Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood has confirmed the government will do a full review of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme early next year.
It comes after the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner witnessed conditions she described as modern day slavery.
I have posted on this…many times on the Standard. Some might find it hard to believe 21st Century NZ could have "modern day slavery" …be sure it exists.
Brave whistleblowers and true Journalists expose it ! And also be very sure that under a nact govt…it would be modus operandi. (not deemed "slavery" of course)
Anyway, please support our Brothers and Sisters who are being exploited..by these scum. Stand Up !!
I agree, however I see that up to now, the main thrust of the law and pubic anger has been directed at the ‘middle management’ (or lower) so to speak, ie; the people who were directly responsible for organizing the crews etc (the easy low hanging fruit of course) but not one orchard owner or company director has had to face any legal action as far as I know.
Now if I have known that this exploitation of RSE workers has been wide spread for nearly a decade…then you can be absolutely sure that those same orchard owners, and company directors have been fully aware to what is going on their own properties for the past decade as well….so let’s see if any of them get caught up, face any sort of penalty, or even get called out in this new govt review….don’t hold your breath.
Police are investigating alleged assaults by an orchard owner against migrant workers in Central Otago, including an incident where a worker says he was made to lie on the floor, stood on, and sworn at.
Another Pacific Island worker alleged he had his ear pulled by the same man, while others say he regularly called the workers names including calling one man “lazy arse”.
Here is an example of the self proclaimed defenders of world democracy in action….the very same one that the Liberals class both here in NZ (and on TS) and abroad and their media, offer their support for in terms of it's foreign interventions….
As Afghan People Boil Grass to Eat, U.S. Refuses to Release $7 Billion of Frozen Afghan Assets
It would be very foolish for the US to hand over substantial money to the Afghan Taleban without enforceable conditions. The Taleban want full untagged control of aid funding, and there ain't no donor going to agree to that.
But with the intensity of hostility from the Taleban rulers, there are now no good analogues for mounting a substantial state-supporting effort in the absence of any UN security. Who in their right mind would even land a plane there let alone fly in to help. Obviously no women can assist now.
It is also pretty unreasonable to expect any decent UN-led effort would be any more successful than that generated over the last two decades. It is one of the most corrupt, repressive, unstable countries in the world. Nor is there any changing it.
"It would be very foolish for the US to hand over substantial money to the Afghan Taleban without enforceable conditions. The Taleban want full untagged control of aid funding, and there ain't no donor going to agree to that"…and yet the Western world do exactly that in the Ukraine..recognized without question as the most corrupt country in Europe, but then double standards are standard operating procedure in the US and it's European/Western enablers foreign policy…and by the way it's Taliban.
Or has this always gone on in this country un-reported?
More importantly, is it leading up to some sort of atrocity?
When he listened to the voicemail message, a female voice said: "Scummy little Maori". At 1.86cm and 115kg I thought they had rung the wrong number.
They called Taonui back – this time on his landline – and said: "Dirty Maori, we know Maori, f**king Maori, dirty Maori" and hung up again….
…..He knows aspects of his work – he was on Race Relations Conciliator Meng Foon's National Anti-Racism task force – have made him a target.
He was followed home last year. When he stopped in his driveway, the driver of the other vehicle got out and said: "It's good to know where you live, you black bastard."
The authorities need to take this matter seriously
These offenders need to be named and shamed and charged in a court of law.
You can’t tell me the police and security forces don’t have the means to detect and identify these offenders and the ability to lay charges. If this is not done in this case these petty fascists will become even more emboldened.
We all know what happened when the authorities didn’t take harassment against the Islamic community seriously
“Have fascists and racists become more emboldened?
Or has this always gone on in this country un-reported?”
It's always gone on, but technology has changed. Good in one sense (the abuse can be recorded as evidence, even insults on the street can be captured on cellphones).
Bad in another: racists can gather online and reinforce each other's bigotry. So yes, emboldened. As demonstrated by the many stories about extremist candidates this year.
Good on him for calling it out, and the messages of support are heartening, at least.
….the messages of support are heartening, at least.
More than 'at least' the outpouring of messages of support for Dr Rawiri Taonui were overwhelming. In my opinion this outflowing of public support is the most significant part of this reported matter.
Which is why I think it imperative that these racists need to be apprehended and named and shamed in public court.
"….racists can gather online and reinforce each other's bigotry"
Observer, what I think you have identified here, is that the online world has enabled minority like minded individuals to gather in virtual spaces where they can reinforce and encourage these views, and where they deludedly can convince each other of the rightness of these views divorced from reality.
Online reinforcement of extremist views bearing little relation to the lived reality and humanity of the targets of their prejudice, or the wider held more tolerant views of community they live in, can allow online extremism to grow and fester, until eventually it breaks out into the real world.
This is why it is imperative that these people need to named and shamed in the real world, so the communities they live and work in and the people they interact with on daily basis can be aware of them, and let them know that their views are unacceptable to the majority of us.
It is good to see that Dr Rawiri Taonui has raised this matter with the police and I see that he has received praise from some commentators for doing so.
It is up to the police now. Because of the power of social media and the serious real world consequences that can arise from the influence of unchecked online hate. When it breaks out into the real world this sort of behavour needs to be nipped in the bud and let know that it is not acceptable.
The public deserve to see a serious police investigation resulting in these people being brought up in court on these offences.
Too long has this sort of thing been ignored and downplayed by the authorities, and as we witnessed in Christchurch this can end in tragic results.
"Lack of local media reporting on significant internation developments on child and youth gender treatment is leaving NZ families to make life-changing decisions in an information vacuum"
This article is about the almost complete black out in media coverage on the closure of the Tavistock and the legal action 1000 families are taking against the gender identity clinic.
This had been extremely hard for some of us trying to blow the whistle on this and being smeared by others (not on this site ) for being anti trans and terfs etc.
I have to say a huge thank you to the Standard and all who work so hard on it. You have allowed us a space to raise concerns when we were shut down in almost every avenue we tried to raise these issues.
All we get is the local Labour MP tweeting her support for the people protesting against the recent therapists (CATA) conference in Nelson because they dared to hear from people who were up to date with the work in this area.
You will probably be aware that the debate in Rugby is coming to a quick head, with the different regulations between Australian and UK players now clear.
Thanks Ad. I have posted so many times Dr Ross Tucker a sports scientist take on treansgender women in sport, He says the advantage is significant and that trans women playing in women's rugby will cause more injuries (see the lint about the Guam women).
When talking about the MOH webiste info on blockers "Blockers are safe and fully reversible….."
"The rassuring statment now seems oddly out of step with the hesitancy being expressed internationally. Hesitancy which has seen a number of internationally renowned gender medicine clinics end the use of these drugs for under 18s within the last few years"
There have been quite a few people poking holes in the whole system of recent times. Issues around commercialization of journals among other things. Fake and ai generated nonsense papers have been finding there way into reputable journals for some time.
I hope somebody vets the Auckland council/local board candidates. Otherwise given the threat of stealth infiltration by VFF and the like I sadly won't be voting for any "independent" candidates this year unless I am personally familiar with them. It's not worth the risk – even one of these people out to make New Zealand "ungovernable" being elected would be one too many.
Yep, these journalists are on a righteous mission to seek out these terrible folk who are spreading disinformation regarding the safety of vaccines. Pleased to see Andrea Vance adding her name to the stable of fearless truthseekers.
A pity about Paula though. Someone remembered this piece she did back in the day when it was (obviously) ok to question the safety of a vaccine and (OMG!!!) to give oxygen to those conspiracy theorists who claim that Gardasil caused serious adverse effects…including deaths.
