Nice to see Biden continuing the Trump tradition of outright lying about covid…
"Biden’s response to a mother attending with her eight-year-old daughter, who asked Biden when her children — who “often ask if they will catch COVID, and if they do, will they die” — would be vaccinated.
“First of all, kids don’t get … COVID very often, it’s unusual for that to happen,” Biden told the little girl. “Number two, you’re not likely to be able to be exposed to something and spread it to mommy and daddy, and it’s not likely mommy and daddy are able to spread it to you.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it baby,” Biden assured her."
Though, of course, when Biden lies and spreads #fakenews its called 'Empathy'..one of the "tools in the tool box' the liberals and centrists wheel out at as their get out of jail free cards…
Yeah, the poor delusional bastard is obviously equally ignorant about defense policy, because he told some other kid that Santa would be able to fly across the border to deliver presents. /sarc
Seriously, talking to a kid is not the same as telling the white house press corps shit about injecting bleach or whatever.
I think it's being; taken for a ride, that NZ nurses want to stop, rather than start. The sense that the NZNO is not organizing for the benefit of NZ nurses is not lessened by their apparent disdain for their members:
"Given that in last year, we've had a CEO, two presidents, one vice president and three board members resign is a sign, a clear indication that something is not right within the governance group."
Board members had agreed the review would be a chance to counter the misinformation and negative comments.
Kaiwhakahaere or Māori co-president Kerri Nuku, who was chairing the meeting, said she was "looking forward to the review" and wanted "the facts to speak for themselves" as she believed that the way the board had behaved had "not been anything but reputable".
However, after receiving the report in December the board then decided to restrict who could read it, making it available to only those former board members who had participated in it..
Governance committee chair Andrew Cunningham conceded the board has had "some failings" over the last two years but was disappointed at the members' demands to see the entire report.
"We're at this point where we're in this state of flux and we have such awesome potential to actually flip it and go into something that's really cool.
"And we're just about there and then people are doing this, which is really disappointing.
"I'm just disappointed that they don't want to come along for the ride."
The Herald will be getting a rap over the knuckles this morning. The Ninth floor of the Beehive is not amused. How dare they publish an article giving the views of Auckland Medical School Professor Dr Gorman on the lockdown and the Government's actions?
Dr Gorman is, unfortunately, rather naive in his views, at least in my opinion. He seems to think the Government's activities were solely for the alleviation of risk from the Covid 19 cases. In my view they were intended to distract people's attention from the continued shambles that is their Housing policy. Get people to stop talking about the Government's failures and back to applauding St Jacinda for saving tens of thousands of lives is the meme of the day.
When Dr Gorman says "For example, the Ministry of Health on Saturday night decided not to tell the Government for 12 hours – for 12 hours, according to the Prime Minister – that there was an outbreak, which meant that any opportunity she had to shut down the Big Gay Out and America's Cup [on Sunday] had gone." he demonstrates his confusion. The aim of the delay seems to be intended to avoid the shutting down of The Big Gay Out. That was a major interest of a significant proportion of the devoted Jacinda worshippers and they were not to be inconvenienced.
Stuff on the other hand may be getting a gold star stuck on their editor's forehead. They have gone with policy and published a fawning column by Thomas Coughland. We no longer have a gold, or even a platinum system of tracing. We now have "the “Ferrari” of international Covid plans".
Get with the story Herald. Follow the example of Stuff and get with the flow. After all, you do want some of the latest $55 million slush fund don't you?
The MoH and Jacinda Ardern's governments have done a fantastic job on Covid-19 response. We are the envy of the world for both health and economy outcomes. Our economy is not only performing better than every one else's but better than we expected too.
Why wouldn't you trust what they are doing?
I'll tell you why, because of bitterness and crazy paranoia. There are not good attributes to have when discussing the effectiveness of this country’s Covid-19 response.
Are you, for instance, claiming the MoH deliberately put the country at risk because it is full of gay people who vote Labour and wanted to go to the Big Gay Out???
Well. After reading the first paragraph of what you have written I see that that there will be a gold star for you in the mail within a week or two. You are certainly 100% behind the Government line.
Now, what is going to be done about the housing crisis?
But you don't want anything done about the housing crisis otherwise you wouldn't rail so hard against measures such as a CGT, wealth tax, or land tax.
You are quite happy for the problem to continue because I suspect you personally benefit from it and it provide a stick with which to beat Jacinda Ardern with.
Come back to me when you've shown some broad compassion for those less fortunate. I won't hold my breath.
It is a bit off topic but I will very briefly note that I am opposed to all 3 of the policies you mention because the proposals to implement them all propose to do so while excluding the family home. That makes things much worse, not better.
However I will not discuss it here further as the point of my comment was to do with our Covid 19 reactions and erratic Government policy.
I have commented previously on the effects of capital gains taxes on house prices in other economies which have a CGT environment, and in particular in the Australian situation. Right now I am interested in our Covid 19 policies. If you want to see what I have said on the other subject I am sure you will be able to find my comments on this site.
It can feel like looking at another planet, rather than a country on the other side of the world. New Zealand is currently enjoying a life we can only eye enviously from afar – from spectator-filled rugby stadiums to New Year's celebrations.
The country has become something of a poster child for its handling of the Covid epidemic.
And yet some still doggedly insist it's a shambles
And yet some still doggedly insist it's a shambles
I think it has something to do with following the statements of the leader of your favourite political party rather than looking at the actions for what they are/were and what they achieved.
I note that with the latest outbreak in the community the viruses that accompanied the last outbreak have also reappeared:
the 'Moaning Minnie' virus
and
the 'Grumble/grouch' virus
These are subtly different viruses much the same as the UK Covid-19 variant is different to the original one.
I can still recall my shock at the National Party (Simon Bridges) standing up in Parliament not to say…'we stand united and want to help and support the plans for meeting this unknown enemy' but to treat it as some sort of party political happening. I actually expected him to cross the floor of the house to stand next to the PM.
I don't think my standards are too high, I do think that ethical & moral standards in NP have slipped mightily.
Right now I am interested in our Covid 19 policies.
So why did you bring up housing?
Your second paragraph @5 was specifically devoted to the bizarre theory the government is using Covid-19 to distract from and cover up the housing crisis? And I suspect that was your motivation for the entire comment.
"In my view they were intended to distract people's attention from the continued shambles that is their Housing policy."
I suspect it had more to do with the pressure coming from the hospo industry in Auckland and SMEs….they erred on the side of employment on this occasion which some will not agree with but they obviously think the processes are sufficient to contain it.
Well or they could send money to all these employers and sme's – money that is not linked to some staff, but rather to be used to pay the rent/overheads for the time of the shut down, but they did not.
No, we get a bullshit lockdown for a few days , and then we get a bullshit loosening of the lockdown, and then we get another bullshit shutdown for a few days, and rinse repeat. But its all good for those that can work remotely or work for government – money for nothing and – all gendered people for free.
If 3 cases are enough to warrant a lockdown 3 for the largest city in the country then surely 5 cases should be enough to warrant the continuation of the lockdown until they are sure no more cases are coming up. Everything else is shambles and a container load of horse manure that goes to waste in the gilded halls of the government.
Shambles? For all that Covid bullshit ("bullshit lockdown"; "bullshit loosening of the lockdown"; "another bullshit lockdown"), NZ could be doing much worse. They must be drowning in bullshit in the US and Europe – not a nice way to go imho.
this last lookdown was warranted. Firstly, and imo it should go and stay until and unless it is clear that there is no more community transmission
yesterday we were told taht there were two more cases. And we were also told its ok to go back to normal.
So yeah, this lockdown was bullshit – made so by the governments idiocy in going back to level 1 as if all is normal also Yesterday.
So either we need to go into lockdown anytime there is a community transmission / outbreak or not.
Everything else is bullshit.
Not sure what your comment about the secessionist in the US who got herself shot in the face while planning to shot someone else in the face but surely you saw something there…..
If you don’t understand the reasoning and decision making of the latest one you haven’t been paying attention or you’re letting your beliefs cloud your thinking.
Agreed. And since it has been an almost constant pressure from all areas of the hospo industry (including tworism) since this shit show kicked off you'd have thought the Government would have acquired a bit of immunity against it by now.
Up North here there was no small surprise at the Level being lifted. We kinda assumed/hoped it would continue for at least another week. Not that we don't like Aucklanders or anything….
Not just hospo industry, dentists, doctors with planned surgeryes, people with planned surgeries in AKL, children going to school, people going to work, etc.
NOT Everyone in this country is working remotely with enough resources to simply just stay home at the horrible noise of the mobile phone.
