One day to go before the big meeting in the Auckland Town Hall GCSB bill.
And the leader of the Opposition Labour Party hasn’t made it clear if he will even be there.
Already we know that David Shearer refuses to stand on the podium with every other Opposition Party Leader.
The actions of David Shearer are deliberately undermining the sincere efforts of those who are trying to lobby Peter Dunne and/or any National MPs who have concerns about this bill to vote against it.
How can Peter Dunne or any other Government MP make this weighty decision to change their vote, when they can witness with their own eyes that the Opposition leader David Shearer is standing with the Prime Minister John Key on this issue.
David Shearer’s mealy mouthed words calling for a “review” (something that Peter Dunne has already asked for, and the Prime Minister has already agreed to), Is not enough.
So come on David Shearer. In the best traditions of Labour Party leaders of the past, why don’t you show that you stand with the grass roots of your own party and the rest of the opposition, and the nation. Announce that tomorrow you will be mounting the podium with the other leaders to make your opposition to this bill clear.
If it is beyond you. You don’t have to say anything. Just stand there in solidarity.
Given his name’s on the poster, does anyone other than you seriously doubt his intention to attend? I’m not interested in your opinion, just a link to someone other than you saying it will suffice.
Jenny, I usually do not bother reading or replying to your comments as IMO they contain a lot of ignorance and/or misinformation – sometimes IMO quite deliberately.
On this occasion:
1. Shearer was announced as a speaker at tomorrow night’s public meeting last Tuesday, I think, on The Daily Blog and has been on the poster since then.
2. Your remark that “We already know that Shearer refuses to stand on the podium with every other Opposition Party leader”. Since when? Show us evidence of this statement. Shearer has ‘stood on the podium’ with Norman and Peters on a number of occasions over the last year or so on manufacturing, housing and other issues.
3. After the last public meeting, on 26 July Shearer announced that if he became PM, he would initiate a wider ranging inquiry into all intelligencies agencies, their roles, functions, powers etc on coming into office, with the review to be completed within six months IIRC
I posted the link to this Herald article on TS and seem to remember that you were part of the discussion on this at the time.
As for your comment, nice try, but you do realise that she was posting from Planet Jenny, an alternate universe where everything looks familiar but has a Jenny-esque spin to it that has the unfortunate side effect one making one’s eyes roll.
LOL. Thanks weka. As I said ,I don’t normally respond to Planet Jenny but was not in a good mood when I read the latest dribble first thing this morning. Shaky Wellington is not my favourite place right now as quakes are my biggest phobia/paranoia. But – must be strong as can’t do anything about it! Or about Planet Jenny.
Shearer declared his intention to be one of the speakers earlier in the week since when he’s been on the “list” of speakers. He has emailed members and supporters twice in the past few days urging people to attend.
I thought Shearer was very good on Key’s exclusive NZ Herald GCSB ‘clarification’ when Shearer said that Key didn’t understand his own legislation and was making it up as he went along.
So reads the banner headlline by an article penned by journalist Tracey Chatterton for Fairfax NZ News,
I might like to ask Tracey Chatterton;
So What?
Would a headline reading hand cuffed man shot in the back be more accurate. What if this helpless and unarmed man had been shot in the back by someone other than a police officer?
Would his list of convictions be in the headline? Would that even be seen as relevant?
What is Tracey Chatterton trying to say here?
That the man deserved to be shot in such circumstances because he had a list of convictions?
That people who have convictions are more likely to get shot while being under arrest vulnerable and helpless, than those without previous convictions?
Despite the purposely leading headline, the report itself is less judgemental laying no fault on the arrested man who was offering no resistance at the time when he was shot.
When it comes to bad journalism this example surely must rank at the top.
It’s also very unlikely that a gun would simply just go off. Despite what the movies try to make us believe, guns don’t usually go off by themselves. If the riffle was slung over the officers shoulder, it should have been located at the officers back. Therefore he would have to have been leaning forward away from Iriheke Te Kani Pere for him to be shot. However it was also reported that the unarmed man was being helped to his feet by the officer when he was accidentally shot in the back with a Bushmaster rifle, that should have had it’s safety on. The events as described by the police seem highly implausible.
Could it be that under this government the police feel they have the right to administer their own penalties out to suspected law breakers. This could see a handcuffed suspect thrown off a fence and paralysed or handcuffed then shot in the back. Serco may not like the loss of income from these events but Paula Bennett will be fond of this style of treatment of suspects I’m sure.
The police have always felt that they have the right to administer their own penalties. What changes are the penalties. When a government with some interest in human rights is in power, they scale things down a bit, maybe to the level of grievous bodily harm. With the present government and its absolute contempt for any sort of legalities, the death sentence can be on the table. As a society we give the police enormous powers. We should make equally enormous efforts to hold them to account when they step outside these powers.
So you’re saying the police should just stand there like numpties and allow themselves to be shot? Of course I expect you will probably say they could shoot the perp in an arm or a leg, but that would be to reveal a fatal misunderstanding of how deadly someone with a fire arm can still be or how quickly they can squeeze off a bullet
Not enough time spent training on weapons would be my guess, they fire SFA rounds a year to be current, and I would find it hard to believe they even know how to pull their weapons apart. But surely he answer must be to carry them all the time, that would fix everything when they have no idea how to use them, that seem’s to be the modus operandi of this government?
Also lack of procedural weapons safety discipline, including the very basics…do not point your weapon, loaded or unloaded, at anything you are not willing to kill.
“..Why should dogs die – so humans can get high?..”
(cont..)
(ed:..and of course it would be salutary to see the (totally-justified) outrage at this plan to overdose dogs to death..to test the toxicity of new legal-highs for humans..
..to see this outrage spread to the fact that 270,000 animals are tortured/killed by the vivisectors in new zealand..
..each and every year..
..let that fact sink in…
..and then please start asking ‘why?’…’why are we torturing/killing animals..?
..to test cosmetics/dishwashing liquids..?’
‘cos..y’see..there are computer-testing programs that
can replace these hidden horrors..obviate the need for this litany of cruelties/miseries..
..’so why?’..i hear you ask..
..that ‘why’ is the same as for all the other industries that thrive on the miseries inflicted on others (alcohol/tobacco/legal-highs..)
..these animals continue to be tortured because of economic reasons..
..those doing the torturing..and the breeders..
..are locked in a ghastly dance of monetary self-interest..
….so what needs to happen..
..is for a large spotlight to be shone on the practices of this industry..
..and for them to justify the/any compelling need to be doing this to animals..
..until this comes to pass..
..these pieces of shit who garner their gold from torturing defenceless animals all day..
..will just continue inflicting these miseries..
..and it may be a cliche..
..but the animals cannot speak up for themselves..eh..?
..it has to be us..eh..?..
(and irony o.d-alert..!..for many years the spca has sat on the panel ‘approving’ these experiments/tortures on 270,000 animals each and every year..)
..and guess what..?..the spca used to sell/supply animals to the vivisectors..
..and how do i know this..?
..i know this because i once ‘liberated’ a dog from a courier van..
..that dog was enroute from the spca in auckland..
..to vivisectors in wellington..
..she ended up living a long and happy/well-loved life..
..so the next questions for the spca must be:
‘do you still sell/supply animals to the vivisectors..?’
and..’how do you – as an organisation purporting/fund-raising on the premise you help/protect these defenceless animals..
..how do you marry that with ‘approving’ the torture/killing of 270,000 of those ‘defenceless-animals’ you claim to ‘protect’..?