Aye – it's about who has pricing power in the market, and who doesn't. So it's essentially a political matter – both when inflation is imported and when imported inflation threatens to kick of a domestic wage-price spiral. Who escapes the pain and who cops it – a sh*t fight where the powerful win..
Profit is a lot of things. It is part of what funds future growth, sustains businesses through recessions and market changes, rewards investors who bear the greatest risk.
Did you bother to look at why the Mercury profit had risen so much?
It was caused by a one-off gain of a net $367m from the sale of Tilt renewables. This the profit, at $469m was $328m more than the previous year. However without the one-off sale it would have been less than the previous year wouldn't it?
It is all in their annual report if you had gone to the trouble of looking at it.
So every household in New Zealand has been paying an extra $200 a year for Comalco's sweetheart deal since – well a bloody long time I guess. Of course the unstated is that every retailer, farmer, tradesman, manufacturer have also been paying more. How much do those Comalco jobs cost everyone in total? I'm picking "way too much" as my answer.
My understanding is that Comalco's last bite of the cherry was to gain enormous reductions in it's transmission charges – That will also be everyone in New Zealand subsidising them for that. FFS can we please let them dam smelter die to help the whole of New Zealand
If Tiwai had closed you would not have had the increased investment in generation in the NI,which reduces transmission losses and cost.Transmission costs have increased due to new capacity to allow for the possible closure of Tiwai.
Transpower has completed its Clutha to Upper Waitaki Lines project with the commissioning of the final works to replace conductor (the wire) on the Roxburgh to Livingstone section of the Roxburgh to Islington A 220 kV transmission line this week. The total project has nearly doubled the transmission capacity of the network for transfer northwards – particularly important for either new generation in the area or the potential closure of the aluminium smelter at Tiwai.
Even Tiwais closure would not mean cheaper electricity as the ERA wanted the removal of low user charges (over half of NZ) so a lot of fat cats can have EV.
Bangkok Hospital (Thailand) advice on Covid Vaccination…
COVID-19 vaccine is NOT recommended in:
People aged below 18
People who have had previous history of serious allergic reactions to vaccine (s)
People who have had blood transfusion, plasma or other blood component exchange, including immunoglobulin, antiviral drugs or antibody therapy against COVID-19 in the last 90 days
Patients with confirmed SARS-Cov-2 infection in the last 10 days. In such a case, COVID-19 vaccine can be considered at least 3 months after being infected.
Patients with underlying diseases who have shown uncontrollable symptoms, e.g. chest discomfort, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath and palpitation. If needed, vaccination needs to be advised by the specialists.
Patients with neurological diseases or nervous system disorders. If needed, vaccination needs to be advised by the specialists.
Pregnant or breastfeeding women or women who have planned for pregnancy. Vaccination might be considered if the expert’s opinion can be obtained.
Immunocompromised patients or patients who take immunosuppressant drugs. If needed, vaccination needs to be advised by the specialists.
People with coagulation disorders, e.g. bleeding and low platelet count (thrombocytopenia) and patients who take anticoagulant or antiplatelet medicines. If needed, vaccination needs to be advised by the specialists.
Cardiovascular Effects of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in Adolescents
Cardiovascular effects were found in 29.24% of patients, ranging from tachycardia, palpitation, and myopericarditis. Myopericarditis was confirmed in one patient after vaccination. Two patients had suspected pericarditis and four patients had suspected subclinical myocarditis. Conclusion: Cardiovascular effects in adolescents after BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccination included tachycardia, palpitation, and myocarditis. The clinical presentation of myopericarditis after vaccination was usually mild, with all cases fully recovering within 14 days. Hence, adolescents receiving mRNA vaccines should be monitored for side effects.
My personal confidence that Thailand's Covid deaths are understated = 100%
My personal confidence that Thailand's age demographics are a shit load different to New Zealand's and that they have far lower % of elderly and the health compromised = 100%
My personal confidence that you will continue flogging this dead horse for a very long time = 99%
IMHO Barfly may be right about Thailand understating its deaths. Third world countries tend not to have the resources to accurately report such things.
A few years ago a friend was found face down in a Thai marina. No investigation, no postmortem. The death certificate issued the day he was found offered no insight into how, when or why other than he drowned, was signed by the marina plod.
I would hazard a guess that the 4.2% difference between NZ and Thailand would include a longer surviving, more at risk population in New Zealand that is more likely to die of covid-related illness.
According to Rosemary's Demographics.
Thailand 60 + is 17% of the pop
NZ 65+ is 14.9%of the pop
Not fully like with like, but Thailand's population is percentage points fewer at the aged end.
the limiting factor here seems to be a lack of understanding of what variables are and role they play, and that correlation doesn't equal causation (nor does stacking facts next to each other inherently have meaning).
I assume more likely to take risks like swimming in a thunder storm. Less likely to be cautious.
Point was there will be various potential reasons and we can’t necessarily know just because of the data in front of us (but I like your guesses, lol, we should consider all the possibilities. Taller seems less likely to be a factor, being outside more more likely, and so on).
What facts exactly? As far as I can't tell Rosemary is speculating about something, but won't say directly what she means. Maybe you could explain it to me? Is she saying that an extra 54/million people die of covid because of the differences in vaccine policy? What's the connection? Where's the actual evidence?
Anything to say about the differing advice about who should get the Covid vax?
What was your point though? I really wish you would state the up front and directly.
Because here's what I saw you say,
Thailand and NZ have different covid death rates.
Thailand and NZ have different vax policies
Inference being that there is a connection. You don't say what the connection is. Which is why I pointed out the problem of not understanding evidence, and making assumptions about the proximity of data.
Anything to say about the 1 in 300 rate of myocarditis from the Pfizer shot for 11-18 year olds in the study?
where did you get the 1 in 300 rate from? The number 300 doesn't appear in your link. If you copy and paste the relevant bit and explain your thinking, I will have something to say. As it is, I don't know what you are on about
Thailand and NZ have very similar 'death from Covid' rates, and very different 'who should get the vaccine' advice.
I'm guessing you are trying to say that different vax practice should lead to more difference in death rates? Why?
It's already been outlined that the reasons for different rates in different countries comes from a range of variables. You can't just pick one and expect it to be meaningful.
I'd really encourage you to do a basic tutorial on how medical/health research and reporting works, the bit about variables and how/why they are 'controlled' for in particular. I'm not a scientist, and I don't have a huge knowledge in this area, but the basics go a long way.
I'm not being patronising there, I think you have some pertinent perspectives on the pandemic response, and like many others in the anti-response section of society, the lack of research/science literacy leads to extrapolating from science and data to poor analysis and arguments.
If you read the paper. there was 301 subject received their second shot of Pfizer. There subjects baseline heart readings were ascertained beforehand.
Over 29% showed measurable heart issues…some worryingly sub-clinical.
1 of the 301 was diagnosed with myocarditis.
I was rounding weka…rounding.
Sure, but I'm not going to read every paper someone posts online. The onus is on the person making the argument to make an actual argument (and use links/quotes to back that up).
Thanks for the excellent response. Two things: it’s highly misleading to try link overall population-wide reported death rates to the incidence of myocarditis in a small age-selected group. In NZ such link has not been established nor confirmed (yet).
Secondly, rounding from 301 to 300 is a red herring. Rosemary’s reckon is that this number is so much higher than other reported ones for the incidence of myocarditis.
