centre in Mangere, was repeatedly challenged to justify the extension of subsidies to create more climate emissions when the effects of climate change had just proved so disastrous. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The ...
Lynn and I have just returned from a news conference where Hipkins, fresh from visiting a relief centre in Mangere, was repeatedly challenged to justify the extension of subsidies to create more climate emissions when the effects of climate change had just proved so disastrous. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The ...
A new Prime Minister, a revitalised Cabinet, and possibly revised priorities – but is the political and, importantly, economic landscape much different? Certainly some within the news media were excited by the changes which Chris Hipkins announced yesterday or – before the announcement – by the prospect of changes in ...
Currently the government's strategy for reducing transport emissions hinges on boosting vehicle fuel-efficiency, via the clean car standard and clean car discount, and some improvements to public transport. The former has been hugely successful, and has clearly set us on the right path, but its also not enough, and will ...
Buzz from the Beehive Before he announced his Cabinet yesterday, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced he would be flying to Australia next week to meet that country’s Prime Minister. And before Kieran McAnulty had time to say “Three Waters” after his promotion to the Local Government portfolio, he was dishing ...
The quarterly labour market statistics were released this morning, showing that unemployment has risen slightly to 3.4%. There are now 99,000 people unemployed - 24,000 fewer than when Labour took office. So, I guess the Reserve Bank's plan to throw people out of work to stop wage rises "inflation", and ...
Another night of heavy rain, flooding, damage to homes, and people worried about where the hell all this water is going to go as we enter day twenty two of rain this year.Honestly if the government can’t sell Three Waters on the back of what has happened with storm water ...
* Dr Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused on “bread and butter” issues. The ministers responsible for unpopular ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused on “bread and butter” issues. The ministers responsible for unpopular reforms in water and DHB centralisation ...
Hi,It’s weird to me that in 2023 we still have people falling for multi-level marketing schemes (MLMs for short). There are Netflix documentaries about them, countless articles, and last year we did an Armchaired and Dangerous episode on them.Then you check a ticketing website like EventBrite and see this shit ...
Nanaia Mahuta fell the furthest in the Cabinet reshuffle. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: PM Chris Hipkins unveiled a Cabinet this afternoon he hopes will show wavering voters that a refreshed Labour Government is focused on ‘bread and butter cost of living’ issues, rather than the unpopular, unwieldy and massively centralising ...
Nanaia Mahuta fell the furthest in the Cabinet reshuffle. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: PM Chris Hipkins unveiled a Cabinet this afternoon he hopes will show wavering voters that a refreshed Labour Government is focused on ‘bread and butter cost of living’ issues, rather than the unpopular, unwieldy and massively centralising ...
Shortly, the absolute state of Wayne Brown. But before that, something I wrote four years ago for the council’s own media machine. It was a day-in-the-life profile of their many and varied and quite possibly unnoticed vital services. We went all over Auckland in 48 hours for the story, the ...
Completed reads for January Lilith, by George MacDonald The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (poem), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel (poem), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok, by Anonymous The Lay of Kraka (poem), by Anonymous 1066 and All That, by W.C. Sellar and R.J. ...
Pity the poor Brits. They just can’t catch a break. After years of reporting of lying Boris Johnson, a change to a less colourful PM in Rishi Sunak has resulted in a smooth media pivot to an end-of-empire narrative. The New York Times, no less, amplifies suggestions that Blighty ...
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Buzz from the Beehive There has been plenty to keep the relevant Ministers busy in flood-stricken Auckland over the past day or two. But New Zealand, last time we looked, extends north of Auckland into Northland and south of the Bombay Hills all the way to the bottom of the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters When early settlers came to the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers before the California Gold Rush, Indigenous people warned them that the Sacramento Valley could become an inland sea when great winter rains came. The storytellers described water filling the ...
Wayne Brown managed a smile when meeting with Remuera residents, but he was grumpy about having to deal with “media drongos”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: In my pick of the news links found in my rounds since 4am for paying subscribers below the paywall:Wayne Brown moans about the media and ...
Wayne Brown managed a smile when meeting with Remuera residents, but he was grumpy about having to deal with “media drongos”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: In my pick of the news links found in my rounds since 4am for paying subscribers below the paywall:Wayne Brown moans about the media and ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes – Last night’s opinion polls answered the big question of whether a switch of prime minister would really be a gamechanger for election year. The 1News and Newshub polls released at 6pm gave the same response: the shift from Jacinda Ardern to Chris Hipkins ...
Hipkins’ aim this year will be to present a ‘low target’ for those seeking to attack Labour’s policies and spending. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Anyone dealing with Government departments and councils who wants some sort of big or long-term decision out of officials or politicians this year should brace for ...
Hipkins’ aim this year will be to present a ‘low target’ for those seeking to attack Labour’s policies and spending. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Anyone dealing with Government departments and councils who wants some sort of big or long-term decision out of officials or politicians this year should brace for ...
Last night’s opinion polls answered the big question of whether a switch of prime minister would really be a gamechanger for election year. The 1News and Newshub polls released at 6pm gave the same response: the shift from Jacinda Ardern to Chris Hipkins has changed everything, and Labour is back ...
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And so the first month of the year draws to a close. It rained in Auckland on 21 out of the 31 days in January. Feels like summer never really happened this year. It’s actually hard to believe there were 10 days that it didn’t rain. Was it any better where ...
A ‘small target’ strategy is not going to cut it anymore if National want to win the upcoming election. The game has changed and the game plan needs to change as well. Jacinda Ardern’s abrupt departure from the 9th floor has the potential to derail what looked to be an ...
When Grant Robertson talks about how the economy might change post-covid, one of the things he talks about is what he calls an unsung but interesting white paper on science. “It’s really important,” he says. The Minister in charge of the White Paper — Te Ara Paerangi, Future Pathways ...
The clean up has begun but more rain is on the way. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Auckland’s floods over the last three days are turning into a macroeconomic event, with losses from Aotearoa’s biggest-ever climate event estimated at around $500 million and Auckland’s schools all closed for a week until ...
