The guts seems to be that her electorate secretary was negotiating a wedding venue on her behalf. I gather an electorate secretary is a public official (?) so the onion reckons it's an attempt by the PM to privatise the official's time.
The PM has been adept in responding that it was help from a friend in their own time, and any reward is private. Hard for the onion to progress the issue now, eh? One would have thought that the onion, acting as media, ought to have interviewed the official to discover the facts. Too elementary?
If the venue owner has a signed agreement for the hire of the venue (which I doubt he does) and it includes the $5k cancellation clause, then they should pay up. If he doesn't then he is just bitter and twisted and should 'take a hike'.
The tax payer union needs to check their facts before making accusations they cant back up. If they are trying to say the secretary did it all on company time then they need to have proof of that (which I doubt they do).
Seems to be the thing these days, just shout the loudest without any proof, like Winston about Harry tam.
Not at all. Most of these allegations never make it beyond innuendo. The TPUs inability to influence govt policy doesn't seem to count against them at all.
Identity politics can get surreal at times. Latest saga involves a bat being re-categorised as a bird, with the intent to get the bat to win the bird of the year award.
A blatant attempt to discriminate against birds? Using the shapeshifting strategy was clever, but maybe not clever enough to succeed. Perhaps its a policy of affirmative action to rehabilitate the political profile of bats. Chemists going batshit in Wuhan did rather give them a bad name as guilty originators of Covid.
So we wait with baited breath to see if the judges take the bait and decide yes, it flies so it must be a bird. They could then issue a fatwa declaring bats to have minority representation rights…
Young pukekos, like most young animals, like to play, & they are very inventive. All the many pooklets I have now watched grow up into adolescents & then young adults have devised their own individual games & "toys".
1. 2 more weeks at Level 3 lite in Auckland (they will hope to keep cases to no more than 100 a day – having capability to contact at up to 180 a day).
2. retaining the Auckland border until December – with 90% first dose nationwide within weeks and meeting the follow up target of 90% second dose nationwide by then (3-6 week gap).
3. announce a plan to allow vaccinated people to return from overseas to home isolation in Auckland during November (using the managed isolation spots in Auckland for those of other areas, or for the infected).
They will consider a circuit breaker tightening today (for mine they either do it now, or after it gets to 100 day – doing this in November so it stays under the 180 level that month as they get the rest of Enzed to 90/90).
I will be seriously fucked off if the government tightens restrictions without concurrently announcing universal "no jab, no job" and universal "no jab, no entry" policies, along with making it clear that when (not if) our medical facilities get overwhelmed, unvaccinated covid patients are first to get triaged out.
Let's be clear, our problem now is the willfully unvaccinated. Everyone that is at least grudgingly willing to get vaccinated has had ample opportunity to get their first dose at least, if not their second as well.
We've had capacity for over 90,000 vaccinations a day continuously since late August. A very rough tally up suggests that somewhere around 800,000 of those potential vaccinations were not taken up. There's less than 600,000 eligibles that have yet to get their first dose. We've got plenty of stock of vaccines in our freezers.
Everyone that's eligible and not yet had their first dose is willfully in that state, and is a major part of the problem.
Totally agree, at some stage people have to take responsibility for themselves and either enjoy or suffer the consequences of their actions – you can only lead a horse to water for so long.
You do realise don't you that both you and Andre are advocating that the Government should go in for genocide?
Kill off the members of the Maori race is what you are proposing, at least according to the leader of the Maori Party, the coat tail MP Ms Ngarewa-Packer who says
'“If the government is prepared to open the borders as soon as our country is 90% vaccinated, they are willingly holding Māori up to be the sacrificial lambs. It is a modern form genocide.”.
Those are her words of course. My personal view coincides with what you are saying.
Given no government in the world has universal no jab no job or universal no jab no entry, you should expect to be disappointed. For jobs, it would require a workplace environment and public facing roles to be relevant and no entry for health care or (Level 4) essentials has already been ruled out.
Soon there will be opening up reserved for the vaxxed (2 doses plus 2 weeks) – the problem will be managing that with children under 12 not vaxxed (libraries, zoo, pools) while containing spread.
Everyone that's eligible and not yet had their first dose is willfully in that state, and is a major part of the problem
You might be correct for people in urban areas, but it's a different ballgame in some of the regions with services not coordinating for the hard-to-find people
and with difficult access to vaccination clinics – well worth the watch. Tina Ngata presents the barriers with real clarity. I question why this, part of a national priority vaccination service, is having to be funded by public donation.
Some of the factors she presents are relevant in other areas too, including Auckland – including work hours, but especially trust an information sources.
As it happens, I do have contacts with people working the frontlines of similar areas trying to get vaccines out to people.
It's not just a matter of getting a team of people to show up someone's front door, it can take hours of those skilled practitioner's time to persuade people to accept getting vaccinated. Even after spending those hours of providing information and reasons to get vaccinated, the refusal rate is still very high.
This is not a problem of under-resourcing, or a problem of DHBs being uncooperative. It is a problem of people choosing to be difficult and willfully wasting vast amounts of skilled resource to achieve a result. A result which takes very much less resource to achieve with those that don't choose to be difficult resource-wasters.
"it can take hours of those skilled practitioner's time to persuade people to accept getting vaccinated."
Yes, believe me, I'm as enraged by the anti-vaxerati spreading lies and misinformation. I'm frustrated at all those years of mistrust fermenting between government and various populations. I'm disappointed that a mobile vaccination unit, which seems entirely sensible in this instance, is having to be crowd funded when it's only small change to for government to finance. I'm more than disappointed the the spirit of the new health system structure is not being observed in practice with the vaccination role out – not just out in the communities, but . having talking heads on tv and in the news papers. They've been hired already
Yes, the DHBs are uncooperative and Taranaki has been the slowest to get with the programme, (we've only recently moved out of the region, so are pretty familiar with the issues there), hence the link.
It's really not helpful to make a call for everyone to be labelled obstructive and punished for slow vaccination uptake. I agree the problems in Auckland are less severe in this regards and the "family picnic" protest organisers should be locked up imho. I have no time for these people, but a bit of sympathy for people with long-standing government distrust.
Here's something I wrote a couple of weeks ago, to get it out of my system – just so you know I'm not unsympathetic to your views about the vaccine-hesitant:
Without modern medicine I wouldn’t be able to walk more than 50 metres, I wouldn’t be able to hold a book, wipe down the bench, hold a pen or use a keyboard. I know this, because that’s how it was 10 years ago. Lucky my only deformity is in my wrists – it could be way more extensive.
Since modern medicine I’ve completed a PhD, explored Europe, run a half marathon and lived a pretty normal everyday life. The cost of my non-disabled life to me is I’m immune-suppressed. To the public health system the cost quite a lot of money – they don’t give these meds out routinely, but Pharmac worked out it’s cheaper to give the drug for people with a certain criteria, than it is for the health budget pay for the disease to continue to destroy us.
I’ve had my vaccinations, people who are on immune-suppressant medications can do this, but the problem is it doesn’t work so well for us, our immune response is defective. So I’m ever so slightly anxious if Covid gets away on us.
Added to that is the fear that I won’t get my modern medicine because *drum roll* the type of drugs that keep me well are being used to treat covid patients, This includes treating the people who refused to be vaccinated because they’d rather have the biologic drugs that keep people like me well than take a harmless, effective vaccine that someone told them on the internet will affect their dna (it doesn’t). Not my meds yet, lucky for me, but I have friends in tears because their medications are even at this early stage of the vaccine-led grand opening overseas, are no longer available here.
Their right to refuse a well-studied, harmless vaccine that has been administered millions of times and still be in the same space as me is sacrosanct. I, on the other-hand, have no way of knowing if they are in the same space I’m am, and if they can harm me.
Is their right to refuse a harmless vaccine greater than my right to move around in my day-to-day life as freely as anyone else? The risk to the immune-suppressed increases if we open up and covid gets away on us, despite high levels of vaccination.
Do I go back to living a half-life indoors? Am I meant to say I respect people’s decisions to a) refuse vaccines b) break covid safety rules c) or to live with the virus? Those three decisions are all the same to me as we open up and “regain our freedoms”.
The several thousand people in similar situations to me and labelled with ‘underlying medical conditions’ may have similar questions. Opening up doesn’t look like fun for us, it looks much like fear.
Maybe calling something a that needs booster shots every six month a vaccine was the biggest idiocy of them all.
This is not a vaccine, at best it is a medication to mitigate the severity of a covid infection, but it provides no immunity.
Maybe we truly have wasted 18 month on pretending we can keep a pandemic at bay while letting people in the country. Maybe by pretending for 18 month that we are the bestest did not help in getting people to understand that all our covid free status is / was temporary and a fragile state at best.
And above all maybe waiting until a delivery on July 28th to start jabbing people in Group 3 and Group 4 – thanks Spain and Danemark for the extra 750.000 doses that they send late Sept – was the biggest failure of them all, as people felt save and thus felt they no longer need this vaccine. We should have start vaccinating in January or earlier, and we should have started with those that wanted the jabs. We might not be in the boat we are today. But hindsight is hindsight, and i do hope that hte govts risk analysts are looking to hindsight to gain some foresight. But not holding my breath, after all they get paid full wages for success as failure alike.
And now we are dealing with Delta, and all the horses have bolted and we realise that we are not better then the rest of the world.
We should have started earlier imo as i believe that the fear was greater last year/early this year.
The point of this 'vaccine' is to prevent you from suffocating until you are dead.. That is the best that you can hope from this 'vaccine' as it infers no immunity at all, and what ever good it does seems to wane after 6 month and regular booster shots will be required.
That is the best that you can hope from this 'vaccine' as it infers no immunity at all,
That's not true. It offers partial immunity. If all it did was lessen the severity of covid infection and didn't also limit transmission, then there'd be no point using it to limit transmission.
1 [mass noun] the ability of an organism to resist a particular infection or toxin by the action of specific antibodies or sensitized white blood cells: immunity to typhoid seems to have increased spontaneously.
The vaccine increases the ability of humans to resist covid infection. Less people get covid, that's because of immunity given by the vaccine.
Sure, tetanus was the first one that came to mind. Mostly because I didn't bother to check whether the annual flu shots might include vaccines against variants from previous years.
But the point is that to argue the govt was somehow lax in not saying boosters might be required (which they did) and that somehow a booster shot is different from a vaccine (which it's not) is incorrect on many levels.
So the vaccines need boosters to maintain efficacy. We knew there was a solid chance any vaccine would have to be annual anyway, if there were new variants. They're still the main key to avoiding mass death. Fuck, make 'em weekly. I don't give a shit, I'm glad to have them.
You know as well as I do that the government pushing vaccines are also pushing the idea the vaccines keep us safe
Not keep us safe but will require boosters and won't actually stop you from getting covid or passing on but will lessen the effects and lower your chances of dying
Havn't heard anyone pushing the idea that they mean total safety. The Government has made it clear that vaccination will not mean the end of other public health measures.
Not keep us safe but will require boosters and won't actually stop you from getting covid or passing on but will lessen the effects and lower your chances of dying
I've been critical of public health messaging about the covid vaccine, but what you say isn't true. The covid vax means:
you are less likely to get infected by the virus
if you do get infected, you are less likely to end up in hospital or dead (not sure about long covid yet)
if you get infected, you are less likely to pass covid to other people.
So we circle back around to universal "no jab, no entry" and universal "no jab, no job" and "no jab, first to lose access to medical treatment" policies.
These really are the only things I can see the government can do to make the environment out there less threatening for people in your situation.
Let's face it, while covid exists, some people are going to forced to live the lockdown life. Those should be the people that refuse to take a quick, safe highly effective and free precaution against being a health and safety risk to others.
Also, misinformation is like a drug (I've seen plenty of it with the disease I have) taking out the receivers doesn't do much. Taking out the source is a much more efficient ways of ridding our society of this stuff. Part of the problem with this is the dealers look much the establishment. Also regulate the Facebook group – that's how they turn a trickle of misinformation into a torrent.
For pucks sake get with the program. National of course endourses the govt implementing "no jab, no job" and Andres favourite tent hospital policies. How else do you think we win the next election? We are presently asking if our donors can supply enough tents in case Twyford makes promises of 10,000 tent hospitals per year.
The question is how many of those high-hanging fruit (diminishing returns on effort vs vaccinations delivered) are the result of intractability, and how much of them are the result of systemic neglect and expecting people to suddenly turn around in eagerness because society is finally throwing crumbs in their direction.
Especially if it looks like the only reason the effort is being put in is because it's the only way to help the people usually protected by the system.
In the case of the people my contacts are spending their working days trying to bring healthcare to, it really does seem to primarily be a result of intractability. Not just this covid issue, but over the long term, and over pretty much all medical issues.
Ditto for the few unvaccinated people I know socially and at work.
So, among the unvaccinated I've got even the tiniest glimmerings of insight into, it's 100%. But I really don't have any insight into populations that might have genuine (as opposed to imagined) reasons to be alienated from medical help. So I've got no clue as to what the split in numbers might be.
Can your contacts explain why the Jansen vaccine isn't offered to people who don't want the mRNA one? It was approved by Medsafe early July and only needs one dose. Couldn't this be taken out to remote areas on the vaccine buses and be an option for those who say "I want to wait for xxx"?
Andre the disability crowd in Auckland and elsewhere pointed out they have not had any special assistance to help with their equity issues. Some are on non-compatible treatments and some remote families would have 3 or 4 trips at differing dates to get vaccinated in areas like Tairawhiti because of the age cohorts which made it difficult for the whole extended family. I doubt they are “willfully in that state.” of being unvaccinated. I think some DHB’s upped their game and engagement after meeting with the PM and Health teams. Look at Singapore, which is not a model opening.
Every time I've looked on the bookmyvaccine site, there's been a specific Healthline number to call if home vaccination is needed. I've seen home vaccination hotline numbers several other places. I heard snippets from my frontline contacts about extra efforts being made, which were sometimes rebuffed. So forgive my skepticism on that claim they haven't had assistance. Perhaps not to the level that they think they should be entitled to become accustomed to, but certainly an elevated level of assistance has been available.
I can't speak to Tairawhiti, but from where I have heard comments, providers were going against the official guidelines provided and trying to vaccinate everyone in the family or other group that turned up for a vaccine. They were able to do this without risk of running out of vaccine supplies because so few were actually taking up the opportunity.
It's not always even a case of getting off their butts and asking; sometimes it's a matter of just saying "ok" instead of "piss off" to the practitioner that's right in front of them that has already spent considerable time answering questions and providing reasons why it's a good thing.
The public and private medical backlog in Auckland is already of serious concern a return to stricter lockdown would cause this to balloon out further.
It's a catch 22, because if it goes to a 1000 a day before Christmas – not only will medical services be impacted, so will lives (consider what happened in Ireland at that time of year in 2020).
Returning to a draconian lockdown is unlikely to get NZ to nil cases and if it does will only do so for a limited period of time.
COVID will go through NZ sooner or later the economic and health and well being costs cost of that will be quite considerable but so they are with the lockdowns.
I fear there will be a brain drain and economic exodus out of NZ that will surprise many people if there are not moves back to a less closed society within the next 6 months.
In my opinion the government has done a moderate to poor job of hastening vaccination and preparing the populace and our health infrastructure for the inevitable period when we have COVID circulating widely.
We had a period of a year where health professionals were clamoring to come to NZ and our response was to make it difficult for even those who were here on work permits to stay let alone allowing additional staff in.
Those three points look like a pretty good bet SPC.
One friction point is how the rest of the country reacts if the Auckland border is dropped some time in December. Elimination is still working outside Auckland, inside Auckland we are in suppression mode. Many thousands of Aucklanders hope to be able to leave for other places in late Dec/early Jan. Even if we are allowed to move, will we be welcome, or seen as escaped lepers? Will an armed guard of Ngapuhi attempt to turn us back north of Wellsford? The PM will need every ounce of skill she has from here on.
Too many unlinked cases. A 3.5 is required to contain the unlinked cases. Allow contact less takeaway. 2 nominated people to visit your bubble only if living alone at separate times.