Thailand and NZ have very similar 'death from Covid' rates, …
Yes, depending on where you look and what number you pick it would indeed suggest that reported mortality rates are fairly similar. However, this can be very misleading if the ways of reporting are very different. Therefore, more objective observers tend to use excess death or excess death rates for comparisons. I’m sure that you can find it, if you want to 😉
Here's my lay person opinion about the relevance of
Anything to say about the 1 in 300 rate of myocarditis from the Pfizer shot for 11-18 year olds in the study?
300 seems to me to be quite a small sample. If the same population was studied at say 5,000 people, we might find that the 1 in 300 rate drops. In the abstract the conclusion is that teens have these particular cardiac events post-vax, and teens getting vaxed should be monitored for side effects.
You could ask people with better medical science literacy than me what a useful study number would be (I made up the 5,000).
They're not claiming that their research shows 1 in 300 teens get pericarditis. You are making that claim and the evidence you have presented doesn't support that. Best we can say is that in this small study 1 of the 300 teens got pericarditis, and we can ask should there be follow up studies to see if this is a valid %?
The other thing is that we can't see from the abstract how they controlled for variables. Once the paper is printed, people with sufficient medical science literacy will read the paper and critique whether its methodology is sound. That is a crucial part of medical research, examination of methodology.
beyond that, as you probably know, my position on covid vaccination is that vaccinations come at a cost to some individuals but protect populations. The validity of that approach depends on how many individual people it's ok to harm in the process of protecting the whole population.
I also think that one of the ways we are failing is by minimising vaccine harm and thus failing to adequately support the people who end up with health problems.
On the other side, we are doing pretty much the same with adverse reactions to covid infection, including long covid.
I see both sides dismissing harm. Pro-vax minimise vax harm. the 'covid's not so bad' side minimise the disability created by covid infections. Neither is helping the people being harmed by those positions.
Further, the people arguing against covid vax generally have poor science literacy and are undermining their own arguments by this. Wakefield and the subsequent anti-vax movement have done a massive amount of damage to the pre-anti-vax movements that sought to promote health prevention via other means. We now have a chasm between people who have faith in vaccines and people who have faith in holistic medicine, when we should be working together.
[deleted – I will restore your comment when you have complied with the moderation request. This is costing me time, so if you keep this up I will simply move you to the Black List. I have no time and am not in the mood for your games – Incognito]
Have you bothered to look at excess mortality in Thailand during the pandemic and compared this to NZ? You might be in for a surprise, one that might not suit your biased narrative.
MOH is not going to change anything based on or because of this ‘study’.
Yep. What's a little heart damage for teenagers, eh? They'll get over it, eh?
Of course our Ministry of Health will not change their advice on this prospective study, but the Danish Ministry of Health has changed their Covid vaccine advice.
With quite strict limits on who is allowed to have the shots.
….which is Christine Stabell-Benns 'study' from May.
Video here, again, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_nKoybyMGg ….and its interesting to note that the Danish Health Ministry seems to have largely followed her advice and made it very difficult for under 18 year olds to get the Pfizer shot…because the risk of adverse effects outweigh the benefits.
I presume you are an epidemiologist? A public health expert? A medical doctor? A vaccinologist? A medical statistician?
Any qualification or hands-on experience that makes your reckons more credible than the actual professionals?
[You insinuated that there were vaccine-induced heart attacks reported in that study that you linked that is not (yet) peer-reviewed. You back it up and show where exactly this is mentioned. You’re in Pre-Mod until you’ve provided this particular piece of information because I’ve no inclination chasing you down your usual rabbit holes – Incognito]
…you can take your pick from the definitions offered.
Any happening that causes measurable changes in a young person's baseline indicators of heart health is very, very serious.
Rather than address the study…it is an actual study Incognito, not the idle reckons of some anonymous denizen of the internet…commentors simply mock, joke and trivialize.
Referencing Christine Stabell-Benn and the Danish Ministry of Health indicates a slide down a rabbit hole?
Dear Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the Goddess…please let it not be such as yourself setting policy for our Ministry of Health.
Hint. Denmark, and Thailand, change their advice and policies on Covid vaccinations according to the latest available data.
[Nice deflection 🙂
Anything to say about the 1 in 300 rate of myocarditis from the Pfizer shot for 11-18 year olds in the study?
lol. Like a heart attack.
And
What’s a little heart damage for teenagers, eh?
One more chance for you to put up the support for your misleading and exaggerated comments, from the study you linked to; I have no time today to play your games – Incognito]
so this is a really good example of what I was just talking about regarding medical science literacy. I agree with Incognito that the paper doesn't mention heart attacks at all.
It says,
The most common cardiovascular effects were tachycardia (7.64%), shortness of breath (6.64%), palpitation (4.32%), chest pain (4.32%), and hypertension (3.99%)
And peri/myocarditis.
None of those are a heart attack.
I don't know if you know this and were using hyperbole. Or if you don't in fact know what a heart attack is. Either way, it's exactly this kind of mistake that undermines the vax concerned argument. Science people and public health people, and those that have faith in them, (the ones that need to be convinced) will never take such arguments seriously when they make such fundamental mistakes.
Where did I 'insinuate' that there were vaccine induced heart attacks?
Here,
What ‘heart attacks’?????
Yep. What's a little heart damage for teenagers, eh? They'll get over it, eh?
I can see how it could be read both ways, but the onus is on you to communicate effectively and clarify.
FWIW, you can't provide the evidence that Incognito is asking for, because it's not there, so just take responsibility for the miscommunication and acknowledge that no heart attacks happened in that study and we can move on.
Let me assure you Rosemary, I was in no way making light of heart attacks. A careful reading of 10.1.1.3.2 will show I was in fact making light of being struck by lightning.
Hard to get that information…there are a couple of studies from Israel that counted emergency heart issues incidents before the vaccine roll out and after and found a considerably higher number in the after group.
…has a handy wee chart that might at least tell you what the myocarditis rate due to covid rate they reckoned… 455 per million infections in the 12-17 age group.
The Thai study suggests at least 3000 cases per 1 million second doses of Pfizer.
Exactly! Yet, you’re more than happy & willing to extrapolate your reckons to conclusions without having the info nor the skills & expertise to interpret that info. Any scientist knows that extrapolating (usually in a simplistic uninformed unconditional linear fashion) from a small sample (e.g. a small trial) to a much larger one (e.g. a whole population) is nothing more than a gamble, a stab in the dark and the extrapolated number has such an enormous error (aka uncertainty) that it is essentially meaningless. The way to mitigate this is to have a robust mechanistic model that is validated (aka calibrated), which can be used to make predictions & extrapolations with more acceptable (aka realistic and meaningful) confidence intervals. What you and other amateurs tend to do is essentially hand waving (and barking up wrong trees).
To illustrate the pitfalls of extrapolation:
In the space of one hundred and seventy six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over a mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oölitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing-pole. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long, and Cairo [Illinois] and New Orleans will have joined their streets together and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.
Hard to get that information…there are a couple of studies from Israel that counted emergency heart issues incidents before the vaccine roll out and after and found a considerably higher number in the after group.
What that tells us is that emergency heart issues increased later in the pandemic. It doesn't tell us why. eg vax, covid, stress, or some other aspect of the group that we can't see.
The Thai study suggests at least 3000 cases per 1 million second doses of Pfizer.
no, it really doesn't. See explanations above. You are suggesting that, not the study.
that's a great Mark Twain quote. I'm guessing he was writing that in a time when there was a lot of tension in the US between science and the religious power embedded in society? People with a strong attachment to their gut sense and belief/convention struggling with rationality.