The clean up has begun but more rain is on the way. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Auckland’s floods over the last three days are turning into a macroeconomic event, with losses from Aotearoa’s biggest-ever climate event estimated at around $500 million and Auckland’s schools all closed for a week until ...
The news media were at one ceremony by the looks of things. The Governor-General, the Prime Minister and his deputy were at another. The news media were at a swearing-in ceremony. The country’s leaders were at an appointment ceremony. The New Zealand Gazette record of what transpired says: Appointment of ...
I n some alternative universe, Auckland mayor Efeso Collins readily grasped the scale of Friday’s deluge, and quickly made the emergency declaration that enabled central government to immediately throw its resources behind the rescue and remediation effort. As Friday evening became night, Mayor Collins seemed to be everywhere: talking with ...
They called it an “atmospheric river”, the weather bombardment which hit NZ’s northern region at the weekend. It exacted a terrible toll on metropolitan Auckland and the rest of the region. Few living there may have noted a statement from electricity generator Mercury Energy labelled “WET, WET, WET!” This was ...
I know, that is a pretty corny title but given the circumstances here in the Auckland region, I just had to say it. The more oblique reference embedded in the title is to the leadership failures exhibited by Mayor Wayne Brown and his so-called leadership team when confronted by the ...
How much confidence should the public have in authorities managing natural disasters? Not much, judging by the farcical way in which the civil defence emergence in Auckland has played out. The way authorities dealt with Auckland’s extreme weather on Friday illustrated how hit-and-miss our civil defence emergency system is. In ...
TLDR: Here’s the key news links and useful longer reads I’ve spotted since 4 am this morning, including:calls for a more ‘spongey’ urban infrastructure after Auckland’s floods;demands for an inquiry into Auckland Council’s communications failure;the latest on Chris Hipkins’ plans for Three Waters; inside the PR trainwreck that is Wayne ...
TLDR: Here’s the key news links and useful longer reads I’ve spotted since 4 am this morning, including:calls for a more ‘spongey’ urban infrastructure after Auckland’s floods;demands for an inquiry into Auckland Council’s communications failure;the latest on Chris Hipkins’ plans for Three Waters; inside the PR trainwreck that is Wayne ...
Mayor Wayne Brown, under fire for his communication failures, quietly visited the scene of the fatal Remuera slip on Sunday, with his staff taking photos for social media updates. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: The cleanup and the post-mortem have begun, even though the rain just keeps falling in Auckland after ...
We’ve just announced a massive infrastructure investment to kick-start new housing developments across New Zealand. Through our Infrastructure Acceleration Fund, we’re making sure that critical infrastructure - like pipes, roads and wastewater connections - is in place, so thousands more homes can be built. ...
The Green Party is joining more than 20 community organisations to call for an immediate rent freeze in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, after reports of landlords intending to hike rents after flooding. ...
When Chris Hipkins took on the job of Prime Minister, he said bread and butter issues like the cost of living would be the Government’s top priority – and this week, we’ve set out extra support for families and businesses. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to provide direct support to low-income households and to stop subsidising fossil fuels during a climate crisis. ...
The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party says. ...
Over $10 million infrastructure funding to unlock housing in Whangārei The purchase of a 3.279 hectare site in Kerikeri to enable 56 new homes Northland becomes eligible for $100 million scheme for affordable rentals Multiple Northland communities will benefit from multiple Government housing investments, delivering thousands of new homes for ...
A memorial event at a key battle site in the New Zealand land wars is an important event to mark the progress in relations between Māori and the Crown as we head towards Waitangi Day, Minister for Te Arawhiti Kelvin Davis said. The Battle of Ohaeawai in June 1845 saw ...
More Police officers are being deployed to the frontline with the graduation of 54 new constables from the Royal New Zealand Police College today. The graduation ceremony for Recruit Wing 362 at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua was the first official event for Stuart Nash since his reappointment as Police ...
The Government is unlocking an additional $700,000 in support for regions that have been badly hit by the recent flooding and storm damage in the upper North Island. “We’re supporting the response and recovery of Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Northland, and Bay of Plenty regions, through activating Enhanced Taskforce Green to ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has welcomed the announcement that Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, will visit New Zealand this month. “Princess Anne is travelling to Aotearoa at the request of the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals, of which she is Colonel in Chief, to ...
A new Government and industry strategy launched today has its sights on growing the value of New Zealand’s horticultural production to $12 billion by 2035, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said. “Our food and fibre exports are vital to New Zealand’s economic security. We’re focussed on long-term strategies that build on ...
25 cents per litre petrol excise duty cut extended to 30 June 2023 – reducing an average 60 litre tank of petrol by $17.25 Road User Charge discount will be re-introduced and continue through until 30 June Half price public transport fares extended to the end of June 2023 saving ...
The strong economy has attracted more people into the workforce, with a record number of New Zealanders in paid work and wages rising to help with cost of living pressures. “The Government’s economic plan is delivering on more better-paid jobs, growing wages and creating more opportunities for more New Zealanders,” ...
The Government is providing a further $1 million to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today. “Cabinet today agreed that, given the severity of the event, a further $1 million contribution be made. Cabinet wishes to be proactive ...
The new Cabinet will be focused on core bread and butter issues like the cost of living, education, health, housing and keeping communities and businesses safe, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has announced. “We need a greater focus on what’s in front of New Zealanders right now. The new Cabinet line ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will travel to Canberra next week for an in person meeting with Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. “The trans-Tasman relationship is New Zealand’s closest and most important, and it was crucial to me that my first overseas trip as Prime Minister was to Australia,” Chris Hipkins ...
The Government is providing establishment funding of $100,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “We moved quickly to make available this funding to support Aucklanders while the full extent of the damage is being assessed,” Kieran McAnulty ...
As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland. “I’d urge people to follow the advice of authorities and check Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information. As always, the Government ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
The 2023 General Election will be held on Saturday 14 October 2023, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “Announcing the election date early in the year provides New Zealanders with certainty and has become the practice of this Government and the previous one, and I believe is best practice,” Jacinda ...