The current situation is unable to be controlled using the measures being used. People need to consider how they will manage in a fully blowen outbreak and to give it one last shot so that people can get vaccinated to reduce the severe effects from Covid infection.
The point, mainly the Auckland region will be at in a month depends on the best strategy being available to contain and reduce the spread.
The message needs to be, follow the rules to get the best result possible regardless of your preference for what you want to do or believe about Covid.
At 90% vaxxed by the beginning of December it still leaves over 150,000 Aucklanders who WILL get Covid. If the UK example is replicated that would mean about a thousand cases a day, and a sizeable percentage in hospital and that is figure subject to a cumulative affect caused by stays of up to 42-50 days, the numbers then become horrific, meaning most other hospital operations are impossible and the deaths of a number of vaccinated nurses and doctors.
So no sympathy for the non-compliant, the border must stay, travel, work and any out of house movement must be banned until they are dead or recovered. After the effort that the rest have put in there can be no excuses, the end result would be nobody’s fault but their own. The only upside is that the national IQ would rise significantly.
Even vaccinated we can still get Covid, can carry it around town, and spread it wide and thinly like butter on warm toast.
Vaccination will for the most part however prevent serious illness and death.
So that leaves all of AKL who can get it, but most will survive, and the 150.000 that as of today have not been vaccinated are the ones at biggest risk of dying.
All of us should get comfortable with the idea that WE WILL GET COVID. That is why the govt is pushing the vaccines as much as it does. Because it knows.
Absolutely reckon Sabine. I have a hard headed 17 year old stepson to somehow convince, the boy doesn't even believe in toothpaste "coz it causes cancer" , maybe a dose of covid will do the trick for him.
I'm still not sure about under 18s voting anyway, but this 17 year old is def an exception. I have 2 other kids & they & their friends give me great hope for the future. They speak māori, are inclusive with their trans peers, environmentally conscious, basically great kids. That 17 year old though, (his dad has a lot to answer for).
Covid is coming if it has not already come. Being vaccinated is being more prepared than being unvaccinated. People need to be given a month to organise the influx and the impact of Covid in their community. Some in Auckland have already made a decision on what they will be doing with Covid in their community even if it is harmful to others.
Singapore, with a highly-vaccinated population similar in size to NZ, opened up in September and now has 3,000 cases a day and 12 deaths-this after only 6 weeks.
NZ can look forward to similar numbers. THIS IS UNAVOIDABLE IF WE OPEN UP.
80% of what? NZ uses the population excluding below 12. Australia uses the population excluding below 16. Our World In Data use the whole population, which I prefer (see link).
Vaccines will soon be available for 5-11yo's-testing is already happening.
NZ is doing extremely well. After Super Saturday NZ has now vaxxed more of the population than the UK. Why is the media here not screaming "government triumphs in vaccination process" like they are screaming this for Boris in the UK?
People have the freedom to move (by plane, vehicle, boat) in and out of the country to/from overseas locations.
All lockdowns are ended. No domestic travel restrictions. The only remaining restrictions are masks to be worn at all times in public and a government plea to continue social distancing.
The dichotomy of elimination in play elsewhere (while we get to the 90/90 vaccination level nationwide) and the Auckland border/containment area is what it is.
A high rate of spread in Auckland cDecember 1 might mean a vaccine passport to get out.
Those vaccine passports (and the freedoms of movement they allow to the fully vaccinated) should be here now. Actually, a month ago would be better.
Failing that, a firm announcement that they are coming by the beginning of November (end of university year) and clear guidance that they will be necessary is a barely adequate second-best.
Oddly enough, all the Maori I'm acquainted with are fully-vaxxed. The unvaccinated I'm acquainted with are all quite privileged white folks.
But if the government sees fit to take away my Bill of Rights freedoms of movement and association and assembly even after I've done everything I can possibly do to help ensure community protection, in order to give those freedoms to those who refuse to take a quick, safe, effective and free precaution to protect the community and themselves, I am going to be very very angry.
Pretty much the same. The anti vaccers I know, tend to be more the new age, or happy clappy religo, mumbo jumbo believers.
Maori Whanau have mostly been vaccinated, but unfortunately a few too many with other health issues, which would cause them problems if they caught covid. Majority of my Maori Whanau, work in the health sector,
NZ will quite soon be in a situation where we are testing this policy. I think its going to be quite problematic that (at least initially) there is expected to be a large scale opening up where by the passported are spreading it through the country, because at present the message is they are entitled to and the consequences are on the unvaccinated that there is such a wave of infection. That dynamic will make it very difficult if the govt needs to go back to lockdowns and this could happen even at 90% vaccination if there are reasonably small errors in say Hendys modelling.
Oddly enough Andre I agree to some extent. I live near Hawea Flat which is mostly populated by pakeha outdoor types and ex hippies. The vaccination rate in Wanaka is around 95 per cent. Somebody told me it was around 40 per cent in Hawea Flat. (I will look for links on this data and add them later ..I am walking in the bush right now)
A small step and even if you get a more responsive trust board Vector will just hide behind their industry obligations and/or play games with the power bill rebate.
A rigged game that only nationalisation will resolve IMO. Those power bill rebates represent underinvestment and a PR lolly scramble around trust election time.
Asiafication of kiwi politics, here we come. Note to Xi: your initial infiltration strategy seems to have been premature but now the time is right. Triadic ethnic structure of parliament seems inevitable, with the Asians the third leg of the stool. The hive mind may arise within the Beehive. Perhaps the Asians will be able to teach the pakeha & the maori how to unify – or will hell freeze over first?
I was discussing the issue of schoolchildren not having access to the internet being an equity problem with dealing with lockdown with my sister-in-law the other day. We only lightly touched on the subject, so I was interested to read this article in the Herald online this morning: Covid 19 Delta outbreak: School term 4 starts today – but Auckland lockdown struggles continue.
The obvious issues –
"When I watch TV and the news coverage, and we look at families who are sitting at the breakfast bar and everyone has an individual device … that's just not our world.
"Our world is that if we're lucky, the device that some families have is the parent's phone, and they don't have internet connectivity, they're using their phone data.
"So when the phone data runs out, which is pretty quick, you have to download something that chews it up and that can be the end of it. That can be the full extent of the digital communication."
and the solutions –
The school delivered hard packs to students before the holidays, and staff had been making up more this week, including buying stationery for those who didn't have it.
Many teachers and principals had been working solidly through the holidays, Swann said.
Paul Pirihi, principal of Rosebank School in Avondale, was also full of praise for his staff, who had been working extremely hard to help kids keep learning….
…
"You've got to do everything for the kids. We think we've got it rough but it's tougher for the kids."
The Ministry of Education had been pulling out all the stops over lockdown and was getting internet connectivity to students who needed it. The school had loaned Chromebooks to some, while others were using hard packs.
After previous lockdowns, all the children returned within three or four days. But Delta could be different, Pirihi said.
The school had a community hub and social worker on site and also received great support from local charities like I Love Avondale. Families at Rosebank and Ōtāhuhu also received food boxes from KidsCan in August as part of the its 19for19 campaign."
This is great work done on behalf of the students, without question. The online tv programmes last year were great too. Only watched a couple to get the gist – our schooling has been more unschool in this household and self-directed so while familiar to me, it's no longer the only path to learning.
When talking with someone I know who works at the Ministry, they spoke about the focus being on students not falling behind. As someone whose children were absent from the formal education system for the whole of their primary and secondary years, that notion of irreparable harm is only one approach.
What if during the lockdowns, we acknowledged that the teaching and learning worlds have changed, and instead of trying to replicate education as usual we took the time to pause, look around and consider other simpler alternatives?
What if we required nothing in terms of work produced by children at home, but just gave them opportunities to learn and explore?
My first thoughts in terms of affordability and portability are lo-tech. (And I am thinking more of primary school aged children in regards to suggestions.)
I'm wondering if anyone else remembers Max Cryer's radio transmission into schools for music lessons. The speaker system embedded in the wall above the blackboards were turned on, the songbooks printed by the Education Department were taken out of the wooden desks and we sang along with all the other classmates, and others in NZ, with Max Cryer on a specific day and time of the week.
Sunday mornings spent jumping on parents so they make space so that you can listen to 1ZB(?)'s Sunday morning stories that started at 7am and went till 9.
Radios are cheap.
Supply individual ones to children with headphones and batteries, and let them listen in to stories, singalongs, classes. Send them books, songbooks, easy experiment materials, art materials, maths manipulatives, seeds, bulbs.
To keep in touch with their friends, give them letter writing materials, envelopes, stamps. Have teachers send personal letters to their students, shooting the breeze, including a printed newspaper about what the teachers have been up to while their classrooms are empty. Restart school journals, printing submissions from students.
Teachers know their students. If a student is interested in Science, send along an appropriately aged science book with no requirement to do anything other than receive it. And just keep in touch. Start penpal groups with other children, even overseas, yes, they still exist.
Instead of 'missing out' and 'catching up' being the sole considerations, think about how else the stress of lockdowns can be mitigated for students and their families.
Chromebooks and internet access are expensive and hard to achieve and distribute equitably, and treat all students the same.
Radios, books, individually selected materials and a sanctioned time to learn in different ways, with items they can keep forever. Lockdown learning could be an experience to remember rather than endure.
(Just a passing thought. Would be interested in knowing if anyone else had suggestions along these lines.)
Now think of the families that will drive to a hot spot so the kids can go to school while sitting in the car.
The teachers that i know personally are starting to burn out. They are teachers, social workers, IT specialists, emotional support workers, food distributors, pen and paper buyers, and then of course teachers. One of them, calls her students 'stress bunnies', stressed by not getting out to meet friends, stressed by not getting the education they need, stressed by having no idea how to manage the future of university or job as well, the world is what it is.
The fact is that this pandemic is showing us in full color all the shortcomings of the last 4 – 6 decades of various governments do nothing, or only do under duress, or only do if it makes us look good. And here we are, thousands of our own who barely hang on.
And so as long as we pretend that we can go back ' to normal' what ever that means now, or back to 'what used to be / was' we can not change the way we are doing business. And that too involves teaching.
How many in NZ – and i know a few now, are on Starlink because in their rural areas they still have no access to internet? Just to cover the very basic.
Lack of internet access was the issue that made me think that other options should be considered. I love my technology, but don’t think it is the be all when it comes to education.
We lived in Papakura for a few years, down the road from where families would drive to sleep in a sportsfield carpark. Live rurally now, but I am sure if I went back that familiar sight would still occur at dusk.
Families already under stress, could do with some understanding. Striving so desperately to go 'back to normal' for already burdened families dealing with homelessness, inadequate finances and other Covid related anxieties seems to me to be another burden for the already overloaded.
I have family in the education system. How is the government ensuring their wellbeing during this time? By trying to put everything online, and get families access to devices and internet. Printing worksheets and hard copies to send out. That might work for some, but it's not the only option.
What if – just for this time – the requirement to produce work to be marked was dropped? What if – to offload the stress – kids were just given radios with rechargeable batteries to keep? And books, and materials. Teachers can take all marking and assessment duties off their workload – just for now – and use their time to look after their own and their students wellbeing.
If 'keeping up' was replaced with 'exploration learning', and both teachers and students were disconnected from the requirement of marked assessments, just imagine.
I think teachers would be wonderfully creative and successful at providing students with learning tools, if given the budget and freedom to do so.
Teachers are wonderfully creative and successful at providing students with the attention and care they need to succeed, but teachers can not make up for the failure of government, and that includes the current one.
The fact that we are actually not even talking about the disparity in online access, affordable internet, etc, yet seem to be ok to blame teachers for the collective failures of communities, families and government aka Ministry of Educaiton, Winz etc. It might just be easier. A bit like blaming the under staffed, under paid and under resourced nurses for the failures of the Ministry of Health.
Not just access to the internet, there is also the disparity of all Auckland students going forward in the current & following years. How will these students "catch up" with the rest of the country that has been attending school classes. Should Auckland schools remain on line for the remainder of the year, then students have been learning on line for 16 weeks from a 40 week school year. Will say NCEA allowances be carried forward next year the year following ??
I feel for all those students out there especially as they approach year end exams and to complete year end portfolios.
Herodotus, is is really necessary for primary aged schoolchildren to "catch up"?
As mentioned, our household learnt from home throughout their primary and secondary years. One graduated over a year ago, two are currently in tertiary education and passing their studies. They had 15 years out of the system, there are more approaches to education that are available to be utilised if schools are given the freedom to do so.
We also enrolled for Te Kura for a while. The busy work required in order to authenticate the work was tedious, and sucked a lot of motivation from the process. To be fair, they have made progress on their delivery since then.
If our approach for lockdown students is limited to providing sporadic and unsustainable internet access to those without, and/or printing hard copies, then we are missing an opportunity to do something better during this period of disruption.
The government has had a long period to consider this and offer up alternatives to schools, teachers and students.
I was thinking more of Secondary school students that are not home schooled or who have parents that their courses go beyond the parents understanding or that are told "That is not the way we are taught to do it ". And that the students knowledge is built up over the previous year foundation. Without teaching some of that understanding will not be there as they progress e.g. maths, science etc, and for those courses are more "hands on" Art, Trades, PE, Hard Materials etc.
These Ak students next year will be measured against those students who will have had the opportunity to be taught at school with only marginal disruption to their learning.
The concepts that education is a "competition" that can be "measured" like the production of milk powder, is a large cause of our current problems with education.
I was searching for a word to use obviously not the right one for you. So what would you suggest regarding equating Ak to the remainder of the country, so that NCEA results are comparable ?Because the students potential will not be the same given the lack of teaching that happened this year, and should (I hope not) Ak experiences any more lockdowns in the future, thus disadvantaging students to a greater degree. I hope you understand my comments intentions, even is the phrasing is a little inadequate.
I will wait until our minister of education to front up on Wednesday with solutions. 2+more weeks of level 3 will mean high schools within AK will have only online learning, so what of those who this form of learning doesn’t work for or is unable to access the internet and their well being ?? I know if plenty of students freaking out
I hope they realise also in 2 weeks there will be uni students relocating back home, that could be entering Auckland/ Waikato or leaving to go to a level 2 location.
Jeez, Ad. It's not about nostalgia. It's about recognising that there are a lot of schoolchildren that don't have internet access or internet devices, and thinking about how they can be provided for utilising other tools.
It's also about thinking how a BAU approach might not be the best in terms of wellbeing.
Howzabout treating internet access as a basic right?
All individuals are entitled to X gig of data until they leave high school. Doesn't solve the device issue, but a few tech firms would be keen to get in on the positive publicity involved in sponsoring a basic device.
Feeding kids at school, kids without devices, period poverty… we drastically need a shake-up and BAU doesn't cut it.
A universal basic income funded by a FTT, Tobin Tax, Hone tax, call it what you will. Cast a larger tax net and bring all those that benefit from society but do not contribute. Currency trading, the tech giants with their off-shore shenanagins, beneficiaries of hidden trust and tax shelters that Sir Slippery John was in favour of.
The inequities in education have been building up over years. Covid has spotlighted them as much as it has made things harder.
The skills to be a correspondence Teacher are very different from those required for a classroom Teacher.
Some children do very well with self directed correspondence learning. With the independence and self motivation that requires.
The same students I wished I could spend more time helping in a year 10 class of 36, are the same ones who will miss out now.
Even more incentive to remove most of the "Summative" prescriptive testing from schooling. One of the main things that makes education for many, including Teachers, repetitive, ineffectual and boring.
The inequities in education have been building up over years. Covid has spotlighted them as much as it has made things harder…
…Even more incentive to remove most of the "Summative" prescriptive testing from schooling. One of the main things that makes education for many, including Teachers, repetitive, ineffectual and boring.
Act Party leader David Seymour has proposed a twist on incentives to get vaccinated: a one-off $250 tax credit for those double-jabbed before December 1.
Will criminals and gang members benefit from a tax credit? Will teenagers so benefit? Will the non-earning partner in a relationship? Will the homeless, rough sleepers and the marginalised? Will beneficiaries benefit?
