The World Health Organisation is now warning of 'alarming' Covid transmission across Europe, Canada is losing control of the virus and the UK government's incompetency means they don't have an effective track and trace system.
Meanwhile, Dr John Campbell reports on a vaccine the Chinese have developed in conjunction with the UAE. Sounds highly encouraging..
"The UAE has approved the urgent use of China-developed COVID-19 vaccine after testing on 31,000 volunteers. Phase I and II results in June were successful. 100 percent of volunteers were generating antibodies after two doses in 28 days. Phase 3 started on 16th July. 100,000 injections have been given so far, with no adverse reactions, no infections."
Covid 19 is getting in the way of the proper destiny of western nations and Swiss gnomes et al which is to make money and pretend to be civilised, educated, intelligent and have highly developed intellects, being cultured and sophisticated. This was thought about Europe which brought forward the Enlightenment but then too recently, also the most awful and barbarous behaviour in its culling of human beings sent to slaughter in their millions.
We must not blindly follow other western nations wherever they may lead, and if any doubted that, the way they have handled the Covid-19 pandemic shows the thin cover of committed enlightened behaviour that decorates the surface of the real framework of their societies.
There is much that is good in the culture we adhere to, but thoughtful people need to be aware of the fragility of a good culture, and keep the memory to the fore, of the fictional hero of Ian McKellen's Gandalf saying "You shall not pass".
I refer to my 7 below with a bit from Chris Trotter. He is thinking about how many might want to close off, and how far they might go in trying to limit things agreed as unsatisfactory and other knotty matters.
And thinking about Europe and how concerned about humanity they are, putting Greece into austerity and hardship in the way they handled their financial crisis? Greece also has the cost of a refugee crisis, and has Europe helped them with this? It is ongoing, and particularly hard on the people of Lesbos Island. Recently the crowded refugee camp experienced a devastating fire. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/aid-workers-face-growing-hostility-lesbos-200214215806963.html
Germany is going to take 1500 of the refugees. “They will all leave,” the civil protection minister, Michalis Chrysochoidis, told the Guardian. “Of the roughly 12,000 refugees here currently, I foresee 6,000 being transferred to the mainland by Christmas and the rest by Easter. The people of this island have gone through a lot. They’ve been very patient.”... Chrysochoidis, who flew into Lesbos to help oversee relief efforts, welcomed reports that Germany was prepared to take in as many as 1,500 people from Moria.
These people haven't gone to Greece for a holiday but are fleeing terrible conditions in their home countries: https://helprefugees.org/volunteer-blog/moria-february-2020/ Most camp inhabitants have walked thousands of miles to stand at Turkey’s western shore, usually travelling under the cover of darkness in order to avoid detection. Smugglers then charge large sums to escort them across the Mitilini Strait to the northern beaches of Lesbos in various water crafts. Adverse seas and the fact that many of these boats are not fit for the crossing has resulted in countless lives lost in this corner of the Mediterranean.
Many have had several attempts, previously having been thwarted by border police or abandoning due to dangerous sea conditions. The position and state of the vessel will determine whether it is turned back towards Turkey or guided to Lesbos, establishing a sort of high stakes hide and seek. In extreme instances refugees have sabotaged themselves by puncturing and sinking their own boats in a desperate bid to be rescued and so complete this step of their journey. When the Lesbos shore is finally reached life jackets are discarded and lie piled on some of the islands’ northern beaches. Their vivid tones contrasting the native landscape as a silent narrative of this reality.
Together for Better days – an NGO bringing humanity and compassion into the delivery of humanitarian aid: https://www.betterdays.ngo/
Refugees 4 refugees – offers sustainable support, humanitarian assistance and emergency response to refugees arriving on the shores of the Greek islands – Lesbos and Samos: https://refugee4refugees.gr/
And a spinoff from Brexit. The French were I think talking about the UK paying 5 million pounds I think for their services in keeping migrants from leaving their shores for Brit. Presumably that was thumbs down and now they are clearing their shores of these pesky people. This from The Telegraph for those able to receive it.
The pandemic and Brexit have drawn much of the attention away from what would otherwise be a highly significant crisis – the crossing of the Channel by migrants in small boats. Our reporter spent the day at sea and became the first journalist to document what had long been suspected: that the French Navy is shepherding migrant boats into UK waters and abandoning them.
100,000 injections and no adverse reactions is a load of crap.
There is no way 100,000 people were perfectly healthy for however long they were followed-up after the injection. Even the safest vaccines have some side effects for some people – swollen arm at the injection site, mild fevers etc. Adverse events even happen under placebo treatment.
The Hologram/ R#$@%r Seymour's latest rant on how the govt is wasting 10 of billions of taxpayer dollars every year.Shot himself in the foot saying they will cut $750 million a year in spending less than Nationals $800 million cut in spending.
Dr Wesselbaum Otago University economist says in these times it's an all or nothing approach,on the fiscal side spend ,don't worry about a few % points keep the economy flowing don't cut its blood supply when the patient is hemoraging.
National and ACT's policies would damage our economy as happened in the early 1930's and 1990's when conservative govts fixation with balancing budgets and only letting the foot off 6 months out from an election then cutting the other 21/2 years ie Ruthenomics.