Jacinda Ardern has announced she will step down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Her resignation will take effect on the appointment of a new Prime Minister. A caucus vote to elect a new Party Leader will occur in 3 days’ time on Sunday the 22nd of ...
The Government is maintaining its strong trade focus in 2023 with Trade and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visiting Europe this week to discuss the role of agricultural trade in climate change and food security, WTO reform and New Zealand agricultural innovation. Damien O’Connor will travel tomorrow to Switzerland to attend the ...
The Government has extended its medium-scale classification of Cyclone Hale to the Wairarapa after assessing storm damage to the eastern coastline of the region. “We’re making up to $80,000 available to the East Coast Rural Support Trust to help farmers and growers recover from the significant damage in the region,” ...
By Jamie Tahana, RNZ News Te Ao Māori journalist at Waitangi, and Russell Palmer, digital political journalist Iwi leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand have accused opposition parties National and ACT of “fanning the flames of racism”, urging the prime minister to be brave and not walk away from partnership on Three ...
By Phoebe Gwangilo in Port Moresby Higher Education Minister Don Polye has condemned a decision by the administration of the University of Papua New Guinea to treat a PNG-born and bred grade 12 school leaver as an “international” student. Roselyn Alog, 19, whose parents are Filipinos, was born and raised ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s former Elections Supervisor Mohammed Saneem is under investigation by the country’s anti-corruption agency for alleged abuse of office and has been stopped from fleeing the country. The Fijian Elections Office (FEO) said Saneem was alleged to have “on numerous occasions . . . unlawfully authorised payments of ...
Labour's position has alternated over the past few days: first Prime Minister Chris Hipkins would speak, then he wouldn't, and then he would again. ...
Te Pāti Māori Co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer are announcing a transformative defence and foreign affairs policy which asserts the Mana Māori Motuhake and Tino Rangatiratanga of tangata whenua in Aotearoa at their Party’s ...
The Prime Minister will no longer speak at Waitangi commemorations after the organising trust moved the political leaders to a panel away from the main event The Waitangi National Trust wrote to political parties last month saying they didn’t want political leaders to speak at the pōwhiri held on the eve ...
The Prime Minister once again has a speaking slot at the pōwhiri in Waitangi after earlier on Saturday saying he would respect the wishes of the trust organisers by not doing so The Waitangi National Trust has given the green light for Chris Hipkins and other political leaders to speak ...
It’s been exactly a decade since Seven Sharp first appeared on our screens. Remember the first episode? We’ve unearthed the tapes. On this day in 2013, a bombshell was thrown into the New Zealand television landscape. “Time for us to make way, because you’re here to see what everyone’s talking ...
MetService meteorologist Lewis Ferris has fronted endless media requests and live crosses this week. Is he getting it right? Lewis Ferris is trying to find his weather map. “This week’s been so insane” he mutters as he closes multiple tabs on the three screens across his Wellington desk. He’s ...
After four years, executive director Max Tweedie has stepped down from Auckland Pride. He tells Sam Brooks about shepherding the festival through a tumultuous few years, and where he’s going from here.This year’s Auckland Pride Festival is set to be the biggest one yet. Over the course of more ...
A flailing mayor was only the public face of a multifaceted flooding communications failure. Duncan Greive examines the mess, and asks what can be done to improve it.It’s a chilling timeline. Stuff’s Kelly Dennett catalogued, beat-by-beat, the 12 hours in which Auckland was pummelled by a catastrophic deluge, interspersing ...
The Dunedin branch of the Green Party has selected Francisco Hernandez as its candidate for the Dunedin electorate in this year’s general election. Francisco Hernandez was the Otago University Students Association President in 2013. He has held a number ...
Waitangi organisers are trying to push political leaders to the side at Sunday's pōwhiri, but Labour's deputy leader says it's not for them to decide who speaks. Te Tai Tokerau MP and Labour’s deputy leader, Kelvin Davis, says the Prime Minister will speak at Sunday’s pōwhiri at Waitangi, in defiance of local ...
Every weekday, The Detail makes sense of the big news stories. This week, we spoke to an aid worker who had made the trip to the war zone in Ukraine, looked at why Carmel Sepuloni was picked to be the new deputy prime minister, visited the flood-torn streets of Titirangi in West ...
Schools play an integral but often unrecognised and unacknowledged role in helping communities respond to and recover from disastersOpinion: Schools in Auckland and other flood-affected areas are about to re-open after a delayed start to the new school year. Students will return to school having experienced wide-ranging impacts. While some ...
A very short story for Waitangi weekend The pā is a lonely place nowadays. Gorse has marched on it like the British troops of old, consuming the hills and leaving the marae looking a bald patch on the head of the earth mother herself. Even the roads have worn thin, ...
This is The Detail's Long Read - one in-depth story read by us every weekend. This week, it's The School Away From School written by Bill Morris and published in NZ Geographic's January/February 2023 issue. You can find the entire article, with photos from Lottie Hedley, on the NZ Geographic website. One hundred years since its ...
COMMENTARY:By Kayt Davies in Perth I wasn’t good at French in my final year of high school. My classmates had five years of language studies behind them. I had three. As a result of my woeful grip on the language, I wrote a terribly bad essay in my final ...
RNZ Pacific Journalist Victor Mambor, who is the chief editor of the West Papuan newspaper and websiteJubi, has received the Oktovianus Pogau Award from the Indonesian-based Pantau Foundation for courage in journalism. The foundation’s Andreas Harsono said Mambor’s decision to return to his father’s homeland and defend the rights ...
RNZ News Green Party MP Chlöe Swarbrick is brushing off concerns a temporary rent freeze in flood-hit Auckland would just see landlords hike rents even more when the controls were lifted — arguing they should stay permanently. More than 20 organisations have signed a letter urging Minister for Auckland Michael ...
Iwi leaders have accused National and ACT of "fanning the flames of racism", urging the prime minister to be brave and not walk away from partnership on three waters. ...