Sweet, that's $1000 for my family, they are all anti-vax. But No. Even at $1000 each it wouldn't do any good, brainwashed by social media me thinks. I'm jabbed.
Ah yes, I was waiting for who will mention this first. A group of us has a bet going. That the unvaccinated are waiting for being "paid" to get the shot. Our guess was 1k per person. And low and behold!
I just think some of the people have completely lost the plot. We are billions in debt, inflation is at about 5% and rising. Good luck to us all.
I think many of the anti vaxxers I know will end up getting vaxxed because they love their overseas trips and they won't be able to get on the plane without the certificate.
The high hanging fruit will be a hard task for the vaccinators. I haven't heard much about the anti vaxxers who have mental health issues. The people who do not trust government, believe they are being persecuted all the time and certainly will not be fronting up for the jab. They are hard wired to be suspicious. What do we do about people like that. No matter how much you might want to convince them its just not going to happen.
Also people who go so far down the rabbit hole into the dark web that nothing on God's earth will persuade them the vaccine doesn't have a chip in it, its a plan to keep everybody under control. Real Government mind control sort of stuff. These groups will be the ones infecting others and also getting seriously sick themselves. These two groups of people will never be vaxxed and we will just have to bite the bullet and get on with getting all the other slightly hesitant people over the line.
Bloomfield and Hendy are tossing out the idea of another two weeks at level 4. Without giving any explanations of why they think it would do anything useful. Detailed explanations are really needed, given the spread appears to be in populations that aren't compliant with level 3 and level 4 in any case.
Put your efforts to getting the unvaccinated sorted out, not into shitting on those of us that have already done everything we can and are not the problem spreaders.
"The audible business sector seems determined to declare victory prematurely, and move us all on. (That’s even though the subsequent infection levels would probably be just as likely as any government decree to inhibit the public’s readiness to dine out and spend.)
Pretty much what has been happening in the UK lately.
Dunno who said it first, but there will likely be a number of people living in their own self declared Level 4 bubbles for quite a while whatever the official stance is.
How many times since the 80s have we heard of alienated and displaced working class people on welfare pittance “they think the world owes them a living” and yet the publicly needy ones in COVID have tended to be SME, small business and self employed–the petit bourgeoisie.
Andre, to be fair to Hendy and Bloomfield, of whom you say "Without giving any explanations of why they think it would do anything useful."
The news report was what you cited. That means we saw what TV1 decided we should see, not necessarily what Hendy and Bloomfield said.
The only idea we have of what they want is from commentators, not from the primary source. Therefore, we have two levels of distance from what they said- the commenter and then the TV1 editing of that the commenter said, with all the editing and bias that that necessarily involves.
Maybe see if cabinet will go for it, first. Then let the reporters report the useful information (good luck with that, but most of it is usually up on the ministry of health website pretty quick).
If someone influential announces their support for something as draconian as a return to level 4, yes, they fkn should bother to give details in the same medium they make the announcement.
Self responsibility needs to be emphasized. There was enough time, effort, information etc. to get vaccinated. No more excuses. The majority of those who have been following health advise have it up to the neck with the cop out of those who are just querulant. There maybe a few exemptions, but I would say you can count them on one hand.
We need a date by which borders open under cautionary measures, Kiwis and any visitors who come home need to be fully vaccinated and tested. Returnees same and if need be have to quarantine at home.
We have bigger fish to fry.
Focus needs to be shifted to shipping and transport of goods. Public transport and municipal services need priority.
Trade needs to be diversified with professional follow up.
Housing needs to be addressed so that funds are not tied up in sometimes ramshackle properties.
The list goes on but all energy is currently on one issue and slowly we lose traction on many problem areas that need attention.
Muldoon said so! In response to the Brits abandoning us. Having watched this space ever since, I have to tell you that kiwi exporters just switched from UK to China.
Okay, I'm over-generalising, but there seems to be a `let's take the easy option' thinking at play. A dependency relation, as if the switch involved the mother shifting the baby from one tit to the other.
You're right to suggest that diversity of trade relations is a resilience strategy but I have zero confidence our exporters can be that sophisticated.
You are right, once the UK joined the Euro union in the 70's NZ was dropped like a hot stone. Now that the UK is again out of the block they will look to the USA to which I say "good luck". NZ is not necessary a favorite. Shipping is an issue.
We need to have companies investing into niche markets in the first instance and grow from there. Hard yards and maybe you are observing this correctly that many of the exporters from the "old guard" will look for easy money.
What is overlooked and somehow not fleshed out as an option is the possibility to have manufacturers attracted to NZ and to steer controlled and with a plan and vision into a more sophisticated trading environment. Example: sheep export vs wool spinning, cherry fruit export vs conserved (high quality), Wood logs vs building material and furniture. The know how and investment could come from any country but it has to be balanced. Not all eggs in one basket.
Perhaps our minister for business and enterprise should sit down with people like Chris and Stephen Harris to ask the hard questions. Kiwis are generally very good in cooperating. In fact one of the major advantage in my point of view.
Certainly our fisheries have been pretty conservative in terms of developing new products and markets. No NZ raised hairy crabs, nor marron, nor farmed bluefin, little farmed abalone, little or no seaweed, whitebait, no barramundi or golden perch, not even any carp. And no farmed eels – it's nearly twenty years since I was scoffing grilled eels at Panmunjeon – NZ has been standing still.
I wouldn't go for carp. They are fresh water fish and even in countries where they are indigenous considered a pest.
Abelone is exceedingly difficult to farm. Very expensive and only for people with a lot of patience as they are not the fastest growing stock.
But NZ has a huge advantage because the Atlantic fish is said to be contaminated by heavy metals. Even sardines, a save and very healthy choice still shows low mercury levels.
Hard Border north of Taupo … Hadrians Wall-style, with manned watch towers at spaced intervals to stop frantic northerners flooding south. Suppress any signs of a northern outbreak with periodic strafing raids over Auckers, Hamilton & Tauranga by fighter jets loyal to the south … teams of snipers on every Auckland roof, ensuring no-one leaves their house … particularly stringent security measures around known middle class agitators, whingers & malcontents like Andre … if you're caught outside spreading the virus … & therefore theoretically putting the health of southerners at risk …………… then expect this:
There's an old Leper Colony on Mokopuna Island in Wellington Harbour … we can easily open it up again for Northern Untouchables & other Unclean Intruders if you so wish … I'm sure cave life isn't so bad once you get used to it.
Quarantine Island in Dunedin, and all the other stations we set up a century ago, would have been preferable alternatives to the MIQ hotel industry subsidy that's caused the grief so far.
Also, islands were particularly useful because they were next to the main ports of entry. And they were only used if ships arrived with detectably ill people on board.
It would be nice if it was that convenient, but different times call for different measures.
emergency powers to put up a container structure in the auckland domain or random farmland or even in less-used areas of the airport.
Could have worked it to be more fit for purpose than an inner city hotel, but would have had a much bigger "camp – not in a good way" feel.
Also, keeping the hotel structures ticking over at least would theoretecally make "opening up" easier to get tourism back up to speed (if that should be a priority).
But whether that would have been a better planronment of unknown duration is another matter. This unpleasantness might have lasted weeks or years, looking at it from March 2020.
There were evidently 25 survivors hospitalised after the White Island eruption, and they had to be sent all over the North Island to find sufficient ICU beds. An appreciable Covid outbreak will soak up our reserve capacity pretty damned quick.
Triage the unvaccinated covid patients out to the unvaccinated covid patient wards in tents out in the carpark.
Their choice to not be vaccinated, their consequences.
I am totally over having to suffer the removal of my rights and other consequences of the unvaccinated choosing to be antisocial arseholes and refusing a quick, safe, free and effective precaution against being a willful disease spreader.
Even if by some miracle we get to somewhere better than 95% vaccinated, our medical system is very likely to be overwhelmed by unvaccinated covid patients.
What do you suggest should be done when that happens?
Lockdown forever so it doesn't happen?
Deny care to those that haven't deliberately chosen to be disease spreaders in order that vaccine refusers can clog up the health system with their easily preventable disease?
Not all of the unvaxxed are multi-qualified folks who think they should be able to substitute the vaccine or crystal therapy they prefer.
I'm not sure it's a coincidence, for example, that the ethnicity with the lowest vax rate is also the one most neglected or even mistreated when it comes to many other healthcare services, so maybe trust is a bit more difficult to build in those communities.
But sure, leaving them in tents in disproportionate numbers to die will help with that come the next public health problem.
If we could restrict it to folks who have benefitted disproportionately from the system they choose to mistrust out of their own hubris, sure, maybe.
I'm not usually a hippie arguing for love and mung-beans when it comes to public hazard-level stupidity. But every year I look at the same fucking charts about healthcare delivery, education retention, youth employment, [un]healthy housing, and a myriad of other things, and I can't help but wonder why some socioeconomic groups should even consider the possibility that the govt has their best interests in heart this time (if they even bother watching the news at all). Some of the fault is ours.
The health sector buzzword of the day is "equity". Changing course towards it (so we're even moving in roughly that direction, let alone achieving it) is like trying to drift a supertanker.
If tents are needed, how about not providing a higher standard of care based on vax card.
edit: and going back to your “lockdown forever” option, going back to L4 for a couple of weeks could prevent that. Fuck, make the entire country do it if that’s you’re problem.
FFS, why on earth do you think a couple of weeks of level 4 might be the trick this time when the five weeks from 18th August to 22 September wasn't enough before? Especially now that it seems to be in communities that aren't compliant with the level rules, which didn't seem to be the case in August and September?
What a great idea, put the rest of the country into the lockdowns Auckland has suffered! Let's see how many call for the continuation of lockdowns then.
I'm not clear on what your trying to say in your first sentence. Are you suggesting that vaccinated people should be denied care?
Are you suggesting that vaccinated people should be denied care?
No, I'm saying vax status should not automatically result in lower care for unvaxxed people.
There are a couple of reasons why another shot at level 4 might work. The advantage of a higher vax level now than before, and the advantage of contact tracing techniques adapted over the last few weeks to deal with the disenfranchised groups.
But my main reason is selfish hope. I really hope Auckland's fatigue doesn't kill my mum.
What I'm suggesting is that when the health system gets overwhelmed and triaging is needed, the unvaxed covid patients should be first on the list to get triaged out.
As an entirely reasonable and predictable consequence of their choice to enable the spread of a nasty disease causing the avoidable overwhelming of the health system necessitating triaging.
Yes, I understand that's what you're suggesting. And it's not the role of healthcare to go "you're a naughty boy, basil".
Especially at triage.
There might be reasons of clinical delivery to do that – aircon positive-pressure assessment tents and attached tent wards for all covid-positive patients would stop them shutting down ED for a deep clean. That might be worth the odds that the quality of healthcare provided in the tent during a winter storm might not be as effective as in an indoor ward (e.g. the power cable shorts), but at least more operating theatres are available when needed.
Vax status might be part of a much more broad list of triage factors that affect expected prognosis, along with smoking, diabetes, blood pressure, etc.
But that's incredibly different to putting them in tents based primarily on their vax status.
No it's not the role of the health care system. Their values and ethics and decisions trees are set in normal times. These are not normal times, and normal medical values and ethics are miscalibrated for these not-normal times.
It's the government's responsibility to set the resource allocations and consequences for these not-normal times. And this government is woefully shirking its responsibility when it comes to making clear that the choice to refuse vaccination will have horrible consequences.
So far the government seems content to just push consequences onto those that actually have a sense of community responsibility and go and do what things they can in the face of what's coming, while spinelessly pandering to those that won't do even a very minimal act to mitigate what's coming.
The unvaccinated are the problem. Many of the unvaccinated see zero reason to revisit their choice, because they don't think their choice will ever affect their lifestyle. This government is giving them every reason to continue that belief, and zero reason to reconsider it.
'Dalton understands that 100 of the 250 requests made by DHBs in recent months have been rejected – including an application from one overseas ICU nurse who has been rejected six times.'
'The numbers show, of the 525 applications received for critical health care workers in the past four months, 212 were approved, granting 287 of 694 applicants a spot in MIQ.
If specialist doctors and nurses are being rejected – especially those who already have jobs, visas, and regulatory approval to practice in New Zealand – the emergency allocation system isn’t working, Dalton says.'
'Drug company Pfizer pressed New Zealand government officials to meet and discuss its vaccine candidate in June of last year, some six weeks before a first meeting actually took place.'
I will give covid credit for being a very considerate virus. I like the way that no one needs medical for anything other than covid.
Everything else stops and only covid happens
'The numbers show, of the 525 applications received for critical health care workers in the past four months, 212 were approved, granting 287 of 694 applicants a spot in MIQ.'
Not enough ISU facilities, not enough medical staff, not enough miq spots, if NZ hadn't been lucky enough to be a small island at the bottom of world we'd be screwed
2: the first lockdown and the entire MIQ system has a bit to do with it, too.
Anyhoo, yes, it was great that we came out of 2020 with a lower than expected death rate. Not lower than expected from covid, lower than expected based on mortality in preceeding years.
But now we're entering the end of that, sure. You think we should have imported more healthcare workers. Fair enough. But even 600 will be pissing in a swimming pool if the worst happens with an insufficiently-vaccinated population, and does nothing about all the equipment that goes around each bed.
BTW, I'm aware "worst case scenario" does not mean "less likely than other scenarios".
You can’t give a date for a target when the target is not only moving fast but very adept at hiding. My old man left for Europe in 1939 in the NZEF, I asked him why the fuck did you do that and he said “ They told us it would be all over by Christmas “. They never told him it would be Christmas in 6 years time.
To Foreign Waka, may I borrow “querulant “ please, just such a gorgeous word.
Apparently it is wanted to have 90% of Auckland vaccinated. Which would mean 10% not being vaccinated. The population of Auckland is about 1.6 million.
Which means if 90% were vaccinated there'd be 160,000 not vaccinated.
160 thousand is obviously a massive number. More than the population of all of Hamilton. Plenty of scope for Covid to spread and cause major problems.
The PM tells us what she thinks of a bunch of Aucklanders attending a party on the North Shore in Auckland. Terrible she says.
Well to me it didn't look that different to the knees-ups going on at the vaccination centres in Auckland earlier in the day.
I would much rather know why a bunch of Auckland TV crew members were allowed into Wellington to make the PM's PR bull that was the Vaxathon. Why were they allowed to come down here and risk the health of all Wellingtonians just because they were skilled at filming the Labour party MPs doing a campaign show?
Stuff them. And the people who wanted to have their mates preparing the festivities TV coverage rather than people already in Wellington but who weren't on the PM's best buddies list.
You can't tell the difference between unmasked folk indoors contravening level three rules and people outdoors, masked and abiding by level three rules? Poor you.
Me voting for National in 2023 has now become a serious possibility.
Jacinda, I don't care about a vaccination target to be set on Friday. That just tells me you find it easier to keep taking my rights away from me than to do something to actually lift our vaccination rates to a level that you deem to be adequate to restore my rights to me. Fuck off.
What I want to know is what are you and your government are going to do to actually lift those rates. I want an action plan, not vague warblings.
You're complaining about rights being taken away on the same page you say you want no jab – no job implemented, or elsewhere, wishing seriously sick people get triaged out of the health system designed to aid those most in need.
The reasons you give for curtailing your 'freedom' are exactly the same when denying someone the right to work and support themselves and/or family, or receive urgent medical attention.
"No jab, no job" is not a right being taken away. It's a consequence of someone choosing to be an antisocial arsehole and refusing to do a quick, safe, effective and free precaution against being a willful disease spreader.
It's also a totally reasonable health and safety precaution to protect other workers, and any general public that may come into contact with an employee.
Doesn't say anything about having to have covid shots. Surely if you can agree to new laws restricting the right of kiwis, residents and eligible persons to work, then why not for freedom of movement, association etc? It’s totally reasonable in a pandemic.
It's not reasonable when those insisting their right to refuse vaccination without consequences completely overrides other people's rights.
If someone thinks their right to refuse vaccination is that important to them, they can live the lockdown life. They have no right to force that lockdown life on other people, which is the effective result that is happening now.