As i said also, i don't want a wage subsidy – again a load of bullshit imo, but rather that the government helps people pay their bills when they are being in lockdown courtesy of the government.
Maybe people need to understand that you can have government paid subsidies to keep people in lockdown when it is needed, or it can go the way of the US and not pay a dime to affected groups of people and then watch them go to work despite the risk to themselves, their families and others.
And a year in this pandemic, i really had hoped that the government had wrapped its head around this particularity of people, that a. they don't like to be locked up, b. they need to earn money to pay for all that government sanctioned capitalism, and last but least, if they don't give people good enough reasons for a lockdown and financial aid for those that can't just stay at home, some day no one is going to listen to them, their little phone alarm, their preachy tv sessions of kindness and such and people will just go out to work, to their appointments because why not.
I too would have liked this lockdown to last at least 14 – 16 days.
but then, hey they can just send us back into lockdown tomorrow if they find a few more people with Covid. right?
btw, if one is on Home D the government via Winz pays for all your living costs. So yeah, bullshit alright.
I always highly value your impartial opinion but today your radar seems a little off.
The piece by Thomas Coughlan – you may want to pay a little more attention to the spelling of his name – is hardly fawning.
If you had actually read the piece, which of course you had not, you would have known that neither Mr Coughlan nor Stuff had coined the term “Ferrari” in this context – writers hardly ever write their own headlines anyway.
In fact, it was economist and modeller Rodney Jones who came up with the term.
You fascinate me. How do you think I found, and commented on this statement if I hadn't read the article? And I may not have attributed the comment to the person who first wrote it but the comment was in the article, and not only in the headline as you seem to be suggesting and certainly was, at least in my opinion, enthusiastically supported as being valid by the author of the piece.
For your benefit it was in, and I quoted from, the third paragraph which says, in full,
"The question for New Zealanders is whether Cabinet’s decision yesterday represents a new, more confident and possibly more cavalier evolution of the country's Covid-19 response, which one economist and modeller described as the “Ferrari” of international Covid plans."
IMHO, you’re too easily fascinated, see too much fawning, and fall for Ferrari headlines.
I didn’t see the full quote in your beautifully crafted comment @ 5 because it wasn’t there, only the part-quote, which was selective and misleading to suit your narrative. It did not come with proper attribution either, which is another sign of being disingenuous and not commenting here in good faith. It wouldn’t be the first time for you, would it?
I too heard the interview with Professor Gorman this morning. He builds a very compelling argument around the core premise of “what is our risk appetite”? This seems a very basic question to me and yet one I’m not sure we have a clear and consistent view on.
He makes another valid point about the political theatre of alert level announcements. When it takes 15 minutes of preamble each time before you get to the key message, you know the whole thing is more designed to be a show than a public service announcement.
You misunderstand that much of the “show” is part of clear and effective communication to the whole NZ population. Key messages and reasoning need to be repeated every time. Not everyone is as ‘with it’ as Alwyn and you. I too sit there impatiently just waiting for the decision but I’m not the typical audience. I cannot stand watching & listening and go by the written Live Updates on Stuff. Mostly, I can’t be bothered and get on with things and don’t find out what’s been decided until somebody tells me many hours later.
Anyone remember the Business Roundtable. The odious old boys club with their creep economic policies. The days of crony capitalism when the 1%ers had their cronies in positions of power. The self entitled BRT with their noses deep in the trough and pockets open expecting the state to shovel money into it. Government by the 1% for the 1%
The Business Round Table was a think tank not an "old boys club". It still exists. It merged with another think tank about 10 years ago and renamed to the NZ Initiative. It still published really well researched papers on a variety of topics to help stimulate debate on policies.
Why? They are a right-wing think tank. That is not unusual. There are also left-wing think tanks. The point of them is to push out ideas to solve societies problems from a particular perspective. There is nothing sinister or underhand in that.
They should have been a "think again" tank Gosman. Sadly for NZ there was not much thinking in the enactment of their agenda. It was a one way swinging door, a totally porous membrane
The unjustified system of new zealand breaches Te Treaty of Waitangi in many ways. Times are changing but not fast enough to stop tangata whenua from being thrown out to the crap heap of the prison system that will unload many negative effects on their future there tamariki future and Mokopuna futures.
Criminal Justice System: Why New Zealand’s Drug Laws Need to Change
By Emilia Sullivan
Māori, despite only making up 15% of the population, make up 52.8% of New Zealand’s prison population, with almost half being incarcerated for drug offences. In 2015, the (now former) Commissioner of Police Mike Bush acknowledged that New Zealand police have an ‘unconscious bias’ toward Māori. Five years on, things have not changed. Māori are still disproportionately represented in the prison system, with a large portion of these being non-violent drug offences. Something has clearly gone wrong in our justice system’s approach to reducing harm caused by drugs, and it needs to be rectified by Māori, for Māori.
Revolutionary Formula:A new Aotearoa is on the rise. Tangata Whenua (Māori) + Tangata Tiriti (all other ethnicities who are committed to a tiriti centric Aotearoa) = the Aotearoa I believe in fighting for. - Rawiri Waititi, Co-Leader of the Maori Party.NEW ZEALAND is in the early stages of a revolution. ...
Mob Psychology: Deep down inside us dwell all manner of dark and violent impulses. In times of social stress and/or crisis, these “atavistic” urges have a nasty habit of rising to the surface like an insufficiently weighted corpse – and unleashing mayhem.ARE WE AS SAVAGE as our forebears? Would we ...
Over the past few years there's been a growing trend for bespoke secrecy clauses in legislation, excluding specific types of information (or even whole agencies) from the coverage of the Official Information Act. These pop up in all sorts of unusual places, sometimes when introduced, sometimes put there by select ...
In this week’s podcast Selwyn Manning and I discuss the ethics and practicalities involved in the so-called “conflict industry.” It includes a discussion of the who and what of the “kill chain” and the implications of Rocket Lab’s position as a major US military logistical provider. You can find it ...
Ramin SkibbaTo turn the tide against climate change, on the day of his inauguration President Joe Biden signed an executive order instituting a raft of policy changes and initiatives. One directed his team to reassess the social cost of carbon. This seemingly obscure concept puts a number on how ...
All Out Of Kindness: At her post-Cabinet media conference on Monday, the Prime Minister demonstrated conclusively that she could be cruel as well as kind. Those revealed to have breached the self-isolation protocols felt the full force of Jacinda Ardern’s displeasure – and the nation lapped it up.JACINDA ARDERN KNOWS ...
Session Thirty-Seven… our last full session in the Dreamland. So the Fae Queen was after a rematch. To the extent that she was literally willing to destroy her own forest in order to replenish her forces. I imagine one of her advisers pointed out that “destroying something in ...
Today the shabby little train of denial ran out of smoke. Payment, apology in Dirty Politics case — Newsroom Crushing defeat for Dirty Politics PR man with apology to defamed academics — The Spinoff Here’s the apology wording, below. It’s ruined only by the clearly bullshit implication that there was ...
It’s always tempting to reach for the easiest “answers” to make sense of an uncertain world. It’s a tendency that has been there for a long time, but in the time of COVID, a lot of it seems to be on steroids.Desperate people do desperate things. In ...
Why New Research? Skeptical Science exists for the purpose of improving public capacity for critical thinking about anthropogenic climate change. Effective critical analysis requires a basis of information, and for our purpose the wellsprings of fundamental understanding are found in peer-reviewed academic literature, our best grasp of how Earth's climate operates and ...
This column will be calling it out. There’s so much folx need to educate ourselves about and DO BETTER. From cis privilege to white privilege, whether it’s how to decolonise, how to handle the pronoun illiterates, this column will be an inclusive space, for ALL GENDERS and ALL IDENTITIES. It ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh, Colombia, 26 February 2021 The recent decision taken in California to place men and women in the same wings of prisons as a response to the violence meted out to trans prisoners is a nascent issue in Colombia, but sooner or later it will get here. ...
About 10 years ago there was a proliferation of home wares promoting ‘Keep calm and carry on’. This adage came from World War 2 posters produced by the British Government in an effort to boost the morale of its citizens. Typically printed as white lettering on a red background you ...
Having spent most of the pandemic alternately calling for mass-death by relaxing lockdowns "for the economy", and for those who breach lockdowns to face harsher and harsher punishments, the National Party has finally made a useful contribution by calling for people told to self-isolate to be paid directly: The ...