(not that I think gut sense is wrong/bad, I see the problem nowdays as it being misapplied and misusing science in the process).
If consensus expert medical opinion shifts, from advocating vaccination against COVID-19 to saying these vaccines do more harm than good, then I'll stop lining up for free boosters. Until then I'll be a fast follower of MoH advice on the best ways to avoid complications from COVID-19 infections – that includes boosters.
If Rosemary's continuing crusade here persuades a few Kiwis not to protect themselves, then that's a shame (and shameful, imho), but it's their choice.
Will anti-vaccine activism in the USA reverse global goals?
(1 August 2022) US anti-vaccine activism under the banner of health freedom (also referred to as medical freedom) has produced tragic and even deadly consequences. The loss of life has been massive. Since 1 May 2021, when President Biden’s administration announced that COVID-19 vaccines would become widely and freely available, at least 200,000 unvaccinated Americans have lost their lives potentially needlessly because they refused to have a COVID immunization.
Kind of annoying the way that google bombards with ads after you buy something.
I started to look for a new desk on the weekend to replace a very small desk that I have suffered with with since 2016 – including working at home during lock-downs. I changed jobs last September just as we went into lockdown again (damnit). So I didn't get a chance to try working from home with a better desk.
As it was a remote job, and I already knew I wasn't productive working at home (probably because of desk and lack of deskspace) I moved to local shared workspace, and was the only one there during that lockdown and since.
The cubicle at the workplace worked perfectly after I got a ultra wide screen and a height adjustable tray for it. Turned out that part of the problem was focal length with my progressives to the screen at eye height. Another part was my home screen resolution was just too damn high for the screen size.
However this workplace has been sold – so I have to move. Time for a new desk for home, and for whatever house we buy over the next few months to get more home office space. I'll try a the new desk.
1.8m x 0.8m white because that is exactly the size that works for me. The old desk was about 1.0m x 0.7m and glass with a fixed screen riser.
Standing desk with dual electric motors. Not because I'm likely to spend much time standing – but because I find that I'm pretty sensitive to desk/seat heights to get the correct hand/eye levels.
So on Tuesday I had a look at the one at showroom that I selected off the net. Got them to get a wide custom corner radius so we don't cripple ourselves when we walk into a corner. Paid for it in Wednesday via the net after confirming the custom change.
Since Tuesday I have been bombarded by ads via google for standing desks. At least half from the place I brought it from.
On monday I brought and paid-for a set of yubikey from yubico. Today the bloody net is starting to push similar devices.
What gets me is that the ads start days after I have already made a ddision an dbrought something.
Who do they cater to – people who always dither?
Grrr… I might have to put a ad-blocker in. Or start just blocking google from tracking me.
Anyway in a few weeks I should have half-way decent class desk available if anyone wants one and they live in Auckland and can pick it up….
Most people don’t need to be as functionally finicky about gear as I have to be. I might even throw in a older high end logitech mouse that will happily work on a glass desk if I can find where I stashed it.
Yeah just having the same experience. I've been doing on-line searches for rear wheel bearings for my 1991 Volvo 360 GLT which I am rebuilding. (Have had one since 1984 when I bought one new, Military sales, when serving in Singapore.)
Now inundated by Google with ads for all manner of wheel bearings!
PS. It the car gets used very little just the odd run once a month, down the coast to the beach. It's kept (along with my 1957 R50 BMW motorbike also recently rebuilt) for sentimental reasons. The Beemer has been ridden halfway round the world, starting in Pretoria South Africa, up through Africa, around the continent, then down through the middle east (as you could do in the late 50's – early 60's) India, then shipped to Perth, across the Nullibor to Melbourne and finally to NZ in wellington when I bought it in the mid 60's.
I was looking for a rug a year or so ago and was bombarded with ads for rugs. Still get them now and then. I bought some shoes and a cell blanket online a few months ago and have had blanket coverage of shoes and blankets ever since. Never ending.
Hand with slightly cupped palm down on cutting surface, insert goods between the two, slide in a reasonably large pair of scissors and chop, chop, away using using cupped palm to contain goods. Better than a grinder.
"I refuse to stand by while people are living in cars" Leader of the opposition Jacinda Ardern, 2020
The housing crisis could be fixed with the stroke of a pen.
Pick up your pen Prime Minister, stop standing by, make it illegal for perfectly good homes to be left empty.
Fine the owners to pressure them to sell or rent these homes out. Fix the housing crisis with your pen.
Stop standing by.
Prime Minister Ardern. Why are you doing this?
Are the "Wealth Storing" creeps more important to you, than the suffering of families and children living in cars?
What Auckland’s ‘ghost homes’ could do for the housing crisis
There are about 40,000 'ghost houses' in Auckland. Cat MacLennan asks if a tax on these empty homes could help house homeless people and low-income workers.
….According to the 2018 Census, there are approximately 40,000 empty private homes in Auckland. That is 7.3 percent of the total, up from 6.6 percent in the previous Census in 2013. And Auckland is not the only place in Aotearoa with vacant homes at a time when accommodation is expensive and in short supply…
….a significant number are empty simply because the owners are focused on capital gains. This is now an international phenomenon. In England it is called “buy to leave,” in New York it is described as “warehousing,” while in British Columbia it is known as “wealth storing”.
190,000 empty houses in New Zealand. If only 10% of those were inhabited there would be no housing crisis. FFS this is a PM who had a nuclear moment re climate and we're now importing 30% more coal
"The city only wants to target large companies. All apartments set for the potential take-over belong to owners of multiple housing units. Moreover, the flats have to be empty for more than two years and there may not be a record of recent power use. This should ensure that second homes are not included.
Vacancies are a worldwide issue. In the US, there are 18.9 million vacant homes – compared to 3.5 million homeless. This means there are more than five times as many vacant apartments as there are homeless people. It is the same in Europe: more than 11 million homes lie empty, while 4 million people have no roof over their heads."
Not only do we have homeless unhoused while homes are empty, we have RSE workers housed in appalling conditions, and areas where people don't come to live even though there are desirable jobs because of the lack of housing.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
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I have posted on this…many times on the Standard. Some might find it hard to believe 21st Century NZ could have "modern day slavery" …be sure it exists.
Brave whistleblowers and true Journalists expose it ! And also be very sure that under a nact govt…it would be modus operandi. (not deemed "slavery" of course)
Anyway, please support our Brothers and Sisters who are being exploited..by these scum. Stand Up !!
I agree, however I see that up to now, the main thrust of the law and pubic anger has been directed at the ‘middle management’ (or lower) so to speak, ie; the people who were directly responsible for organizing the crews etc (the easy low hanging fruit of course) but not one orchard owner or company director has had to face any legal action as far as I know.
Now if I have known that this exploitation of RSE workers has been wide spread for nearly a decade…then you can be absolutely sure that those same orchard owners, and company directors have been fully aware to what is going on their own properties for the past decade as well….so let’s see if any of them get caught up, face any sort of penalty, or even get called out in this new govt review….don’t hold your breath.
Hi Adrian. I do (and have previously) note your concern for our Brother and Sister Workers. I will be following this particular case for sure !
Stand Up !
Here is an example of the self proclaimed defenders of world democracy in action….the very same one that the Liberals class both here in NZ (and on TS) and abroad and their media, offer their support for in terms of it's foreign interventions….