How do the people of the old Dunedin South Electorate feel with an Aucklander been gifted the nomination?
As an Aucklander i go down to Dunedin lots for work and they are salt of earth people down there but i would imagine this has gone down like a cup of cold sick?
Oh how I miss the 'good old days', when crime was low, our society was Christian based, morals were high, no pornography, the Police held in high regard and we directed our violence against those horrible commies in Vietnam.
Why DO the Police wait until all these sick pedos are in the Rest Home before they act? I worked for two years at the Diocese of **** as Financial Officer. Never met such bunch of bigoted, racist, nasty scum as I met there. And of course they were all respectable members of the community and staunch members of the church.
And some people complain of Destiny Church, yet I bet that for all their sins they have helped more people than the above Diocese ever did.
Straight out of the US republican play book. Temporary tax cuts for the lower end for a few months but permanent tax cuts for the favoured. No mention of what services will be cut to provide this. Or do they intend to blow the Cullen fund early? Or reduce the minimum wage because "hey these people are paying less tax".
But this gives Labour some wriggle room when they are back in. They can rejig the thresholds and introduce higher rate bands at the top to skew the distribution back. And they need to grow a spine. Tax cuts at the higher end have been getting enshrined. And our public spending on infrastructure is constantly being kicked down the road. They should promise to thump it up immediately so that we can maintain our public services by what has been cut in the national years.
Judthulhu sez nobody has ever taxed their way out of recession – but both Clinton and Obama raised the top marginal tax rates early in their presidencies as the US was coming out of recession, both leading to long sustained economic booms.
This is National being National. They're like a covers band that only knows three songs — roads, tax cuts, stick it to the gangs… and their encore is kicking beneficiaries. The only thing I find consistently surprising is that people keep voting for them. They're fucking hopeless.
I'd much rather stay on 30% and have it pumped into health and education than get an extra $45 a week.
To be honest I'd probably just waste it on takeaway food for two kids. That would be pointless considering it could go towards helping many instead of just two.
Very interesting Swordfish. This story about the constant work for the betterment of NZ society is heartening and amazing. I am aware that you get nothing if you do nothing and to see so much of what was achieved by this constant work and commitment to left causes, now left to roll over a cliff just breaks my heart. We must conserve what we have left that is good for the present times, and continue the work.
I am interested in the last para. I have Robin Hyde's books but have yet to really get into her life. So Sub-zero please write away and let us have more. She, Margaret Moth, Ettie Rout, Margaret Thorn are luminaries that have lodged in my mind. Don't know of Phyllis Symons; and 'tooting tradition'?
Two last items of interest … seeing I'm obviously intent on heading down this narcissistic road of forebear hero-worship … social historians & the Literati may be interested to know that my grandmother was a longtime friend of Poet/Novelist/Journalist Iris Wilkinson (aka Robin Hyde) & my Mother has one or two very early memories of Iris … my grandmother was also the cousin of Phyllis Symons, murdered in 1931, buried near Mt Victoria Tunnel & frequently discussed in the media over recent years in the context of the tooting tradition. Really interesting – and quite poignant – details & social history surrounding this story that are known only to the family … something I intend to write on in the near future.
Comes up in the media regularly in relation to the Mt Vic Road Tunnel's Tooting Tradition in Wellington. Phyllis's youngest sister only died quite recently & she had some really poignant family detail about the case & its rather awful fallout.
About 15 years ago, I also did some quite extensive research through contemporary newspaper stories on the trial (and was able to give previously unknown details to Phylis’s younger sister).
They were a very bright & attractive family … the press were clearly particularly taken with Phyllis’s oldest sister at the time … poor Phyllis was considered the somewhat slow & less pretty one.
Chris Trotter is doing some 'grinding' on our future political leanings and learnings. Here are two paras where he poses questions to dismiss if you don't want to be troubled and uncomfortable.
Increasingly, this will be the choice confronting those coming of age in the 2020s. Embrace Neoliberalism’s belief in racial and sexual equality; adopt its secular and scientific world view; and cultivate the technocratic, multicultural, global outlook required of those who keep the machinery of hyper-capitalism humming.
Or, throw your support behind the defenders of the national people’s community; agitate for an end to free-trade and globalisation; and use any means necessary (including violence) to uphold the social, sexual and racial hierarchies of your ancestors. That is to say – become a fascist.
Neither of these options has anything to offer the poor. Neither of them will restrain the rich. Neither will do anything like enough, or anything at all, to combat climate change. Neoliberalism believes itself to be rational. Fascism claims to reflect the natural order. But the followers of both ideologies remain content to be carried on the backs of human-beings whose rights and aspirations they do not consider worthy of serious regard. It was to these people that the socialists used to speak.
For one thing, the concept that neoliberalism means a belief in anything other than complete economic deregulation seems a bit of a stretch, let alone seeing Roger Douglas as a hero of gender and ethnic equality.
But does it show that neoliberalism as one side that will appear to encompass all including the woke? That seems to me that is the point of the overview.