About this time last week it had become apparent that Auckland was in for a bit more than just a wet Friday. While the state of emergency remains in place for another seven days, it appears the worst should now be behind us. Last night, Niwa shared a fascinating thread ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra ShutterstockIndigenous Australians are respectfully advised that the following includes the names and images of some people who are now deceased. The Reserve Bank of Australia ...
The government has confirmed the money will be spent in Northland, including unlocking greenfields land and transport upgrades like a new bridge in Kamo. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabrielle Appleby, Professor, UNSW Law School, UNSW Sydney Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed that sometime between August and November this year, the Australian people will go to a referendum for the first time since 1999. We’ll be asked whether we support ...
Viewers across the United States were today shown a slice of New Zealand, with a reporter for Good Morning America broadcasting live from Rotorua. Robin Roberts, a co-anchor for the popular morning TV show, has been touring the country this week. During her visit to Rotorua’s Te Puia centre, she ...
They can be environmentally unsound and are a symbol used to shame millennials, but everyone still loves an avo. I love avocados, always have, always will. The buttery golden-green flesh from a perfectly ripe avocado is a culinary blessing. Today I’d love to simply wax poetic about twisting open a ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin (Penguin Press, $50) The beautiful ...
A new poem by Robin Peace. To the kahikatea I see from my bed Thinking inside the square, the ellipse, the round of what life is, I only see the trees. Not only as if that were the only thing I see, but only as if the tree matters more. ...
A week ago, Elton John’s first Auckland show was called off at the last minute. What was it like getting there, being there, and trying to return home afterwards?Elton John has long been a blessing for our ears, but in recent years his Auckland shows have been cursed. His ...
For Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, sorry seems to be the hardest word to say The mayoral chains must have been heavy this week for Auckland’s Wayne Brown, as his response to last week’s flood garnered its own veritable torrent of scandals and media scrutiny. Almost exactly one week on from ...
For Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, sorry seems to be the hardest word to say The mayoral chains must have been heavy this week for Auckland’s Wayne Brown, as his response to last week’s flood garnered its own veritable torrent of scandals and media scrutiny. Almost exactly one week on from ...
Ours Not Mines is cautiously excited about reporting that the Government is drafting legislation to ban new mines on conservation land. The anti-mining group's spokesperson, Morgan Donoghue says: "The Government has been promising us some action for ...
People who enjoy the outdoors for recreation, fishing and hunting will lose rights under the Natural and Built Environments Bill. Fish & Game New Zealand chief executive Corina Jordan says the proposed replacement for the Resource Management ...
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown has conceded he “dropped the ball” during last Friday’s major flooding event. The state of emergency in the super city has today been extended for a further seven days, though Brown said he expects it will be lifted early. After a week of defensiveness over his ...
As the reality TV juggernaut returns for a new season, Tara Ward steps into the minds of the show’s relationship experts to assess the compatibility of this year’s brides and grooms. Married at First Sight: Australia returns on Monday night, and by season ten, you’d think the show’s relationship experts ...
Auckland’s state of emergency is expected to be extended for another seven days, according to the Herald. It was due to expire overnight after being declared a week ago, the day of the worst flooding in the super city. While weather conditions have improved, the city is continuing to experience ...
Proposed pay equity claim settlements for school librarians and science technicians have been reached between the Ministry of Education and NZEI Te Riu Roa, Secretary for Education, Iona Holsted and NZEI Te Riu Roa president, Mark Potter, announced ...
Members of NZEI Te Riu Roa negotiating on behalf of school librarians, library assistants and science technicians are excited to announce that proposed pay equity settlements are ready to be voted on by their colleagues. They include pay increases of up to ...
The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) is calling for Michael Wood, the Minister of Transport, and now Auckland, to cancel the light rail project immediately. Auckland Light Rail was never going to happen, as our group has repeatedly said dozens of ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has been asked to intervene following confirmation today that the Government plans to implement a ban on all extractive sector activities on the conservation estate. Wayne Scott, CEO of the Aggregate and Quarry Association, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato Getty Images The heated (and often confused) debate about “co-governance” in Aotearoa New Zealand inevitably leads back to its source, Te Tiriti o Waitangi. But, as its long-contested meanings demonstrate, very little ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Hunter, Lecturer in Art and Performance, Deakin University Jodie Hutchinson/Red StitchReview: Wittenoom, directed by Susie Dee, Red Stitch Deep in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia, the town of Wittenoom lies empty, desolate … and contaminated. Wittenoom ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Oliver Bown, Postdoctoral fellow, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock The past few years have seen an explosion in applications of artificial intelligence to creative fields. A new generation of image and text generators is delivering impressiveresults. Now AI has also found ...
New Zealand’s egg shortage is hitting cruise ships too – forcing the crew of one vessel to hatch a poaching plan. This story was first published on Stuff. On the hunt for eggs, a crew from a luxury cruise ship got cracking and hatched a cunning plan. Earlier this week, Stuff ...
Now demolished, the First Church of Christ Scientist was a masterclass of architectural imagination. Kate Linzey visits the site on which it once stood, to learn more. The object is delicate and small. Small enough to sit in the palm of my hand and weighing less than 300 grams. It ...
When your food parcel arrives before the emergency alert, you know something’s not working properly.This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. I’ve spent the last week desperately and at times fruitlessly attempting to drain and then sweep my whānau home of knee-deep water, pull up ...
Drongo-gate continues for another day with the Herald reporting that Auckland’s mayor has been caught out using the slang term for a second time. It comes this time from a former minor mayoral candidate, Mike Kampkes, who said he received a message from Brown in response to a media release ...
How does Aotearoa stop relying so heavily on agriculture to prop up our economy? Online tax and accounting service Hnry just raised $35m to grow its software on-demand service across the globe. Bernard Hickey talks with AirTree partner Jackie Vullinghs about how venture capitalists are funding Aotearoa’s fastest growing, least-polluting ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Guastella, Professor and Clinical Psychologist, Michael Crouch Chair in Child and Youth Mental Health, University of Sydney Shutterstock With childcare and schools starting the new year, parents might be anxiously wondering how their child will adapt in a new ...