They can figure out how to earn a living from home. Lots of people already do that. They can get their groceries delivered to their home. Lots of people already do that. It's their choice, if refusing vaccination is that important to them.
However, because of the unvaccinateds choice to refuse vaccination, the government is giving me no choices or options for anything I can possibly do to regain the rights and freedoms that matter to me. It has unilaterally taken them away indefinitely. Because of arsehole vaccine refusers.
And fuck off with that "it's only a lockdown" shit. It's deprivation of freedom, basically home detention. Only one step removed from being put in prison. But you might not get that, you not having had months of it on end.
Yeah, yeah, it's the same as the reasons for not allowing churches to congregate, or people to have big parties or flee the lock down border for pastures less restrictive.
If you can't see the two things being one and the same, I reckon you'll probably be a very contented nat voter. 🙄
Under lockdown rules, I can't go and enjoy the outdoor activities that make life enjoyable. Just a few sanitised zero-risk boring as fuck local walkies or similar.
I can't go and get supplies for any of the projects lined up for my attention. Online ordering won't work for the specialised stuff needed.
I can't go visit family.
But hey, you're alright. You don't have those restrictions. You're just happy other people are suffering those restrictions so you can do whatever you want. Bonus, you get to act smug and superior about it.
Same as for me when the 2020 lock down kicked in, same as me for this years national closure, though I was pretty pissed I only got 2 weeks off this time, but them’s the breaks.
Obviously you're not coping well, and that's fine, and I can see you're all messed up and lashing out in all directions, but from what I'm reading, your logic is based on unstable ground.
At least you still have a vent tube in The Standard, where dodgy logic and unsound arguments won’t look too out of place.
I wonder about a big plan by knowledgeable envos about plantings way down south and gradually cleaning and replanting around
Tiwai as it doesn't sound green at all, at all. (First clean sea floor by buckets then would mangroves grow there?
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Brian Eastonwrites – The Fast-Track Approvals Bill enables cabinet ministers to circumvent key environmental planning and protection processes for infrastructure projects. Its difficulties have been well canvassed. This column suggests a different way of thinking about the proposal. I am ...
The split opening up in Israel’s “War Cabinet” is not just between PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his long-term rival Benny Gantz. It is actually a three-way split, set in motion by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. It was Gallant’s open criticism of Netanyahu that finally flushed Gantz out into the open. ...
On Thursday 17 May, the Mayoral Proposal for Auckland’s Long Term Plan 2024-2034 was passed by Auckland Council, 20 to 1. It is set to be formally adopted by the Governing Body at its June 27th meeting. The entire process took 8 hours, with the vast majority of that time ...
Pakanga o muaTukua, ka ngaroPuritia taku ringaNgaro ana te ara ki pae rauThere's a battle aheadMany battles are lostBut you'll never see the end of the roadWhile you're travelling with meLate yesterday morning I headed to Wynyard Quarter to see Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick give their pre-budget State of ...
Maybe the Prime Minister and his Finance Minister expected the worst, so they mounted a stout defence of the Budget tax cuts to their party faithful at a party conference over the weekend. In turn, they were greeted with applause, which, though it may have been less than wildly enthusiastic, ...
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, May 12, 2024 thru Sat, May 18, 2024. Story of the week “The legislation I signed today [will] keep windmills off our beaches, gas in our tanks, and ...
TL;DR: Here’s six links that stood out to me in the last day in Aotearoa’s political economy to 6:06am on Sunday, May 19:Aotearoa-NZ is the seventh worst in the OECD’s homelessness rankings, just behind the United States and just ahead of Australia. BlackRock thinks rate hikes actually worsen inflation because ...
Halfway up a historic tower in York, we are neither up nor down. At the top you will have views of a city steeped in antiquity, made and remade by Romans, Normans, Vikings, Tescos. Below, you will find a retired minister happy to tell you all about this most astonishing ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Does breathing contribute to CO2 ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: KiwiRail’s seemingly endless requests for more money is damning. At one point, KiwiRail assured Robertson when he was the Finance Minister that the worst-case scenario would be an extra $300 million before requesting $1.2 billion a few months later. Not what most people ...
No one knows what it's likeTo be the bad manTo be the sad manBehind blue eyesNo one knows what it's likeTo be hatedTo be fatedTo telling only liesHave you ever wondered what life must be like for Mike Hosking? Seeing things in black and white through blue tinted specs? In ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past two week’s editions.Share More Than A FeildingBike bling, London Read more ...
Hi,I think we all made it through another week — congratulations. I’ve been digesting the new Arab Strap record, which is astonishing. In other news, I’m going to be doing a Webworm popup in Auckland, New Zealand on Saturday July 13. I’ll bring a bunch of merch, and some other ...
The Fast-Track Approvals Bill enables cabinet ministers to circumvent key environmental planning and protection processes for infrastructure projects. Its difficulties have been well canvassed. This column suggests a different way of thinking about the proposal. I am going to explore the Bill from the perspective of its proponents with their ...
New Zealand First Cabinet Minister Shane Jones has become the best advertisement against the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill. In selling the radical new resource consenting processes, in which ministers can green light any mine, dam, or other major development, Jones seems to be shooting the proposal in the foot. ...
Buzz from the Beehive Associate Education Minister David Seymour is urging the PostPrimary Teachers Association to put learning ahead of ideology. He wants the union leaders to call off their teachers meetings around the country where they hope to muster the strength to undo the government’s plans to establish several ...
What are police for? "Fighting crime" is the obvious answer. If there's a burglary, they should show up and investigate. Ditto if there's a murder or sexual assault. Speeding or drunk or dangerous driving is a crime, so obviously they should respond to that. And obviously, they should respond to ...
Michael Reddell writes – I got curious yesterday about how the Australia/New Zealand real exchange rate had changed over the last decade, and so dug out the data on the changes in the two countries’ CPIs. Over the 10 years from March 2014 to March 2024, New Zealand’s ...
Graham Adams writes that 20 years after the land march, judges are quietly awarding a swathe of coastal rights to iwi. Early this month, an hour-long documentary was released by TVNZ to mark the 20th anniversary of the land-rights march to oppose Helen Clark’s Foreshore and Seabed Act. The account ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: Suspended Green MP Darleen Tana has passed an unpleasant milestone: she has now been absent for as many parliamentary sitting days as she has been present for this year. Tana is on full pay while she is suspended, and will benefit from a ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is no coincidence that two Labour should-have-been MPs are making the most noise about public sector cuts. As assistant general secretary of the Public Service Association, Fleur Fitzsimons has been at the forefront of revealing where the next round of state sector job ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a ...
This is one of the (extra) weekly columns on music or movies. Plenty of solid analyses of Possession exist online and most of them – inevitably – contain spoilers. This column is more in the way of a first-timer’s aid to getting your initial bearings. You don’t need to have ...
I am painting in oil, a portrait of a manWho has taken all the heart aches,And all the pain he can stand.I am using all the colors of blue,I have here on my stand.I am painting in oil, a portrait of a man.This has been an interesting week for me. ...
Helen Clark joins the Hoon as a special guest talking whether Aotearoa should join Aukus II, and her views on the fast track legislation and how Luxon and the new Government are performing. File Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts ...
With an election due in less than nine months, Britain’s embattled PM, Rishi Sunak, gave a useful speech earlier this week. He made a substantial case for his government, perhaps as compelling as is possible in the current environment. Quite an achievement. His overall theme was security, first pulling ...
Open access notablesPublicly expressed climate scepticism is greatest in regions with high CO2 emissions, Pearson et al., Climatic Change:We analysed a recently released corpus of climate-related tweets to examine the macro-level factors associated with public declarations of climate change scepticism. Analyses of over 2 million geo-located tweets in the U.S. showed that climate ...
You can be all negative about these charter schools if you want, but I’m here to accentuate the positive. You can get all worked up, if you want to, by the contradiction of Luxon saying We’re going to make sure that every school in the country is teaching exactly the same ...
Losing The Room: One can only speculate about what has persuaded the Coalition Government that it will pay no electoral price for unreasonably pushing ahead with policies that are so clearly against the national interest. They seem quite oblivious to the risk that by doing so they will convince an increasing ...
Name suppression decisions can be tough sometimes. No matter your views on free speech, you have to be hard-hearted not to be torn by the tug of the competing arguments. I think you can feel the Supreme Court wrestling with that in M v The King. The case for ...
The Merchants of Menace: The Coalition Government has convinced itself that the “Brahmins’” emollient functions have become much too irksome and expensive. Those who see themselves as the best hope of rebuilding New Zealand’s ailing capitalist system, appear to have convinced themselves that a little bit of blunt trauma is what their mollycoddled ...
When National first proposed its Muldoonist "fast-track" law, they were warned that it would inevitably lead to corruption. And that is exactly what has happened, with Resources Minister Shane Jones taking secret meetings with potential applicants:On Tuesday, in a Newsroom story, questions were raised about a dinner Jones ...
Buzz from the Beehive One day – hopefully – we will push that Russian rascal, Vladimir Putin, beyond breaking point. Perhaps it will happen today, when he learns that Foreign Minister Winston Peters is again tightening the thumbscrews. Peters announced further sanctions, this time on 28 individuals and 14 entities ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought New Zealand to the brink of economic and cultural chaos.TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition Government’s failure to retain, and build upon, the public ...
“Members of Parliament don’t work for us, they represent us, an entirely different thing. As with so much that has turned out badly, the re-organising of MPs’ responsibilities began with the Fourth Labour Government. That’s when they began to be treated like employees – public servants – whose diaries had ...
It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a third medical school in New Zealand, ...
Time To Choose: Like it or not, the Kiwis are either going into AUKUS’s “Pillar 2” – or they are going to China.HAD ZHENG HE’S FLEET sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks ...
Henry Ergas writes – When in Randall Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution, a college president is accused of being a hypocrite, the novel’s narrator retorts that the description is grossly unfair. After all, the man is still far from the stage of moral development at which the charge ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ reports: The Education Review Office says too many new teachers feel poorly prepared for their jobs. In a report published on Monday, the review office said 60 percent of the principals it interviewed said their new teachers were not ready. ...
New Zealand’s economic performance and the PM’s vision Michael Reddell writes – When I wrote yesterday morning’s post, highlighting how poorly both New Zealand and its Anglo peer countries have been doing in respect of productivity in recent times (ie, in the case of New ...
Hi all,Firstly - thank you! You guys are awesome. The response I’ve received to last night’s mail has been quite overwhelming. It’s a ghastly day outside, but there are no clouds in here.In case you didn’t read my email and are wondering what on earth I’m talking about you can ...
If there was still any doubt as to who is actually running this government – and it isn’t the buffoon from Botany – then this week’s announcement of a huge spend up on charter schools has settled the matter. While jobs and public services continue to be cut in the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gaye Taylor As widespread drought raises expectations for a repeat of last year’s ferocious wildfire season, response teams across Canada are grappling with the rapidly changing face of fire in a warming climate. No longer quenched by winter, nor quelled by the ...
Half of Christchurch City Holdings Ltd’s directors and its chair resigned en masse last night in protest at Christchurch City Council’s demand to front-load dividends File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The chair of Christchurch City Council’s investment company and four of its independent directors resigned in protest last ...
The University of Waikato has reworded an advertisement that begins the tender process for its new $300 million-plus medical school even though the Government still needs to approve it. However, even the reworded ad contains an architect’s visualisations of what the school might look like. ACT leader David Seymour told ...
As a follow-up to the Rings of Power trailer discussion, I thought I needed to add something. There has been some online mockery about the use of the same actor for both the Halbrand and Annatar incarnations of Sauron. The reasoning is that Halbrand with a shave and a new ...
This isn’t quite as dramatic as the title might suggest. I’m not going anywhere, but there is something I wanted to talk to you about.Let’s start with a typical day.Most days I send out a newsletter in the morning. If I’ve written a lot the previous evening it might be ...
Buzz from the Beehive The promise of tax relief loomed large in his considerations when the PM delivered a pre-Budget speech to the Auckland Business Chamber. The job back in Wellington is getting government spending back under control, he said, bandying figures which show that in per capita terms, the ...
Yesterday de facto Prime Minister David Seymour announced that his glove puppet government would be re-introducing charter schools, throwing $150 million at his pet quacks, donors and cronies and introducing an entire new government agency to oversee them (the existing Education Review Office, which actually knows how to review schools, ...
Te Pāti Māori have launched a petition to stop the repeal of Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act. This announcement comes prior to the first reading of the Section 7AA repeal bill in Parliament today. “Section 7AA forces the Government to adhere to Te Tiriti o Waitangi with respect ...
The Government has yet again failed to do the one thing that needs to happen to ensure houses can be built – commit to ongoing funding, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Treasury officials have outlined many ways in which the Fast Track Approvals Bill is deeply flawed, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking says. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick used this year's State of the Planet to call on the Government to prioritise people and planet as the delivery of the Budget approaches. A full transcript of their speeches can be found below. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have used their State of the Planet speeches to challenge the Government to prioritise people and planet over profit as the delivery of the Budget approaches. ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
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. ...
The Coalition Government’s Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, which will improve tenancy laws and help increase the supply of rental properties, has passed its first reading in Parliament says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “The Bill proposes much-needed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 that will remove barriers to increasing private ...
Standing here in Cassino War Cemetery, among the graves looking up at the beautiful Abbey of Montecassino, it is hard to imagine the utter devastation left behind by the battles which ended here in May 1944. Hundreds of thousands of shells and bombs of every description left nothing but piled ...
I present a legislative statement on the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill Mr. Speaker, I move that the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the Bill. Thank you, Mr. ...
The Bill to repeal Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has had its first reading in Parliament today. The Bill reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the care and safety of children in care, says Minister for Children Karen Chhour. “When I became the Minister for Children, I made ...
Kia ora koutou, good morning, and zao shang hao. Thank you Fran for the opportunity to speak at the 2024 China Business Summit – it’s great to be here today. I’d also like to acknowledge: Simon Bridges - CEO of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. His Excellency Ambassador - Wang ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing them ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing ...
The Coalition Government will introduce legislation this year that will enable roadside drug testing as part of our commitment to improve road safety and restore law and order, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Alcohol and drugs are the number one contributing factor in fatal road crashes in New Zealand. In ...
The Government has announced a series of immediate actions in response to the independent review of Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “Kāinga Ora is a large and important Crown entity, with assets of $45 billion and over $2.5 billion of expenditure each year. It ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour is pleased that Pseudoephedrine can now be purchased by the general public to protect them from winter illness, after the coalition government worked swiftly to change the law and oversaw a fast approval process by Medsafe. “Pharmacies are now putting the medicines back on their ...
Tēnā koutou katoa. Da jia hao. Good morning everyone. Prime Minister Luxon, your excellency, a great friend of New Zealand and my friend Ambassador Wang, Mayor of what he tells me is the best city in New Zealand, Wayne Brown, the highly respected Fran O’Sullivan, Champion of the Auckland business ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced that the Government will make it easier for lines firms to take action to remove vegetation from obstructing local powerlines. The change will ensure greater security of electricity supply in local communities, particularly during severe weather events. “Trees or parts of trees falling on ...
Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani were the top winners at this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy awards recognising the best in Māori dairy farming. Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced the winners and congratulated runners-up, Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board, at an awards celebration also attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “I raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools. “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. “It is my pleasure ...
New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoa’s O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. “His Highness and I reflected on our two countries’ extensive community links, with Samoan–New Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. “Island Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Government’s first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges – Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich – Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
New Zealand and Vanuatu will enhance collaboration on issues of mutual interest, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “It is important to return to Port Vila this week with a broad, high-level political delegation which demonstrates our deep commitment to New Zealand’s relationship with Vanuatu,” Mr Peters says. “This ...
Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk will travel to Peru this week to represent New Zealand at a meeting of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of Trade Minister Todd McClay. The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting will be held on 17-18 May ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford will head to the United Kingdom this week to participate in the 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) and the 2024 Education World Forum (EWF). “I am looking forward to sharing this Government’s education priorities, such as introducing a knowledge-rich curriculum, implementing an evidence-based ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford has today thanked outgoing New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chair, Hon Tracey Martin. “Tracey Martin tendered her resignation late last month in order to take up a new role,” Ms Stanford says. Ms Martin will relinquish the role of Chair on 10 May and current Deputy ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leaders’ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Today’s announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Government’s pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “The National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Korea’s aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. “New Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,” Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill’s introduction reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. “While section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week travel to the UK and Italy to meet with her defence counterparts, and to attend Battles of Cassino commemorations. “I am humbled to be able to represent the New Zealand Government in Italy at the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of what was ...
The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today. $153 million in new funding will be provided over four years to establish and operate up to 15 new charter schools and convert 35 state ...
“The results of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has now been received, with results indicating over 13,000 submissions were made from members of the public,” Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “We heard feedback about the extended lockdowns in ...
Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, other Members of Parliament Acting Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Distinguished Guests Defence and Diplomatic Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, tēna koutou, apinun tru It’s a pleasure to be back in Port Moresby today, and to speak here at the Kumul Leadership ...
Health, infrastructure, renewable energy, and stability are among the themes of the current visit to Papua New Guinea by a New Zealand political delegation, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Papua New Guinea carries serious weight in the Pacific, and New Zealand deeply values our relationship with it,” Mr Peters ...
By Maia Ingoe, RNZ News journalist A NZ Defence Force plane carrying 50 New Zealanders evacuated from New Caledonia landed at Auckland International Airport last night. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it would be working with France and Australia to ensure the safe departure of several evacuation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Snow, Research Scientist, CSIRO CSIRO How often do you check your local weather forecast? How about your local climate projections for 2050? For many farmers, the answer to the first question is all the time. But the answer to the ...
Pacific Media Watch A Māori supporter of Pacific independence movements claims the French government has “constructed the crisis” in New Caledonia by pushing the indigenous Kanak population to the edge, reports Atereano Mateariki of Waatea News. A NZ Defence Force Hercules is today evacuating about 50 New Zealanders stranded in ...
COMMENTARY:By Gordon Campbell The split opening up in Israel’s “War Cabinet” is not just between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his long-term rival Benny Gantz. It is actually a three-way split, set in motion by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. It was Gallant’s open criticism of Netanyahu that finally flushed ...
Reacting to today’s Budget Speech from Labour’s Finance spokesperson, Barbara Edmonds, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “It is encouraging to see that one of Labour’s stated priorities is to focus on creating ‘a level ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kylie Turner, System Lead, Sustainable Economies, Climateworks Centre atk work/Shutterstock In the budget last week, the government was keen to talk about its efforts to turn Australia into a renewable superpower under the umbrella of the Future Made in Australia policies. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Opposition Leader Peter Dutton might have done us a favour. As part of his budget reply speech on Thursday night he promised to stop foreigners buying existing Australian homes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Maguire, Associate Professor in Human Rights and International Law, University of Newcastle The request by Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), for arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders is a significant step in the effort to ...
RNZ Pacific A New Zealand author, journalist and media educator who has covered the Asia-Pacific region since the 1970s says liberation “must come” for Kanaky/New Caledonia. Professor David Robie sailed on board Greenpeace’s flagship Rainbow Warrior until it was bombed by French secret agents in New Zealand in July 1985 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Renwick, Professor of Agricultural Economics, Lincoln University, New Zealand Fonterra caught the business world by surprise last week with plans to sell off its consumer brands and businesses – including supermarket mainstays such as Anchor, Fresh’n Fruity and Mainland. The move ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Small, Senior lecturer, Above the Bar School of Educational Studies and Leadership, University of Canterbury With an air force plane on its way to rescue New Zealanders stranded by the violent uprising in New Caledonia, many familiar with the island’s history ...
A New Zealand government plane is heading to New Caledonia to assist with bringing New Zealanders home. Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today confirmed it was the first in a series of proposed flights. Peters said the flight would carry around 50 passengers with the most pressing needs from Nouméa ...
Regional councils must focus on building meaningful and enduring relationships with iwi and hapū to support better freshwater management, says the Auditor-General in a new report. ...
Chris Glaudel, Deputy Chief Executive of Community Housing Aotearoa, sees the announcement as a step towards addressing New Zealand’s high and rising levels of homelessness by improving our approach and system to delivering affordable homes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ali Mamouri, Research fellow, Middle East studies, Deakin University The death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash this week occurred during one of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s most challenging periods. Raisi, a prominent figure in the political elite, ...
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So the taxpayer's onion has been having a go at the PM: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/jacinda-ardern-pours-cold-water-on-wedding-allegations-saying-staffer-helping-as-a-friend/KJ3THSPCEQZGHPVYJ7TELLQIBQ/
The guts seems to be that her electorate secretary was negotiating a wedding venue on her behalf. I gather an electorate secretary is a public official (?) so the onion reckons it's an attempt by the PM to privatise the official's time.
The PM has been adept in responding that it was help from a friend in their own time, and any reward is private. Hard for the onion to progress the issue now, eh? One would have thought that the onion, acting as media, ought to have interviewed the official to discover the facts. Too elementary?
If the venue owner has a signed agreement for the hire of the venue (which I doubt he does) and it includes the $5k cancellation clause, then they should pay up. If he doesn't then he is just bitter and twisted and should 'take a hike'.
The tax payer union needs to check their facts before making accusations they cant back up. If they are trying to say the secretary did it all on company time then they need to have proof of that (which I doubt they do).
Seems to be the thing these days, just shout the loudest without any proof, like Winston about Harry tam.
Noting that there is a separate post about this topic now: https://thestandard.org.nz/slater-smears-again/
Not at all. Most of these allegations never make it beyond innuendo. The TPUs inability to influence govt policy doesn't seem to count against them at all.
Identity politics can get surreal at times. Latest saga involves a bat being re-categorised as a bird, with the intent to get the bat to win the bird of the year award.
A blatant attempt to discriminate against birds? Using the shapeshifting strategy was clever, but maybe not clever enough to succeed. Perhaps its a policy of affirmative action to rehabilitate the political profile of bats. Chemists going batshit in Wuhan did rather give them a bad name as guilty originators of Covid.
So we wait with baited breath to see if the judges take the bait and decide yes, it flies so it must be a bird. They could then issue a fatwa declaring bats to have minority representation rights…
.
Young pukekos, like most young animals, like to play, & they are very inventive. All the many pooklets I have now watched grow up into adolescents & then young adults have devised their own individual games & "toys".
Guessing
1. 2 more weeks at Level 3 lite in Auckland (they will hope to keep cases to no more than 100 a day – having capability to contact at up to 180 a day).
2. retaining the Auckland border until December – with 90% first dose nationwide within weeks and meeting the follow up target of 90% second dose nationwide by then (3-6 week gap).
3. announce a plan to allow vaccinated people to return from overseas to home isolation in Auckland during November (using the managed isolation spots in Auckland for those of other areas, or for the infected).
They will consider a circuit breaker tightening today (for mine they either do it now, or after it gets to 100 day – doing this in November so it stays under the 180 level that month as they get the rest of Enzed to 90/90).
https://www.1news.co.nz/2021/10/17/experts-fear-auckland-in-trouble-as-cases-mount/
I will be seriously fucked off if the government tightens restrictions without concurrently announcing universal "no jab, no job" and universal "no jab, no entry" policies, along with making it clear that when (not if) our medical facilities get overwhelmed, unvaccinated covid patients are first to get triaged out.
Let's be clear, our problem now is the willfully unvaccinated. Everyone that is at least grudgingly willing to get vaccinated has had ample opportunity to get their first dose at least, if not their second as well.
We've had capacity for over 90,000 vaccinations a day continuously since late August. A very rough tally up suggests that somewhere around 800,000 of those potential vaccinations were not taken up. There's less than 600,000 eligibles that have yet to get their first dose. We've got plenty of stock of vaccines in our freezers.
Everyone that's eligible and not yet had their first dose is willfully in that state, and is a major part of the problem.
Totally agree, at some stage people have to take responsibility for themselves and either enjoy or suffer the consequences of their actions – you can only lead a horse to water for so long.
You do realise don't you that both you and Andre are advocating that the Government should go in for genocide?
Kill off the members of the Maori race is what you are proposing, at least according to the leader of the Maori Party, the coat tail MP Ms Ngarewa-Packer who says
'“If the government is prepared to open the borders as soon as our country is 90% vaccinated, they are willingly holding Māori up to be the sacrificial lambs. It is a modern form genocide.”.
Those are her words of course. My personal view coincides with what you are saying.
Given no government in the world has universal no jab no job or universal no jab no entry, you should expect to be disappointed. For jobs, it would require a workplace environment and public facing roles to be relevant and no entry for health care or (Level 4) essentials has already been ruled out.
Soon there will be opening up reserved for the vaxxed (2 doses plus 2 weeks) – the problem will be managing that with children under 12 not vaxxed (libraries, zoo, pools) while containing spread.
Northern Territory-Aussie is or has a mandate for vaccination or else: $5000 fine and/or workplace ban.
.https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/unvaccinated-northern-territory-workers-face-5000-fines-and-workplace-bans-in-sweeping-new-rules-c-4224077
Everyone that's eligible and not yet had their first dose is willfully in that state, and is a major part of the problem
You might be correct for people in urban areas, but it's a different ballgame in some of the regions with services not coordinating for the hard-to-find people
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/covid-19/453636/taranaki-maori-health-providers-struggle-with-dhb-despite-pm-s-optimism
and with difficult access to vaccination clinics – well worth the watch. Tina Ngata presents the barriers with real clarity. I question why this, part of a national priority vaccination service, is having to be funded by public donation.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/breakfast/clips/tair-whiti-gisborne-locals-fundraise-more-than-107k-for-mobile-vaccine-clinic
Some of the factors she presents are relevant in other areas too, including Auckland – including work hours, but especially trust an information sources.
As it happens, I do have contacts with people working the frontlines of similar areas trying to get vaccines out to people.
It's not just a matter of getting a team of people to show up someone's front door, it can take hours of those skilled practitioner's time to persuade people to accept getting vaccinated. Even after spending those hours of providing information and reasons to get vaccinated, the refusal rate is still very high.
This is not a problem of under-resourcing, or a problem of DHBs being uncooperative. It is a problem of people choosing to be difficult and willfully wasting vast amounts of skilled resource to achieve a result. A result which takes very much less resource to achieve with those that don't choose to be difficult resource-wasters.
Yes, believe me, I'm as enraged by the anti-vaxerati spreading lies and misinformation. I'm frustrated at all those years of mistrust fermenting between government and various populations. I'm disappointed that a mobile vaccination unit, which seems entirely sensible in this instance, is having to be crowd funded when it's only small change to for government to finance. I'm more than disappointed the the spirit of the new health system structure is not being observed in practice with the vaccination role out – not just out in the communities, but . having talking heads on tv and in the news papers. They've been hired already
Yes, the DHBs are uncooperative and Taranaki has been the slowest to get with the programme, (we've only recently moved out of the region, so are pretty familiar with the issues there), hence the link.
It's really not helpful to make a call for everyone to be labelled obstructive and punished for slow vaccination uptake. I agree the problems in Auckland are less severe in this regards and the "family picnic" protest organisers should be locked up imho. I have no time for these people, but a bit of sympathy for people with long-standing government distrust.
Here's something I wrote a couple of weeks ago, to get it out of my system – just so you know I'm not unsympathetic to your views about the vaccine-hesitant:
Without modern medicine I wouldn’t be able to walk more than 50 metres, I wouldn’t be able to hold a book, wipe down the bench, hold a pen or use a keyboard. I know this, because that’s how it was 10 years ago. Lucky my only deformity is in my wrists – it could be way more extensive.
Since modern medicine I’ve completed a PhD, explored Europe, run a half marathon and lived a pretty normal everyday life. The cost of my non-disabled life to me is I’m immune-suppressed. To the public health system the cost quite a lot of money – they don’t give these meds out routinely, but Pharmac worked out it’s cheaper to give the drug for people with a certain criteria, than it is for the health budget pay for the disease to continue to destroy us.
I’ve had my vaccinations, people who are on immune-suppressant medications can do this, but the problem is it doesn’t work so well for us, our immune response is defective. So I’m ever so slightly anxious if Covid gets away on us.
Added to that is the fear that I won’t get my modern medicine because *drum roll* the type of drugs that keep me well are being used to treat covid patients, This includes treating the people who refused to be vaccinated because they’d rather have the biologic drugs that keep people like me well than take a harmless, effective vaccine that someone told them on the internet will affect their dna (it doesn’t). Not my meds yet, lucky for me, but I have friends in tears because their medications are even at this early stage of the vaccine-led grand opening overseas, are no longer available here.
Their right to refuse a well-studied, harmless vaccine that has been administered millions of times and still be in the same space as me is sacrosanct. I, on the other-hand, have no way of knowing if they are in the same space I’m am, and if they can harm me.
Is their right to refuse a harmless vaccine greater than my right to move around in my day-to-day life as freely as anyone else? The risk to the immune-suppressed increases if we open up and covid gets away on us, despite high levels of vaccination.
Do I go back to living a half-life indoors? Am I meant to say I respect people’s decisions to a) refuse vaccines b) break covid safety rules c) or to live with the virus? Those three decisions are all the same to me as we open up and “regain our freedoms”.
The several thousand people in similar situations to me and labelled with ‘underlying medical conditions’ may have similar questions. Opening up doesn’t look like fun for us, it looks much like fear.
Maybe calling something a that needs booster shots every six month a vaccine was the biggest idiocy of them all.
This is not a vaccine, at best it is a medication to mitigate the severity of a covid infection, but it provides no immunity.
Maybe we truly have wasted 18 month on pretending we can keep a pandemic at bay while letting people in the country. Maybe by pretending for 18 month that we are the bestest did not help in getting people to understand that all our covid free status is / was temporary and a fragile state at best.
And above all maybe waiting until a delivery on July 28th to start jabbing people in Group 3 and Group 4 – thanks Spain and Danemark for the extra 750.000 doses that they send late Sept – was the biggest failure of them all, as people felt save and thus felt they no longer need this vaccine. We should have start vaccinating in January or earlier, and we should have started with those that wanted the jabs. We might not be in the boat we are today. But hindsight is hindsight, and i do hope that hte govts risk analysts are looking to hindsight to gain some foresight. But not holding my breath, after all they get paid full wages for success as failure alike.
And now we are dealing with Delta, and all the horses have bolted and we realise that we are not better then the rest of the world.
"but it provides no immunity".
"We should have start vaccinating.
Logical fallacy.
If the vaccine "provides no immunity" then what is the point of "vaccinating".
In fact it does, in around 95% of people. Why the hell elase would we bother. And it cuts the risks of passing it on considerably.
COVID-19 'is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,' CDC director says (cnnphilippines.com)
We should have started earlier imo as i believe that the fear was greater last year/early this year.
The point of this 'vaccine' is to prevent you from suffocating until you are dead.. That is the best that you can hope from this 'vaccine' as it infers no immunity at all, and what ever good it does seems to wane after 6 month and regular booster shots will be required.
And that is still better then nothing.
That's not true. It offers partial immunity. If all it did was lessen the severity of covid infection and didn't also limit transmission, then there'd be no point using it to limit transmission.
The vaccine increases the ability of humans to resist covid infection. Less people get covid, that's because of immunity given by the vaccine.
"Maybe calling something a that needs booster shots every six month a vaccine was the biggest idiocy of them all."
I agree.
When I hear vaccine I think protection against whatever it is the vaccination is for.
Words matter
Pfizer vaccine does provide protection. Different vaccines require boosters, e.g. tetanus.
Not when the message was pushed about vaccination not vaccination plus booster because vaccination is not enough
So tetanus has a vaccine but the tetanus booster isn't a vaccine. 🙄
As it is, NZgovt said in April that a third injection might be required. The reason they weren't more specific then was pretty much nobody in the world knew the specifics at that time.
Israel is on its second booster shot now.
How many tetanus injections do you need in a year?
Sure, tetanus was the first one that came to mind. Mostly because I didn't bother to check whether the annual flu shots might include vaccines against variants from previous years.