Good grief! (Still gagging) I have just caught a bit of the Nation with bill ralston and somebody else( aided by nodding and smiling smallie) going orgasmic over keys performance on JC Live. How concise and coherent he was and how he spoke to middle nz so that they could all understand his message. And how bad JC was in comparison and labelling him as pretty much politically biased. Did they not read the transcript! As far as I am concerned JCLIve is the only TV programme that is trying to give us ordinay kiwis a say and actually putting the TRUTH out there so we can make an informed opinion. Elsewhere you have Fran,Audrey,John A all using the NZ Herald as their no obstacles vehicle for waving the pom poms for national EVERY WEEK! It’s blatant and it is wrong that we are being fed their infantile drivel under the guise of political commentary. Go John Campbell and boo hiss to the herald.
I feel like that too! Strange (yeah right) that Ralston and Walden never mentioned the big back-down from Key since the interview either, where what he had said turned out to be WRONG – But he’s going to make no written change to the bill and just says that he won’t give the OK to read our mail – Do we really trust Key to keep his word that he won’t read our emails and how would we ever find out if he did? Sorry, I’d need that in WRITING!! This IS a merchant banker talking, don’t forget that!!
Someone on radio said that so much political chatter is about performance instead of substantive matters. It is commentators treating politics as a sports game, and the politicians merely players. Shakespeare understood it (No fear Shakespeare site)
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Hamlet A5/Sc5/5.
Ralston and Walden subscribe to the construct of an Auckland media/political “glitterati”. They cannot be accurately assessed or relied upon without prior disclosure of that comedic self-consciousness. Hitching up to Planet Key provides buoyancy for ascent to the surface of the little pond of Auckland and confirms “glitterati” membership.
Yes, more that just Walden and Ralston subscribe to this, every commentator seems to have jumped on the bandwagon Kerre Mc Ivor (who ever she is), Sean Plunkett, Armstrong, etc…it seems very few commentators will challenge John Key. Not one commentator has brought up John key’s major cock up in the interview, which is amazing. I’m sure your explanation has something to do with it, along with some really savvy media management by the National Party.
On August 17, 1975, U.S. Senator Frank Church appeared on NBC television’s Meet the Press to discuss the results of his full-scale investigation into America’s burgeoning intelligence capabilities. Senator Church revealed startling information and closed with a dire warning to every citizen of the United States:
“American intelligence gathering capability at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left. Such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. (This was before internet.) There would be no place to hide.”
“If this government ever became a tyrant, if a dictator took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how precisely it was done, is within reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology.”
“I don’t want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that (the NSA) and all the agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision so that we never cross that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.”
Only took three decades and a couple of collapsing skyscrapers to turn the good results of the Church Committee around. Pumping more money into the corporate/military/industrial/intelligence complex and then allowing a system where individual congressmen have to become more susceptible to money just to get re-elected finished it.
As has been said by several people previously…the US has suffered a slow motion corporate/internal coup d’état over the last 20 years. Five hundred senior officials, a few billionaires, and a couple of hundred corporate board members have more say over the USA today than 250M voters.
My perfect scenario for Question Time in Parliament would be for the Opposition to ask jk a question, sit through the now standard garbage he spews and then on a point of order point out to him that he is WRONG and then sit down. What would his retaliation be? Everyone should just keep saying YOU ARE WRONG and only that. It’s when you go down the rabbit hole with him that you just lose the will to live. He does it all the time, without actually showing any solid proof to his challenge.
The SST also does a good job in its leader today of highlighting the fact that Key does not understand the GCSB Bill and screwed up (or IMO lied) in the John Campbell interview.
Even Colin Espiner, on the same page, says the GCSB Bill is bad law.
Is No Minister really a left wing blog? Sure, it has contributions from Psycho Milt, but he’s being somewhat overwhelmed by the stupid Tories over there. May I suggest some of these as a replacement?
And when it comes to the New Zealand economy, our situation is seen by many as deeply paradoxical. International economists refer to the “New Zealand paradox” when pointing out that getting the market fundamentals right doesn’t always lead to economic growth.
There’s no paradox at all – the economic fundamentals are wrong and so by getting them right we’ve been damaging our economy.
Economics is and always has been a pseudoscience. It uses mathematics the same way astrologers do. Yes, there are real stars and yes, there are real resources and money, but let’s start studying them in a real scientific manner. Astronomers have been at it for a long time. I invite economists to do the same, any century now – no pressure [gritted teeth].
+1 …I think astrology works better…it does not pretend to be a science…but open to interpretation and imagination.
….economics is similar …depends who does it and what their ideology is and then they get the maths hocus pocus equations to prove it..tweek it here….tweek it there…..and bingo the bankers and wealthy 5% come out on top
………And have any of these economic theories really worked for the majority of people in individual countries , let alone the world?…that is the acid test….’economics’ as a ‘science’ has been an abject failure
@ depends on whether the ‘scientist’ starts with an open mind or not….
…some ‘scientists’ have closed minds and will try and fit the facts/stats/equations to their own predilections and preferred ideologies …as is the case in economics and much less so in astronomy( hard science) …hence economics called a ‘pseudoscience'( accept that some economics is descriptive /phenomenological)
It depends on nothing of the sort. You aren’t taking peer review into account. Scientists must present their findings in public where their worst enemies can pull them to pieces. Looking for the mythical unbiased opinion is a mistake: everyone exhibits bias.
It can take decades for science to progress in any field: Economics is no different.
OAK, indeed, the joke about cosmology told by physicists is that cosmologists put error bars on the exponents. However, it seems economists don’t use error bars at all.
Sciences do progress, and it’s the scientific process not only of peer review but of correlation with other sciences that matters – every chemist is open to review by physicists, but economists still try to be a closed shop. Their fundamental paradigms are jealously guarded from scrutiny and review and are therefore arbitrary (a euphemism for self-gratifying bullshit).
Scientific disciplines advance at different rates in any case. In a couple of centuries, whatever replaces the current pseudoscience of economics may reach the equivalent of Newtonian physics (i.e.., where physics was in the seventeenth century), but it’s nowhere near that position yet.
Yes, and many self-professed experts in Klingon who like to dress up in costumes can pull each other to pieces too – and they do – but I challenge them to engage with real linguists.
No real science is an island, and I’ll take an economist seriously when they are routinely open to review by physicists, tribologists, and herpetologists. If you think that I’m being facetious, I’d like to point out that physics is telling us a lot about palaeontology through biomechanical analysis of skeletons. That’s how real science works, not a cargo cult.
Not facetious at all Rhino, in fact I broadly agree with you that economics can and should learn more from other disciplines, for precisely the reasons you outline.
@ well I dont know about alchemy being a waste of time…Jung seemed to get quite a lot out of it….depends on whether you take it literally or not…maybe it is a metaphor for components/development of the psyche?
In a literary sense, I think that both Jung and Freud have real value and I regard Freud’s essay on the uncanny as a masterpiece of literary and aesthetic criticism. However, “science” is a very precise term, denoting verifiability and consistency. A lot of art and literature is “true” in ways that sciences aren’t, but be that as it may, “economics” as it stands is not a science.
@ Rhinocrates
If you don’t view chemistry as a waste of time, then alchemy wasn’t either; because chemistry arose out of alchemy.
Practical applications of alchemy produced a wide range of contributions to medicine and the physical sciences. The alchemist Robert Boyle[8] is credited as being the father of chemistry.
….. The attempts of alchemists to arrange information on substances, so as to clarify and anticipate the products of their chemical reactions, resulted in early conceptions of chemical elements and the first rudimentary periodic tables. They learned how to extract metals from ores, and how to compose many types of inorganic acids and bases. ~ Wikipedia – Alchemy
The equations used in economic models are not fundamental but phenomenological ie they relate to the process but not to the cause,hence you cannot ask to much of them anyway.
In other words: make-believe, the mere aping of forms and not amenable to empirical tests. Unfalsifiable. Bullshit, to put it bluntly.