Well, no, that paragraph clearly says "Neoliberalism’s belief in racial and sexual equality". Beliefs in equity/equality have as much to do with neoliberalism as the colour of your coat has to do with your height. He might as well say "tall people wear green coats" as "neoliberalism believes in equality".
Perhaps he should have said neoliberalism's use of racial and sexual equality beliefs as a rallying point for attention, and business creation and profit. For instance, business was able to make money out of the psychedelic movement, and loves anything new. The masses get excited, and business sells them Tshirts!
At the moment the BBC head is setting all sorts of new standards in line with current young adult obsessions. It is like the BBC is bowing to the wave of outrage that has arisen in the last few years.
To use an older terminology, it's possible to be economically neoliberal and socially conservative.
Nationalist and neoliberal don't go together happily, but the nats show that the two can work together for a time.
But nowhere in the two trotter paragraphs was workers' rights or socialism. Advocating for an economic underclass is more consistent with advocating for other social underclasses than social conservatism. Sure, cognitive dissonance about that is strong in some sectors (we're all equal comrades, but who always ends up making the tea afterthe meeting?), but advocating for other people becomes a habit.
His thesis does have merit. Use of the divide & rule strategy is trad, of course, so individualism producing the woke variant is handy for controllers.
Hyper-capitalism is now ready to embrace the “woke” – and heaven help any employee who declines to polish her corporate employer’s public image by challenging, even privately (via Facebook, Instagram or Twitter) the new orthodoxy.
From a Green perspective, the biodiversity principle and multiculturalism both support the trend. Common ground, then…
Don't read me as a defender of the faith, but there is an ideology within neoliberalism: market forces make the economy efficient. I think that was the rationale that captured the rogernomes.
So deregulation was merely a means to that ideological end. Bolger has learnt from application of the theory: doesn't deliver benefits promised. Roger is still staying mum. Will he come clean before he dies?
True. Yet most players in the political game are binary, so they will naturally line up as soldiers on either side of the culture war. Trotter doesn't write to catalyse solutions. To do so, he would have to give weight to a third alternative. It's the path to the future, always. Problem-solving is not in his nature. He's a commentator only.
Even if he just noted what he observed and wrote about it with some analysis and critique, he is doing something worthwhile. We often can't see what is on the end of our noses. A wart!
Trotter barely looks beyond the inside of his own eyelids these days.
I'm almost tempted to read the piece just to see if the rest of it is as tepid as the quoted paragraphs.
It does make one wonder what side he thinks his "Waitakere Man" is on, and whether Labour should be going for that particular voting segment. Seems more New Conservative territory lol
One thing – he introduces new ideas. To a lot of the comfortably off NZs I know it would be like revolutionary material, their idea of discussion doesn't go beyond the material and personal.
Not sure if this has been covered but the Elevator Pitch is interesting. Jacinda's was the most credible but I can't find it. Judith seems tired and without conviction.
Oh look, turns out that the epidemiologist who doesn't want us to eliminate covid has a competing interest: "providing paid advice to Auckland International Airport related to health risks associated with covid-19".
It's the same old solution. Just make sure people over 60-65 lock themselves down for the duration of the pandemic, that's the only sure fire way to achieve it.
PLEASE STOP BEING MEAN TO THE GREENS, AND LET'S GET RID OF MOTOR CARS AND TRUCKS FOR GOOD!
Power to the people (and the animals).
No more anything spent on Electric Vehicle research or manufacture which would identify with beautiful Aotearoa. Sure, I don't think that we do anyway, but let's be ambassadors to the globe and rally to put paid to all of the trouble motor vehicles have caused us, permanently.
The rest of the world would fall in into line because we are one of the most respected nations on the planet, and they will listen to us.
Only horse/cart, horse/buggy, bicycle and tricycle research, development and resourcing should be allowed in Aotearoa (AKA Godzone).
We need to go back about two to three hundred years when things were simple and where every inhabitant appeared charitable and community supportive with one another.
A time when they all knew who the chiefs were and what their own respective roles and positions were. That is, before technology and foreign ideas wrecked it for them all.
Noteworthy is that there are at least 9 million electric bicycles in the category of ride and charge that we know about around the Pacific region already. With just a little more CO2 emitted, we could increase this a hundred fold, so as to have clean and green bicycles that would last for decades. We could find ways to attach small carrier carts to the bicycles to cart items, inter suburb or intracity.
I know that some people in the Ruapehu district associated with the Seventh Day Adventists and the Hope Foundation have been working with a prototype of this for some months now.
Another has taken to getting as many demerit points as she can by collecting speeding tickets. Presumably she wants to have her drivers licence taken off her because she is so fed up with this modern day rat race reliance.
I feel that in relation to true socialism and reverting back to; "A La Naturale" transport and domestic methods, we're high on a wire with the world in our sight.
It just takes imagination and AOTEAROA WILL POWER!
It could be just like in the good old days. Adopt a "can do" approach and you can do almost anything K1W1.
There is a wealth of opportunity for peddle powered runabout and dinghy motors (as an addition to oars) for our foreshore, river way and lake transport needs.