As Afghan People Boil Grass to Eat, U.S. Refuses to Release $7 Billion of Frozen Afghan Assets
It would be very foolish for the US to hand over substantial money to the Afghan Taleban without enforceable conditions. The Taleban want full untagged control of aid funding, and there ain't no donor going to agree to that.
Taliban Want to Control Aid Funds, a Red Line for Donors – WSJ
Prior to the Taleban takeover last year about 80% of Afghanistan's income came from donors.
Afghanistan earthquake: What foreign aid is getting in? – BBC News
But with the intensity of hostility from the Taleban rulers, there are now no good analogues for mounting a substantial state-supporting effort in the absence of any UN security. Who in their right mind would even land a plane there let alone fly in to help. Obviously no women can assist now.
It is also pretty unreasonable to expect any decent UN-led effort would be any more successful than that generated over the last two decades. It is one of the most corrupt, repressive, unstable countries in the world. Nor is there any changing it.
Good luck to the remaining donors.
"It would be very foolish for the US to hand over substantial money to the Afghan Taleban without enforceable conditions. The Taleban want full untagged control of aid funding, and there ain't no donor going to agree to that"…and yet the Western world do exactly that in the Ukraine..recognized without question as the most corrupt country in Europe, but then double standards are standard operating procedure in the US and it's European/Western enablers foreign policy…and by the way it's Taliban.
70% of Western weapons sent to Ukraine don’t reach troops – CBS
https://www.rt.com/russia/560419-ukraine-weapons-lost-cbs/
Completely irrelevant to whether as you claimed the US ought to be giving finance to the Afghan Taleban. Also, terrible source.
"It would be very foolish for the US to hand over substantial money to the Afghan Taleban without enforceable conditions."
Whose f**king money is it anyway? Sure as s**t doesn't belong to the US.
Would you really let people starve on the strange notion that it is good for them? Oh yeah – Ad Allbright !!!!
What to make of this?
Have fascists and racists become more emboldened?
Or has this always gone on in this country un-reported?
More importantly, is it leading up to some sort of atrocity?
The authorities need to take this matter seriously
These offenders need to be named and shamed and charged in a court of law.
You can’t tell me the police and security forces don’t have the means to detect and identify these offenders and the ability to lay charges. If this is not done in this case these petty fascists will become even more emboldened.
We all know what happened when the authorities didn’t take harassment against the Islamic community seriously
I hope to see these people in court very soon
“Have fascists and racists become more emboldened?
Or has this always gone on in this country un-reported?”
It's always gone on, but technology has changed. Good in one sense (the abuse can be recorded as evidence, even insults on the street can be captured on cellphones).
Bad in another: racists can gather online and reinforce each other's bigotry. So yes, emboldened. As demonstrated by the many stories about extremist candidates this year.
Good on him for calling it out, and the messages of support are heartening, at least.
More than 'at least' the outpouring of messages of support for Dr Rawiri Taonui were overwhelming. In my opinion this outflowing of public support is the most significant part of this reported matter.
Which is why I think it imperative that these racists need to be apprehended and named and shamed in public court.
"….racists can gather online and reinforce each other's bigotry"
Observer, what I think you have identified here, is that the online world has enabled minority like minded individuals to gather in virtual spaces where they can reinforce and encourage these views, and where they deludedly can convince each other of the rightness of these views divorced from reality.
Online reinforcement of extremist views bearing little relation to the lived reality and humanity of the targets of their prejudice, or the wider held more tolerant views of community they live in, can allow online extremism to grow and fester, until eventually it breaks out into the real world.
This is why it is imperative that these people need to named and shamed in the real world, so the communities they live and work in and the people they interact with on daily basis can be aware of them, and let them know that their views are unacceptable to the majority of us.
It is good to see that Dr Rawiri Taonui has raised this matter with the police and I see that he has received praise from some commentators for doing so.
It is up to the police now. Because of the power of social media and the serious real world consequences that can arise from the influence of unchecked online hate. When it breaks out into the real world this sort of behavour needs to be nipped in the bud and let know that it is not acceptable.
The public deserve to see a serious police investigation resulting in these people being brought up in court on these offences.
Too long has this sort of thing been ignored and downplayed by the authorities, and as we witnessed in Christchurch this can end in tragic results.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/07/christchurch-shooting-agencies-accused-of-ignoring-years-of-warnings-the-muslim-community-was-in-danger.html
We need a swift police investigation with results. Dr Rawiri Taonui police complaint needs to be taken seriously.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/gender-questioning-kids-being-let-down
"Lack of local media reporting on significant internation developments on child and youth gender treatment is leaving NZ families to make life-changing decisions in an information vacuum"
This article is about the almost complete black out in media coverage on the closure of the Tavistock and the legal action 1000 families are taking against the gender identity clinic.
This had been extremely hard for some of us trying to blow the whistle on this and being smeared by others (not on this site ) for being anti trans and terfs etc.
I have to say a huge thank you to the Standard and all who work so hard on it. You have allowed us a space to raise concerns when we were shut down in almost every avenue we tried to raise these issues.
All we get is the local Labour MP tweeting her support for the people protesting against the recent therapists (CATA) conference in Nelson because they dared to hear from people who were up to date with the work in this area.
You will probably be aware that the debate in Rugby is coming to a quick head, with the different regulations between Australian and UK players now clear.
Rugby 2022: Rugby Australia stance on transgender players to remain (smh.com.au)
Also this month, there was a conference in Ottawa in which this developing set of regulations was discussed
Rugby: Olympic champion Ellia Green finds liberation in transition – NZ Herald
Given how slowly many other spheres of sporting rule change, this is actually a pretty quick response that is well on its way to global stabilisation.
https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-04-17-guam-coach-female-players-injured-trans-athlete.html#
Thanks Ad. I have posted so many times Dr Ross Tucker a sports scientist take on treansgender women in sport, He says the advantage is significant and that trans women playing in women's rugby will cause more injuries (see the lint about the Guam women).
More from the article I linked above
When talking about the MOH webiste info on blockers "Blockers are safe and fully reversible….."
"The rassuring statment now seems oddly out of step with the hesitancy being expressed internationally. Hesitancy which has seen a number of internationally renowned gender medicine clinics end the use of these drugs for under 18s within the last few years"
Bookmarking for later,
https://twitter.com/FrancescoNicoli/status/1559815190815903746
There have been quite a few people poking holes in the whole system of recent times. Issues around commercialization of journals among other things. Fake and ai generated nonsense papers have been finding there way into reputable journals for some time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scholarly_publishing_stings
https://www.science.org/content/article/two-elite-medical-journals-retract-coronavirus-papers-over-data-integrity-questions
10/10 for Andrea Vance:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/129598951/the-covid19-conspiracy-theorists-targeting-northlands-local-elections
Now it is up to all her fellow journalists to do the hard yards and name the rest of them. Maybe some have started. I hope so.
I hope somebody vets the Auckland council/local board candidates. Otherwise given the threat of stealth infiltration by VFF and the like I sadly won't be voting for any "independent" candidates this year unless I am personally familiar with them. It's not worth the risk – even one of these people out to make New Zealand "ungovernable" being elected would be one too many.
Yep, these journalists are on a righteous mission to seek out these terrible folk who are spreading disinformation regarding the safety of vaccines. Pleased to see Andrea Vance adding her name to the stable of fearless truthseekers.
A pity about Paula though. Someone remembered this piece she did back in the day when it was (obviously) ok to question the safety of a vaccine and (OMG!!!) to give oxygen to those conspiracy theorists who claim that Gardasil caused serious adverse effects…including deaths.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2015/11/cause-or-coincidence-teen-dies-after-gardasil-vaccine.html
It is going to be very interesting how this Fearless Journalist reconciles her work today with her work back then.