Sorry, I have too much experience in both hard disciplines and the humanities to take all of their weasely pantomime seriously. Indeed, the intellectual pretence is offensive.
Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (German: [ˈhʊsɐl]; April 8, 1859 – April 27, 1938[3]) was a philosopher and mathematician and the founder of the 20th century philosophical school of phenomenology. He broke with the positivist orientation of the science and philosophy of his day, yet he elaborated critiques of historicism and of psychologism in logic. Not limited to empiricism, but believing that experience is the source of all knowledge, he worked on a method of phenomenological reduction by which a subject may come to know directly an essence.
Have to say I agree – again, straddling the hard professions and the humanities, I think that there can be parallel kinds of truth.
A couple of my degrees, my work and a lot of my publication would not be possible if I didn’t appreciate phenomenology – I’m just aware of the demarcations.
Sorry to be cryptic, but I value my privacy and don’t want to give too much away (someone has already found out who I am and I don’t want that repeated).
Hall and Hitch concluded that businessmen did not generally estimate the elasticity of the demand curves for their products or equate marginal revenue with marginal cost, but instead set prices by means of “full cost pricing” (Lee 1998: 90), which was their terminology for what are now called “administered prices.”
Hall and Hitch found that full cost pricing was determined by the following factors:
(1) direct material and labour costs per unit of output;
(2) indirect costs at an expected level of output, and
(3) a markup for profit. (Lee 1998: 90).
The poor economists, finding out that pricing of goods has absolutely nothing to do with margins.
Yes business have a series of indicators which indicate how pricing should be achieved, based of course around the level of competition and one other important imperative,
The less competition the higher the price and that is always coupled with that other business tool known as ”coz we can” where in the absence of any real competition prices are fixed by either the individuals involved or by agreement of the Cartels,
The electricity industry is a great indicator of such Cartel price fixing where at a time small consumers have reduced demand for the product competition would indicate that prices would drop in an effort for the different players to attract more custom the opposite is the reality as Cartel price fixing keeps all the players profits rising…
Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) polling at around 12% and the ruling Nea Dimokratia at 28%, give them another year or so and the fuckers could well hold the balance.
Recently, Golden Dawn has signaled it would like to go global, and has opened offices in Germany and Australia. A website has appeared claiming to be the hub for the group’s New York City office.
“Nightline’s” repeated email requests for interviews from Golden Dawn members were met with an angry “No.”
“You can blame your fellow mainstream media cohorts for that, who do nothing but shamelessly slander us,” one email response to “Nightline” said.
But as Georgousis’ film shows, Golden Dawn sees the blame for Greece’s woes spreading far beyond its shores. The party claims the economic crisis in Greece is not just caused by immigrants in Athens, but in Chicago and “especially New York,” Georgousis said.
“They keep posting articles that, ‘it’s the Jewish capital that has brought Greece to this point, which is located in New York,’” he said.
Watched Susan Woods today – I think it will be the last time – she makes me cringe when she interviews foreign visitors (in this case from Iran) with a preconceived propaganda point of view trying hard to be a Christiane Amanpour. Please, please, please take Mrs Woods off politics programs, give her gardening or something else.
The government wants the GST on on-line purchases. The retailers association want it too.
Well I guess they could also chase the corporate tax avoidance rorts that are ripping us all off while they are at it. (That would be billions, and not just a few million).
“Well I guess they could also chase the corporate tax avoidance rorts that are ripping us all off while they are at it. (That would be billions, and not just a few million).”
Yes – its 8pm on a Sunday night. But for those interested before it disappears behind NBR’s paywall – A MUST READ on the effects of the combine GCSB Bill and its companion TICS Bill.
An article on NBR today by Vikram Kumar, former SSC manager and CEO of InternetNZ, now CEO of Mega, giving more – very disturbing – insight into the effects of the TICS Bill.
I am out of my depth here on the tech aspects, but if what Kumar is saying is true, then it is very revealing.
“The government is planning to issue secret orders to service providers when the Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Bill (“TICS Bill”) becomes law to force them to create interception capability for surveillance agencies. This has been approved by cabinet and is therefore official Government policy.
What’s not clear is if the mechanism of a Ministerial directive will also be used to gag the service provider? Or is the secrecy merely a guise to allow compliant service providers to pretend they haven’t been forced to create a backdoor for the government?
Either way, the impact on New Zealand online service providers, and New Zealand as a country, could be truly devastating. …”
To read the whole article – and the comments and remarks by the NBR editor at the start of the article – the link is
A Ministerial directive will be used to secretly/confidentially impose an obligation to create interception capabilities by individually named service providers (referred to as “deem-in” but what I call a backdoor) “so as not to publicly announce a lack of capability in a particular service.”
“when X is “deemed” to be Y it is ordinarily conceded that X is not Y, and is known not to be Y”
Legal Fictions and Common Law Legal Theory Some Historical Reflections, Eben Moglen
i’ve only just discovered Richard Wilkinson’s (co-author of The Spirit Level) TED talk about why reducing income differentials in developed democracies really matters.
if you’ve not heard him talk, take a few minutes…. and note where NZ figures in most of the data he presents
And it’s pretty hard to see how this could be an oversight, or some sort of mistake.
The list of proscribed ‘luxury items’ would have had to have been produced at some point. And it should have been checked pretty thoroughly after that.
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Yesterday was the day the consequences of the lockdown suddenly got very real for many. Firms have been closing and laying people off since the outset of the quarantine but this has mostly been happening out of the public eye. The mass closure of a number of iconic New Zealand ...
Brian Williamson1, Prof Nick Wilson2 (1Economic consultant, UK; 2University of Otago Wellington)In this blog, we outline how a win-win social contract could be forged to address the major dimensions of response to the COVID-19 pandemic when using a mitigation strategy: the particular need to protect older people from high ...
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...
No Free Society Without A Free And Functioning News Media: If we are to surrender our civil rights to the broader cause of defeating Covid-19, then foreign corporations must, likewise, surrender their right to inflict immense economic and cultural harm on New Zealanders simply because it improves their bottom line.I’M ...
by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...
The swan politicians may be gliding on the water, occasionally snapping at one another. Meanwhile, as the Covid19 crisis illustrates, the officials are desperately paddling below providing the real locomotion. One of the most fatuous recent grandstanding comments (of about a week ago), adding to the public’s anxieties, was ...
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...
Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...
With normal democratic procedures in abeyance, there were two ways to go. First, it was open for the government to dissolve itself and invite the National Party to join a ministry of national salvation. That would have lessened the democratic deficit of the times by having a team of rivals without ...
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...
Hungary has been a virtual dictatorship for a decade now, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually eroded its democracy. But now, its official, with the passage of an indefinite emergency law allowing rule by decree:Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for ...
While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in. They're planning a lot of infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, and have asked for proposals which can start the moment ...
It's my distraction, setting up tiny scenes to photograph. I've got stuck on the Babushka dolls for now. Something about their bubble shape. Something about their never changing, smiling features, suggesting persistent equanimity. Can we get through everything that is being thrown at us and keep at least a tiny ...
. . March 31: Day six of living in lock-down… This time I managed to sleep a little longer and the alarm woke me at the pre-set time: 6.55am. Then remembered I was working a later shift and could’ve slept in. Oh well, there are things to do at home. ...
Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local. The reason we are doing this is ...
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...
In the absence of a vaccine or a cure for a deadly disease, staying home in your bubble is what you do, the concept is not new. To the best of my knowledge last time we did this in NZ was for polio, in the years before a vaccine came ...
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...
This has been a terrible summer for Hector’s dolphins. The first indication was very low numbers of dolphin sightings during late spring and early summer. The Otago University Marine Mammal Research Team has carried out routine dolphin surveys at Banks Peninsula for more than 30 years. In all that time, ...