You know; it is the major vested interests as well as both the intelligencia and the bourgeois from our own various bordered metropolis bourgs who have become comfortable with the convenience of modern day technologies, including transport infrastructure. And the are screwing it up for all of us.
Look at the Amish, they at least try to walk (or ride) the talk.
Come on K1W1, let's get our hands really dirty in the soil and get ourselves superbly fit by throwing away all of these 20th and 21st century luxuries.
Get governmental to seize all motor powered vehicles and convert them to emergency housing for the needy, wind powered coastal transport or prison accommodations for those who resist.
Get rid of petrol or electric lawn mowers as well.
Build more maternity hospitals and breed like there is no tomorrow so that we can produce fine farm specimens to work the fields and on the farms.
Man, the possibilities are limitless.
We could reserve about two thirds of arable land for grass and fodder to feed the horses, sheep and cattle with, and the remainder for growing kai (such as carrots and other veggies).
Broccoli also. No more eating of animals either!
Never again let any store assistant or green grocer tell us; "There is no f…… broccoli"
The other third of arable land for orchards, berry farms and vineyards so we can produce beautiful fruits for consumption, juices, potatoes, hemp, Mary J and copious quantities of precursor alcohol product for a wealth of alcoholic beverage so that most of us can be as happy as sand boys (and sand girls).
But it starts with US, and it starts NOW.
Air New Zealand has taken a noble first step by parking up some of it's fleet in the desert, mothball fashion. And now we need a good home run (economically, perhaps a 1929 scenario) so that they will have the impetus to follow through and park the entire fleet up.
This is surely the home grown K1W1 spirit, especially from what I've observed throughout rural NZ in small towns in and around the King Country, South Waikato and the Ruapehu District. They may talk grand tourist plans and modernization, but deep down inside they really do foster the simple life and the "back to basic" spirit. They really do not want too many outsiders or foreigners interfering with them and theirs doing things their way; the proper way.
Why can we not pick up our pitch forks, our shovels and our ploughshares behind the coulter?
We can then form a massive Campaign for Modern Technology Disablement and organize hikoi as well as home guard units to repel any sod who has any intention of coming to these shores to either introduce or support any of these Technologies of Mass Distraction and Destruction.
I'm about to stop posting because I have deliberated on collecting up all of my computer related material, my entertainment equipment, all of my household appliances including whiteware). I consider that I might only be keeping earthenware and greyware, and I may well gift the rest back to Mother Nature. Back to the good earth.
We must all strive to be good earth worms, my comrades.
Live humble, live simple and let hope, faith and charity be our guiding lights and our Matariki.
We could find ways to attach small carrier carts to the bicycles to cart items, inter suburb or intracity.
I know that some people in the Ruapehu district associated with the Seventh Day Adventists and the Hope Foundation have been working with a prototype of this for some months now.
The snaps shown in the twitter feed you provided are purrrfect examples of what can be achieved!
Innovation and willpower can put K1W1 on the right track to total self reliance, and exclusive of dependency on any other nation.
From statements I hear being bandied around in both political and corporate Aotearoa circles, we are almost there already, (total independence, that is).
I bet the rest of the world is jealous of our achievements and of our assets. Unblemished, unencumbered and pure to the max is what many would be uttering.
I thought I would let you know that yesterday I volunteered for the vaccine trials for Covid-19 held in the FarmAc store near us. The vaccine is one that was created in Russia. I received my first shot yesterday at 4:00 pm, and I wanted to let you know that it’s completely safe with иo side effects whatsoeveя, and that I feelshκι χoρoshό я чувствую себя немного странно и я думаю, что вытащил ослиные уши. Und wadka
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Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
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We don't know how lucky we are.
The World Health Organisation is now warning of 'alarming' Covid transmission across Europe, Canada is losing control of the virus and the UK government's incompetency means they don't have an effective track and trace system.
Meanwhile, Dr John Campbell reports on a vaccine the Chinese have developed in conjunction with the UAE. Sounds highly encouraging..
"The UAE has approved the urgent use of China-developed COVID-19 vaccine after testing on 31,000 volunteers. Phase I and II results in June were successful. 100 percent of volunteers were generating antibodies after two doses in 28 days. Phase 3 started on 16th July. 100,000 injections have been given so far, with no adverse reactions, no infections."
The part of the video is at 26:45
Covid 19 is getting in the way of the proper destiny of western nations and Swiss gnomes et al which is to make money and pretend to be civilised, educated, intelligent and have highly developed intellects, being cultured and sophisticated. This was thought about Europe which brought forward the Enlightenment but then too recently, also the most awful and barbarous behaviour in its culling of human beings sent to slaughter in their millions.
We must not blindly follow other western nations wherever they may lead, and if any doubted that, the way they have handled the Covid-19 pandemic shows the thin cover of committed enlightened behaviour that decorates the surface of the real framework of their societies.
There is much that is good in the culture we adhere to, but thoughtful people need to be aware of the fragility of a good culture, and keep the memory to the fore, of the fictional hero of Ian McKellen's Gandalf saying "You shall not pass".
Well put greywarshark.
There is more support around for ‘closing off the Mountain pass’ than pundits and business lobbyists might imagine, or enjoy contemplating.