But the point is that to argue the govt was somehow lax in not saying boosters might be required (which they did) and that somehow a booster shot is different from a vaccine (which it's not) is incorrect on many levels.
So the vaccines need boosters to maintain efficacy. We knew there was a solid chance any vaccine would have to be annual anyway, if there were new variants. They're still the main key to avoiding mass death. Fuck, make 'em weekly. I don't give a shit, I'm glad to have them.
Yes they do. Vaccine accurately describes the covid vaccines function.
Many different vaccines for different diseases, provide differing levels of protection.
Depending on the immune system response.
None provide 100% guarentee of immunity.
They are all vaccines. Vaccine is the word for how they work and what they do.
You know as well as I do that the government pushing vaccines are also pushing the idea the vaccines keep us safe
Not keep us safe but will require boosters and won't actually stop you from getting covid or passing on but will lessen the effects and lower your chances of dying
Havn't heard anyone pushing the idea that they mean total safety. The Government has made it clear that vaccination will not mean the end of other public health measures.
PR,
I've been critical of public health messaging about the covid vaccine, but what you say isn't true. The covid vax means:
those are three really important things.
So we circle back around to universal "no jab, no entry" and universal "no jab, no job" and "no jab, first to lose access to medical treatment" policies.
These really are the only things I can see the government can do to make the environment out there less threatening for people in your situation.
Let's face it, while covid exists, some people are going to forced to live the lockdown life. Those should be the people that refuse to take a quick, safe highly effective and free precaution against being a health and safety risk to others.
Emotionally I agree with you, rationally I don't.
Rationally, what McFlock says below.
Also, misinformation is like a drug (I've seen plenty of it with the disease I have) taking out the receivers doesn't do much. Taking out the source is a much more efficient ways of ridding our society of this stuff. Part of the problem with this is the dealers look much the establishment. Also regulate the Facebook group – that's how they turn a trickle of misinformation into a torrent.
I certainly don't agree with "no jab, first to lose access to medical treatment"
For pucks sake get with the program. National of course endourses the govt implementing "no jab, no job" and Andres favourite tent hospital policies. How else do you think we win the next election? We are presently asking if our donors can supply enough tents in case Twyford makes promises of 10,000 tent hospitals per year.
An arsonist goes around setting other people's houses on fire, and his own house catches alight.
Whose houses should the firefighters put their limited finite efforts towards saving?
Depends if his is in the middle and will risk lightening others, the firefighter will try to douse that fire first to mitigate the spread.
However, the police will then arrest the arsonist, and the court will hopefully send that arsonist to jail.
The question is how many of those high-hanging fruit (diminishing returns on effort vs vaccinations delivered) are the result of intractability, and how much of them are the result of systemic neglect and expecting people to suddenly turn around in eagerness because society is finally throwing crumbs in their direction.
Especially if it looks like the only reason the effort is being put in is because it's the only way to help the people usually protected by the system.
In the case of the people my contacts are spending their working days trying to bring healthcare to, it really does seem to primarily be a result of intractability. Not just this covid issue, but over the long term, and over pretty much all medical issues.
Ditto for the few unvaccinated people I know socially and at work.
So, among the unvaccinated I've got even the tiniest glimmerings of insight into, it's 100%. But I really don't have any insight into populations that might have genuine (as opposed to imagined) reasons to be alienated from medical help. So I've got no clue as to what the split in numbers might be.
yeah. Don't get me wrong, the interminably stupid will drag us all down.
But from what I hear we still haven't yet managed to get around all the terminally-neglected, either.
Can your contacts explain why the Jansen vaccine isn't offered to people who don't want the mRNA one? It was approved by Medsafe early July and only needs one dose. Couldn't this be taken out to remote areas on the vaccine buses and be an option for those who say "I want to wait for xxx"?
Andre the disability crowd in Auckland and elsewhere pointed out they have not had any special assistance to help with their equity issues. Some are on non-compatible treatments and some remote families would have 3 or 4 trips at differing dates to get vaccinated in areas like Tairawhiti because of the age cohorts which made it difficult for the whole extended family. I doubt they are “willfully in that state.” of being unvaccinated. I think some DHB’s upped their game and engagement after meeting with the PM and Health teams. Look at Singapore, which is not a model opening.
Every time I've looked on the bookmyvaccine site, there's been a specific Healthline number to call if home vaccination is needed. I've seen home vaccination hotline numbers several other places. I heard snippets from my frontline contacts about extra efforts being made, which were sometimes rebuffed. So forgive my skepticism on that claim they haven't had assistance. Perhaps not to the level that they think they should be entitled to become accustomed to, but certainly an elevated level of assistance has been available.
I can't speak to Tairawhiti, but from where I have heard comments, providers were going against the official guidelines provided and trying to vaccinate everyone in the family or other group that turned up for a vaccine. They were able to do this without risk of running out of vaccine supplies because so few were actually taking up the opportunity.
Northland DHB and Ngati Hine were, and are, vaccinating every family group that turned up.
Various groups offerring transport or to visit.
There does come a point where people have to get off their butt and ask.
It's not always even a case of getting off their butts and asking; sometimes it's a matter of just saying "ok" instead of "piss off" to the practitioner that's right in front of them that has already spent considerable time answering questions and providing reasons why it's a good thing.
For the last few weeks, after months of lobbying.
The public and private medical backlog in Auckland is already of serious concern a return to stricter lockdown would cause this to balloon out further.
It's a catch 22, because if it goes to a 1000 a day before Christmas – not only will medical services be impacted, so will lives (consider what happened in Ireland at that time of year in 2020).
It's not a catch 22 at all.
Returning to a draconian lockdown is unlikely to get NZ to nil cases and if it does will only do so for a limited period of time.
COVID will go through NZ sooner or later the economic and health and well being costs cost of that will be quite considerable but so they are with the lockdowns.
I fear there will be a brain drain and economic exodus out of NZ that will surprise many people if there are not moves back to a less closed society within the next 6 months.
In my opinion the government has done a moderate to poor job of hastening vaccination and preparing the populace and our health infrastructure for the inevitable period when we have COVID circulating widely.
We had a period of a year where health professionals were clamoring to come to NZ and our response was to make it difficult for even those who were here on work permits to stay let alone allowing additional staff in.
Those three points look like a pretty good bet SPC.
One friction point is how the rest of the country reacts if the Auckland border is dropped some time in December. Elimination is still working outside Auckland, inside Auckland we are in suppression mode. Many thousands of Aucklanders hope to be able to leave for other places in late Dec/early Jan. Even if we are allowed to move, will we be welcome, or seen as escaped lepers? Will an armed guard of Ngapuhi attempt to turn us back north of Wellsford? The PM will need every ounce of skill she has from here on.
Too many unlinked cases. A 3.5 is required to contain the unlinked cases. Allow contact less takeaway. 2 nominated people to visit your bubble only if living alone at separate times.
The current situation is unable to be controlled using the measures being used. People need to consider how they will manage in a fully blowen outbreak and to give it one last shot so that people can get vaccinated to reduce the severe effects from Covid infection.
The point, mainly the Auckland region will be at in a month depends on the best strategy being available to contain and reduce the spread.
The message needs to be, follow the rules to get the best result possible regardless of your preference for what you want to do or believe about Covid.
At 90% vaxxed by the beginning of December it still leaves over 150,000 Aucklanders who WILL get Covid. If the UK example is replicated that would mean about a thousand cases a day, and a sizeable percentage in hospital and that is figure subject to a cumulative affect caused by stays of up to 42-50 days, the numbers then become horrific, meaning most other hospital operations are impossible and the deaths of a number of vaccinated nurses and doctors.
So no sympathy for the non-compliant, the border must stay, travel, work and any out of house movement must be banned until they are dead or recovered. After the effort that the rest have put in there can be no excuses, the end result would be nobody’s fault but their own. The only upside is that the national IQ would rise significantly.
good grief,
Even vaccinated we can still get Covid, can carry it around town, and spread it wide and thinly like butter on warm toast.
Vaccination will for the most part however prevent serious illness and death.
So that leaves all of AKL who can get it, but most will survive, and the 150.000 that as of today have not been vaccinated are the ones at biggest risk of dying.
All of us should get comfortable with the idea that WE WILL GET COVID. That is why the govt is pushing the vaccines as much as it does. Because it knows.
Absolutely reckon Sabine. I have a hard headed 17 year old stepson to somehow convince, the boy doesn't even believe in toothpaste "coz it causes cancer" , maybe a dose of covid will do the trick for him.
No believing in toothpaste could be a great covid vaccine, itll keep most a safe 2 meters away!!
I Feel Love: I just imagine that he will get to vote if we are following the "trend" of giving a voice to kids. How do you feel about that?
I'm still not sure about under 18s voting anyway, but this 17 year old is def an exception. I have 2 other kids & they & their friends give me great hope for the future. They speak māori, are inclusive with their trans peers, environmentally conscious, basically great kids. That 17 year old though, (his dad has a lot to answer for).
Black sheep? 🙂 You need some color in the mix lol
I understand how you feel.
Covid is coming if it has not already come. Being vaccinated is being more prepared than being unvaccinated. People need to be given a month to organise the influx and the impact of Covid in their community. Some in Auckland have already made a decision on what they will be doing with Covid in their community even if it is harmful to others.
Singapore, with a highly-vaccinated population similar in size to NZ, opened up in September and now has 3,000 cases a day and 12 deaths-this after only 6 weeks.
NZ can look forward to similar numbers. THIS IS UNAVOIDABLE IF WE OPEN UP.
Double Vac rate singapore 80%
80% of what? NZ uses the population excluding below 12. Australia uses the population excluding below 16. Our World In Data use the whole population, which I prefer (see link).
Vaccines will soon be available for 5-11yo's-testing is already happening.
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations
It was a news article , i suspect it was from the data in your link.
Singapore's vaccination is at 80% of the total population.
Yes Singapore impressive.
NZ is doing extremely well. After Super Saturday NZ has now vaxxed more of the population than the UK. Why is the media here not screaming "government triumphs in vaccination process" like they are screaming this for Boris in the UK?
Well keep Auckland then in lockdown until the pandemic goes away. Which may be never. We are good here in Not Auckland.
So maybe just define 'open up' first?
I would define OPENING UP as:
People have the freedom to move (by plane, vehicle, boat) in and out of the country to/from overseas locations.
All lockdowns are ended. No domestic travel restrictions. The only remaining restrictions are masks to be worn at all times in public and a government plea to continue social distancing.
The dichotomy of elimination in play elsewhere (while we get to the 90/90 vaccination level nationwide) and the Auckland border/containment area is what it is.
A high rate of spread in Auckland cDecember 1 might mean a vaccine passport to get out.
Those vaccine passports (and the freedoms of movement they allow to the fully vaccinated) should be here now. Actually, a month ago would be better.
Failing that, a firm announcement that they are coming by the beginning of November (end of university year) and clear guidance that they will be necessary is a barely adequate second-best.
With only 44% of Maori fully vaxxed I wouldn't hold your breath.
(The government is calling them certificates not passports)
Oddly enough, all the Maori I'm acquainted with are fully-vaxxed. The unvaccinated I'm acquainted with are all quite privileged white folks.
But if the government sees fit to take away my Bill of Rights freedoms of movement and association and assembly even after I've done everything I can possibly do to help ensure community protection, in order to give those freedoms to those who refuse to take a quick, safe, effective and free precaution to protect the community and themselves, I am going to be very very angry.
Pretty much the same. The anti vaccers I know, tend to be more the new age, or happy clappy religo, mumbo jumbo believers.
Maori Whanau have mostly been vaccinated, but unfortunately a few too many with other health issues, which would cause them problems if they caught covid. Majority of my Maori Whanau, work in the health sector,
NZ will quite soon be in a situation where we are testing this policy. I think its going to be quite problematic that (at least initially) there is expected to be a large scale opening up where by the passported are spreading it through the country, because at present the message is they are entitled to and the consequences are on the unvaccinated that there is such a wave of infection. That dynamic will make it very difficult if the govt needs to go back to lockdowns and this could happen even at 90% vaccination if there are reasonably small errors in say Hendys modelling.
Oddly enough Andre I agree to some extent. I live near Hawea Flat which is mostly populated by pakeha outdoor types and ex hippies. The vaccination rate in Wanaka is around 95 per cent. Somebody told me it was around 40 per cent in Hawea Flat. (I will look for links on this data and add them later ..I am walking in the bush right now)
Sorry, have searched, and those stats appear to be unavailable now sorry.
ditto, here.
I highlighted the story of Singapore late yesterday evening
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/300432375/living-with-covid19-singapore-confronts-division-and-fear-as-the-country-moves-away-from-zerocovid
UK had the MOST cases in the world yesterday, beating the US
43,275 UK pop 68m
33, 910 US pop 333m
according to a friend in the US, the numbers are 'mostly' correct, but many of the southern states aka GOP states are not counting.
Re South, why am i not surprised.
AND OVER 30 states reported NO new infections yesterday – Yeh right.
If Florida is among them……Death De Santis has struck again.
Florida reported over 2000 case and 1 death yesterday
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
yes, and these are the massaged stats that they have reported since the beginning of the outbreak.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article251838913.html
There is a lot of massaging going on behind the drapes. Any case i think all the numbers are what they think they can get away with.
Anyone remember the image of John Key with Sam Whitelock from 2011?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/assets/news/51425/eight_col_short_pm.jpg?1445757862
The PM does her thing to super size the vaccine roll out
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/juOIGIRUQ3jeHteR4jzBBaGq4IU=/1440×960/smart/filters:quality(70)/cloudfront-ap-southeast-2.images.arcpublishing.com/nzme/MOJ3RQO3DSKRNTOPOXKERNTVKQ.jpg
2015*
There's an outstanding opinion on http://www.greaterauckland.org.nz on the politics of Entrust, which is the 75% shareholder in Vector.
The fresh candidates from the progressive team look interesting and willing to do a whole lot of good stuff.
Time for this retirement home for failed National MPs to be comprehensively renewed.
Direct link to the article: https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2021/10/18/the-entrust-election-climate-democracy-and-better-streets/
A small step and even if you get a more responsive trust board Vector will just hide behind their industry obligations and/or play games with the power bill rebate.
A rigged game that only nationalisation will resolve IMO. Those power bill rebates represent underinvestment and a PR lolly scramble around trust election time.
Asiafication of kiwi politics, here we come. Note to Xi: your initial infiltration strategy seems to have been premature but now the time is right. Triadic ethnic structure of parliament seems inevitable, with the Asians the third leg of the stool. The hive mind may arise within the Beehive. Perhaps the Asians will be able to teach the pakeha & the maori how to unify – or will hell freeze over first?
I was discussing the issue of schoolchildren not having access to the internet being an equity problem with dealing with lockdown with my sister-in-law the other day. We only lightly touched on the subject, so I was interested to read this article in the Herald online this morning: Covid 19 Delta outbreak: School term 4 starts today – but Auckland lockdown struggles continue.
The obvious issues –
and the solutions –
This is great work done on behalf of the students, without question. The online tv programmes last year were great too. Only watched a couple to get the gist – our schooling has been more unschool in this household and self-directed so while familiar to me, it's no longer the only path to learning.
When talking with someone I know who works at the Ministry, they spoke about the focus being on students not falling behind. As someone whose children were absent from the formal education system for the whole of their primary and secondary years, that notion of irreparable harm is only one approach.
What if during the lockdowns, we acknowledged that the teaching and learning worlds have changed, and instead of trying to replicate education as usual we took the time to pause, look around and consider other simpler alternatives?
What if we required nothing in terms of work produced by children at home, but just gave them opportunities to learn and explore?
My first thoughts in terms of affordability and portability are lo-tech. (And I am thinking more of primary school aged children in regards to suggestions.)
I'm wondering if anyone else remembers Max Cryer's radio transmission into schools for music lessons. The speaker system embedded in the wall above the blackboards were turned on, the songbooks printed by the Education Department were taken out of the wooden desks and we sang along with all the other classmates, and others in NZ, with Max Cryer on a specific day and time of the week.
Sunday mornings spent jumping on parents so they make space so that you can listen to 1ZB(?)'s Sunday morning stories that started at 7am and went till 9.