On March 17, Finance Minister Grant Robertson was quick out of the blocks with an economic rescue package to help businesses through the inevitable recession resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Robertson had pulled together a scheme in short order that so far seems to have saved many jobs. In his ...
The purpose of the lockdown is to save lives, by reducing the spread of covid-19. We won't know if its really working for another week, but given the devastation that will result if it doesn't - 14,000 dead is the optimistic scenario - its definitely worth trying. But pausing the ...
. . March 30: Day five of living in lock-down… Woke up still in darkness. Alarm hadn’t gone off. Turn to radio clock; it’s a few minutes after 6am… I lie there in the dark, waiting to drift off to sleep… but it ain’t happening. Clock ticks over to 6.55 ...
The story of Les Gray, the public sector psychologist who told the truth about his use of cannabis and set off a storm, has a special place in the lore of cannabis reform in New Zealand.When Paul Shannon interviewed Gray for the 'Dope and Hope' issue of Planet magazine in ...
by Phil Duncan For Marxists, a key concern about social trends is their context – not just their causes, but why they happen when they do. Events and phenomena have causes, but they also are time or period-specific. While much of the left have capitulated recently to postmodernism, most notably ...
Since the lockdown began, we've all suddenly been reminded who the actually essential workers in our society are: not the people at the top who pay themselves the big bucks and rort the perks, but the people at the bottom they screw over and squeeze: cleaners, warehouse staff, truck drivers ...
Kia ora! As I've watched nearly all my remaining work vanish over the past couple of days, it has occured to me that one good way to keep me away from arguing with fools on Twitter all the time (in the knowledge that all we're really doing is processing our ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to trying to extirpate the virus that causes COVID-19 from its shores. To do that, as a society we’ve moved to “Level 4”. That means adapting to unprecedented restrictions on our personal freedoms, particularly to our rights to move freely and associate with friends and ...
When the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency last week, she handed the police powers to enforce it. And almost immediately, we started hearing about heavy-handed, arbitrary "enforcement" by police who (at best) cared more about order than law, or (more likely) had no idea what the rules were ...
. . Lock Down: Day 4 – A photo essay with observations . March 29: Usual wake up routine as RNZ snaps on my radio-clock. Jim Mora’s voice slowly enters my conciousness; there’s talk of a second wave of covid19 taking hold in South Korea; the week in Parliament – ...
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... ‘Misinformation kills’: The link between coronavirus conspiracies and climate denialGrist / Rob Kim / Stringer / CSA Images Scientific ...
The kids did surprisingly well today – meltdown count was about 3, and mostly fairly short ones. (And a fourth while I was writing.) Game-wise I had a go at Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. It’s a fairly standard RPG with turn-based combat and what they call a “mature storyline” (it ...
by Don Franks Hi David, Nice hearing from you, I’m glad to hear you’re getting by okay in these grim times. You asked how’s it going for us back here in New Zealand. You would have heard that the whole country is locked down and with breaks for exercise and ...
. . Lock Down: Day 3 – A photo essay with observations . March 28: First day of the first weekend in Lock Down. It feels like it’s been weeks since only Level 3 was declared last Tuesday, only four days ago. Woke up this morning to RNZ; coffee; toast, ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 22, 2020 through Sat, Mar 28, 2020Articles Linked to on FacebookSun, Mar 22, 2020In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters by Chelsea Harvey, ...
I’m here in lockdown with my flatmate and her two girls (6 and 2) and it. is. a time. They’re usually really active so to start with the only boardgame in the house is the copy of Guess Who that the 6 year old got for her birthday. Flatmate commented ...
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has striven to provide calm, clear and consistent communication, including daily press conference updates from the Prime Minister. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world".Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...
The domestic travel ban has been lifted for stranded foreign tourists trying to get to international airports to fly home, after the Coalition Government announced a plan to help the tens of thousands of foreigners stranded here. Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters spoke with RNZ's Susie Ferguson said foreign ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters believes the country is rediscovering its resilience and self-reliance through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.He says he is heartened that the mass majority of New Zealanders are following lockdown rules and that the government looking at the future, including paying to keep much ...
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
Ground-breaking law has passed that will decriminalise abortion and ensure women and pregnant people seeking abortions have compassionate healthcare. ...
The Green Party says that the measures announced by the Government today will help families and businesses to prioritise our collective health and wellbeing in the response to COVID-19. ...
The Government is stepping up efforts to help protect New Zealand’s Pacific communities in the fight against COVID-19. Cabinet has agreed that $17 million will be allocated to support a COVID-19 Pacific Response Package, which will: Support Pacific health and disability services facing increased demand; Ramp up public health messaging ...
“Yesterday evening the Health Minister advised me of his trip to a beach during the lockdown and offered his resignation,” Jacinda Ardern said. “Under normal conditions I would sack the Minister of Health. What he did was wrong, and there are no excuses. “But right now, my priority is our ...
Last night as part of my preparation for the Epidemic Response Committee, I provided the Prime Minister with a complete picture of my activity outside my home during Alert Level 4. That included the fact that on the first weekend of the Alert Level 4 lockdown I drove my family ...
A range of support is being rolled out across New Zealand to help people look after their mental health during COVID-19 Health Minister David Clark said this morning. “COVID-19 has brought a lot of uncertainty into our lives and many of us will be feeling some level of distress or ...
The New Zealand Government has made arrangements to charter a flight for New Zealanders stranded in Peru to depart the country, following agreement with the Chilean government to allow the necessary transit through Chile, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced today. “Like many travellers around the world at the moment, ...
Hospital preparations for COVID-19 are well advanced says Health Minister David Clark. “Hospitals across New Zealand are repurposing buildings and training staff to get ready for COVID-19 patients. This gives me confidence that we are well prepared for any potential increase in COVID-19 patients needing hospital level care,” said David ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
“The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
From tomorrow, Government support for farmers and growers affected by drought will be expanded and extended across the country, with access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPS) available throughout the North Island, parts of the South Island and the Chatham Islands, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced. “These challenging conditions have ...
Parliament has passed amendments to legislation that give the Secretary of Education stronger powers to act in the fight to limit the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “They are part of a suite of changes passed under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Bill,” Chris ...
Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar have joined forces with New Zealand and Singapore by committing to keep supply chains open and remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker today welcomed ...
After offering up his resignation, Health Minister David Clark answered questions along with Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Otago University Professor and epidemiologist Sir David Skegg. ...
The Sensible Sentencing Trust is calling on the Government to postpone the report due date for Minister Andrew Little’s Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill. This Bill would allow prisoners with a sentence of three years or ...
Reverend Scottie Reeve on the meaning of Easter during the Covid-19 pandemic, and why we need to embark on a journey of collective repentance. On Wednesday while I was going for a walk, I came across a friend on the Wellington waterfront. We’ll call him David. David had no idea what ...
Our essential workers deserve more than a round of applause, but danger pay is not the answer, writes Kerry Davies from the Public Service Association.Did you shower this morning? Is the kitchen clean? Have you changed your sheets since we went into lockdown? Have you vacuumed? Are you taking that ...
The local government sector has banded together to open a helpline for all council drinking and waste water technicians, providing an accessible source of advice for small suppliers across New Zealand to lean on. While drinking and waste water infrastructure ...
This story first appeared in The Mercury Bay Informer and is republished here with permission. Roadblocks could be in place at entry points to the Coromandel this week as the local Civil Defence Controller moves to prevent unlawful travel to the Peninsula during the Covid-19 lockdown. Speaking to The Informer last ...
He Waka Eke Noa – We are all in this together, according to the Prime Minister. Except that we’re not…………………….. After pressure from employees, Fletcher Building executives have shown the way with their decision to take a 30 ...
New Zealanders in need during the COVID-19 lockdown are set to further benefit from a food charity’s distribution programme. KiwiHarvest, a national food rescue charity which collects food from retailers before it goes to waste and distributes it to ...