The Ombudsman is supposed to be our core watchdog on administrative decision-making. Their central job is to review decisions by public agencies to ensure they are fair and reasonable and followed a proper process. So its more than a little embarrassing that they've been called to account by the courts ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Samantha Harrington For many, people life moved online in 2020. From preschool to dissertation defenses, first dates to weddings, video calls brought us together. To entertain ourselves, we streamed concerts and movies, played video games, and scrolled social media. Demand for internet ...
The Government has made a litany of mistakes over Covid, and we have been more than willing to forgive Labour these missteps and give them some leeway. Branko Marcetic says that when members of the public also make mistakes, we should be focusing on designing a wider system that insulates ...
Naïve optimism has been blinding everyone from Ashley Bloomfield to Case M. Josh Van Veen argues we need to be more aware of our biases in dealing with Covid – but especially the authorities. In the United States, naive optimism was at the heart of the Trump Administration’s failed ...
Cecile Meier walks us through some of the costs of a border system that has neither been able to safely scale up to meet need, nor able to find any reasonable way of prioritising entry into those scarce MIQ spaces. When Zane Gillbee hugged his family goodbye in South Africa ...
Technology lists, what’s this thing called “Deep Tech”, and thinking beyond the tech. Top “x” lists of technology developments, breakthroughs and trends aren’t hard to find. But how useful are they? MIT’s “Breakthrough Technologies” This time every year MIT’s Technology Review magazine produces a “10 breakthrough technologies” list. This ...
Having watched and read about the Conference of the Paranoid, Angry and just plain Crazy (CPAC), including the Orange Merkin’s return to the political centre stage, I am more convinced then ever that if US conservatism, and indeed the US itself, is to find its way back to some semblance ...
Back in 2019, following media revelations that bullying was widespread within the police, the Independent Police Conduct Authority announced that it would be investigating the issue. Today, they reported back, and found the police to be a completely toxic organisation: An independent report into police culture has described a ...
Dr Ben Gray*New Zealand has begun to roll out its Covid-19 vaccination programme, starting with those working at the border, including in the Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) facilities. There have been calls for prioritising other groups such as those in South Auckland [1] and meat industry workers ...
The Climate Change Commission’s recommendations span the breadth of the economy. They are required to come up with sector-by-sector climate budgets consistent with getting New Zealand with net zero emissions under the Zero Carbon Act. The sector-by-sector budgets rest on underlying models. The models build predictions about what will happen ...
Revolution From Below: The original “Long March” was, of course, undertaken by Mao Zedong and what was left of his communist military forces. They did not, however, head off for the nearest school or university, government office or medical clinic. Their goal was not to infiltrate the institutions of capitalism, but ...
There are some genre authors who like to demonstrate their edgy, iconoclastic credentials by sticking the boot into J.R.R. Tolkien. Michael Moorcock springs to mind, with the much-beaten dead horse that is the Epic Pooh essay. Each to their own, I suppose, though seeing as Epic Pooh really boils ...
John SchwartzElizabeth Kolbert lives her stories. In the course of reporting her new book, “Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future,” she got hit by a leaping carp near Ottawa, Illinois (“It felt like someone had slammed me in the shin with a Wiffle-ball bat”) and visited ...
New Zealand has an excellent Emissions Trading Scheme covering everything except agriculture – a non-trivial exclusion, but we can come back to that later. The ETS has a cap. Net emissions from the covered sector cannot exceed the cap. So any other regulations that affect sectors covered by the cap ...
Michael SchulsonDays before the inauguration of President Joe Biden, at a time when some Americans were animated by the false conviction that former President Donald J. Trump had actually won the November election, a man in Colorado began texting warnings to his family. The coming days, he wrote, would ...
Last year, Beef and Lamb New Zealand produced a bought-and-paid-for report claiming that their industry was already carbon neutral, so didn't need to do anything to reduce emissions. The report was full of obviously dodgy accounting - basicly, it didn't bother to follow international carbon accounting rules, because they would ...
Last year, the government chickened out on clean rivers, setting "water standards" that failed to properly control poisonous nitrates. So who was to blame? MPI: The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) opposed introducing a tough bottom line for nitrogen levels in rivers over concerns the economic impact would outweigh ...
Robert Greenberg, University of AucklandThe world was excited by the news last week that NASA’s Perseverance rover had successfully landed in a Martian crater. The rover will now set about collecting samples from what scientists say was an ancient lake fed by a river. The name of this exotic ...
Faith In The Essentials: Fenced-in, almost literally, by motorways. Located, seemingly permanently, at the bottom of politicians’ priority-lists. Heaped with praise for their cultural vibrancy, but not rewarded for it by the presence of white pupils in their public schools, South Aucklanders (like people of colour everywhere) provide their paler ...
Image credit:POLITICAL BLOG I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or the numbers seem very low please check this out. After correcting send me the URL ...
Since the pandemic began, the UK government has restricted protests in an effort to contain the plague. But of course, they're plotting to make these restrictions permanent: Concern over the government’s limitation of the right to protest during lockdown continues to mount after it emerged that the home secretary, ...
Completed reads for February: The Dream of Scipio, by CiceroThe Dragon Masters, by Jack Vance The Dream of Scipio is Pearman’s translation. A very quiet month in the reading department… but a truly excellent one in the writing department. Better yet, this was not merely short stories, but solid ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (Colombia, 18 February 2020) Two soldiers, Jhony Andrés Castillo Ospino and Jesús Alberto Muñoz Segovia, fell into the hands of the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN; National Liberation Army). Their capture produced the usual reactions that they had been kidnapped when in fact they were prisoners ...
As much of the world is still implementing lockdowns, including New Zealand, it is a good time to see how Sweden has fared. After being demonised for a year for having relatively moderate restrictions the Swedish death toll is rather much in line with other years. Sweden followed the standard ...
Under The Influence Of The "Governance" Kool-Aid: The furore surrounding Mayor Andy Foster's "review" of the Wellington City Council's "governance" is but the latest example of the quite conscious delegitimization, and sinister re-framing, of spirited political opposition and debate as irresponsible, immature and “dysfunctional”. It shows how very far from ...
Hello there everybody. I’ve been asked by Mr Thinks to come on his blog today and speak my mind about stuff. The government has a lot to answer for. I was sitting there last week as Auckland came out of it’s latest lockdown and I knew the government was making ...
There are times when tikanga needs to be broken for tikanga to survive.I recently gave a presentation on Māori economic history based on my Not in Narrow Seas. Its most important message was that Māori proved to be a very adaptable people continually evolving as new opportunities arose. The European ...
Some of you may remember our blog post "A conundrum: our continued presence on Facebook" in which we detailed our misgivings about and decision to stick with Facebook for the time being. So these latest developments - reposted from the Cranky Uncle homepage - might come as a bit of surprise! ...
Image credit:Quick Data Lessons: Data Dredging Oh dear – another scientific paper claiming evidence of toxic effects from fluoridation. But a critical look at the paper shows evidence of p-hacking, data dredging and motivated reasoning to derive their conclusions. And it was published in a journal shown to be ...
We've had a housing crisis for the past decade, and successive governments have done nothing to solve it. Why not? Bernard Hickey gets it right when he says its all about protecting the rich: The Government is reluctant to push down house prices fearing they'll loses the support of ...
There’s more of the Obama legacy here and Deporter in Chief: Obama chucks out 2,000,000 and Can Trump really deport more people than Obama? and Obama, gay rights and the killing drones ...
My Department Right Or Wrong: Far from “politicians involving themselves in some Corrections matters” being a bad thing, their involvement – along with that of the Ombudsman – constitutes a necessary check upon the unreasonable and unlawful exercise of authority over prison inmates by prison staff. A Corrections Minister who ...
New Zealand is supposed to have a progressive tax system, which taxes people according to their ability to pay. But it turns out that the rich are cheating: The wealthiest New Zealanders pay just 12 per cent of their total income in tax on average, according to research from ...
Ground truths on warming When we think about rapid climate change of the kind we've accidentally unleashed and the warming of Earth systems inherent in the process, we tend to focus on phenomena in order of their immediate tangibility, their drama. Sea ice loss in the Arctic, atmospheric and ocean ...
by Daphna Whitmore The Department of Corrections has called in the police over a pamphlet that supports protests at Waikeria Prison, saying the material might incite another riot. The group People Against Prisons Aotearoa denies it advocates for riots and has said it “encourages persistent, peaceful protest action such as striking from ...
One theme in the literature dedicated to democratic theory is the notion of a “tyranny of the minority.” This is where the desire to protect the interests of and give voice to electoral minorities leads to a tail wagging the dog syndrome whereby minorities wind up having disproportionate influence in ...