Radios are cheap.
Supply individual ones to children with headphones and batteries, and let them listen in to stories, singalongs, classes. Send them books, songbooks, easy experiment materials, art materials, maths manipulatives, seeds, bulbs.
To keep in touch with their friends, give them letter writing materials, envelopes, stamps. Have teachers send personal letters to their students, shooting the breeze, including a printed newspaper about what the teachers have been up to while their classrooms are empty. Restart school journals, printing submissions from students.
Teachers know their students. If a student is interested in Science, send along an appropriately aged science book with no requirement to do anything other than receive it. And just keep in touch. Start penpal groups with other children, even overseas, yes, they still exist.
Instead of 'missing out' and 'catching up' being the sole considerations, think about how else the stress of lockdowns can be mitigated for students and their families.
Chromebooks and internet access are expensive and hard to achieve and distribute equitably, and treat all students the same.
Radios, books, individually selected materials and a sanctioned time to learn in different ways, with items they can keep forever. Lockdown learning could be an experience to remember rather than endure.
(Just a passing thought. Would be interested in knowing if anyone else had suggestions along these lines.)
Now think of the families that will drive to a hot spot so the kids can go to school while sitting in the car.
The teachers that i know personally are starting to burn out. They are teachers, social workers, IT specialists, emotional support workers, food distributors, pen and paper buyers, and then of course teachers. One of them, calls her students 'stress bunnies', stressed by not getting out to meet friends, stressed by not getting the education they need, stressed by having no idea how to manage the future of university or job as well, the world is what it is.
The fact is that this pandemic is showing us in full color all the shortcomings of the last 4 – 6 decades of various governments do nothing, or only do under duress, or only do if it makes us look good. And here we are, thousands of our own who barely hang on.
And so as long as we pretend that we can go back ' to normal' what ever that means now, or back to 'what used to be / was' we can not change the way we are doing business. And that too involves teaching.
How many in NZ – and i know a few now, are on Starlink because in their rural areas they still have no access to internet? Just to cover the very basic.
Lack of internet access was the issue that made me think that other options should be considered. I love my technology, but don’t think it is the be all when it comes to education.
We lived in Papakura for a few years, down the road from where families would drive to sleep in a sportsfield carpark. Live rurally now, but I am sure if I went back that familiar sight would still occur at dusk.
Families already under stress, could do with some understanding. Striving so desperately to go 'back to normal' for already burdened families dealing with homelessness, inadequate finances and other Covid related anxieties seems to me to be another burden for the already overloaded.
I have family in the education system. How is the government ensuring their wellbeing during this time? By trying to put everything online, and get families access to devices and internet. Printing worksheets and hard copies to send out. That might work for some, but it's not the only option.
What if – just for this time – the requirement to produce work to be marked was dropped? What if – to offload the stress – kids were just given radios with rechargeable batteries to keep? And books, and materials. Teachers can take all marking and assessment duties off their workload – just for now – and use their time to look after their own and their students wellbeing.
If 'keeping up' was replaced with 'exploration learning', and both teachers and students were disconnected from the requirement of marked assessments, just imagine.
I think teachers would be wonderfully creative and successful at providing students with learning tools, if given the budget and freedom to do so.
Teachers are wonderfully creative and successful at providing students with the attention and care they need to succeed, but teachers can not make up for the failure of government, and that includes the current one.
The fact that we are actually not even talking about the disparity in online access, affordable internet, etc, yet seem to be ok to blame teachers for the collective failures of communities, families and government aka Ministry of Educaiton, Winz etc. It might just be easier. A bit like blaming the under staffed, under paid and under resourced nurses for the failures of the Ministry of Health.
I think we are in agreement here, Sabine.
My point was that government focus on 'keeping up' as if everything was normal was limited in perspective and not actually thinking about wellbeing.
It limits the choices teachers can make with dealing with the lockdown and providing for their students.
Not just access to the internet, there is also the disparity of all Auckland students going forward in the current & following years. How will these students "catch up" with the rest of the country that has been attending school classes. Should Auckland schools remain on line for the remainder of the year, then students have been learning on line for 16 weeks from a 40 week school year. Will say NCEA allowances be carried forward next year the year following ??
I feel for all those students out there especially as they approach year end exams and to complete year end portfolios.
Herodotus, is is really necessary for primary aged schoolchildren to "catch up"?
As mentioned, our household learnt from home throughout their primary and secondary years. One graduated over a year ago, two are currently in tertiary education and passing their studies. They had 15 years out of the system, there are more approaches to education that are available to be utilised if schools are given the freedom to do so.
We also enrolled for Te Kura for a while. The busy work required in order to authenticate the work was tedious, and sucked a lot of motivation from the process. To be fair, they have made progress on their delivery since then.
If our approach for lockdown students is limited to providing sporadic and unsustainable internet access to those without, and/or printing hard copies, then we are missing an opportunity to do something better during this period of disruption.
The government has had a long period to consider this and offer up alternatives to schools, teachers and students.
I was thinking more of Secondary school students that are not home schooled or who have parents that their courses go beyond the parents understanding or that are told "That is not the way we are taught to do it ". And that the students knowledge is built up over the previous year foundation. Without teaching some of that understanding will not be there as they progress e.g. maths, science etc, and for those courses are more "hands on" Art, Trades, PE, Hard Materials etc.
These Ak students next year will be measured against those students who will have had the opportunity to be taught at school with only marginal disruption to their learning.
"Measured".
The concepts that education is a "competition" that can be "measured" like the production of milk powder, is a large cause of our current problems with education.
I was searching for a word to use obviously not the right one for you. So what would you suggest regarding equating Ak to the remainder of the country, so that NCEA results are comparable ?Because the students potential will not be the same given the lack of teaching that happened this year, and should (I hope not) Ak experiences any more lockdowns in the future, thus disadvantaging students to a greater degree. I hope you understand my comments intentions, even is the phrasing is a little inadequate.
NCEA and the constant summative testing prevents effective and creative Teaching. Personally I think it should be dumped.
However scaling results, between different groups and areas has a long history in NZ, if you must!
I will wait until our minister of education to front up on Wednesday with solutions. 2+more weeks of level 3 will mean high schools within AK will have only online learning, so what of those who this form of learning doesn’t work for or is unable to access the internet and their well being ?? I know if plenty of students freaking out
I hope they realise also in 2 weeks there will be uni students relocating back home, that could be entering Auckland/ Waikato or leaving to go to a level 2 location.
There is no reall good answer. An explosion of covid within schools and students families would be pretty devastating for their learning, also.
Bring back Listen With Mother.
Jeez, Ad. It's not about nostalgia. It's about recognising that there are a lot of schoolchildren that don't have internet access or internet devices, and thinking about how they can be provided for utilising other tools.
It's also about thinking how a BAU approach might not be the best in terms of wellbeing.
Howzabout treating internet access as a basic right?
All individuals are entitled to X gig of data until they leave high school. Doesn't solve the device issue, but a few tech firms would be keen to get in on the positive publicity involved in sponsoring a basic device.
Feeding kids at school, kids without devices, period poverty… we drastically need a shake-up and BAU doesn't cut it.
A universal basic income funded by a FTT, Tobin Tax, Hone tax, call it what you will. Cast a larger tax net and bring all those that benefit from society but do not contribute. Currency trading, the tech giants with their off-shore shenanagins, beneficiaries of hidden trust and tax shelters that Sir Slippery John was in favour of.
All for it. Have advocated for it in the past.
But teachers are in crisis mode now, and trying to provide BAU under the expectations of the Ministry.
I was suggesting an alternative short-term approach that put well-being as the top priority, just for the lockdown period.
(But I forgot how wedded people are to education being structured and marked.)
The inequities in education have been building up over years. Covid has spotlighted them as much as it has made things harder.
The skills to be a correspondence Teacher are very different from those required for a classroom Teacher.
Some children do very well with self directed correspondence learning. With the independence and self motivation that requires.
The same students I wished I could spend more time helping in a year 10 class of 36, are the same ones who will miss out now.
Even more incentive to remove most of the "Summative" prescriptive testing from schooling. One of the main things that makes education for many, including Teachers, repetitive, ineffectual and boring.
Agree.
Interesting
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-delta-outbreak-act-party-leader-david-seymour-proposes-vax-bucks-tax-credit/JT5YIBXFHNK4NM45JRH4ZHSQEM/
There are 3,850 000 tax payers
so that will cost $962,500,000 or $866m at 90% vac rate from the tax take.
New Zealand already spends $96 million every week on welfare and social security.
Imagine a $250 bonus against your income tax for one year. That's a nice little hit for those not well off.
Easy flat one-off tax cut from Act.
ONLY 10 weeks of welfare then.
Will criminals and gang members benefit from a tax credit? Will teenagers so benefit? Will the non-earning partner in a relationship? Will the homeless, rough sleepers and the marginalised? Will beneficiaries benefit?
But they don't vote.
Sweet, that's $1000 for my family, they are all anti-vax. But No. Even at $1000 each it wouldn't do any good, brainwashed by social media me thinks. I'm jabbed.
$1000 per injection was about the level I valued them at.
Ah yes, I was waiting for who will mention this first. A group of us has a bet going. That the unvaccinated are waiting for being "paid" to get the shot. Our guess was 1k per person. And low and behold!
I just think some of the people have completely lost the plot. We are billions in debt, inflation is at about 5% and rising. Good luck to us all.
lol I hope the govt might choose the vax passport stick before the vax carrot.
I think many of the anti vaxxers I know will end up getting vaxxed because they love their overseas trips and they won't be able to get on the plane without the certificate.
Ahh snap. I hadn't read yr comment before I posted.
The high hanging fruit will be a hard task for the vaccinators. I haven't heard much about the anti vaxxers who have mental health issues. The people who do not trust government, believe they are being persecuted all the time and certainly will not be fronting up for the jab. They are hard wired to be suspicious. What do we do about people like that. No matter how much you might want to convince them its just not going to happen.
Also people who go so far down the rabbit hole into the dark web that nothing on God's earth will persuade them the vaccine doesn't have a chip in it, its a plan to keep everybody under control. Real Government mind control sort of stuff. These groups will be the ones infecting others and also getting seriously sick themselves. These two groups of people will never be vaxxed and we will just have to bite the bullet and get on with getting all the other slightly hesitant people over the line.
Mental health issues, where relevent, along with physical health issues, I think should count as genuine medical reasons not to be vaccinated.
Bloomfield and Hendy are tossing out the idea of another two weeks at level 4. Without giving any explanations of why they think it would do anything useful. Detailed explanations are really needed, given the spread appears to be in populations that aren't compliant with level 3 and level 4 in any case.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300432382/covid19-live-auckland-level-4-circuitbreaker-lockdown-not-ruled-out-ashley-bloomfield-says
To which all I have to say is: Fuck OFF!!!
Put your efforts to getting the unvaccinated sorted out, not into shitting on those of us that have already done everything we can and are not the problem spreaders.
Gordon Campbell: "the country is now headed for the lifeboats." So we have a wave of pontifs pontificating in all directions.
http://werewolf.co.nz/2021/10/gordon-campbell-on-the-perils-of-declaring-premature-victory/
Speech is free, diversity of opinion enriches culture, blah blah…
Gordon Campbell.
"The audible business sector seems determined to declare victory prematurely, and move us all on. (That’s even though the subsequent infection levels would probably be just as likely as any government decree to inhibit the public’s readiness to dine out and spend.)
Pretty much what has been happening in the UK lately.
Dunno who said it first, but there will likely be a number of people living in their own self declared Level 4 bubbles for quite a while whatever the official stance is.
How many times since the 80s have we heard of alienated and displaced working class people on welfare pittance “they think the world owes them a living” and yet the publicly needy ones in COVID have tended to be SME, small business and self employed–the petit bourgeoisie.
And Gordon Campbell can fuck off and all.
Andre, to be fair to Hendy and Bloomfield, of whom you say "Without giving any explanations of why they think it would do anything useful."
The news report was what you cited. That means we saw what TV1 decided we should see, not necessarily what Hendy and Bloomfield said.
The only idea we have of what they want is from commentators, not from the primary source. Therefore, we have two levels of distance from what they said- the commenter and then the TV1 editing of that the commenter said, with all the editing and bias that that necessarily involves.
Tweets from Hendy were linked in the report. They contained zero useful information.
You expect "detailed explanations" from tweets?
Maybe see if cabinet will go for it, first. Then let the reporters report the useful information (good luck with that, but most of it is usually up on the ministry of health website pretty quick).
Threads are a thing.
If someone influential announces their support for something as draconian as a return to level 4, yes, they fkn should bother to give details in the same medium they make the announcement.
Go and look at what they actually said. Not what Tova wanted them to say.
Self responsibility needs to be emphasized. There was enough time, effort, information etc. to get vaccinated. No more excuses. The majority of those who have been following health advise have it up to the neck with the cop out of those who are just querulant. There maybe a few exemptions, but I would say you can count them on one hand.
We need a date by which borders open under cautionary measures, Kiwis and any visitors who come home need to be fully vaccinated and tested. Returnees same and if need be have to quarantine at home.
We have bigger fish to fry.
Focus needs to be shifted to shipping and transport of goods. Public transport and municipal services need priority.
Trade needs to be diversified with professional follow up.
Housing needs to be addressed so that funds are not tied up in sometimes ramshackle properties.
The list goes on but all energy is currently on one issue and slowly we lose traction on many problem areas that need attention.
Trade needs to be diversified
Muldoon said so! In response to the Brits abandoning us. Having watched this space ever since, I have to tell you that kiwi exporters just switched from UK to China.
Okay, I'm over-generalising, but there seems to be a `let's take the easy option' thinking at play. A dependency relation, as if the switch involved the mother shifting the baby from one tit to the other.
You're right to suggest that diversity of trade relations is a resilience strategy but I have zero confidence our exporters can be that sophisticated.
You are right, once the UK joined the Euro union in the 70's NZ was dropped like a hot stone. Now that the UK is again out of the block they will look to the USA to which I say "good luck". NZ is not necessary a favorite. Shipping is an issue.
We need to have companies investing into niche markets in the first instance and grow from there. Hard yards and maybe you are observing this correctly that many of the exporters from the "old guard" will look for easy money.
What is overlooked and somehow not fleshed out as an option is the possibility to have manufacturers attracted to NZ and to steer controlled and with a plan and vision into a more sophisticated trading environment. Example: sheep export vs wool spinning, cherry fruit export vs conserved (high quality), Wood logs vs building material and furniture. The know how and investment could come from any country but it has to be balanced. Not all eggs in one basket.
Yeah, not all eggs in one basket is resilience thinking. Sounds like you ought to be lobbying the trade minister if you haven't already.
Thank you but I thought this is all common sense.
Sometimes its difficult to know for whom the parliamentarians actually work, sorry to say.
Unless we are exporting ideas, services, and culture..
And better wages?
Those products and industries do tend to pay better.
So then, the challenge is to keep them in NZ.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/03-06-2021/four-nz-tech-startups-that-sold-for-billions-this-year/
Perhaps our minister for business and enterprise should sit down with people like Chris and Stephen Harris to ask the hard questions. Kiwis are generally very good in cooperating. In fact one of the major advantage in my point of view.
Certainly our fisheries have been pretty conservative in terms of developing new products and markets. No NZ raised hairy crabs, nor marron, nor farmed bluefin, little farmed abalone, little or no seaweed, whitebait, no barramundi or golden perch, not even any carp. And no farmed eels – it's nearly twenty years since I was scoffing grilled eels at Panmunjeon – NZ has been standing still.
I wouldn't go for carp. They are fresh water fish and even in countries where they are indigenous considered a pest.
Abelone is exceedingly difficult to farm. Very expensive and only for people with a lot of patience as they are not the fastest growing stock.
But NZ has a huge advantage because the Atlantic fish is said to be contaminated by heavy metals. Even sardines, a save and very healthy choice still shows low mercury levels.
I've eaten carp in China – it was fine. Not tainted like our horrid red cod.
Cheju-do is covered with 전복 (the local abalone) farms, they are consistently profitable, and not especially expensive to run.