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance is slamming ATEED as completely out of touch with the economic reality of Aucklanders after the agency posted a job advertisement for a newly created role: a “Digital Content Specialist” . “ATEED should be ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand. Today’s contentHealth minister demoted, Bridges defends commute 1News: ‘I got it wrong’ – David Clark says he’ll continue as Health ...
The Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA) will challenge Parliament’s Health Select Committee tomorrow morning, saying the Government’s vaping bill in its current form runs the risk of protecting Big Tobacco. Director of AVCA, Nancy Loucas, says ...
How quickly the political landscape can change. A month ago, Deputy PM Winston Peters, along with PM Jacinda Ardern, was deep into a trans-Tasman sledging match after Ardern attacked Australia’s hardline deportation. But as the coronavirus crisis broadened, it was Peters on the line to Canberra seeking Australia’s assistance in ...
Today New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association (NZALPA) President Captain Andrew Ridling said: “Yesterday NZALPA met several times with Air New Zealand CEO Mr Greg Foran and his executive team to continue our discussions on cost-cutting measures ...
Mr Davis, AWUNZ spokesman, said; “The Provincial Growth Fund needs a Union heart not only a commercial mind. Shane Jones needs to accept that work creation is the only goal. I don't mean generously-paid jobs either for the Wellington insiders" ...
BSA has today released a guidance note which it has prepared with a working group of broadcasters to guide broadcasters when reporting on terrorism, violent extremism and crisis events. The guidance note follows the issue of decisions by the BSA last ...
‘Paint is peeling from the old truck workshop walls. Some days you can taste rust on the autumn wind, like swallowing iron and blood and pollen.’Read more Lockdown Letters hereIT’S GONE BELLY UP FOR THE WORLD.I bet the doomsday preppers are feeling smug right now, locking down in their DIY ...
The National Iwi Chairs Forum welcomes the further clarity and guidance on Alert Level 4 rules during lockdown, issued by Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield over the weekend. Speaking from the Wellington base of the National Iwi Chairs Forums ...
After offering up his resignation, Health Minister David Clark will be answering questions along with Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Otago University Professor and epidemiologist Sir David Skegg. ...
There’s a desperate scramble to stop more major media companies failing. Duncan Greive explains what’s going on – and how it might play out.The most recent edition of the reigning newspaper of the year, the Sunday Star-Times, was a pearler. It opened with a substantial analysis from political editor Luke ...
CEAC again reviewed the NZTA National Land Transport Programme “2021–24 NLTP development” plan and CEAC is shocked that NZTA has assumed itself as “Transport Agency” - but is only a Gov’t designated “Road controlling authority” (RTA) ...
By RNZ News New Zealand’s Health Minister David Clark has revealed that he took a trip to the beach during the alert level 4 lockdown and has offered to resign. Dr Clark said he drove his family 20km from his house in Dunedin to Doctor’s Point Beach for a ...
As people across New Zealand and the Commonwealth are experiencing unprecedented changes to their lives, concerns for family and friends, and financial uncertainty, you are in my thoughts and prayers. I send my enduring thanks to those who continue ...
As New Zealanders lockdown in their bubbles, Neighbourhood Support New Zealand is launching the Good Neighbour Awards, recognising those who are helping others while staying safe. Launching today, the weekly Good Neighbour Award is about celebrating ...
Thousands of children and their families living in poverty in towns and rural communities across New Zealand will soon be receiving emergency food relief packages from KidsCan. The charity usually supplies food to 787 schools and 55 early childhood centres across ...
UK PM put into intensive care; US death toll over 10k; Trump tweets about 'fake news' as New York buries dead in parks; Germany and Israel tighten lockdownsBoris in intensive care: Shortly after Downing Street reported him to be in "good spirits", BBC political editor Laura Kuensberg tweeted that Prime ...
The Government is working on a way to get home the 79 New Zealanders in Vanuatu. Cyclone Harold, a powerful category 5 made landfall on Vanuatu island of Santo yesterday with destructive winds. ...
Today (Tuesday 07 April) Inland Revenue’s Working for Families customers receive their first payment for the new tax year and for some the amount they get may be different. The amount may have changed from what they received last month, based ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Sanderson, Professor of Information Retrieval, RMIT University Wrapping your head around the scale of a global pandemic is not easy, and the volume of stats and data can be bewildering. What, for instance, are we to make of the fact Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Saeri, Research Fellow, BehaviourWorks Australia, Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University More Australians are worried about the longer-lasting, societal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic – specifically that the health system could be overburdened and the country could enter a recession – ...
Auckland Airport launches a $1.2b capital raising, but Auckland Council pulls out; Marsden Point cuts production again as Covid-19 hits fuel demand; Kiwi Property cancels dividend tooDown day: The NZ sharemarket lost ground yesterday following the announcement of a second major capital raising in as many days and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Meekan, Senior Principal Research Scientist, Australian Institute of Marine Science It might surprise you to learn that nuclear bomb tests during the Cold War are now helping conserve whale sharks, the largest living fish. Growing up to 18 metres – longer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Terry Hughes, Distinguished Professor, James Cook University The Australian summer just gone will be remembered as the moment when human-caused climate change struck hard. First came drought, then deadly bushfires, and now a bout of coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Many temporary Australian residents will be excluded from the JobSeeker Payment and Coronavirus Supplement to be provided to permanent residents. In this open letter to the prime minister, 40 leading Australian ...
For those keen to avoid the long and awkward queues at supermarkets, there may be a new technological solution.Long supermarket lines have become the bane of the lockdown era, with many people worried that the overcrowding and long wait times may burst their bubbles. Those concerns have prompted a Dunedin-based ...
David Clark has disclosed he took a trip to the beach with his family during lockdown and offered his resignation. The Prime Minister keeps him as Health Minister, but demotes him. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has demoted Health Minister David Clark to the bottom of the Cabinet and stripped him ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Health minister David Clark suffers major demotion, government launches mental health tools, and more outline given on decision to leave lockdown.In breaking news, health minister David Clark has been severely demoted by the Prime Minister. Last week, a story came out ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
New Conservative calls on the government to allow expansion of relationship bubbles, the start up of more businesses and an ease up on travel restrictions by the end of this week. Covid-19 has neither destroyed our population nor even caused widespread ...
The University of Auckland's David Moreau has some recommendations to help minimise the impact of this unprecedented situation on our brain fitness Keeping our brains sharp can be challenging given current measures of self-isolation and social distancing. Our surroundings may not be as stimulating intellectually as they usually are, and ...
Addiction and withdrawal don’t just go away during a lockdown, writes Bonnie Sumner, which is why health services and support agencies are doing all they can to make sure no one suffers. It’s happening outside alcohol shops, in supermarket carparks and, sometimes, on quiet back streets between people riding bicycles. ...
The closing of the Listener is not just the end of continuity, it is the silencing of all the voices to come, writes historian Dr Joanne Drayton The New Zealand Listener is our central consciousness. The magazine grew up with us as we matured as a nation. Its story is our story. ...
Vanuatu has been pummelled by Cyclone Harold, which is expected to move southwest of Fiji in the next 48 hours. Teuila Fuatai tracks its course across a Pacific already battened down against Covid-19. Physical distancing measures were lifted and hundreds reportedly took shelter in emergency centres as Cyclone Harold bore ...
Strict border controls are being considered to prevent a second wave of Covid-19 cases. David Williams and Dileepa Fonseka report. On March 23, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gave the country 48 hours’ notice of a four-week lockdown designed to stop Covid-19. She warned without such drastic measures the country’s health ...
Dairy farmers trying to get ready for the new season are striking lockdown problems, writes Rod Oram A farmer in Northland has a problem: his milk processor had condemned his milking shed; a new one was under construction; work has stopped because the Government has yet to classify such projects ...