But wage increases will cause inflation! /s
https://twitter.com/labourcartel/status/1560026230988034049
Profit is unpaid wages/taxes.
Can I please use your comment in a post?
Absolutely!
😎 thanks!
Aye – it's about who has pricing power in the market, and who doesn't. So it's essentially a political matter – both when inflation is imported and when imported inflation threatens to kick of a domestic wage-price spiral. Who escapes the pain and who cops it – a sh*t fight where the powerful win..
“Profit is unpaid wages/taxes.“
Profit is a lot of things. It is part of what funds future growth, sustains businesses through recessions and market changes, rewards investors who bear the greatest risk.
Did you bother to look at why the Mercury profit had risen so much?
It was caused by a one-off gain of a net $367m from the sale of Tilt renewables. This the profit, at $469m was $328m more than the previous year. However without the one-off sale it would have been less than the previous year wouldn't it?
It is all in their annual report if you had gone to the trouble of looking at it.
https://indd.adobe.com/view/3d4b71af-e25a-4f7b-9860-9478b32541dc
Wait, what?
Facts?
Don't tell them the facts. That will upset them. No, no, no, they are excessive profits.
Well well well…….
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2208/S00245/authority-imposes-interim-restrictions-on-very-large-electricity-contracts.htm
So every household in New Zealand has been paying an extra $200 a year for Comalco's sweetheart deal since – well a bloody long time I guess. Of course the unstated is that every retailer, farmer, tradesman, manufacturer have also been paying more. How much do those Comalco jobs cost everyone in total? I'm picking "way too much" as my answer.
My understanding is that Comalco's last bite of the cherry was to gain enormous reductions in it's transmission charges – That will also be everyone in New Zealand subsidising them for that. FFS can we please let them dam smelter die to help the whole of New Zealand
Complete madness.
If Tiwai had closed you would not have had the increased investment in generation in the NI,which reduces transmission losses and cost.Transmission costs have increased due to new capacity to allow for the possible closure of Tiwai.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/power-bill-changes-bring-fairness-charges
Even Tiwais closure would not mean cheaper electricity as the ERA wanted the removal of low user charges (over half of NZ) so a lot of fat cats can have EV.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/power-bill-changes-bring-fairness-charges
Thailand. Covid deaths … 455/million.
New Zealand Covid deaths… 509/million
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
New Zealand Ministry of Health advice on Covid vaccination….
Recommended for children over 5 and pregnant women etc etc
https://www.health.govt.nz/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-vaccines
Bangkok Hospital (Thailand) advice on Covid Vaccination…
COVID-19 vaccine is NOT recommended in:
https://www.bangkokhospital.com/en/content/symptoms-to-know-after-getting-the-covid-19-vaccine
And I'll pop this up again…since it is such an important piece of work.
https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202208.0151/v1
Cardiovascular Effects of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in Adolescents
Cardiovascular effects were found in 29.24% of patients, ranging from tachycardia, palpitation, and myopericarditis. Myopericarditis was confirmed in one patient after vaccination. Two patients had suspected pericarditis and four patients had suspected subclinical myocarditis. Conclusion: Cardiovascular effects in adolescents after BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccination included tachycardia, palpitation, and myocarditis. The clinical presentation of myopericarditis after vaccination was usually mild, with all cases fully recovering within 14 days. Hence, adolescents receiving mRNA vaccines should be monitored for side effects.
The comments make for an interesting read.![wink wink](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/wink_smile.png?x42494)
My personal confidence that Thailand's Covid deaths are understated = 100%
My personal confidence that Thailand's age demographics are a shit load different to New Zealand's and that they have far lower % of elderly and the health compromised = 100%
My personal confidence that you will continue flogging this dead horse for a very long time = 99%
Evidence to support your claims? Zero.
You theory is based on what? New Zealand/Western superiority? Racism?
And you can easily look up the demographics…no need to guess…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_New_Zealand
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Thailand
Covid Deaths: NZ 509/m UK 2711/m USA 3221/m
IMHO Barfly may be right about Thailand understating its deaths. Third world countries tend not to have the resources to accurately report such things.
A few years ago a friend was found face down in a Thai marina. No investigation, no postmortem. The death certificate issued the day he was found offered no insight into how, when or why other than he drowned, was signed by the marina plod.
Wow….well that graphically says it all.
NZ 2018 715,200 people aged 65+ years (15.2% of the population).
https://www.ehinz.ac.nz/indicators/population-vulnerability/age-profile/
Thailand 2016 11% of the Thai population are 65 years or older.
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/thailand/publication/thailand-economic-monitor-june-2016-aging-society-and-economy
I would hazard a guess that the 4.2% difference between NZ and Thailand would include a longer surviving, more at risk population in New Zealand that is more likely to die of covid-related illness.
According to Rosemary's Demographics.
Thailand 60 + is 17% of the pop
NZ 65+ is 14.9%of the pop
Not fully like with like, but Thailand's population is percentage points fewer at the aged end.
The tropics help, too. As would well ventilated homes, community activities conducted outside, plant based diets and obesity rates a third of ours.
more vitamin D from sun exposure, different hemispheres and thus seasons, timing of covid waves etc probably factor in as well.
the limiting factor here seems to be a lack of understanding of what variables are and role they play, and that correlation doesn't equal causation (nor does stacking facts next to each other inherently have meaning).
to wit, what are the potential reasons for this?
https://twitter.com/UberFacts/status/1555820218307551233
Because men are taller?
More likely to be outside in a thunderstorm?
Just kidding!
I assume more likely to take risks like swimming in a thunder storm. Less likely to be cautious.
Point was there will be various potential reasons and we can’t necessarily know just because of the data in front of us (but I like your guesses, lol, we should consider all the possibilities. Taller seems less likely to be a factor, being outside more more likely, and so on).
Males taking their disputes to the highest available authority.
lol
Nicely deflected there weka.
Anything to say about the differing advice about who should get the Covid vax?
Anything to say about the 1 in 300 rate of myocarditis from the Pfizer shot for 11-18 year olds in the study?
lol. Like a heart attack.
Thanks again for yr efforts, Rosemary.
I am reminded that it is politically unwise to be correct too soon.
Interesting that facts can seemingly countered with reckons and anecdotes when the righteous do it.
What facts exactly? As far as I can't tell Rosemary is speculating about something, but won't say directly what she means. Maybe you could explain it to me? Is she saying that an extra 54/million people die of covid because of the differences in vaccine policy? What's the connection? Where's the actual evidence?
What was your point though? I really wish you would state the up front and directly.
Because here's what I saw you say,
Inference being that there is a connection. You don't say what the connection is. Which is why I pointed out the problem of not understanding evidence, and making assumptions about the proximity of data.
where did you get the 1 in 300 rate from? The number 300 doesn't appear in your link. If you copy and paste the relevant bit and explain your thinking, I will have something to say. As it is, I don't know what you are on about
Thailand and NZ have very similar 'death from Covid' rates, and very different 'who should get the vaccine' advice.
If you read the paper. there was 301 subject received their second shot of Pfizer. There subjects baseline heart readings were ascertained beforehand.
Over 29% showed measurable heart issues…some worryingly sub-clinical.
1 of the 301 was diagnosed with myocarditis.
I was rounding weka…rounding.
thanks for explaining.
I'm guessing you are trying to say that different vax practice should lead to more difference in death rates? Why?