I am delighted to announce the appointment of John Price ONZM as the new Director Civil Defence Emergency Management and Deputy Chief Executive Emergency Management for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). John has been a member of the ...
Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki are calling on the new Prime Minister and new Minister of Conservation Willow Jean Prime to immediately implement the 2017 promise to ban new mining activity on conservation lands. “ The mining industry group Straterra ...
How does Aotearoa stop relying so heavily on agriculture to prop up our economy? Online tax and accounting service Hnry just raised $35m to grow its software on-demand service across the globe. In the latest episode of When the Facts Change, Bernard Hickey talks with AirTree partner Jackie Vullinghs about how ...
There’s a fear that highlighting menopause will undermine women, especially at work. But what have centuries of secrecy achieved for us? Are you sick of hearing about menopause? Kim Hill is. The living legend of Aotearoa broadcasting told actor Robyn Malcolm (also a legend) on her Saturday Morning show on RNZ ...
Dunedin city council has reached an agreement to save Foulden Maar from commercial mining. The maar is the site of a crater lake from 23 million years ago with the diatomite of the lake preserving fossils and a climate record covering 100,000 years from that period. It is fantastic news for Otago University ...
Some are speculating whether the Auckland Mayor's leadership is circling the drain. James Elliott hopes they're right. There’s never been a week quite like it. It was the week when the rains came. All of them. Even the rain from Spain that was supposed to fall mainly on the plain, came. ...
The Bus and Coach Association supports the Government’s decision to continue half-price fares on public transport services. The fare reduction was set to expire on 31 March 2023, but will now continue to 30 June 2023. “Half-price fares have cost ten-times ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup: Hipkins’ bread and butter reshufflePolitical scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup: Chris Hipkins hires a lobbyist to run the BeehiveNew Zealand Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, speaking when Minister of Education, at NZEI Te Riu Roa strike rally on the steps of the New Zealand Parliament, 15th August 2018. Image; Wiki Commons. New Zealand is ...
New Zealand Politics Daily is a collation of the most prominent issues being discussed in New Zealand. It is edited by Dr Bryce Edwards of The Democracy Project. Items of interest and importance todayCO-GOVERNANCE, WAITANGI, THREE WATERS Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Blowing Off The Froth: Why Chris Hipkins Must Ditch ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brian Tweed, Senior lecturer, Massey University Shutterstock/Renata Apanaviciene As we approach another Waitangi Day, we should be thinking again about what Te Tiriti o Waitangi means. As the late Moana Jackson commented, the meaning of Te Tiriti will be ...
Even prime ministers get caught in bad weather. It’s a week on from the devastating flooding that hit Auckland and Northland and Chris Hipkins has been forced to drive north for the start of Waitangi weekend commemorations after his plan was turned away from Kerikeri airport (twice). Today will see ...
Less than a year ago, co-governance had a future, at least as potentially accepted terminology. Now some iwi leaders want the label removed and replaced, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
“The decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia to not replace the late Queen with Charles on the Aussie $5 note should indicate to our Reserve Bank that it’s time to change the NZ $20 note” said Lewis Holden, campaign chair of New ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Wolf, Associate Professor, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Australian National University Somchat Parkaythong/Shutterstock Black holes are bizarre things, even by the standards of astronomers. Their mass is so great, it bends space around them so tightly that nothing can escape, even ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Revell, Associate Professor in Environmental Physics, University of Canterbury Getty Images The ozone layer is on track to heal within four decades, according to a recent UN report, but this progress could be undone by an upsurge in rocket ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Clune, Honorary Associate, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney At the New South Wales election on March 25 a 12-year-old Coalition government will be seeking re-election. Hoping to return as premier is Liberal leader Dominic Perrottet – a political conservative ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Trauer, Associate Professor, Monash University Anastelfy/Shutterstock The XBB.1.5 subvariant, known informally as “Kraken”, is the latest in a menagerie of Omicron subvariants to dominate the headlines, following increasing detection in the United States and United Kingdom. But there ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Madeline Combe, Doctoral student, University of Technology Sydney Shutterstock As the economist Herman Daly pithily said, the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment – not the reverse. Nature makes our lives possible through what scientists call ecosystem ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Jefferson, Lecturer in Education, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock Grit. Don’t quit. That’s the mantra many parents may have in mind when they, like me, spend what feels like years ferrying children to a seemingly endless variety of sports and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Humphery-Jenner, Associate Professor of Finance, UNSW Sydney Sam Shere/Wikimedia Commons A few weeks ago, Gautam Adani was indisputably India’s richest man. Now his fortune is slipping away as the stocks of his many companies crash, thanks to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Divna Haslam, Senior Research Fellow, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Have you ever found yourself scrolling through social media and noticed you felt a bit down? Maybe a little envious? Why aren’t you on a yacht? Running a startup? Looking ...
Guyon Espiner really is flogging a dead horse. Basically, Lester grey has givenn him all the financial records of NZ First and he is using them to sling mud and innuendo in the hope something – anything – sticks. This mornings episode described a perfectly ordinary select committee process where Labour, National and NZ First MPs on the committee all agree a routine submission was received from a donor to NZ First that was dealt with entirely normally and resulted in an outcome that was totally transparent across the select committee process.
But Espiner is insisting in on implying something dodgy has gone on. It is a quite disgraceful exhibition of a political vendetta from a journalist with an axe to grind.
When there is no story, they’ll manufacture one; it is their job, after all. They are doing the public a disservice but all that matters is the revenue.
Espiner is a sort of special roving reporter. He has clearly invested a lot of time into this NZ First stuff. I would imagine that he sold the "scoop" to his paymasters at RNZ on the basis it was a scandal that would put RNZ in the middle of the biggest political story of the year, with drip feed of stories designed to keep RNZ – and him – front and centre of the election year narrative.
So far, the best thing that has happened has been the idiocy of NZ First's reaction and the shrieking thin skinned petulance of the establishment media response.
The actual story -so far – is a series of swing and miss smears but it won't stop him pushing it.