Dan Slevin from Booksellers NZ is confident every New Zealand bookshop will survive the lockdown. When I started this job a lifetime ago (back in October last year), I told friends that I was going to work for the trade union for independent booksellers. I thought it conjured up a ...
Colin Hogg is a writer known for his music journalism, reviewing and column writing, and for his books and documentary making. In 2018, he published Sam Hunt: Off the Road, his tenth book. Possibly New Zealand’s best-loved living poet, Sam Hunt is hunkered down in glorious isolation on the Kaipara ...
On Sunday there were nearly as many probable cases of Covid-19 as confirmed cases. But what is a probable case, and why are the numbers of probable cases climbing? When probable Covid-19 case numbers were first shared on March 24, they represented 7 percent of the new cases reported to the ...
Not long before the coronavirus lockdown silenced New Zealand’s racing scene, Philippa Morris not-so-quietly made history. She became the first woman in New Zealand to call a greyhound race. To give you an idea of how big a bite her achievement is - that’s over 110 years of racing history. ...
From managing the expectations of friends and whānau to making sure there’s enough PPE, Jihee Junn talks to an Auckland-based funeral director about what their job has been like under Covid-19. More than 400 people are said to have died during New Zealand’s first week under level four lockdown. Only one ...
If and when New Zealand exits alert level four and its restrictions, contact tracing becomes the most important tool we have to prevent having to lockdown all over again. So what does it involve, and are we doing enough of it?Just quickly – what is contact tracing? Contact tracing is what ...
After five years, the Final Fantasy VII Remake has finally appeared. Sam Brooks reviews the highly anticipated remake, looking back while leaping forward. Remakes have been around so long as we’ve been making art. We’re used to them, whether they’re new retellings of old myths, covers of old songs, or complete ...
By RNZ News Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern does not want New Zealand to be at level four for “a minute longer than needed”, but says there is no plan to lift it earlier than the planned four weeks. As New Zealand approaches the halfway point of the four-week lockdown, ...
Supercity Mayor Phil Goff says Auckland Airport is entitled to launch a major share issue even if it dilutes the council's own shareholding in a strategic asset Auckland Council will see its shareholding in the city's international airport diluted during a $1.2b equity raising initiative. Auckland International Airport shares traded at $7.20 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew McLachlan, Head of School and Dean of Pharmacy, University of Sydney Researchers testing the head lice drug Ivermectin as a possible treatment for COVID-19 have seen promising results in lab studies. But the research is in its early stages and the ...
In the Covid-19 crisis it seems like it's every country for itself, so where does that leave the European Union? Falling apart like the Roman Empire, says Oliver Hartwich We all know those newspaper segments which feature a previously famous person. And then we read these articles wondering why we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne This week’s Newspoll, conducted April 1-3 from a sample of 1,508 people, showed a huge boost in Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s approval rating based on his leadership thus far in ...
Analysis: New Zealand has dedicated itself to going hard and going early against Covid-19. When compared with other countries, how did we do? When Jacinda Ardern announced a requirement for everyone entering the country to self-isolate for 14 days, she told the nation what New Zealand's strategy for the months ...
Covid-19 quickly put Vodafone NZ to the test, but CEO Jason Paris - working out of his son's bedroom - tells Rod Oram the telco is in good shape, with the crisis giving it the opportunity "to accelerate to our digital future" Vodafone New Zealand got an early start preparing ...
Inland Revenue (IR) will turn off its computer systems for seven days from this Thursday to implement the latest round of planned transformation changes. All phone and online services will be unavailable from 3pm on 9 April until 16 April. That ...
Taxis drivers working during lockdown are facing challenges to keep themselves and their passengers safe, and rideshare service drivers face extra problems. The Taxi Federation's John Hart says most companies are asking callers who request a taxi whether the travel is allowed under the lockdown rules. "If they don't meet ...
Auckland Airport is the latest big company to rush to strengthen its finances to counter the impact of the Covid-19 virus. The company is to raise more than $1.2 billion through a share issue to big institutional investors and existing shareholders, including the Auckland Council which has a 22 percent ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ilan Noy, Professor and Chair in the Economics of Disasters, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Governments across the world have rolled out extensive financial packages to support individuals, businesses and large corporations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Equally, central ...
Pacific Media Watch From the second week of lockdown in New Zealand, to Covid-19 in the Pacific and an “authoritarianism creep” by governments in the Asia-Pacific region provided a fast-changing landscape on the Pacific Media Centre’s Southern Cross radio programme on 95bFM today. New Zealand had crossed the 1000-case ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union is urging the Government to halt its non-essential legislative agenda, including the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Bill, until the worst of COVID-19 has passed. Taxpayers' Union spokesperson Islay ...
Fuel sales have dropped dramatically and stocks are building up, creating pressure on storage facilities globally and in New Zealand. Z Energy's chief executive Mike Bennetts told Morning Report that there are many storage tanks throughout the country and at the Marsden Point Oil Refinery. "The issue for us is more about ...
Open mike 18/08/2013 
. . April 6: Day 12 of living in lock-down… Another day of a near-empty Park N Ride carpark; . . And another day of near-empty Wellington streets; . . . Light traffic on the motorway. No apparent increase in volume. Commercial vehicles sighted; a gravel-hauling truck; McAuley’s Transport; a ...1 hour ago
Imagination By-Pass: Had the Communications Minister, Kris Faafoi (above) taken a firm stand with Bauer, reminding them of their obligations to both their staff and the wider New Zealand public, then a much more favourable outcome may well have ensued. He should have made it clear to the Bauer board ...1 hour ago
We all know that Simon Bridges has, at the best of times, an intermittent relationship with the truth. However you would think that during a pandemic and economic crisis the current opposition leader would pull his head in and start to do the right thing.Obviously leading by example should be ...2 hours ago
Connett promotes Riddell et al (2019) as one of the only four studies one needs to read about fluoridation. But he misunderstands and misrepresents the findings of this study. Image credit: Fluoride Action ... 4 hours ago
Last month I wrote my blog on covid-19 pointing out the in our pre Alert Level 4 days that a subject no one had heard here months ago was now dominating the media. An amazing feature of this crisis is how quickly it has swept every other issue aside worldwide. ...20 hours ago
Nick Wilson,1 Ayesha Verrall,1,2 Len Cook,3 Alistair Gray,3 Amanda Kvalsvig,1 Michael Baker,1 (1epidemiologists, 2infectious disease physician, 3statisticians) In this blog, we raise ideas for how New Zealand might optimise testing to both identify cases in the community as part of the COVID-19 elimination strategy, and to confirm when the virus ...20 hours ago
Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... North Atlantic's capacity to absorb CO2 overestimated, study suggests Research into ocean’s plankton likely to lead to ...1 day ago
The Treaty on Open Skies is one of the most effective mechanisms for preventing war curently in force. By letting countries make surveillance flights over each others' territory, it eliminates fears that they are secretly preparing for war. So naturally, the US is planning to withdraw from it: The Trump ...1 day ago
As far as anyone can say, New Zeaand still has a general election scheduled for September 19 this year. The election will be accompanied by two referenda, one of which will ask voters:Do you support the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill?The official campaign period for the cannabis referendum begins ...1 day ago
As the world economy slides rapidly towards deep recession there are growing calls for a Universal Benefit coming from some leftists and rightists. Now Finance Minister Grant Robertson is saying it is on the table. This article by a French party Workers Struggle provides analysis of various forms of universal ...2 days ago
This is the advice from the very top of the anti-fluoride movement – Paul Connett, director of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). Don’t worry about reading up on all the scientific information “You only have ... 2 days ago
Comfortably, in the very first round, with an impressive 56% of the votes.I wonder, did members of the Shadow Cabinet start tweeting their resignations during Starmer's victory speech, or is that only a trick the right pull?It is odd how all the talk of how the next leader "needs to ...2 days ago