I've just lodged my fourth complaint to the Ombudsman for deemed refusal of an OIA request by police this year. That brings their total to four for four - every request I have sent them has not been answered within the legal timeframe, even when they extend it to give ...
Will the health reforms proposed for the Labour Government make the system better or worse? Health commentator Ian Powell (formerly the Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists) gives his analysis of what change is most necessary, and what should be avoided. The review of the Health ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections An off-course polar vortex meandered toward the Mexican border, bringing with it frigid Arctic air rarely seen as far south as Texas. Frozen equipment rendered power generation systems in the state inoperable, forcing grid operators to begin rolling blackouts to customers then left to fend ...
Just as National once produced a “rock star economy” that Grant Robertson rejected as being only for the rich, the Labour Government has produced an economic “bounce back” that leaves out the poor. Branko Marcetic argues for a rise in benefit levels to give the poor a real bounce back. ...
Virginia has voted to abolish the death penalty: State lawmakers gave final approval on Monday to a bill that will end capital punishment in Virginia, a dramatic turnaround for a state that has executed more people than any other. The legislation repealing the death penalty now heads to the ...
Yesterday a New Zealand Judge issued a formal finding that the Department of Corrections had treated prisoners in a cruel, degrading and inhumane manner, illegally detaining them, using excessive force, denying them basic necessities unless they performed degrading rituals of submission first. Some of the conduct appears to be criminal: ...
The Herald reports that there is a "storm brewing for the Climate Change Commission". The "problem"? Polluters are unhappy with its economic projections saying that action will not be as costly as they have previously claimed: Last week a coalition of over a dozen New Zealand business and industry ...
You're Move: What would a genuinely powerful Maori Caucus do? What policies would it insist upon? More to the point, since the single most important question in politics is always “Or you’ll what?”, does the Maori Caucus possess the wherewithal to enforce its demands?THAT LABOUR’S MAORI CAUCUS is potentially powerful ...
This post is a mix of a few recent reports on trends, recent discoveries or developments. Topics covered are the future of work, the geopolitical shift from oil to semiconductors, transition to low carbon futures, disappearing Artic sea ice, and AI in health care. Yesterday’s Gone A Canadian report ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob Henson One of the hottest years in U.S. history, 2020 was besieged by a record number of billion-dollar disasters, led by two of the most dangerous phenomena with links to climate change: wildfires and hurricanes. In its initial U.S. climate summary for 2020, ...
Just because something is bad, doesn’t mean it’s easy to criminalise. Graham Adams argues that the proposed ban on gay conversion therapy is messier than many realise, and he delves into some of the difficulties facing the Government in their promise to legislate. A highly successful petition has inadvertently ...
The Green Party are calling on the Government to assess how the COVID-19 leave support scheme can be better improved, distributed and enforced so that workers can properly take leave when self-isolating. ...
We know that when our rural communities do well, all of New Zealand benefits. Labour is committed to supporting our regions so that, together, we can achieve even more. Here are just some of the ways we’re backing rural communities. ...
Government data today shows that the wealthiest New Zealanders aren’t paying their fair share of tax, whilst everyone else chips in, Green Party spokesperson on Finance Julie Anne Genter said today. ...
The Green Party welcomes the change in the Reserve Bank’s remit to consider the impacts on housing when making financial decisions, but housing affordability shouldn’t be left to the Reserve Bank, Green Party Co-leader and Housing spokesperson Marama Davidson said today. ...
The Green Party welcomes the passing of the Local Electorate Act Māori Wards Amendment Bill which ensures Māori have a say on local issues across Aotearoa New Zealand. ...
New UMR research reveals that 69 percent of New Zealanders agree that the government should increase the amount if income support paid to those on low incomes or not in paid work. ...
The Green Party are celebrating the Labour Government bringing forward the timeline to ban conversion therapy, and will push to ensure any draft bill properly protects all of our Rainbow communities. ...
The Green Party is joining the call for ‘brave policy action’ to address rapidly increasing inequality in New Zealand, which is likely to be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
Green MPs currently in Auckland, Marama Davidson, Chlöe Swarbrick and Golriz Ghahraman, will remain in Auckland for the next 72 hours. Those in Auckland today for Big Gay Out who have flown home will self-isolate for 72 hours. These decisions will be subject to any new information that may arise ...
It’s Pride month, and as we celebrate our LGBTIA+ community, we’re taking the next steps towards a more inclusive Aotearoa. From investing in mental health services to banning harmful conversion therapy, we’re building a New Zealand where everyone can be safe, healthy and happy. ...
Health Minister Andrew Little welcomes the Initial Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission’s assessment that transformation of New Zealand’s approach to mental health and addiction is underway. “This is an important step in the Government’s work to provide better and equitable mental health and wellbeing outcomes for all people in New ...
The Government’s Consumer Travel Reimbursement Scheme has helped return over $352 million of refunds and credits to New Zealanders who had overseas travel cancelled due to COVID-19, Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark says. “Working with the travel sector, we are helping New Zealanders retrieve the money owed to them by ...
An additional 88,000 students in 322 schools and kura across the country have started the school year with a regular lunch on the menu, thanks to the Government’s Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunches programme. They join 42,000 students already receiving weekday lunches under the scheme, which launched last ...
New Zealand’s economic recovery has again been reflected in the Government’s books, which are in better shape than expected. The Crown accounts for the seven months to the end of January 2021 were better than forecast in the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU). The operating balance before gains ...
More than half of New Zealand’s estimated 12,000 border workforce have now received their first vaccinations, as a third batch of vaccines arrive in the country, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says. As of midnight Tuesday, a total of 9,431 people had received their first doses. More than 70 percent ...
The Government is significantly increasing its investment in restoring Central Otago’s waterways while at the same time delivering jobs to the region hard-hit by the economic impact of Covid-19, says Land Information Minister, Damien O’Connor. Mr O’Connor says two new community projects under the Jobs for Nature funding programme will ...
The Government has confirmed details of COVID-19 support for business and workers following the increased alert levels due to a resurgence of the virus over the weekend. Following two new community cases of COVID-19, Auckland moved to Alert Level 3 and the rest of New Zealand moved to Alert Level ...
The Government remains committed to hosting the Women’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in 2022 should a decision be made by World Rugby this weekend to postpone this year’s tournament. World Rugby is recommending the event be postponed until next year due to COVID-19, with a final decision to ...
Community and social service support providers have again swung into action to help people and families affected by the current COVID-19 alert levels. “The Government recognises that in many instances social service, community, iwi and Whānau Ora organisations are best placed to provide vital support to the communities impacted by ...
The Government is following through on an election promise to conduct an independent review into PHARMAC, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Andrew Little announced today. The Review will focus on two areas: How well PHARMAC performs against its current objectives and whether and how its performance against these ...
Some of the country’s most forward-thinking early-career conservationists are among recipients of a new scholarship aimed at supporting a new generation of biodiversity champions, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. The Department of Conservation (DOC) has awarded one-year postgraduate research scholarships of $15,000 to ten Masters students in the natural ...
I acknowledge our whānau overseas, joining us from Te Whenua Moemoeā, and I wish to pay respects to their elders past, present, and emerging. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you all today. I am very pleased to be part of the conversation on Indigenous business, and part ...
Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced today that main benefits will increase by 3.1 percent on 1 April, in line with the rise in the average wage. The Government announced changes to the annual adjustment of main benefits in Budget 2019, indexing main benefit increases to the average ...
A Deed of Settlement has been signed between Ngāti Maru and the Crown settling the iwi’s historical Treaty of Waitangi claims, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little announced today. The Ngāti Maru rohe is centred on the inland Waitara River valley, east to the Whanganui River and its ...
With a suite of Government income support packages available, Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni is encouraging people, and businesses, connected to the recent Auckland COVID-19 cases to check the Work and Income website if they’ve been impacted by the need to self-isolate. “If you are required to ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has expressed her condolences at the passing of long-serving former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare. “Our thoughts are with Lady Veronica Somare and family, Prime Minister James Marape and the people of Papua New Guinea during this time of great ...
E te tī, e te tā Tēnei te mihi maioha ki a koutou Ki te whenua e takoto nei Ki te rangi e tū iho nei Ki a tātou e tau nei Tēnā tātou. It’s great to be with you today, along with some of the ministerial housing team; Hon Peeni Henare, the ...
The Government is backing a new project to use drone technology to transform our understanding and protection of the Māui dolphin, Aotearoa’s most endangered dolphin. “The project is just one part of the Government’s plan to save the Māui dolphin. We are committed to protecting this treasure,” Oceans and Fisheries ...