It's already been outlined that the reasons for different rates in different countries comes from a range of variables. You can't just pick one and expect it to be meaningful.
I'd really encourage you to do a basic tutorial on how medical/health research and reporting works, the bit about variables and how/why they are 'controlled' for in particular. I'm not a scientist, and I don't have a huge knowledge in this area, but the basics go a long way.
I'm not being patronising there, I think you have some pertinent perspectives on the pandemic response, and like many others in the anti-response section of society, the lack of research/science literacy leads to extrapolating from science and data to poor analysis and arguments.
Sure, but I'm not going to read every paper someone posts online. The onus is on the person making the argument to make an actual argument (and use links/quotes to back that up).
@ weka
Thanks for the excellent response. Two things: it’s highly misleading to try link overall population-wide reported death rates to the incidence of myocarditis in a small age-selected group. In NZ such link has not been established nor confirmed (yet).
https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/COVID-19/safety-report-44.asp
Secondly, rounding from 301 to 300 is a red herring. Rosemary’s reckon is that this number is so much higher than other reported ones for the incidence of myocarditis.
Yes, depending on where you look and what number you pick it would indeed suggest that reported mortality rates are fairly similar. However, this can be very misleading if the ways of reporting are very different. Therefore, more objective observers tend to use excess death or excess death rates for comparisons. I’m sure that you can find it, if you want to 😉
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-03-08-2022/#comment-1903615
Here's my lay person opinion about the relevance of
300 seems to me to be quite a small sample. If the same population was studied at say 5,000 people, we might find that the 1 in 300 rate drops. In the abstract the conclusion is that teens have these particular cardiac events post-vax, and teens getting vaxed should be monitored for side effects.
You could ask people with better medical science literacy than me what a useful study number would be (I made up the 5,000).
They're not claiming that their research shows 1 in 300 teens get pericarditis. You are making that claim and the evidence you have presented doesn't support that. Best we can say is that in this small study 1 of the 300 teens got pericarditis, and we can ask should there be follow up studies to see if this is a valid %?
The other thing is that we can't see from the abstract how they controlled for variables. Once the paper is printed, people with sufficient medical science literacy will read the paper and critique whether its methodology is sound. That is a crucial part of medical research, examination of methodology.
beyond that, as you probably know, my position on covid vaccination is that vaccinations come at a cost to some individuals but protect populations. The validity of that approach depends on how many individual people it's ok to harm in the process of protecting the whole population.
I also think that one of the ways we are failing is by minimising vaccine harm and thus failing to adequately support the people who end up with health problems.
On the other side, we are doing pretty much the same with adverse reactions to covid infection, including long covid.
I see both sides dismissing harm. Pro-vax minimise vax harm. the 'covid's not so bad' side minimise the disability created by covid infections. Neither is helping the people being harmed by those positions.
Further, the people arguing against covid vax generally have poor science literacy and are undermining their own arguments by this. Wakefield and the subsequent anti-vax movement have done a massive amount of damage to the pre-anti-vax movements that sought to promote health prevention via other means. We now have a chasm between people who have faith in vaccines and people who have faith in holistic medicine, when we should be working together.
[deleted – I will restore your comment when you have complied with the moderation request. This is costing me time, so if you keep this up I will simply move you to the Black List. I have no time and am not in the mood for your games – Incognito]
Mod note
What ‘heart attacks’?????
Have you bothered to look at excess mortality in Thailand during the pandemic and compared this to NZ? You might be in for a surprise, one that might not suit your biased narrative.
MOH is not going to change anything based on or because of this ‘study’.
What ‘heart attacks’?????
Yep. What's a little heart damage for teenagers, eh? They'll get over it, eh?
Of course our Ministry of Health will not change their advice on this prospective study, but the Danish Ministry of Health has changed their Covid vaccine advice.
With quite strict limits on who is allowed to have the shots.
You can find the Danish Ministry site through here… https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-coronavirus-denmark-idUSL1N2ZS0J8 (No doubt you will find this site more credible than, say, this link https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4072489 )
….which is Christine Stabell-Benns 'study' from May.
Video here, again, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_nKoybyMGg ….and its interesting to note that the Danish Health Ministry seems to have largely followed her advice and made it very difficult for under 18 year olds to get the Pfizer shot…because the risk of adverse effects outweigh the benefits.
I presume you are an epidemiologist? A public health expert? A medical doctor? A vaccinologist? A medical statistician?
Any qualification or hands-on experience that makes your reckons more credible than the actual professionals?
[You insinuated that there were vaccine-induced heart attacks reported in that study that you linked that is not (yet) peer-reviewed. You back it up and show where exactly this is mentioned. You’re in Pre-Mod until you’ve provided this particular piece of information because I’ve no inclination chasing you down your usual rabbit holes – Incognito]
Mod note
Where did I 'insinuate' that there were vaccine induced heart attacks?
I referenced a common saying…
https://www.quora.com/Where-did-the-phrase-Im-as-serious-as-a-heart-attack-come-from-And-what-does-it-really-mean
…you can take your pick from the definitions offered.
Any happening that causes measurable changes in a young person's baseline indicators of heart health is very, very serious.
Rather than address the study…it is an actual study Incognito, not the idle reckons of some anonymous denizen of the internet…commentors simply mock, joke and trivialize.
Referencing Christine Stabell-Benn and the Danish Ministry of Health indicates a slide down a rabbit hole?
Dear Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the Goddess…please let it not be such as yourself setting policy for our Ministry of Health.
Hint. Denmark, and Thailand, change their advice and policies on Covid vaccinations according to the latest available data.
[Nice deflection 🙂
And
One more chance for you to put up the support for your misleading and exaggerated comments, from the study you linked to; I have no time today to play your games – Incognito]
Mod note
so this is a really good example of what I was just talking about regarding medical science literacy. I agree with Incognito that the paper doesn't mention heart attacks at all.
It says,
And peri/myocarditis.
None of those are a heart attack.
I don't know if you know this and were using hyperbole. Or if you don't in fact know what a heart attack is. Either way, it's exactly this kind of mistake that undermines the vax concerned argument. Science people and public health people, and those that have faith in them, (the ones that need to be convinced) will never take such arguments seriously when they make such fundamental mistakes.
Here,
I can see how it could be read both ways, but the onus is on you to communicate effectively and clarify.
FWIW, you can't provide the evidence that Incognito is asking for, because it's not there, so just take responsibility for the miscommunication and acknowledge that no heart attacks happened in that study and we can move on.
Let me assure you Rosemary, I was in no way making light of heart attacks. A careful reading of 10.1.1.3.2 will show I was in fact making light of being struck by lightning.
Rosemary.
What is the rate of myocarditis in young people who havn't had a covid shot?
What is the rate of myocarditis in young people who havn't had a covid shot and got covid?
KJT.
Hard to get that information…there are a couple of studies from Israel that counted emergency heart issues incidents before the vaccine roll out and after and found a considerably higher number in the after group.
The Newsroom article I linked to…https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/some-perspective-on-vaccine-side-effects
…has a handy wee chart that might at least tell you what the myocarditis rate due to covid rate they reckoned… 455 per million infections in the 12-17 age group.
The Thai study suggests at least 3000 cases per 1 million second doses of Pfizer.
A bit of a difference.