Our advantage, at present, seems to go for naught.
.
Hard Border north of Taupo … Hadrians Wall-style, with manned watch towers at spaced intervals to stop frantic northerners flooding south. Suppress any signs of a northern outbreak with periodic strafing raids over Auckers, Hamilton & Tauranga by fighter jets loyal to the south … teams of snipers on every Auckland roof, ensuring no-one leaves their house … particularly stringent security measures around known middle class agitators, whingers & malcontents like Andre … if you're caught outside spreading the virus … & therefore theoretically putting the health of southerners at risk …………… then expect this:
More like World War Z and all the Aucklanders will pile up the side of the Beehive (rather than the walls of Jerusalem).
Soon we will generate floating rafts of the undead to get across Cook Strait. After which everyone in Ashburton gets eaten.
Then the last remaining pure holdouts will be the Chathams and Scott Base.
Just like Predator Free 2050 but in reverse.
.
There's an old Leper Colony on Mokopuna Island in Wellington Harbour … we can easily open it up again for Northern Untouchables & other Unclean Intruders if you so wish … I'm sure cave life isn't so bad once you get used to it.
Quarantine Island in Dunedin, and all the other stations we set up a century ago, would have been preferable alternatives to the MIQ hotel industry subsidy that's caused the grief so far.
Maybe. But we would have had a lot less than the current number of MIQ slots.
Unless you wanted to bunk everyone concentration camp style?
Also, islands were particularly useful because they were next to the main ports of entry. And they were only used if ships arrived with detectably ill people on board.
It would be nice if it was that convenient, but different times call for different measures.
Whatever alternatives to the MIQ hotel industry subsidy there could have been would have caused no grief? Or just less grief or a different grief?
emergency powers to put up a container structure in the auckland domain or random farmland or even in less-used areas of the airport.
Could have worked it to be more fit for purpose than an inner city hotel, but would have had a much bigger "camp – not in a good way" feel.
Also, keeping the hotel structures ticking over at least would theoretecally make "opening up" easier to get tourism back up to speed (if that should be a priority).
But whether that would have been a better planronment of unknown duration is another matter. This unpleasantness might have lasted weeks or years, looking at it from March 2020.
Quarantine Island is colder than a penguin's bum – if you can survive living there, Covid will be easy for you.
Peter Jackson might lend a tiger moth or two.
Well said!
I concur.
Give a date that we'll open up, make the vaccine available to anyone that wants it, have the swabs ready and lets do it, lets open up
Like Singapore did?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-14/singapore-confronts-division-and-fear-bred-by-living-with-covid
Cases are all well and good but how many deaths?
The information is out there, vaccinate or don't, mask up or don't, keep your distance or don't, self-isolate or don't, its your choice
The governments had a year to sort out extra ICU beds and staff, we cannot keep doing this which we all know is true
So lets do this
They've doubled their number of deaths in the past couple of weeks: 113 to 233.
At 9 deaths a day, and a couple thousand cases a day, I suspect our few hundred ICU beds would be fast overloaded.
Fuck that.
I think I just read 186 ICU beds, so yeah , FUCK THAT!
There were evidently 25 survivors hospitalised after the White Island eruption, and they had to be sent all over the North Island to find sufficient ICU beds. An appreciable Covid outbreak will soak up our reserve capacity pretty damned quick.
Triage the unvaccinated covid patients out to the unvaccinated covid patient wards in tents out in the carpark.
Their choice to not be vaccinated, their consequences.
I am totally over having to suffer the removal of my rights and other consequences of the unvaccinated choosing to be antisocial arseholes and refusing a quick, safe, free and effective precaution against being a willful disease spreader.
Yeah, I hope you're just venting.
Nope.
Even if by some miracle we get to somewhere better than 95% vaccinated, our medical system is very likely to be overwhelmed by unvaccinated covid patients.
What do you suggest should be done when that happens?
Lockdown forever so it doesn't happen?
Deny care to those that haven't deliberately chosen to be disease spreaders in order that vaccine refusers can clog up the health system with their easily preventable disease?
Not all of the unvaxxed are multi-qualified folks who think they should be able to substitute the vaccine or crystal therapy they prefer.
I'm not sure it's a coincidence, for example, that the ethnicity with the lowest vax rate is also the one most neglected or even mistreated when it comes to many other healthcare services, so maybe trust is a bit more difficult to build in those communities.
But sure, leaving them in tents in disproportionate numbers to die will help with that come the next public health problem.
If we could restrict it to folks who have benefitted disproportionately from the system they choose to mistrust out of their own hubris, sure, maybe.
I'm not usually a hippie arguing for love and mung-beans when it comes to public hazard-level stupidity. But every year I look at the same fucking charts about healthcare delivery, education retention, youth employment, [un]healthy housing, and a myriad of other things, and I can't help but wonder why some socioeconomic groups should even consider the possibility that the govt has their best interests in heart this time (if they even bother watching the news at all). Some of the fault is ours.
The health sector buzzword of the day is "equity". Changing course towards it (so we're even moving in roughly that direction, let alone achieving it) is like trying to drift a supertanker.
Nice diversion.
What's your suggestion for when the health system gets overwhelmed with unvaccinated covid patients?
If tents are needed, how about not providing a higher standard of care based on vax card.
edit: and going back to your “lockdown forever” option, going back to L4 for a couple of weeks could prevent that. Fuck, make the entire country do it if that’s you’re problem.
FFS, why on earth do you think a couple of weeks of level 4 might be the trick this time when the five weeks from 18th August to 22 September wasn't enough before? Especially now that it seems to be in communities that aren't compliant with the level rules, which didn't seem to be the case in August and September?
What a great idea, put the rest of the country into the lockdowns Auckland has suffered! Let's see how many call for the continuation of lockdowns then.
I'm not clear on what your trying to say in your first sentence. Are you suggesting that vaccinated people should be denied care?
No, I'm saying vax status should not automatically result in lower care for unvaxxed people.
There are a couple of reasons why another shot at level 4 might work. The advantage of a higher vax level now than before, and the advantage of contact tracing techniques adapted over the last few weeks to deal with the disenfranchised groups.
But my main reason is selfish hope. I really hope Auckland's fatigue doesn't kill my mum.
What I'm suggesting is that when the health system gets overwhelmed and triaging is needed, the unvaxed covid patients should be first on the list to get triaged out.
As an entirely reasonable and predictable consequence of their choice to enable the spread of a nasty disease causing the avoidable overwhelming of the health system necessitating triaging.
Yes, I understand that's what you're suggesting. And it's not the role of healthcare to go "you're a naughty boy, basil".
Especially at triage.
There might be reasons of clinical delivery to do that – aircon positive-pressure assessment tents and attached tent wards for all covid-positive patients would stop them shutting down ED for a deep clean. That might be worth the odds that the quality of healthcare provided in the tent during a winter storm might not be as effective as in an indoor ward (e.g. the power cable shorts), but at least more operating theatres are available when needed.
Vax status might be part of a much more broad list of triage factors that affect expected prognosis, along with smoking, diabetes, blood pressure, etc.
But that's incredibly different to putting them in tents based primarily on their vax status.
No it's not the role of the health care system. Their values and ethics and decisions trees are set in normal times. These are not normal times, and normal medical values and ethics are miscalibrated for these not-normal times.
It's the government's responsibility to set the resource allocations and consequences for these not-normal times. And this government is woefully shirking its responsibility when it comes to making clear that the choice to refuse vaccination will have horrible consequences.
So far the government seems content to just push consequences onto those that actually have a sense of community responsibility and go and do what things they can in the face of what's coming, while spinelessly pandering to those that won't do even a very minimal act to mitigate what's coming.
The unvaccinated are the problem. Many of the unvaccinated see zero reason to revisit their choice, because they don't think their choice will ever affect their lifestyle. This government is giving them every reason to continue that belief, and zero reason to reconsider it.
Yeah, nah.
The unvaccinated are not a homogeneous mass of equal culpability. Especially if the government isn’t communicating properly.
So what was happening over the past year, complacency? Hubris? Arrogance?
If this is whats going to happen then where are the extra ICU beds and medical staff?
Oh,
Ardern should have gone down to the ICU tree and plucked a couple of wards one afternoon, huh?
Maybe there's a fair bit of global competition for both the equipment and the staff? Can't think why that would be.
Maybe fully training ICU staff takes a few hundred hours extra work on top of other nursing qualifications (that are already understaffed)?
Maybe it's easier to demand results than it is to actually supply them.
No need to pluck a tree but maybe, in the time of a global pandemic, you prioritise who comes in
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/126608859/miqueue-health-sector-mystified-over-struggle-to-get-staff-into-nz?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
'Dalton understands that 100 of the 250 requests made by DHBs in recent months have been rejected – including an application from one overseas ICU nurse who has been rejected six times.'
'The numbers show, of the 525 applications received for critical health care workers in the past four months, 212 were approved, granting 287 of 694 applicants a spot in MIQ.
If specialist doctors and nurses are being rejected – especially those who already have jobs, visas, and regulatory approval to practice in New Zealand – the emergency allocation system isn’t working, Dalton says.'
Also why piss about:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/covid-19-delta-pfizer-waited-over-6-weeks-for-first-vaccine-meeting-with-nz-officials-last-year/DX3R7TX3SADYG36T5HHZC7YZXA/?utm_source=pocket_mylist
'Drug company Pfizer pressed New Zealand government officials to meet and discuss its vaccine candidate in June of last year, some six weeks before a first meeting actually took place.'
lol "one".
coolcool
I will give covid credit for being a very considerate virus. I like the way that no one needs medical for anything other than covid.
Everything else stops and only covid happens
'The numbers show, of the 525 applications received for critical health care workers in the past four months, 212 were approved, granting 287 of 694 applicants a spot in MIQ.'
Not enough ISU facilities, not enough medical staff, not enough miq spots, if NZ hadn't been lucky enough to be a small island at the bottom of world we'd be screwed
you're pulling the "small island" line are you?
1: "archipelago"
2: the first lockdown and the entire MIQ system has a bit to do with it, too.
Anyhoo, yes, it was great that we came out of 2020 with a lower than expected death rate. Not lower than expected from covid, lower than expected based on mortality in preceeding years.
But now we're entering the end of that, sure. You think we should have imported more healthcare workers. Fair enough. But even 600 will be pissing in a swimming pool if the worst happens with an insufficiently-vaccinated population, and does nothing about all the equipment that goes around each bed.
BTW, I'm aware "worst case scenario" does not mean "less likely than other scenarios".
You can’t give a date for a target when the target is not only moving fast but very adept at hiding. My old man left for Europe in 1939 in the NZEF, I asked him why the fuck did you do that and he said “ They told us it would be all over by Christmas “. They never told him it would be Christmas in 6 years time.
To Foreign Waka, may I borrow “querulant “ please, just such a gorgeous word.
🙂 and so befitting in many situations right now. Think Party Party Party!
Woooooo! for Northland
Boooooooo! for Auckland.
Apparently it is wanted to have 90% of Auckland vaccinated. Which would mean 10% not being vaccinated. The population of Auckland is about 1.6 million.
Which means if 90% were vaccinated there'd be 160,000 not vaccinated.
160 thousand is obviously a massive number. More than the population of all of Hamilton. Plenty of scope for Covid to spread and cause major problems.
Well if Maori and Pacific Islanders cant get up to the 90%, Auckland will stay at level three forever. That is pretty depressing.
Never mind the guys partying at the North Shore. 🙂
Super spreaders
Or the numerous tangis held by gangs
and boy racers funerals in the south island.
breaches are plenty.
The PM tells us what she thinks of a bunch of Aucklanders attending a party on the North Shore in Auckland. Terrible she says.
Well to me it didn't look that different to the knees-ups going on at the vaccination centres in Auckland earlier in the day.
I would much rather know why a bunch of Auckland TV crew members were allowed into Wellington to make the PM's PR bull that was the Vaxathon. Why were they allowed to come down here and risk the health of all Wellingtonians just because they were skilled at filming the Labour party MPs doing a campaign show?
Stuff them. And the people who wanted to have their mates preparing the festivities TV coverage rather than people already in Wellington but who weren't on the PM's best buddies list.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-delta-outbreak-auckland-crew-fly-to-wellington-to-film-vaxathon/CJ5WRSVPPMS2UWPTHLOGCT7SC4/
You can't tell the difference between unmasked folk indoors contravening level three rules and people outdoors, masked and abiding by level three rules? Poor you.
https://twitter.com/shaneellall/status/1449509977203240960
Sounds like the organiser has been arrested.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300432470/covid19-police-arrest-man-over-party-on-aucklands-north-shore
I wonder if there will be another few parties in Auckland this weekend?
Me voting for National in 2023 has now become a serious possibility.
Jacinda, I don't care about a vaccination target to be set on Friday. That just tells me you find it easier to keep taking my rights away from me than to do something to actually lift our vaccination rates to a level that you deem to be adequate to restore my rights to me. Fuck off.
What I want to know is what are you and your government are going to do to actually lift those rates. I want an action plan, not vague warblings.
You're messed up.
You're complaining about rights being taken away on the same page you say you want no jab – no job implemented, or elsewhere, wishing seriously sick people get triaged out of the health system designed to aid those most in need.
The reasons you give for curtailing your 'freedom' are exactly the same when denying someone the right to work and support themselves and/or family, or receive urgent medical attention.
It's only a lock down. Get a grip of yourself.
"No jab, no job" is not a right being taken away. It's a consequence of someone choosing to be an antisocial arsehole and refusing to do a quick, safe, effective and free precaution against being a willful disease spreader.
It's also a totally reasonable health and safety precaution to protect other workers, and any general public that may come into contact with an employee.
https://www.employment.govt.nz/starting-employment/right-to-work-in-new-zealand/
Doesn't say anything about having to have covid shots. Surely if you can agree to new laws restricting the right of kiwis, residents and eligible persons to work, then why not for freedom of movement, association etc? It’s totally reasonable in a pandemic.
It's not reasonable when those insisting their right to refuse vaccination without consequences completely overrides other people's rights.
If someone thinks their right to refuse vaccination is that important to them, they can live the lockdown life. They have no right to force that lockdown life on other people, which is the effective result that is happening now.
They can figure out how to earn a living from home. Lots of people already do that. They can get their groceries delivered to their home. Lots of people already do that. It's their choice, if refusing vaccination is that important to them.
However, because of the unvaccinateds choice to refuse vaccination, the government is giving me no choices or options for anything I can possibly do to regain the rights and freedoms that matter to me. It has unilaterally taken them away indefinitely. Because of arsehole vaccine refusers.
And fuck off with that "it's only a lockdown" shit. It's deprivation of freedom, basically home detention. Only one step removed from being put in prison. But you might not get that, you not having had months of it on end.
Yeah, yeah, it's the same as the reasons for not allowing churches to congregate, or people to have big parties or flee the lock down border for pastures less restrictive.
If you can't see the two things being one and the same, I reckon you'll probably be a very contented nat voter. 🙄
Go fuck yourself. Sideways. Seriously.
Under lockdown rules, I can't go and enjoy the outdoor activities that make life enjoyable. Just a few sanitised zero-risk boring as fuck local walkies or similar.
I can't go and get supplies for any of the projects lined up for my attention. Online ordering won't work for the specialised stuff needed.
I can't go visit family.
But hey, you're alright. You don't have those restrictions. You're just happy other people are suffering those restrictions so you can do whatever you want. Bonus, you get to act smug and superior about it.
Same as for me when the 2020 lock down kicked in, same as me for this years national closure, though I was pretty pissed I only got 2 weeks off this time, but them’s the breaks.
Obviously you're not coping well, and that's fine, and I can see you're all messed up and lashing out in all directions, but from what I'm reading, your logic is based on unstable ground.
At least you still have a vent tube in The Standard, where dodgy logic and unsound arguments won’t look too out of place.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018816391/regenerating-wellington-s-seaweed-forests
I wonder about a big plan by knowledgeable envos about plantings way down south and gradually cleaning and replanting around
Tiwai as it doesn't sound green at all, at all. (First clean sea floor by buckets then would mangroves grow there?