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...3 days ago
We must root out the traitors among us! ...4 days ago
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...5 days ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 6 days ago
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...6 days ago
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...7 days ago
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has striven to provide calm, clear and consistent communication, including daily press conference updates from the Prime Minister. ...2 days ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world". Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...4 days ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...2 weeks ago
The Government is stepping up efforts to help protect New Zealand’s Pacific communities in the fight against COVID-19. Cabinet has agreed that $17 million will be allocated to support a COVID-19 Pacific Response Package, which will: Support Pacific health and disability services facing increased demand; Ramp up public health messaging ...4 hours ago
Up to 400 Air New Zealand pilots look set to lose their jobs as part of the airline's plan to slash one third of its workforce. ...14 mins ago
After offering up his resignation, Health Minister David Clark answered questions along with Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Otago University Professor and epidemiologist Sir David Skegg. ...24 mins ago
The Sensible Sentencing Trust is calling on the Government to postpone the report due date for Minister Andrew Little’s Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill. This Bill would allow prisoners with a sentence of three years or ...38 mins ago
Reverend Scottie Reeve on the meaning of Easter during the Covid-19 pandemic, and why we need to embark on a journey of collective repentance. On Wednesday while I was going for a walk, I came across a friend on the Wellington waterfront. We’ll call him David. David had no idea what ...43 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Berto Pandolfo, Senior Lecturer Product Design, University of Technology Sydney Around the world, people are racing to design and manufacture much-needed ventilators to address a global lack of supply. One New York hospital has reportedly attempted treating two patients per ventilator out ...43 mins ago
This story first appeared in The Mercury Bay Informer and is republished here with permission. Roadblocks could be in place at entry points to the Coromandel this week as the local Civil Defence Controller moves to prevent unlawful travel to the Peninsula during the Covid-19 lockdown. Speaking to The Informer last ...1 hour ago
How quickly the political landscape can change. A month ago, Deputy PM Winston Peters, along with PM Jacinda Ardern, was deep into a trans-Tasman sledging match after Ardern attacked Australia’s hardline deportation. But as the coronavirus crisis broadened, it was Peters on the line to Canberra seeking Australia’s assistance in ...2 hours ago
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David Clark has disclosed he took a trip to the beach with his family during lockdown and offered his resignation. The Prime Minister keeps him as Health Minister, but demotes him. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has demoted Health Minister David Clark to the bottom of the Cabinet and stripped him ...5 hours ago
Covid 19 coronavirus lockdown: Health Minister David Clark demoted after driving 20km to beach, breaking lockdown rules; and Coronavirus. ...5 hours ago
The University of Auckland's David Moreau has some recommendations to help minimise the impact of this unprecedented situation on our brain fitness Keeping our brains sharp can be challenging given current measures of self-isolation and social distancing. Our surroundings may not be as stimulating intellectually as they usually are, and ...7 hours ago
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The closing of the Listener is not just the end of continuity, it is the silencing of all the voices to come, writes historian Dr Joanne Drayton The New Zealand Listener is our central consciousness. The magazine grew up with us as we matured as a nation. Its story is our story. ...7 hours ago
Vanuatu has been pummelled by Cyclone Harold, which is expected to move southwest of Fiji in the next 48 hours. Teuila Fuatai tracks its course across a Pacific already battened down against Covid-19. Physical distancing measures were lifted and hundreds reportedly took shelter in emergency centres as Cyclone Harold bore ...7 hours ago
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Dan Slevin from Booksellers NZ is confident every New Zealand bookshop will survive the lockdown. When I started this job a lifetime ago (back in October last year), I told friends that I was going to work for the trade union for independent booksellers. I thought it conjured up a ...7 hours ago
Colin Hogg is a writer known for his music journalism, reviewing and column writing, and for his books and documentary making. In 2018, he published Sam Hunt: Off the Road, his tenth book. Possibly New Zealand’s best-loved living poet, Sam Hunt is hunkered down in glorious isolation on the Kaipara ...7 hours ago
On Sunday there were nearly as many probable cases of Covid-19 as confirmed cases. But what is a probable case, and why are the numbers of probable cases climbing? When probable Covid-19 case numbers were first shared on March 24, they represented 7 percent of the new cases reported to the ...7 hours ago
Not long before the coronavirus lockdown silenced New Zealand’s racing scene, Philippa Morris not-so-quietly made history. She became the first woman in New Zealand to call a greyhound race. To give you an idea of how big a bite her achievement is - that’s over 110 years of racing history. ...7 hours ago
Supercity Mayor Phil Goff says Auckland Airport is entitled to launch a major share issue even if it dilutes the council's own shareholding in a strategic asset Auckland Council will see its shareholding in the city's international airport diluted during a $1.2b equity raising initiative. Auckland International Airport shares traded at $7.20 ...17 hours ago
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Auckland Airport is the latest big company to rush to strengthen its finances to counter the impact of the Covid-19 virus. The company is to raise more than $1.2 billion through a share issue to big institutional investors and existing shareholders, including the Auckland Council which has a 22 percent ...21 hours ago
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One day to go before the big meeting in the Auckland Town Hall GCSB bill.
And the leader of the Opposition Labour Party hasn’t made it clear if he will even be there.
Already we know that David Shearer refuses to stand on the podium with every other Opposition Party Leader.
The actions of David Shearer are deliberately undermining the sincere efforts of those who are trying to lobby Peter Dunne and/or any National MPs who have concerns about this bill to vote against it.
How can Peter Dunne or any other Government MP make this weighty decision to change their vote, when they can witness with their own eyes that the Opposition leader David Shearer is standing with the Prime Minister John Key on this issue.
David Shearer’s mealy mouthed words calling for a “review” (something that Peter Dunne has already asked for, and the Prime Minister has already agreed to), Is not enough.
So come on David Shearer. In the best traditions of Labour Party leaders of the past, why don’t you show that you stand with the grass roots of your own party and the rest of the opposition, and the nation. Announce that tomorrow you will be mounting the podium with the other leaders to make your opposition to this bill clear.
If it is beyond you. You don’t have to say anything. Just stand there in solidarity.
Remember: Actions Speak Louder Than words!
Given his name’s on the poster, does anyone other than you seriously doubt his intention to attend? I’m not interested in your opinion, just a link to someone other than you saying it will suffice.
Not on any poster I have seen. Not on the ones posted on this site.
Oops looked again his name is there my sincere apologies.
When did this happen?
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/08/18/holding-the-prime-minister-to-account-monday-night-auckland-town-hall-7pm/
Jenny, I usually do not bother reading or replying to your comments as IMO they contain a lot of ignorance and/or misinformation – sometimes IMO quite deliberately.
On this occasion:
1. Shearer was announced as a speaker at tomorrow night’s public meeting last Tuesday, I think, on The Daily Blog and has been on the poster since then.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/08/12/speakers-announced-for-next-mondays-stop-the-gcsb-bill-public-meeting/
2. Your remark that “We already know that Shearer refuses to stand on the podium with every other Opposition Party leader”. Since when? Show us evidence of this statement. Shearer has ‘stood on the podium’ with Norman and Peters on a number of occasions over the last year or so on manufacturing, housing and other issues.
3. After the last public meeting, on 26 July Shearer announced that if he became PM, he would initiate a wider ranging inquiry into all intelligencies agencies, their roles, functions, powers etc on coming into office, with the review to be completed within six months IIRC
I posted the link to this Herald article on TS and seem to remember that you were part of the discussion on this at the time.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10903651
To clarify, the above was a response to Jenny’s #1, but went into moderation and somehow ended up as 1.1.1.2.