Major water reform has taken a step closer with the appointment of the inaugural board of the Taumata Arowai water services regulator, Hon Nanaia Mahuta says. Former Director General of Health and respected public health specialist Dame Karen Poutasi will chair the inaugural board of Crown agency Taumata Arowai. “Dame ...
The newly completed Hibiscus Coast Bus Station will help people make better transport choices to help ease congestion and benefit the environment, Transport Minister Michael Wood and Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said today. Michael Wood and Phil Goff officially opened the Hibiscus Coast Bus Station which sits just off the ...
New funding announced by Conservation Minister Kiri Allan today will provide work and help protect the unique values of Northland’s Te Ārai Nature Reserve for future generations. Te Ārai is culturally important to Te Aupōuri as the last resting place of the spirits before they depart to Te Rerenga Wairua. ...
Today the Government has taken a key step to support Pacific people to becoming Community Housing providers, says the Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio. “This will be great news for Pacific communities with the decision to provide Pacific Financial Capability Grant funding and a tender process to ...
Conservation Minister Kiri Allan is encouraging New Zealanders to have their say on a proposed marine mammal sanctuary to address the rapid decline of bottlenose dolphins in Te Pēwhairangi, the Bay of Islands. The proposal, developed jointly with Ngā Hapū o te Pēwhairangi, would protect all marine mammals of the ...
Attorney-General David Parker today announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges. Two of the appointees will take up their roles on 1 April, replacing sitting Judges who have reached retirement age. Kirsten Lummis, lawyer of Auckland has been appointed as a District Court Judge with jury jurisdiction to ...
Government announces list of life-shortening conditions guaranteeing early KiwiSaver access The Government changed the KiwiSaver rules in 2019 so people with life-shortening congenital conditions can withdraw their savings early The four conditions guaranteed early access are – down syndrome, cerebral palsy, Huntington’s disease and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder An alternative ...
The Reserve Bank is now required to consider the impact on housing when making monetary and financial policy decisions, Grant Robertson announced today. Changes have been made to the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee’s remit requiring it to take into account government policy relating to more sustainable house prices, while working ...
The Labour Government will invest $6 million for 70 additional adult cochlear implants this year to significantly reduce the historical waitlist, Health Minister Andrew Little says. “Cochlear implants are life changing for kiwis who suffer from severe hearing loss. As well as improving an individual’s hearing, they open doors to ...
The Local Electoral (Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Bill passed its third reading today and will become law, Minister of Local Government Hon Nanaia Mahuta says. “This is a significant step forward for Māori representation in local government. We know how important it is to have diversity around ...
The Government has added 1,000 more transitional housing places as promised under the Aotearoa New Zealand Homelessness Action Plan (HAP), launched one year ago. Minister of Housing Megan Woods says the milestone supports the Government’s priority to ensure every New Zealander has warm, dry, secure housing. “Transitional housing provides people ...
A second batch of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines arrived safely yesterday at Auckland International Airport, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says. “This shipment contained about 76,000 doses, and follows our first shipment of 60,000 doses that arrived last week. We expect further shipments of vaccine over the coming weeks,” Chris Hipkins said. ...
The Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni has today announced $18 million to support creative spaces. Creative spaces are places in the community where people with mental health needs, disabled people, and those looking for social connection, are welcomed and supported to practice and participate in the arts ...
Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little today welcomed Moriori to Parliament to witness the first reading of the Moriori Claims Settlement Bill. “This bill is the culmination of years of dedication and hard work from all the parties involved. “I am delighted to reach this significant milestone today,” Andrew ...
22,400 fewer children experiencing material hardship 45,400 fewer children in low income households on after-housing costs measure After-housing costs target achieved a year ahead of schedule Government action has seen child poverty reduce against all nine official measures compared to the baseline year, Prime Minister and Minister for Child Poverty ...
It’s time to recognise the outstanding work early learning services, kōhanga reo, schools and kura do to support children and young people to succeed, Minister of Education Chris Hipkins says. The 2021 Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards are now open through until April 16. “The past year has reminded us ...
Three new Jobs for Nature projects will help nature thrive in the Bay of Plenty and keep local people in work says Conservation Minister Kiri Allan. “Up to 30 people will be employed in the projects, which are aimed at boosting local conservation efforts, enhancing some of the region’s most ...
The Government has accepted all of the Holidays Act Taskforce’s recommended changes, which will provide certainty to employers and help employees receive their leave entitlements, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood announced today. Michael Wood said the Government established the Holidays Act Taskforce to help address challenges with the ...
The Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and faster than expected economic recovery has been acknowledged in today’s credit rating upgrade. Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) today raised New Zealand’s local currency credit rating to AAA with a stable outlook. This follows Fitch reaffirming its AA+ rating last ...
Tena koutou e nga Maata Waka Ngai Tuahuriri, Ngai Tahu whanui, Tena koutou. Nau mai whakatau mai ki tenei ra maumahara i te Ru Whenua Apiti hono tatai hono, Te hunga mate ki te hunga mate Apiti hono tatai hono, Te hunga ora ki te hunga ora Tena koutou, Tena ...
The Minister of Justice has reaffirmed the Government’s urgent commitment, as stated in its 2020 Election Manifesto, to ban conversion practices in New Zealand by this time next year. “The Government has work underway to develop policy which will bring legislation to Parliament by the middle of this year and ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage and Social Development Hon Carmel Sepuloni today launched a new Creative Careers Service, which is expected to support up to 1,000 creatives, across three regions over the next two years. The new service builds on the most successful aspects of the former Pathways to ...
Fonterra has confirmed what most analysts had been predicting and lifted its 2020/21 forecast farmgate milk price range to $7.30 – $7.90 kg/MS, up from $6.90 – $7.50. This should send a further surge of confidence across NZ’s rural regions, hopefully in a wave strong enough to encourage farmers to ...
A Financial Times leader delivers advice that Finance Minister Grant Robertson should (but probably won’t) consider. Essentially, the advice is to resist the temptation to involve the central bank in the challenge of slowing the rise in house prices. Changing regulation and reforming planning law is a smarter way to ...
The NZ Superannuation Fund has divested from five Israeli banks due to their suspected involvement in illegal settlement construction. Michael Andrew reports.The Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation, an autonomous crown entity and manager of the multi-billion NZ Super Fund, has divested from five Israeli banks due to their funding of ...
A contestant on the new season of The Bachelor has apologised for ‘controversial’ social media posts comparing mask wearing to ‘slavery’ and for questioning the scientific consensus around Covid-19. Stewart Sowman-Lund reports.Shivani Pragji is – according to her LinkedIn profile – a solicitor working for the Ministry of Business, Innovation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, PhD, Media and Politics, Deakin University A couple of days ago, the musician Grimes sold some animations she made with her brother Mac on a website called Nifty Gateway. Some were one-offs, while others were limited editions of a few ...
Analysis: We are able to send a blaring alert to the phone of every New Zealanders to warn of Covid lockdowns, yet we still struggle to warn them of the danger of a tsunami This coming week, it will be 10 years since Japan was hit by the Tohoku earthquake, one ...
Moa brewery sold in February for $1.9m, leaving behind an unsavoury legacy. Michael Andrew speaks to the new owner about how the brewery plans to move forward, while at the same time returning to its Marlborough roots.Moa Brewing Company’s new owner Stephen Smith has criticised the company’s old marketing strategy, ...
By RNZ News An 8.0 earthquake has struck near the Kermadec Islands, hours after a 7.4 quake near the Kermadecs and a 7.1 off the North Island coast, A 7.4 quake struck near the Kermadec Islands earlier this morning. The islands are 800km to 1000km from New Zealand. National Emergency ...
National Parks are being closed off to allow fallow deer to be bombarded with 1080 poison. The proposal has drawn strong criticism from the Australian hunting public and also New Zealand’s Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust. Laurie Collins, spokesman ...
In the fallout from the Dirty Politics defamation hearing, how can the Food and Grocery Council and its chief continue to deny involvement in attacks on public health academics? Tim Murphy explains its stance. The middleman has 'fessed up. So where does that leave the two prominent players on either side ...
Mike Hosking is a king of breakfast radio, a lover of blazers, and deliverer of opinions via his long-running online video series, Mike’s Minute. José Barbosa absorbed three months’ worth of those opinions in one go, and lived to tell the tale. Just. To be honest, I hadn’t thought about ...