Milk it for as long and as hard as you can and keep it in the public eye for as long as possible. Public interest is a fickle beast with an attention span shorter than the average tweet.
Except for the SFO confirming they are going to investigate. Don’t let details get in the way of your story though.
Paul Goldsmith was an astonishing return to the 1990s on RNZ this morning. The guy looks and sounds like a throwback to buttoned down neolib wideboys of the 1990s, jerking off to the sound of his own business jargon laden voice.
And really, that sums up the bankruptcy of National's economic policies. They've not bee updated for thirty years. Tax cuts for the rich, wealth transfer from the poor to the rich, a punitive surveillance state for the poor, slashing government spending and crony capitalism is all the modern right everywhere have to offer. They know this is a bankrupt, cronyist economic prescription so they've tried to ignite culture wars to hide it with Soimon's angry tram conductor chin jut and meaningless divide and rule slogans.
Epsomistan is a small isolated republic where democracy was replaced decades ago and is now characterised by rigid, top-down ideological control. Its citizens can come across as curiously dated throwbacks. Current leader, Paul Goldsmith, is notable only as the Guinness world record holder for the "smallest election billboard ever" – a postage-stamp sized, illegible cardboard offering last seen disappearing up David Seymour's nether regions.
Paul Goldsmith also let slip on RNZ that National are "looking at" abandoning the planned increases in minimum wage. Wonder if he ran that one past the leader, as it sits a bit uncomfortably with yesterday's grand announcement that National's policies are all about putting more money in the pocket of the kiwi battler. In reality, what National is looking at will probably be a net zero for the "kiwi battler" (lower wages offset by lower taxes, before cuts to public service are factored in), and double win for the wealthy who will get to pay their staff less and a nice fat tax cut to go with it.
Nostalgia time!
The panel beater's courtesy car (!!) had on Magic and I heard this old and loved song from the 1970s (?).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_Jx9nqnxOM
As I listened I realised just how much we had lost with the neoliberal ideology of 'dog eat dog' and 'there is no such thing as society.'
"He ain't heavy, he's my brother . . .
"His welfare is my concern . . .
"It's a long and winding road from which there is no return . . . why not share . . ."
Ah well, them days of caring for each other are never going to come back. (If they ever truly existed).
Thanks for that TV(not etc.).
Sorry, but today's songs can't compare with the 60s,70s etc.. Great music, great lyrics, great messages.
We've lost a lot alright.
Suppressed history of NZ: Oravida, the gas line, and the kauri.
https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/f50ujj/rnz_solved_mysteries_oravida_the_gas_line_and_the/
A great overview of the saga and reminder of the fraud and corruption swirling around National
Hey now Jude is just a close personal friend of one of the executives of Oravida and nothing was proved so its all innocent I'm sure
She could toss a baby into a wood chipper and you'd find a way to forgive her. You're a lost cause, Pucky.
Well she'd obviously have a very good reason
Recent Polls:
(1) UMR
Jan 2020
Lab 41%
NZF 7%
Green 7%
Govt 55%
Nat 39%
ACT 2%
Oppo 41%
= Govt lead by 14 points
Feb 2020
Lab 42%
Green 9%
NZF 6%
Govt 57%
Nat 38%
ACT 3%
Oppo 41%
= Govt lead by 16 points
(UMR figures from Social Media … can't be verified)
(2) Reid Research
Late Jan 2020
Lab 42.5%
Green 5.6%
NZF 3.6%
Govt 51.7%
Nat 43.3%
ACT 1.8%
Oppo 45.1%
= Govt lead by 6.6 points
(3) Colmar Brunton
Early Feb 2020
Lab 41%
Green 5%
NZF 3.3%
Govt 49.3%
Nat 46%
ACT 1.7%
Oppo 47.7%
= Govt lead by 1.6 points
(Seats in Parliament, of course, are an entirely different matter … but this summarizes current public opinion on the two Party Blocs)
Its getting exciting isn't it…
I'm expecting Judith to topple Simon at some point in July … then the fairy-tale begins.
I wholeheartedly agree, Jude FTW!
It's the perfect project for the patron saint of lost causes and hopeless cases!
https://www.quora.com/Catholicism-Why-is-Jude-patron-saint-of-lost-causes
Its no coincidence that JC doesn't just stand for Jesus Christ…
That's certainly the phrase that springs to mind when I hear her mentioned puckers.
Northlands going to be a battleground but I'm predicting National will hold it which will make it a straight shootout between the National/Act (I'm predicting Act will have three MPs) and Labour/Greens
Will the Greens lose more votes to Labour, stay tuned!
Winnie's win in the by-election had a few unique factors that won't be replicated in the upcoming general election. So I'm skeptical that Northland is actually somehow in play.
Just a partial list:
The previous National occupant of the seat left under a particularly odious cloud.
The National candidate was quite uninspiring, and got very little support from the Nats as a whole
The result of the by-election would not change the government, so not a huge incentive for Nats to get out and vote. Similarly the opportunity cost to a Labour voter to vote for Winnie was zero.
However, for the opposition, winning the by-election would be symbolically huge. So there was a big incentive for all the oppo to coalesce around Winnie.
Being in government with WinnieFirst carries huge baggage and headaches for Labour in a way that the ACT puppetry show does not for National. So there's definite upsides for Labour if WinnieFirst falls out of parliament.
Also Nationals taken away Winstons trump card of 'keeping the govt honest' so yeah I can't see Jones winning
But you never know I guess
The tagline of "keeping the government honest" was always irony thick enough to armour a battleship when it came from Winnie.
While I know who I want to lead NZ after the next election if Winnie gets booted out of parliament then that'll make me happy no matter what happens
Wouldn't be surprised if Simon's leadership become untenable long before that, like in a couple of weeks, but suppression wrangles could kick the can for a while before it all blows to bits.
Fairy tale? Shakespearean tragedy, more like. As soon as the first knife goes in Bridges' back, all the pretenders will be thinking about drawing their blades.
Many will cower, but I reckon a few will have a good stab at it.