Exactly! Yet, you’re more than happy & willing to extrapolate your reckons to conclusions without having the info nor the skills & expertise to interpret that info. Any scientist knows that extrapolating (usually in a simplistic uninformed unconditional linear fashion) from a small sample (e.g. a small trial) to a much larger one (e.g. a whole population) is nothing more than a gamble, a stab in the dark and the extrapolated number has such an enormous error (aka uncertainty) that it is essentially meaningless. The way to mitigate this is to have a robust mechanistic model that is validated (aka calibrated), which can be used to make predictions & extrapolations with more acceptable (aka realistic and meaningful) confidence intervals. What you and other amateurs tend to do is essentially hand waving (and barking up wrong trees).
To illustrate the pitfalls of extrapolation:
Mark Twain – Life on the Mississippi
What that tells us is that emergency heart issues increased later in the pandemic. It doesn't tell us why. eg vax, covid, stress, or some other aspect of the group that we can't see.
no, it really doesn't. See explanations above. You are suggesting that, not the study.
that's a great Mark Twain quote. I'm guessing he was writing that in a time when there was a lot of tension in the US between science and the religious power embedded in society? People with a strong attachment to their gut sense and belief/convention struggling with rationality.
(not that I think gut sense is wrong/bad, I see the problem nowdays as it being misapplied and misusing science in the process).
It's obvious: men have more iron in their blood, because they don't lose it through menstruation.
These things are not difficult…
It's because many men have a bolt spot.
😂
Now you know how we get them – respect!
Another reason is that many men wear tin foil hats.
If consensus expert medical opinion shifts, from advocating vaccination against COVID-19 to saying these vaccines do more harm than good, then I'll stop lining up for free boosters. Until then I'll be a fast follower of MoH advice on the best ways to avoid complications from COVID-19 infections – that includes boosters.
If Rosemary's continuing crusade here persuades a few Kiwis not to protect themselves, then that's a shame (and shameful, imho), but it's their choice.
She ought to have had the bat phone with her but hey, I'd be playing up too if I were PM and had Russia camped on the back doorstep.
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1560018591688302595
This is darkly comic, I guess … 2022 in headlines:
"Newshub Live – Emergency Minister Kieran McAnulty gives flooding update, also expected to be quizzed on bullying claims"
"So Minister, apart from all the poor people losing their homes and hope, communities feeling crushed, what about the real news?"
Some dude from Hamilton never won battle of the bands despite being just the cleverest and now everyone, just everyone knows who he is! Rockn rolla!
Kind of annoying the way that google bombards with ads after you buy something.
I started to look for a new desk on the weekend to replace a very small desk that I have suffered with with since 2016 – including working at home during lock-downs. I changed jobs last September just as we went into lockdown again (damnit). So I didn't get a chance to try working from home with a better desk.
As it was a remote job, and I already knew I wasn't productive working at home (probably because of desk and lack of deskspace) I moved to local shared workspace, and was the only one there during that lockdown and since.
The cubicle at the workplace worked perfectly after I got a ultra wide screen and a height adjustable tray for it. Turned out that part of the problem was focal length with my progressives to the screen at eye height. Another part was my home screen resolution was just too damn high for the screen size.
However this workplace has been sold – so I have to move. Time for a new desk for home, and for whatever house we buy over the next few months to get more home office space. I'll try a the new desk.
1.8m x 0.8m white because that is exactly the size that works for me. The old desk was about 1.0m x 0.7m and glass with a fixed screen riser.
Standing desk with dual electric motors. Not because I'm likely to spend much time standing – but because I find that I'm pretty sensitive to desk/seat heights to get the correct hand/eye levels.
So on Tuesday I had a look at the one at showroom that I selected off the net. Got them to get a wide custom corner radius so we don't cripple ourselves when we walk into a corner. Paid for it in Wednesday via the net after confirming the custom change.
Since Tuesday I have been bombarded by ads via google for standing desks. At least half from the place I brought it from.
On monday I brought and paid-for a set of yubikey from yubico. Today the bloody net is starting to push similar devices.
What gets me is that the ads start days after I have already made a ddision an dbrought something.
Who do they cater to – people who always dither?
Grrr… I might have to put a ad-blocker in. Or start just blocking google from tracking me.
Anyway in a few weeks I should have half-way decent class desk available if anyone wants one and they live in Auckland and can pick it up….
Most people don’t need to be as functionally finicky about gear as I have to be. I might even throw in a older high end logitech mouse that will happily work on a glass desk if I can find where I stashed it.
Yeah just having the same experience. I've been doing on-line searches for rear wheel bearings for my 1991 Volvo 360 GLT which I am rebuilding. (Have had one since 1984 when I bought one new, Military sales, when serving in Singapore.)
Now inundated by Google with ads for all manner of wheel bearings!
PS. It the car gets used very little just the odd run once a month, down the coast to the beach. It's kept (along with my 1957 R50 BMW motorbike also recently rebuilt) for sentimental reasons. The Beemer has been ridden halfway round the world, starting in Pretoria South Africa, up through Africa, around the continent, then down through the middle east (as you could do in the late 50's – early 60's) India, then shipped to Perth, across the Nullibor to Melbourne and finally to NZ in wellington when I bought it in the mid 60's.
I hate to think what it'd be like if I started looking other furniture!
Time to don a VPN before browsing for goods and a custom identity. Or even better spoofing one.Who do I dislike….
😈
I was looking for a rug a year or so ago and was bombarded with ads for rugs. Still get them now and then. I bought some shoes and a cell blanket online a few months ago and have had blanket coverage of shoes and blankets ever since. Never ending.
Dr Martens and sheepskin boots for me lol
With it being a great harvest this season, I searched for a grinder to make vaping the medicinal buds easier.
I was surprised to find there are plenty of single men in my area who apparently want to f%#k me…
Nutri
Bullet
Hand with slightly cupped palm down on cutting surface, insert goods between the two, slide in a reasonably large pair of scissors and chop, chop, away using using cupped palm to contain goods. Better than a grinder.
So what do you do when the crop is excessive – does it or the oil freeze?
Search for the medicinal properties of the active ingredients on the net? It would probably be a more interesting read.
I keep away from freezing, well cured, low light and little oxygen. Agee jars are ideal.
"I
refuse tostand by while people are living in cars" Leader of the opposition Jacinda Ardern, 2020The housing crisis could be fixed with the stroke of a pen.
Pick up your pen Prime Minister, stop standing by, make it illegal for perfectly good homes to be left empty.
Fine the owners to pressure them to sell or rent these homes out. Fix the housing crisis with your pen.
Stop standing by.
Prime Minister Ardern. Why are you doing this?
Are the "Wealth Storing" creeps more important to you, than the suffering of families and children living in cars?
People Living In Cars Has Quadrupled Under Labour
https://community.scoop.co.nz/2022/07/people-living-in-cars-has-quadrupled-under-labour-2/
190,000 empty houses in New Zealand. If only 10% of those were inhabited there would be no housing crisis. FFS this is a PM who had a nuclear moment re climate and we're now importing 30% more coal
Like this?
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2007/S00143/barcelona-warns-companies-rent-out-your-empty-apartments-or-we-will-take-them-over.htm
"The city only wants to target large companies. All apartments set for the potential take-over belong to owners of multiple housing units. Moreover, the flats have to be empty for more than two years and there may not be a record of recent power use. This should ensure that second homes are not included.
Vacancies are a worldwide issue. In the US, there are 18.9 million vacant homes – compared to 3.5 million homeless. This means there are more than five times as many vacant apartments as there are homeless people. It is the same in Europe: more than 11 million homes lie empty, while 4 million people have no roof over their heads."
Not only do we have homeless unhoused while homes are empty, we have RSE workers housed in appalling conditions, and areas where people don't come to live even though there are desirable jobs because of the lack of housing.