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.AUCKLAND1 The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury, $25)This 2011 bestseller set during the Trojan War has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dave Parry, Professor of Computer Science, Auckland University of Technology Although international travel restrictions for Australia have been extended to at least June, there may still be potential for a trans-Tasman bubble with New Zealand (and maybe some other countries), according to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jamie Triccas, Professor of Medical Microbiology, University of Sydney The United States’ drug regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said last week COVID vaccines updated for variants won’t need to go through full randomised controlled clinical trials. The booster shots will ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Milte, Matthew Flinders Senior Research Fellow, Flinders University The final report from the aged care royal commission this week was damning. Speaking of a system in crisis, it calls for an urgent overhaul. The Morrison government has been facing difficult questions ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David John Eldridge, Professor of Dryland Ecology, UNSW After 200 years of European farming practices, Australian soils are in bad shape – depleted of nutrients and organic matter, including carbon. This is bad news for both soil health and efforts to address ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zoe Vaill, PhD Candidate Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology Students are heading off to universities around Australia, whether for the first time or as returning students, with expectations of a year of learning, making friends and enjoyable socialising. For some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jan Thomas, Vice-Chancellor, Massey University As first-year students flooded onto campuses around the country this week, gripped with uncertainty and curiosity about their new lives, I too returned to university to learn. For the first time since what feels like forever, but ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW After years of repeatedly missing its inflation target through too timid monetary policy, in the past week the Reserve Bank has decided to get tough. Not only did it hold its closely watched cash rate target ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter McNeil, Distinguished Professor of Design History, UTS, University of Technology Sydney It’s Sydney Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras festival time. LGBTQI people are enjoying what some call “gay or lesbian Christmas”. It’s not quite the same in the era of COVID, ...
A tech expert is warning the government could face multiple stumbling blocks if it makes QR code scanning mandatory - in particular when dealing with tech giants like Apple and Google. ...
*This story first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. A tsunami alert has been issued after a 7.4 earthquake near the Kermadec Islands. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) says it expects strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore. It says the threat is from ...
Live coverage of the snap lockdown and the search for a source of the latest infection. Auckland is now at alert level three, NZ at level two. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7.50am: Two major earthquakes strike; tsunami warning in placeTwo major earthquakes have struck off the coast of New Zealand ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Cabinet to decide on lifting lockdown today, questions raised about the stability of the housing market, and people instinctively respond to tsunami threat after earthquake.A decision will be made today on whether or not Auckland will come out of level ...
The military is showing little sign of backing down, but the coup could have the unintended consequence of unifying Myanmar society in opposition, across significant ethnic divisions. A month ago, citing dubious claims of electoral fraud in the November 2020 election, Myanmar’s military deposed the country’s democratically elected National League for Democracy ...
A Harvard professor presenting his opinions on alien life as fact when the field at large doesn't agree is misrepresenting science, argues Dr Heloise Stevance For years now Abraham (Avi) Loeb has been a rather passionate advocate for what I call 'The Alien Hypothesis' 一 the idea that extraterrestrial lifeforms are the source of ...
Anna Rawhiti-Connell doesn't want an investment or an asset, but a home. Yet because of last century’s broken promises, she feels like an idiot fish, destined to swim against a current with other idiot fish who think their life savings and lifelong debt will guarantee them a house. We went to some open homes ...
All eyes are on the Prime Minister to schedule the rollout – or flyout – to the more remote corners of NZ and the Pacific There is growing anticipation about the announcement of the Covid vaccine rollout to New Zealand's general population and the Pacific realm countries. The schedule is close ...
Were we right to leave lockdown so early after the Valentine's Day cluster was first discovered? And was our return to lockdown a result of anything more than bad luck? Marc Daalder reports Ashley Bloomfield and Jacinda Ardern fronted a press conference on February 17, three days after Auckland plunged ...
With the America's Cup first-to-seven showdown about to begin, Suzanne McFadden asks a six-time winner how much could it come down to the helmsmen? Murray Jones knows the exact essence of what makes an America’s Cup helmsman great. A phenomenal Kiwi sailor in his own right, Jones has worked alongside ...
Rio Olympian Helena Gasson may be one of the oldest Kiwi swimmers still at the top of their game, but she's found a new gear - breaking 20 NZ records in the past 18 months. Even in the year of Covid, with her plans abruptly changed and her training schedule interrupted, Helena ...
After literally thousands of requests, we’ve finally caved. We’ve decided to rank beans in an arbitrary yet unequivocally correct fashion.A-mung the current chaos of the world we live in, there’s an inherent desire to create order. Some found that order in the first lockdown by cleaning their house or exercising ...
A bar planned for Auckland’s St Kevin’s Arcade is facing opposition from locals concerned about the character of the owner, former Married at First Sight contestant Chris Mansfield, who still faces outstanding domestic violence charges in the US.The two lots inside St Kevin’s Arcade where Chris Mansfield plans to open ...
We thought the Covid messages were clear - but the latest Auckland lockdown has muddied the message. One political strategist says it's been like "putting tomato sauce on ice cream". New Zealand's Covid-19 communications response has been hailed the world over. Its success has catapulted us into the pages ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison has a near obsession with control. But suddenly – in the course of only weeks – he has found himself presiding over a government in a shambles, where he is reacting rather than ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia A great deal has been written and said in the last few days about the next steps in the historic claim of rape against Attorney-General Christian Porter. There are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carola Garcia de Vinuesa, Professor and Co-Director, Centre for Personalised Immunology, NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence, Australian National University Some 90 prominent scientists, including Nobel laureates and other leading Australian and international researchers, today called for convicted child murderer Kathleen Folbigg to ...
The threats to use car bombs at the two mosques that were attacked on 15 March 2019 are especially cruel as we come up to the second anniversary of those attacks. It shows the need for a strong national security system, with clear leadership and direction ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Royal Commission into Aged Care has now delivered its final report, and its findings are an indictment of the inadequacies of the present system. The report calls for a refocus within the aged care ...
Police have arrested two people following an online threat against two Christchurch mosques, Marc Daalder reports Christchurch police say two people arrested over an online threat against two mosques are being cooperative. One of the people arrested, a 27-year-old man, has been charged with threatening to kill. On Sunday, a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Iliadis, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Deakin University The continuing media coverage of rape and sexual assault allegations faced by current and former political figures has put many sexual abuse survivors at risk of being traumatised all over again. Widespread media attention ...
“Thanks to Labour’s bungling bureaucracy, hardworking New Zealanders are locked down with their livelihoods threatened, and the Prime Minister still isn’t telling the truth. It is time for a reset. We need a purpose built, Taiwan-style, Epidemic ...
On the 27 th of February, youth across 7 cities in New Zealand came out in full force to join city-wide marches organized by Rise for Lives (RFL), a youth movement focused on bringing awareness and action for humanitarian causes. Youth members of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William Peterson, Associate Professor, Flinders University Review: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by Benjamin Britten, directed by Neil Armfield, Adelaide Festival. Transfixed, Transported. Transfigured. Three hours pass in the blink of an eye. How did this happen, or was it all just a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Lau, Research fellow, James Cook University Gender influences how people experience and respond to climate change. This is particularly evident in developing nations where women and men adapt to climatic shocks differently. Women work harder and longer, in poorer conditions, while ...
This week on Business is Boring, Billie Jo Hohepa-Ropiha tells Simon Pound about inventing the sewer-safe wet wipe alternative BDÉT.There is a big problem lurking in our sewer pipes. Flushed wet wipes, even the supposedly “flushable” ones, are major contributors to “fatbergs” – huge clumps of wipes and other stuff ...
Over 170 scientists, researchers, local government elected members and officials gathered recently at the LGNZ Climate Change Adaptation Symposium. Discussions uncovered gaps in New Zealand’s adaptation policy and canvassed how the sector can find shared ...
The New Zealand Law Society | Te Kāhui Ture o Aotearoa appeared before Parliament’s Justice select committee today on the Arms (Firearms Prohibition Orders) Amendment Bill (No 2), a member's bill in the name of Simeon Brown. The bill proposes to allow ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Cantrell, Lecturer in Writing, Editing, and Publishing, University of Southern Queensland Let’s start by putting aside the bugbear that it is even possible to “cancel” children’s author Dr Seuss. As Philip Bump wrote yesterday in The Washington Post, No one ...
Our Beehive Bulletin We spotted the politically alluring word “free” among the latest Beehive announcements. The headline said “Hundreds more schools join free lunches programme”. This was one of two statements from Chris Hpikins since Point of Order last updated its record of of ministerial press statements. The other (in ...
Feel like you’ve already watched everything on the internet this week? Here are eight video series from The Spinoff archive you might have missed.Scratched: Aotearoa’s Lost Sporting LegendsMeet some of the unsung or forgotten legends of New Zealand sport, from Māori tennis legend Ruia Morrison’s Wimbledon run in the 1950s ...