Never bring a knife to a gun fight…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/nYQn53yo9m6KrksxEvka-kgCkms=/360×384/filters:quality(70)/arc-anglerfish-syd-prod-nzme.s3.amazonaws.com/public/5RPW5HE6QNH4TITAM3NPFAH3NE.jpg
LOLOL! Good to see you back. You really should do something about that tongue firmly stuck in your cheek!
It started out as exaggerated, over the top parody, now I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing
You said it!!!!!
The place needs a bit of humour. At times these days it feels like a school room where you have to get teacher’s approval etc. and woebetide if you don’t.
The one thing we can still do is laugh at our politicians
The only thing we can do is laugh at our politicians.
FIFY
Ditto what veutoviper said btw.
Always good to have break every now and then
"then the fairy-tale begins"
Judith as the Wicked Queen and Jacinda as Snow White?
So is Winston Prince Charming?
More Lindworm, praps…
Dungworm in the stables
Some people should not be landlords.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12309348
Everyone assumes we will even get to the election.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-nv7j9HEgY
Please keep in mind the suffering and sacrifice the Chinese people are going through right now.
Certainly the Elephant in the Room.
If it spreads to 60% of the Population … and around 15-20% of those have a severe case needing hospitalisation (oxygen therapy / respirators / ventilators) … then hospitals will be completely overwhelmed … and we'll see many (otherwise preventable) deaths from Convid-19 -related Pneumonia.
Hopefully it won't come to that … but it's a distinct possibility.
Hospitals in China are already overwhelmed.
I suspect a lot of the problems in China are the result of them being the first to get it (everyone else now knows what to look for), a slow and possibly uncoordinated initial response (because there's a fine line between responding to a potential outbreak and being arrested for fearmongering), a high population density (even for city living), and intranational refugees when the problem became evident to the population but the state was still in denial.
There are many possible explanations. Take a look at this one. It's clearly flagged as speculative but there is nothing unreasonable about it either. I'm not endorsing it, but neither can it be ruled out. There is a huge amount of semi-informed speculation on the net at the moment, much of it filling in the information/trust vacuum created by rather obvious CCP propaganda.
Still even using the official numbers we are seeing around a 3% fatality rate in Hubei, yet other provinces such as Guandong with 1328 confirmed cases are reporting only 4 deaths instead of the 40 you would expect. There is a clear discrepancy between the rates being reported within Hubei and other provinces.
One reasonable explanation for this is the kind of complex latency period outlined in my link above. All I'm pointing out is that relying on anodyne official reports when we still don't really understand this new virus is probably not justified.
.
No doubt .., but I'm talking the course of any imminent Pandemic outside the Middle Kingdom / 中华人民共和国 … including within our own fair land …
… not to mention the potentially massive economic fallout.
Frankly, it reminds me of the "if these trends continue" thing we had for ebola.
I mean, sure it's theoretically possible that 10-15% of the NZ population needs hospitalisation in say a four month period.
But even without an effective vaccine, maybe it ends up more like TB – endemic in some areas and populations, better-controlled in others.
What we seem to be seeing is that cases can be reasonably identified and limited outside of China, but within China it's like a brushfire. Even if China is covering up the full extent of their outbreak, we've had long enough for it to become similarly established in other nations, i.e. triple or quadruple-digit infections in the same period that China went from double digit to quintiple digit. Which means the fire can be stamped on before it takes hold.
Frankly, it reminds me of the "if these trends continue" thing we had for ebola.
Comparing this virus with a completely different one that has a totally different character is bs. Ebola is actually rather hard to catch, it depends on direct bodily fluid exchange or eating bushmeat. It requires a specific set of social circumstances to become a pandemic.
Covid19 is the exact opposite, it's seems easily caught via multiple pathways and is still spreading actively despite a month of draconian efforts within China.
WHO are estimating 18 months for a vaccine, but even best case claims I’ve seen are around 4 months. That’s quite long enough for a global pandemic to gain momentum.
I agree it could be controlled outside of China; indeed one of the peculiarities in the data at this point in time is that it hasn’t spread as dramatically or lethally outside of China yet as might be expected. We still don’t properly understand this.
We can hope you are right; but this tragedy has a way to run yet.
It wasn't the diseases I was comparing, but the zero-information panic.
Talking about 10% per capita hospitalisation rates in NZ is pretty pessimistic based on what we see so far.
Internationally, the virus does not seem to have the same infection growth rate as it does in China. Which is what we'd expect, because the control measures were introduced at a far earlier stage in the rest of the world's exposure. (Also on that timeline page, China went the first two weeks in january with no new cases? – yeah, right.)
China's house is on fire and it's well established. Everyone else has the hoses out and has called the fire department, so their houses are unlikely to receive substantial damage.
We have to hope your reasoning is turns out the be right; in the meantime keep in mind this virus is from the same family as the common cold.
If we stopped people with colds going to work or school, the world would be a much healthier place.
RL
Your 5:08pm comment pretty much sums up my view.
60% of Pop / 15-20% severe = is certainly a worst case scenario … but we really can't be casual or lax about this.
There's a mid-course between panicking & wishful thinking.
I've got a work conference in May, in NZ. Small one, a hundred or so attendees from around the country.
Now, at this stage there is no reason to cancel it. Am I saying we won't pull the plug between now and then? Nope. But nobody is holding the cable in anticipation, either.
If the situation calls for it, we can change our behaviour. It's all a process. There's a time to stock up on emergency supplies and meds beyond what everybody probably has lying around since the earthquakes. There's a time to start avoiding theatres and crowded places and air transport.
But all this worst-case scenario stuff is a bit weird, frankly. Focus on the next three steps rather than worrying about the state of the bridge three miles down the path.
A bit sensationalist wasn't it
The alarm bells went off for me seeing those ominous crows.A fake news video was circulated recently, claiming those crows were at the epicentre of the epidemic, and was later exposed as being some thousands of miles away and a perfectly common phenomenon
"The WHO’s director of emergencies, Dr Michael Ryan, said the outbreak should not be described as a pandemic, even though it has spread to 25 countries outside China. “The real issue is whether we are seeing efficient community transmission outside of China and at the present time we are not observing that,” he said."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/17/coronavirus-causes-mild-disease-in-four-in-five-patients-says-who
OK so the crows. But no mention of the WHO official speaking to the point.