I refer to my 7 below with a bit from Chris Trotter. He is thinking about how many might want to close off, and how far they might go in trying to limit things agreed as unsatisfactory and other knotty matters.
And thinking about Europe and how concerned about humanity they are, putting Greece into austerity and hardship in the way they handled their financial crisis? Greece also has the cost of a refugee crisis, and has Europe helped them with this? It is ongoing, and particularly hard on the people of Lesbos Island. Recently the crowded refugee camp experienced a devastating fire.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/aid-workers-face-growing-hostility-lesbos-200214215806963.html
Germany is going to take 1500 of the refugees.
“They will all leave,” the civil protection minister, Michalis Chrysochoidis, told the Guardian. “Of the roughly 12,000 refugees here currently, I foresee 6,000 being transferred to the mainland by Christmas and the rest by Easter. The people of this island have gone through a lot. They’ve been very patient.”...
Chrysochoidis, who flew into Lesbos to help oversee relief efforts, welcomed reports that Germany was prepared to take in as many as 1,500 people from Moria.
The German coalition government on Tuesday agreed to take in a total of 1,553 people from 408 families whose protected status has been confirmed by Greek authorities, Angela Merkel’s spokesperson said. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/15/after-fire-greece-vows-to-empty-lesbos-of-all-refugees-by-easter
These people haven't gone to Greece for a holiday but are fleeing terrible conditions in their home countries:
https://helprefugees.org/volunteer-blog/moria-february-2020/
Most camp inhabitants have walked thousands of miles to stand at Turkey’s western shore, usually travelling under the cover of darkness in order to avoid detection. Smugglers then charge large sums to escort them across the Mitilini Strait to the northern beaches of Lesbos in various water crafts. Adverse seas and the fact that many of these boats are not fit for the crossing has resulted in countless lives lost in this corner of the Mediterranean.
Many have had several attempts, previously having been thwarted by border police or abandoning due to dangerous sea conditions. The position and state of the vessel will determine whether it is turned back towards Turkey or guided to Lesbos, establishing a sort of high stakes hide and seek. In extreme instances refugees have sabotaged themselves by puncturing and sinking their own boats in a desperate bid to be rescued and so complete this step of their journey. When the Lesbos shore is finally reached life jackets are discarded and lie piled on some of the islands’ northern beaches. Their vivid tones contrasting the native landscape as a silent narrative of this reality.
Want to help:
Kitrinos healthcare – a British charity providing medical care:
https://www.kitrinoshealthcare.org/
Movement on the ground – responding to humanitarian crises worldwide:
https://movementontheground.com/
Together for Better days – an NGO bringing humanity and compassion into the delivery of humanitarian aid:
https://www.betterdays.ngo/
Refugees 4 refugees – offers sustainable support, humanitarian assistance and emergency response to refugees arriving on the shores of the Greek islands – Lesbos and Samos:
https://refugee4refugees.gr/
And a spinoff from Brexit. The French were I think talking about the UK paying 5 million pounds I think for their services in keeping migrants from leaving their shores for Brit. Presumably that was thumbs down and now they are clearing their shores of these pesky people. This from The Telegraph for those able to receive it.
The pandemic and Brexit have drawn much of the attention away from what would otherwise be a highly significant crisis – the crossing of the Channel by migrants in small boats. Our reporter spent the day at sea and became the first journalist to document what had long been suspected: that the French Navy is shepherding migrant boats into UK waters and abandoning them.
100,000 injections and no adverse reactions is a load of crap.
There is no way 100,000 people were perfectly healthy for however long they were followed-up after the injection. Even the safest vaccines have some side effects for some people – swollen arm at the injection site, mild fevers etc. Adverse events even happen under placebo treatment.
The Hologram/ R#$@%r Seymour's latest rant on how the govt is wasting 10 of billions of taxpayer dollars every year.Shot himself in the foot saying they will cut $750 million a year in spending less than Nationals $800 million cut in spending.
Dr Wesselbaum Otago University economist says in these times it's an all or nothing approach,on the fiscal side spend ,don't worry about a few % points keep the economy flowing don't cut its blood supply when the patient is hemoraging.
National and ACT's policies would damage our economy as happened in the early 1930's and 1990's when conservative govts fixation with balancing budgets and only letting the foot off 6 months out from an election then cutting the other 21/2 years ie Ruthenomics.
I note that ACT doesn't cut parliamentary salaries!!!
(Sorry abt the name!! Deleted)
Genuine Question.
How do the people of the old Dunedin South Electorate feel with an Aucklander been gifted the nomination?
As an Aucklander i go down to Dunedin lots for work and they are salt of earth people down there but i would imagine this has gone down like a cup of cold sick?
Oh how I miss the 'good old days', when crime was low, our society was Christian based, morals were high, no pornography, the Police held in high regard and we directed our violence against those horrible commies in Vietnam.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12365950
Why DO the Police wait until all these sick pedos are in the Rest Home before they act? I worked for two years at the Diocese of **** as Financial Officer. Never met such bunch of bigoted, racist, nasty scum as I met there. And of course they were all respectable members of the community and staunch members of the church.
And some people complain of Destiny Church, yet I bet that for all their sins they have helped more people than the above Diocese ever did.