TRIBUTE:By Frank Senge Kolma in Port Moresby Many will now try to recollect some experience, some exchange or brush with the Grand Chief Sir Michael Thomas Somare who fell to pancreatic cancer on February 26 after a long checkered career in politics as our founding Prime Minister. That he ...
At first it was about the books, but my relationship with my local library has since become about a whole lot more, writes Briar Grace-Smith, whose feature film Cousins premiered last night.I’ve done my time in libraries around the country, popping in and out of them on writers’ tours ...
The live export ship Ocean Ute is scheduled to arrive at Port Taranaki tomorrow to export thousands of cows. This is the second time Ocean Ute has exported animals from New Zealand this year. Radio New Zealand reported today that a paper has been ...
A View from Afar: Thursday March 4 @ midday (NZDST / Wednesday, 6pm USEST) Paul G. Buchanan and Selwyn Manning conduct a deep dive into the largely covert role of private enterprise in the intelligence, conflict, and war markets. Most recently, New Zealanders discovered that its national airline had been ...
Guest Post By Barrie Saunders The departure of Donald Trump from the White House was a victory for the US democratic system, which only just succeeded. If then Vice President Mike Pence had wavered under enormous pressure from President Trump and his cult-like supporters, Joe Biden might not be in ...
The reverential aura enveloping the Ardern government is beginning to fade and ministerial fallibilities are emerging. Just as suddenly, the media are offering some space to critics of the government. Richard Prebble is calling for a Royal Commission into the government’s handling of the pandemic response. ACT’s David Seymour sees ...
South Auckland is flooded with unhealthy food choices, but, as Justin Latif reports, a group of women are ensuring there’s something for those wanting an alternative.One gave up a career in the world of investment banking, while the other, as a single mum to five children, chose to take a ...
New Zealand fell in love with Precious McKenzie at the 1974 Commonwealth Games, and the feeling was so mutual he decided to stay. But the charismatic weightlifter hadn’t always been made to feel so welcome.In an apartheid-era gym advertised as “whites only”, Precious McKenzie was about to break a national ...
Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier today released his latest Official Information Act (OIA) and Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) data[1]. In the six months from 1 July to 30 December 2020, the Ombudsman received 667 OIA ...
National's proposal to pay full wages for people self-isolating is a welcome one, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “It's a version of what we proposed last year in our first COVID-19 briefing paper ...
The move to level three in Auckland, and level two across the rest of the country, has once more thrown the live arts into disarray. Sam Brooks asked some practitioners to tell us how the pandemic continues to disrupt their work.There’s no doubt that New Zealand has been able to ...
A small Waikato town is pulling together to help improve how Māori are counted in the next census, Stats NZ said today. In Raahui Pookeka, members of a local marae are driving an initiative to improve engagement in the New Zealand census. The initiative, ...
Hamilton residents are being asked to help make sure updated census methodology works by participating in the census test, Stats NZ said today. The test is being run to see how changes made to the collection model used in the New Zealand Census ...
A View from Afar: Thursday March 4 @ midday (NZDST / Wednesday, 6pm USEST) Paul G. Buchanan and Selwyn Manning will conduct a deep dive into the largely covert role of private enterprise in the intelligence, conflict, and war markets. Most recently, New Zealanders discovered that its national airline had ...
Here is a very interesting short Joe Biden Interview from 2015.not much has changed…
Nice to see Biden continuing the Trump tradition of outright lying about covid…
Though, of course, when Biden lies and spreads #fakenews its called 'Empathy'..one of the "tools in the tool box' the liberals and centrists wheel out at as their get out of jail free cards…
Biden sounds here nearly as ignorant and as much a wishful thinker as Trump.
Yeah, the poor delusional bastard is obviously equally ignorant about defense policy, because he told some other kid that Santa would be able to fly across the border to deliver presents. /sarc
Seriously, talking to a kid is not the same as telling the white house press corps shit about injecting bleach or whatever.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/124265465/political-leaders-language-seeks-to-manipulate-us
No, it isn’t.
The Force is strong with this family.
Good piece by Jess Berentson-Shaw.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/scared-shouting-and-standing-in-the-way
In other words:
Feel their fear and do it anyway!
I think it's being; taken for a ride, that NZ nurses want to stop, rather than start. The sense that the NZNO is not organizing for the benefit of NZ nurses is not lessened by their apparent disdain for their members:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/436641/call-for-nurses-organisation-to-release-review-into-board-s-performance
Darned if I know why Andrew should be 'disappointed'.
The Herald will be getting a rap over the knuckles this morning. The Ninth floor of the Beehive is not amused. How dare they publish an article giving the views of Auckland Medical School Professor Dr Gorman on the lockdown and the Government's actions?
Dr Gorman is, unfortunately, rather naive in his views, at least in my opinion. He seems to think the Government's activities were solely for the alleviation of risk from the Covid 19 cases. In my view they were intended to distract people's attention from the continued shambles that is their Housing policy. Get people to stop talking about the Government's failures and back to applauding St Jacinda for saving tens of thousands of lives is the meme of the day.
When Dr Gorman says "For example, the Ministry of Health on Saturday night decided not to tell the Government for 12 hours – for 12 hours, according to the Prime Minister – that there was an outbreak, which meant that any opportunity she had to shut down the Big Gay Out and America's Cup [on Sunday] had gone." he demonstrates his confusion. The aim of the delay seems to be intended to avoid the shutting down of The Big Gay Out. That was a major interest of a significant proportion of the devoted Jacinda worshippers and they were not to be inconvenienced.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-auckland-out-of-lockdown-jacinda-ardern-sounds-warning-professor-des-gorman-criticises-alert-level-response/KFA6K7SS55MHX4BONF33FUVBSM/
Stuff on the other hand may be getting a gold star stuck on their editor's forehead. They have gone with policy and published a fawning column by Thomas Coughland. We no longer have a gold, or even a platinum system of tracing. We now have "the “Ferrari” of international Covid plans".
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300233040/covid19-contact-tracing-ferrari-will-be-enough-to-contain-future-outbreaks
Get with the story Herald. Follow the example of Stuff and get with the flow. After all, you do want some of the latest $55 million slush fund don't you?
The MoH and Jacinda Ardern's governments have done a fantastic job on Covid-19 response. We are the envy of the world for both health and economy outcomes. Our economy is not only performing better than every one else's but better than we expected too.
Why wouldn't you trust what they are doing?
I'll tell you why, because of bitterness and crazy paranoia. There are not good attributes to have when discussing the effectiveness of this country’s Covid-19 response.
Are you, for instance, claiming the MoH deliberately put the country at risk because it is full of gay people who vote Labour and wanted to go to the Big Gay Out???
It seems that way.
Well. After reading the first paragraph of what you have written I see that that there will be a gold star for you in the mail within a week or two. You are certainly 100% behind the Government line.
Now, what is going to be done about the housing crisis?
But you don't want anything done about the housing crisis otherwise you wouldn't rail so hard against measures such as a CGT, wealth tax, or land tax.
You are quite happy for the problem to continue because I suspect you personally benefit from it and it provide a stick with which to beat Jacinda Ardern with.
Come back to me when you've shown some broad compassion for those less fortunate. I won't hold my breath.
It is a bit off topic but I will very briefly note that I am opposed to all 3 of the policies you mention because the proposals to implement them all propose to do so while excluding the family home. That makes things much worse, not better.
However I will not discuss it here further as the point of my comment was to do with our Covid 19 reactions and erratic Government policy.
Why?
Why? This is Open Mike.
I have commented previously on the effects of capital gains taxes on house prices in other economies which have a CGT environment, and in particular in the Australian situation. Right now I am interested in our Covid 19 policies. If you want to see what I have said on the other subject I am sure you will be able to find my comments on this site.
Nah. Why does exempting the family home make things much worse?
Simple question.
The outcomes of those policies have made NZ the envy of world.
And yet some still doggedly insist it's a shambles
We don't know how lucky we are…
I like this version of the Fred Dagg classic with the old timey NZers and places…..
I think it has something to do with following the statements of the leader of your favourite political party rather than looking at the actions for what they are/were and what they achieved.
I note that with the latest outbreak in the community the viruses that accompanied the last outbreak have also reappeared:
the 'Moaning Minnie' virus
and
the 'Grumble/grouch' virus
These are subtly different viruses much the same as the UK Covid-19 variant is different to the original one.