Of the various sources scrutinising the CCP official narrative this one has a track record and reasonable credibility. We have a close Chinese connection who is confirming much of what is being said here; so far everything she is telling us is about one week ahead of the news.
The problem I have is that everything officially reported relies on CCP controlled sources; there does not appear to be any independent checking on the ground, and what leaks out via social media is very difficult to confirm.
But even the numbers we are being told are not good. And there is still a great deal about this virus we don’t really know.
I have a friend who is living in China too. He's under the radar running a language school and is married to a Chinese woman .He's fluent and reads well , but most of his information about China comes from the Guardian .Relying on those connections is daft, just as if a foreigner asked me to explain the NZ Health system I'd have a point of view, so would 4 million others
The worst thing about the virus is its unknown (yet) qualities
I suppose you've read what the Hong Kong coronavirus expert has had to say ?
https://www.accuweather.com/en/health-wellness/coronavirus-expert-says-the-virus-will-burn-itself-out-in-about-6-months/679415
The US 2017/18 flu epidemic seemed to rage on despite the US supposedly being an open and transparent democracy and therefore better equipped to deal with an outbreak…as opposed to the brutal and backward totalitarian CCP
"The 2017-2018 flu season was severe for all populations and resulted in an estimated 959,000 hospitalizations and 79,400 deaths. This is the highest number of patient claims since the 2009 flu season.[10] "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017%E2%80%9318_United_States_flu_season
Anytime, anywhere there's an epidemic, the population can be guaranteed to decry the efforts of whatever govt is in power, paranoia and rumours, fake news and panic is the order of the day
I take what you say on board, but there are so many elements to all this and time will be the better judge
Yes I've seen several references to the reasonable expectation that increasing temperatures, sunlight and humidity will see a big reduction in new cases. As it does with the common cold. That's definitely a positive.
The negatives remain, what if like the common cold it mutates rapidly, reappears seasonally and re-infects frequently?
Then there is this intriguing analysis.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/119585139/jacinda-ardern-says-nz-first-scandal-not-a-priority-but-squeezes-in-a-meeting-with-elton-john
"a bit of politics, I might have commented on how Neve loves to dance to his music"
Does this make Neve…wait for it…its coming…you'll love it…are you ready…a Tiny Dancer?
https://instantrimshot.com/
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/imminent-threat-doesn-t-appear-in-white-house-letter-on-soleimani-killing-1.8533439
Not sure if this has aleardy been posted but I thought it was worth posting.
From what infomation we have available it appears that the talking point dragged out for the defence of a US airstrike against soleimani, that he was posing an 'imminent threat' to US soldiers stationed in the region was nothing more than a helpful little slogan to pretend that the attacks were justified under international law. Its sad to see cases like this were a weak defence for an illegal and wrong action lasts just long enough to outlive public and meida interst, before falling apart in the deathly silince of general disinterest.
That 'imminent threat' idea goes back to Tony Blair's need to justify supporting the GW Bush régime in destroying Saddam Hussein. Blair's government eventually found an ironically named lawyer, Daniel Bethlehem, who helpfully provided a clever new definition.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/01/lies-the-bethlehem-doctrine-and-the-illegal-murder-of-soleimani/comment-page-4/#comments
Wow yeah that's almost a verbatim double speak use of the word 'immanent', Orwell would have been impressed…
Thanks for that peice of history, good to know
I doubt anyone ever took seriously the "imminent threat" bullshit right from the get-go. Especially when it was about sixth in the line of incoherent nonsensical and contradictory explanations given by various known liars.
Dunno about a deathly silence of general disinterest. It's more like submerged beneath a firehose of fresh outrages. And even if there were a functioning mechanism to hold Darth Drumpf accountable (McTurtle has ensured all possible mechanisms for accountability have been smashed), it would be a fair way down on the list of outrages to hold him accountable for. Especially from an American viewpoint.
Your probably right Andre but it's still good to come to a proper conclusion with these kinds of event that get the publicity and scrutiny they deserve. That way we can all learn lessons and began to settle closer to a agreed upon history of events. As things are people who were for these attacks will probably never hear that they didn't have the legal justifications that it was said they had, and won't have that knowledge for next time something like this happens
I like this guy, he gives everyone a hard time
And he's gone.
London (CNN)A recently hired adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resigned, after backlash grew against his controversial past comments — notably for claims that black Americans have lower IQs than white Americans and that compulsory contraception could prevent the creation of a "permanent underclass."
Andrew Sabisky, a self-described "superforecaster," announced his resignation as a "contractor" on Twitter Monday, saying that he did not want the "media hysteria about my old stuff online" to be a distraction for Johnson's government.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/17/uk/boris-johnson-advisor-andrew-sabisky-intl-gbr-scli/index.html
His tenure was how many Scaramuccis long?
notably for claims that black Americans have lower IQs than white Americans
Turns out to be a remarkably complex topic. Whatever the cause there does appear to be either:
1 A real and persistent IQ gap between black and white America (and between many countries globally) ….
2. Or IQ is a meaningless number with no relevance …
3. Or there is no such thing as race anyway …
It's possible that IQ tests themselves have a residual cultural bias, despite best attempts to eliminate them.
It's plausible that the systemic disadvantages that African-Americans have to deal with all their lives contributes to low scores on IQ tests.
It is probable that the number coming out of an IQ test is indeed meaningless, particularly over small differences.
It is certain that the distributions for the various populations overlap so heavily and the average differences so small that even if an IQ gap is a real thing, it's of zero practical significance for any real-world purpose. Particularly at an individual level.
On reading the wikipedia article I was genuinely struck at what an interestingly complex topic this is.
The point is that what Sabisky said isn’t really controversial, measured differences between groups and countries is well established. But understanding why these differences arise and persist isn’t.