There was pornography alright and one brave soul went public in condemning it.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/43915/patricia-bartlett-at-an-indecent-publications-tribunal-meeting
National's answer to everything… tax cuts. Who would have thought?
So far we had:
Really inspirational.
and not just tax cuts but tax cuts for those who need them least and little for those who need them most
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/107118/national-walks-away-debt-target-committing-income-tax-cuts-16-months-and-temporary-tax
Yes, of course. Only for the (mainly white, male, entitled) middle class people. They have to strengthen their essential voter base.
Straight out of the US republican play book. Temporary tax cuts for the lower end for a few months but permanent tax cuts for the favoured. No mention of what services will be cut to provide this. Or do they intend to blow the Cullen fund early? Or reduce the minimum wage because "hey these people are paying less tax".
But this gives Labour some wriggle room when they are back in. They can rejig the thresholds and introduce higher rate bands at the top to skew the distribution back. And they need to grow a spine. Tax cuts at the higher end have been getting enshrined. And our public spending on infrastructure is constantly being kicked down the road. They should promise to thump it up immediately so that we can maintain our public services by what has been cut in the national years.
https://www.twitter.com/ClintVSmith/status/1306738468035334145
So tax cuts for the wealthy then?
Those people won't need it for expenses so it won't get spent.
Another failed "Trickle Down" theory.
Tax cuts are always for the wealthy even if they're only on the lowest bracket.
Its not a Trickle Down theory at all, its Trickle Up, it works really well and National damn well know it.
They just dress it up as Trickle Down so that people will accept it.
Judthulhu sez nobody has ever taxed their way out of recession – but both Clinton and Obama raised the top marginal tax rates early in their presidencies as the US was coming out of recession, both leading to long sustained economic booms.
This is National being National. They're like a covers band that only knows three songs — roads, tax cuts, stick it to the gangs… and their encore is kicking beneficiaries. The only thing I find consistently surprising is that people keep voting for them. They're fucking hopeless.
Yup, and the ones who really need help miss out.
I'd much rather stay on 30% and have it pumped into health and education than get an extra $45 a week.
To be honest I'd probably just waste it on takeaway food for two kids. That would be pointless considering it could go towards helping many instead of just two.
Anniversary of the Savage Govt's First State House Opening … a personal memoir
https://sub-zero-politics.blogspot.com/2020/09/first-state-house-anniversary-personal.html
Very interesting Swordfish. This story about the constant work for the betterment of NZ society is heartening and amazing. I am aware that you get nothing if you do nothing and to see so much of what was achieved by this constant work and commitment to left causes, now left to roll over a cliff just breaks my heart. We must conserve what we have left that is good for the present times, and continue the work.
I am interested in the last para. I have Robin Hyde's books but have yet to really get into her life. So Sub-zero please write away and let us have more. She, Margaret Moth, Ettie Rout, Margaret Thorn are luminaries that have lodged in my mind. Don't know of Phyllis Symons; and 'tooting tradition'?
Two last items of interest … seeing I'm obviously intent on heading down this narcissistic road of forebear hero-worship … social historians & the Literati may be interested to know that my grandmother was a longtime friend of Poet/Novelist/Journalist Iris Wilkinson (aka Robin Hyde) & my Mother has one or two very early memories of Iris … my grandmother was also the cousin of Phyllis Symons, murdered in 1931, buried near Mt Victoria Tunnel & frequently discussed in the media over recent years in the context of the tooting tradition. Really interesting – and quite poignant – details & social history surrounding this story that are known only to the family … something I intend to write on in the near future.
Cheers, Grey.
This is a good summary for the uninitiated:
http://undergroundhistory.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-tragedy-of-phyllis-symons.html
Comes up in the media regularly in relation to the Mt Vic Road Tunnel's Tooting Tradition in Wellington. Phyllis's youngest sister only died quite recently & she had some really poignant family detail about the case & its rather awful fallout.
About 15 years ago, I also did some quite extensive research through contemporary newspaper stories on the trial (and was able to give previously unknown details to Phylis’s younger sister).
They were a very bright & attractive family … the press were clearly particularly taken with Phyllis’s oldest sister at the time … poor Phyllis was considered the somewhat slow & less pretty one.
Thanks Swordfish – interesting history for me to pursue.
Thanks Swordfish, a very interesting read.
Chris Trotter is doing some 'grinding' on our future political leanings and learnings. Here are two paras where he poses questions to dismiss if you don't want to be troubled and uncomfortable.
Increasingly, this will be the choice confronting those coming of age in the 2020s. Embrace Neoliberalism’s belief in racial and sexual equality; adopt its secular and scientific world view; and cultivate the technocratic, multicultural, global outlook required of those who keep the machinery of hyper-capitalism humming.
Or, throw your support behind the defenders of the national people’s community; agitate for an end to free-trade and globalisation; and use any means necessary (including violence) to uphold the social, sexual and racial hierarchies of your ancestors. That is to say – become a fascist.