I can still recall my shock at the National Party (Simon Bridges) standing up in Parliament not to say…'we stand united and want to help and support the plans for meeting this unknown enemy' but to treat it as some sort of party political happening. I actually expected him to cross the floor of the house to stand next to the PM.
I don't think my standards are too high, I do think that ethical & moral standards in NP have slipped mightily.
So why did you bring up housing?
Your second paragraph @5 was specifically devoted to the bizarre theory the government is using Covid-19 to distract from and cover up the housing crisis? And I suspect that was your motivation for the entire comment.
That's Advance NZ territory right there.
"In my view they were intended to distract people's attention from the continued shambles that is their Housing policy."
I suspect it had more to do with the pressure coming from the hospo industry in Auckland and SMEs….they erred on the side of employment on this occasion which some will not agree with but they obviously think the processes are sufficient to contain it.
Well or they could send money to all these employers and sme's – money that is not linked to some staff, but rather to be used to pay the rent/overheads for the time of the shut down, but they did not.
No, we get a bullshit lockdown for a few days , and then we get a bullshit loosening of the lockdown, and then we get another bullshit shutdown for a few days, and rinse repeat. But its all good for those that can work remotely or work for government – money for nothing and – all gendered people for free.
If 3 cases are enough to warrant a lockdown 3 for the largest city in the country then surely 5 cases should be enough to warrant the continuation of the lockdown until they are sure no more cases are coming up. Everything else is shambles and a container load of horse manure that goes to waste in the gilded halls of the government.
Shambles? For all that Covid bullshit ("bullshit lockdown"; "bullshit loosening of the lockdown"; "another bullshit lockdown"), NZ could be doing much worse. They must be drowning in bullshit in the US and Europe – not a nice way to go imho.
this last lookdown was warranted. Firstly, and imo it should go and stay until and unless it is clear that there is no more community transmission
yesterday we were told taht there were two more cases. And we were also told its ok to go back to normal.
So yeah, this lockdown was bullshit – made so by the governments idiocy in going back to level 1 as if all is normal also Yesterday.
So either we need to go into lockdown anytime there is a community transmission / outbreak or not.
Everything else is bullshit.
Not sure what your comment about the secessionist in the US who got herself shot in the face while planning to shot someone else in the face but surely you saw something there…..
Yeah, life is BS and then you die.
All lockdown decisions are a balancing act.
If you don’t understand the reasoning and decision making of the latest one you haven’t been paying attention or you’re letting your beliefs cloud your thinking.
I was temporarily overwhelmed by all that "bullshit" – better now. All the best.
btw, we are not a commie country, we are captialism true and through.
see Wekas post about kids being hungry every day, and their parents.
And that too is due to goverments bullshittery, the current ones, the key ones, the clark ones the shipley ones etc.
…the pressure coming from the hospo industry…
Agreed. And since it has been an almost constant pressure from all areas of the hospo industry (including tworism) since this shit show kicked off you'd have thought the Government would have acquired a bit of immunity against it by now.
Up North here there was no small surprise at the Level being lifted. We kinda assumed/hoped it would continue for at least another week. Not that we don't like Aucklanders or anything….
Not just hospo industry, dentists, doctors with planned surgeryes, people with planned surgeries in AKL, children going to school, people going to work, etc.
NOT Everyone in this country is working remotely with enough resources to simply just stay home at the horrible noise of the mobile phone.
As i said also, i don't want a wage subsidy – again a load of bullshit imo, but rather that the government helps people pay their bills when they are being in lockdown courtesy of the government.
Maybe people need to understand that you can have government paid subsidies to keep people in lockdown when it is needed, or it can go the way of the US and not pay a dime to affected groups of people and then watch them go to work despite the risk to themselves, their families and others.
And a year in this pandemic, i really had hoped that the government had wrapped its head around this particularity of people, that a. they don't like to be locked up, b. they need to earn money to pay for all that government sanctioned capitalism, and last but least, if they don't give people good enough reasons for a lockdown and financial aid for those that can't just stay at home, some day no one is going to listen to them, their little phone alarm, their preachy tv sessions of kindness and such and people will just go out to work, to their appointments because why not.
I too would have liked this lockdown to last at least 14 – 16 days.
but then, hey they can just send us back into lockdown tomorrow if they find a few more people with Covid. right?
btw, if one is on Home D the government via Winz pays for all your living costs. So yeah, bullshit alright.
I always highly value your impartial opinion but today your radar seems a little off.
The piece by Thomas Coughlan – you may want to pay a little more attention to the spelling of his name – is hardly fawning.
If you had actually read the piece, which of course you had not, you would have known that neither Mr Coughlan nor Stuff had coined the term “Ferrari” in this context – writers hardly ever write their own headlines anyway.
In fact, it was economist and modeller Rodney Jones who came up with the term.
Please sharpen up.
"which of course you had not".
You fascinate me. How do you think I found, and commented on this statement if I hadn't read the article? And I may not have attributed the comment to the person who first wrote it but the comment was in the article, and not only in the headline as you seem to be suggesting and certainly was, at least in my opinion, enthusiastically supported as being valid by the author of the piece.
For your benefit it was in, and I quoted from, the third paragraph which says, in full,
"The question for New Zealanders is whether Cabinet’s decision yesterday represents a new, more confident and possibly more cavalier evolution of the country's Covid-19 response, which one economist and modeller described as the “Ferrari” of international Covid plans."
Did you read past the headline of the piece?
IMHO, you’re too easily fascinated, see too much fawning, and fall for Ferrari headlines.
I didn’t see the full quote in your beautifully crafted comment @ 5 because it wasn’t there, only the part-quote, which was selective and misleading to suit your narrative. It did not come with proper attribution either, which is another sign of being disingenuous and not commenting here in good faith. It wouldn’t be the first time for you, would it?
Please sharpen up or ship out, thanks.
I too heard the interview with Professor Gorman this morning. He builds a very compelling argument around the core premise of “what is our risk appetite”? This seems a very basic question to me and yet one I’m not sure we have a clear and consistent view on.
He makes another valid point about the political theatre of alert level announcements. When it takes 15 minutes of preamble each time before you get to the key message, you know the whole thing is more designed to be a show than a public service announcement.
You misunderstand that much of the “show” is part of clear and effective communication to the whole NZ population. Key messages and reasoning need to be repeated every time. Not everyone is as ‘with it’ as Alwyn and you. I too sit there impatiently just waiting for the decision but I’m not the typical audience. I cannot stand watching & listening and go by the written Live Updates on Stuff. Mostly, I can’t be bothered and get on with things and don’t find out what’s been decided until somebody tells me many hours later.
Anyone remember the Business Roundtable. The odious old boys club with their creep economic policies. The days of crony capitalism when the 1%ers had their cronies in positions of power. The self entitled BRT with their noses deep in the trough and pockets open expecting the state to shovel money into it. Government by the 1% for the 1%
The Business Round Table was a think tank not an "old boys club". It still exists. It merged with another think tank about 10 years ago and renamed to the NZ Initiative. It still published really well researched papers on a variety of topics to help stimulate debate on policies.
Ha ha. Still transparently right-wing to my mind.
Yes. Unashamedly so.
That just demonstrates their lack of self-awareness. Ha.
Why? They are a right-wing think tank. That is not unusual. There are also left-wing think tanks. The point of them is to push out ideas to solve societies problems from a particular perspective. There is nothing sinister or underhand in that.
IT WAS A JOKE
They should have been a "think again" tank Gosman. Sadly for NZ there was not much thinking in the enactment of their agenda. It was a one way swinging door, a totally porous membrane
The odiousity of the round table is well known.
In what way was or is it odious?
The unjustified system of new zealand breaches Te Treaty of Waitangi in many ways. Times are changing but not fast enough to stop tangata whenua from being thrown out to the crap heap of the prison system that will unload many negative effects on their future there tamariki future and Mokopuna futures.
Criminal Justice System: Why New Zealand’s Drug Laws Need to Change
By Emilia Sullivan
Māori, despite only making up 15% of the population, make up 52.8% of New Zealand’s prison population, with almost half being incarcerated for drug offences. In 2015, the (now former) Commissioner of Police Mike Bush acknowledged that New Zealand police have an ‘unconscious bias’ toward Māori. Five years on, things have not changed. Māori are still disproportionately represented in the prison system, with a large portion of these being non-violent drug offences. Something has clearly gone wrong in our justice system’s approach to reducing harm caused by drugs, and it needs to be rectified by Māori, for Māori.
Ka kite Ano
Link below
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.equaljusticeproject.co.nz/articles/mori-and-the-criminal-justice-system-why-new-zealands-drug-laws-need-to-change2020%3fformat=amp