Neither of these options has anything to offer the poor. Neither of them will restrain the rich. Neither will do anything like enough, or anything at all, to combat climate change. Neoliberalism believes itself to be rational. Fascism claims to reflect the natural order. But the followers of both ideologies remain content to be carried on the backs of human-beings whose rights and aspirations they do not consider worthy of serious regard. It was to these people that the socialists used to speak.
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2020/09/uncomfortable-choices.html
Talk about a bullshit dichotomy.
For one thing, the concept that neoliberalism means a belief in anything other than complete economic deregulation seems a bit of a stretch, let alone seeing Roger Douglas as a hero of gender and ethnic equality.
But does it show that neoliberalism as one side that will appear to encompass all including the woke? That seems to me that is the point of the overview.
Well, no, that paragraph clearly says "Neoliberalism’s belief in racial and sexual equality". Beliefs in equity/equality have as much to do with neoliberalism as the colour of your coat has to do with your height. He might as well say "tall people wear green coats" as "neoliberalism believes in equality".
There are socialists who are awake, too.
Perhaps he should have said neoliberalism's use of racial and sexual equality beliefs as a rallying point for attention, and business creation and profit. For instance, business was able to make money out of the psychedelic movement, and loves anything new. The masses get excited, and business sells them Tshirts!
At the moment the BBC head is setting all sorts of new standards in line with current young adult obsessions. It is like the BBC is bowing to the wave of outrage that has arisen in the last few years.
But even that wouldn't have suited his dichotomy.
To use an older terminology, it's possible to be economically neoliberal and socially conservative.
Nationalist and neoliberal don't go together happily, but the nats show that the two can work together for a time.
But nowhere in the two trotter paragraphs was workers' rights or socialism. Advocating for an economic underclass is more consistent with advocating for other social underclasses than social conservatism. Sure, cognitive dissonance about that is strong in some sectors (we're all equal comrades, but who always ends up making the tea afterthe meeting?), but advocating for other people becomes a habit.
His thesis does have merit. Use of the divide & rule strategy is trad, of course, so individualism producing the woke variant is handy for controllers.
From a Green perspective, the biodiversity principle and multiculturalism both support the trend. Common ground, then…
Don't read me as a defender of the faith, but there is an ideology within neoliberalism: market forces make the economy efficient. I think that was the rationale that captured the rogernomes.
So deregulation was merely a means to that ideological end. Bolger has learnt from application of the theory: doesn't deliver benefits promised. Roger is still staying mum. Will he come clean before he dies?
a bullshit dichotomy
True. Yet most players in the political game are binary, so they will naturally line up as soldiers on either side of the culture war. Trotter doesn't write to catalyse solutions. To do so, he would have to give weight to a third alternative. It's the path to the future, always. Problem-solving is not in his nature. He's a commentator only.
Even if he just noted what he observed and wrote about it with some analysis and critique, he is doing something worthwhile. We often can't see what is on the end of our noses. A wart!
Trotter barely looks beyond the inside of his own eyelids these days.
I'm almost tempted to read the piece just to see if the rest of it is as tepid as the quoted paragraphs.
It does make one wonder what side he thinks his "Waitakere Man" is on, and whether Labour should be going for that particular voting segment. Seems more New Conservative territory lol
One thing – he introduces new ideas. To a lot of the comfortably off NZs I know it would be like revolutionary material, their idea of discussion doesn't go beyond the material and personal.
Not sure if this has been covered but the Elevator Pitch is interesting. Jacinda's was the most credible but I can't find it. Judith seems tired and without conviction.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/425790/the-elevator-pitch-can-a-politician-convince-you-to-vote-for-them-in-a-lift
Jacinda
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/426377/the-elevator-pitch-jacinda-ardern-reveals-who-she-d-poach-from-nz-first
Judith was lame – we love "the people"!!
Jacinda at least enjoyed the silliness of the situation; elevator-pitch is pretty daft!
Oh look, turns out that the epidemiologist who doesn't want us to eliminate covid has a competing interest: "providing paid advice to Auckland International Airport related to health risks associated with covid-19".
There are so many kind experts sharing their love around without prejudice, one must admire them for their service to humankind.
It's the same old solution. Just make sure people over 60-65 lock themselves down for the duration of the pandemic, that's the only sure fire way to achieve it.
Doesn't do anything for the people in their fifties and younger who have long term health problems because of it, or even been killed by it.
Remember this?
Yes, I do.
Probably the reason National calls it "Temporary Tax Cut".
and the nats have given themselves an out with the temporary tag.
lol oh dear
To be fair to Judith, that was in Alert Level 1 and ‘events’ have overtaken her thinking. In other words, the polls.
PLEASE STOP BEING MEAN TO THE GREENS, AND LET'S GET RID OF MOTOR CARS AND TRUCKS FOR GOOD!
Power to the people (and the animals).
No more anything spent on Electric Vehicle research or manufacture which would identify with beautiful Aotearoa. Sure, I don't think that we do anyway, but let's be ambassadors to the globe and rally to put paid to all of the trouble motor vehicles have caused us, permanently.
The rest of the world would fall in into line because we are one of the most respected nations on the planet, and they will listen to us.
Only horse/cart, horse/buggy, bicycle and tricycle research, development and resourcing should be allowed in Aotearoa (AKA Godzone).
We need to go back about two to three hundred years when things were simple and where every inhabitant appeared charitable and community supportive with one another.
A time when they all knew who the chiefs were and what their own respective roles and positions were. That is, before technology and foreign ideas wrecked it for them all.
Noteworthy is that there are at least 9 million electric bicycles in the category of ride and charge that we know about around the Pacific region already. With just a little more CO2 emitted, we could increase this a hundred fold, so as to have clean and green bicycles that would last for decades. We could find ways to attach small carrier carts to the bicycles to cart items, inter suburb or intracity.
I know that some people in the Ruapehu district associated with the Seventh Day Adventists and the Hope Foundation have been working with a prototype of this for some months now.
Another has taken to getting as many demerit points as she can by collecting speeding tickets. Presumably she wants to have her drivers licence taken off her because she is so fed up with this modern day rat race reliance.
I feel that in relation to true socialism and reverting back to; "A La Naturale" transport and domestic methods, we're high on a wire with the world in our sight.
It just takes imagination and AOTEAROA WILL POWER!
It could be just like in the good old days. Adopt a "can do" approach and you can do almost anything K1W1.
There is a wealth of opportunity for peddle powered runabout and dinghy motors (as an addition to oars) for our foreshore, river way and lake transport needs.
You know; it is the major vested interests as well as both the intelligencia and the bourgeois from our own various bordered metropolis bourgs who have become comfortable with the convenience of modern day technologies, including transport infrastructure. And the are screwing it up for all of us.
Look at the Amish, they at least try to walk (or ride) the talk.
Come on K1W1, let's get our hands really dirty in the soil and get ourselves superbly fit by throwing away all of these 20th and 21st century luxuries.
Get governmental to seize all motor powered vehicles and convert them to emergency housing for the needy, wind powered coastal transport or prison accommodations for those who resist.
Get rid of petrol or electric lawn mowers as well.
Build more maternity hospitals and breed like there is no tomorrow so that we can produce fine farm specimens to work the fields and on the farms.
Man, the possibilities are limitless.
We could reserve about two thirds of arable land for grass and fodder to feed the horses, sheep and cattle with, and the remainder for growing kai (such as carrots and other veggies).
Broccoli also. No more eating of animals either!
Never again let any store assistant or green grocer tell us; "There is no f…… broccoli"
The other third of arable land for orchards, berry farms and vineyards so we can produce beautiful fruits for consumption, juices, potatoes, hemp, Mary J and copious quantities of precursor alcohol product for a wealth of alcoholic beverage so that most of us can be as happy as sand boys (and sand girls).
But it starts with US, and it starts NOW.
Air New Zealand has taken a noble first step by parking up some of it's fleet in the desert, mothball fashion. And now we need a good home run (economically, perhaps a 1929 scenario) so that they will have the impetus to follow through and park the entire fleet up.
This is surely the home grown K1W1 spirit, especially from what I've observed throughout rural NZ in small towns in and around the King Country, South Waikato and the Ruapehu District. They may talk grand tourist plans and modernization, but deep down inside they really do foster the simple life and the "back to basic" spirit. They really do not want too many outsiders or foreigners interfering with them and theirs doing things their way; the proper way.
Why can we not pick up our pitch forks, our shovels and our ploughshares behind the coulter?
We can then form a massive Campaign for Modern Technology Disablement and organize hikoi as well as home guard units to repel any sod who has any intention of coming to these shores to either introduce or support any of these Technologies of Mass Distraction and Destruction.
I'm about to stop posting because I have deliberated on collecting up all of my computer related material, my entertainment equipment, all of my household appliances including whiteware). I consider that I might only be keeping earthenware and greyware, and I may well gift the rest back to Mother Nature. Back to the good earth.
We must all strive to be good earth worms, my comrades.
Live humble, live simple and let hope, faith and charity be our guiding lights and our Matariki.
Really? Here's a few ideas:
Yes, Draco T Bastard.
Thank you.
The snaps shown in the twitter feed you provided are purrrfect examples of what can be achieved!
Innovation and willpower can put K1W1 on the right track to total self reliance, and exclusive of dependency on any other nation.
From statements I hear being bandied around in both political and corporate Aotearoa circles, we are almost there already, (total independence, that is).
I bet the rest of the world is jealous of our achievements and of our assets. Unblemished, unencumbered and pure to the max is what many would be uttering.
I thought I would let you know that yesterday I volunteered for the vaccine trials for Covid-19 held in the FarmAc store near us. The vaccine is one that was created in Russia. I received my first shot yesterday at 4:00 pm, and I wanted to let you know that it’s completely safe with иo side effects whatsoeveя, and that I feelshκι χoρoshό я чувствую себя немного странно и я думаю, что вытащил ослиные уши. Und wadka
Aw shit, are you going to start getting on my case now like Adrian Thornton and francesca and Brigid and the mozzie?
You'll be fine – as long as you didn't have the tea and biscuit afterwards.
My partner says that isn't original :((
However it is bloody funny.
Ouch. How do you make it smaller? Bloody funny.
You did what with the donkey?
Hope you enjoy the ride!