EDIt – did this partly as a test as to whether it went into moderation, which it has. Not sure why, but had the same thing late yesterday.
It’s a known bug (the moderation thing).
As for your comment, nice try, but you do realise that she was posting from Planet Jenny, an alternate universe where everything looks familiar but has a Jenny-esque spin to it that has the unfortunate side effect one making one’s eyes roll.
i see the Arab Spring is going well too. And that’s what she wants to see happen in Syria next. Another “popular revolution”.
civil war in Egypt was predicted following the ousting of Morsi.
LOL. Thanks weka. As I said ,I don’t normally respond to Planet Jenny but was not in a good mood when I read the latest dribble first thing this morning. Shaky Wellington is not my favourite place right now as quakes are my biggest phobia/paranoia. But – must be strong as can’t do anything about it! Or about Planet Jenny.
Heh, Planet Jenny, very appropriate.
Kudos to weka, not me, for that one!
Shearer’s name was NOT there originally. It is not on this poster:
http://gpjanz.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/townhall-bill3-page1-1-424×600.jpeg
Shearer declared his intention to be one of the speakers earlier in the week since when he’s been on the “list” of speakers. He has emailed members and supporters twice in the past few days urging people to attend.
I thought Shearer was very good on Key’s exclusive NZ Herald GCSB ‘clarification’ when Shearer said that Key didn’t understand his own legislation and was making it up as he went along.
It was quick, sharp and to the point
Talking about bad journalism;
“Shot man had lengthy list of convictions”
So reads the banner headlline by an article penned by journalist Tracey Chatterton for Fairfax NZ News,
I might like to ask Tracey Chatterton;
So What?
Would a headline reading hand cuffed man shot in the back be more accurate. What if this helpless and unarmed man had been shot in the back by someone other than a police officer?
Would his list of convictions be in the headline? Would that even be seen as relevant?
What is Tracey Chatterton trying to say here?
That the man deserved to be shot in such circumstances because he had a list of convictions?
That people who have convictions are more likely to get shot while being under arrest vulnerable and helpless, than those without previous convictions?
Despite the purposely leading headline, the report itself is less judgemental laying no fault on the arrested man who was offering no resistance at the time when he was shot.
When it comes to bad journalism this example surely must rank at the top.
It’s also very unlikely that a gun would simply just go off. Despite what the movies try to make us believe, guns don’t usually go off by themselves. If the riffle was slung over the officers shoulder, it should have been located at the officers back. Therefore he would have to have been leaning forward away from Iriheke Te Kani Pere for him to be shot. However it was also reported that the unarmed man was being helped to his feet by the officer when he was accidentally shot in the back with a Bushmaster rifle, that should have had it’s safety on. The events as described by the police seem highly implausible.
Could it be that under this government the police feel they have the right to administer their own penalties out to suspected law breakers. This could see a handcuffed suspect thrown off a fence and paralysed or handcuffed then shot in the back. Serco may not like the loss of income from these events but Paula Bennett will be fond of this style of treatment of suspects I’m sure.
The police have always felt that they have the right to administer their own penalties. What changes are the penalties. When a government with some interest in human rights is in power, they scale things down a bit, maybe to the level of grievous bodily harm. With the present government and its absolute contempt for any sort of legalities, the death sentence can be on the table. As a society we give the police enormous powers. We should make equally enormous efforts to hold them to account when they step outside these powers.
Has there ever been an instance of someone pointing a firearm at a nz police officer and living to tell the tale?
I don’t recall it ever happening.
So you’re saying the police should just stand there like numpties and allow themselves to be shot? Of course I expect you will probably say they could shoot the perp in an arm or a leg, but that would be to reveal a fatal misunderstanding of how deadly someone with a fire arm can still be or how quickly they can squeeze off a bullet
No Pop, I’m not saying any of those things.
Once again you are arguing against your own imagination.
Not enough time spent training on weapons would be my guess, they fire SFA rounds a year to be current, and I would find it hard to believe they even know how to pull their weapons apart. But surely he answer must be to carry them all the time, that would fix everything when they have no idea how to use them, that seem’s to be the modus operandi of this government?
Budget cuts, heightened stress with too few experienced staff around, not enough training and weapons handling time.
The sun, the moon, and the high tide…
Also lack of procedural weapons safety discipline, including the very basics…do not point your weapon, loaded or unloaded, at anything you are not willing to kill.
The last frontier, shoot first ask question later.
Try that is someone is pointing a gun at you
“…bad journalism…”
From memory it’s usually the sub-editor who chooses the headline.
And subs are only a couple of chromosomes away from being cabbages
heh. 🙂
“..Why should dogs die – so humans can get high?..”
(cont..)
(ed:..and of course it would be salutary to see the (totally-justified) outrage at this plan to overdose dogs to death..to test the toxicity of new legal-highs for humans..
..to see this outrage spread to the fact that 270,000 animals are tortured/killed by the vivisectors in new zealand..
..each and every year..
..let that fact sink in…
..and then please start asking ‘why?’…’why are we torturing/killing animals..?
..to test cosmetics/dishwashing liquids..?’
‘cos..y’see..there are computer-testing programs that
can replace these hidden horrors..obviate the need for this litany of cruelties/miseries..
..’so why?’..i hear you ask..
..that ‘why’ is the same as for all the other industries that thrive on the miseries inflicted on others (alcohol/tobacco/legal-highs..)
..these animals continue to be tortured because of economic reasons..
..those doing the torturing..and the breeders..
..are locked in a ghastly dance of monetary self-interest..
….so what needs to happen..
..is for a large spotlight to be shone on the practices of this industry..
..and for them to justify the/any compelling need to be doing this to animals..
..until this comes to pass..
..these pieces of shit who garner their gold from torturing defenceless animals all day..
..will just continue inflicting these miseries..
..and it may be a cliche..
..but the animals cannot speak up for themselves..eh..?
..it has to be us..eh..?..
(and irony o.d-alert..!..for many years the spca has sat on the panel ‘approving’ these experiments/tortures on 270,000 animals each and every year..)
..and guess what..?..the spca used to sell/supply animals to the vivisectors..
..and how do i know this..?
..i know this because i once ‘liberated’ a dog from a courier van..
..that dog was enroute from the spca in auckland..
..to vivisectors in wellington..
..she ended up living a long and happy/well-loved life..
..so the next questions for the spca must be:
‘do you still sell/supply animals to the vivisectors..?’
and..’how do you – as an organisation purporting/fund-raising on the premise you help/protect these defenceless animals..
..how do you marry that with ‘approving’ the torture/killing of 270,000 of those ‘defenceless-animals’ you claim to ‘protect’..?
..and this each and every year..?
..eh..?..
..eh..?..)
phillip ure..
animals are tested on for medical purposes to deal with the effects of…
alcohol
sports
coffee
sugar
drugs
driving
everything.
Good grief! (Still gagging) I have just caught a bit of the Nation with bill ralston and somebody else( aided by nodding and smiling smallie) going orgasmic over keys performance on JC Live. How concise and coherent he was and how he spoke to middle nz so that they could all understand his message. And how bad JC was in comparison and labelling him as pretty much politically biased. Did they not read the transcript! As far as I am concerned JCLIve is the only TV programme that is trying to give us ordinay kiwis a say and actually putting the TRUTH out there so we can make an informed opinion. Elsewhere you have Fran,Audrey,John A all using the NZ Herald as their no obstacles vehicle for waving the pom poms for national EVERY WEEK! It’s blatant and it is wrong that we are being fed their infantile drivel under the guise of political commentary. Go John Campbell and boo hiss to the herald.
I feel like that too! Strange (yeah right) that Ralston and Walden never mentioned the big back-down from Key since the interview either, where what he had said turned out to be WRONG – But he’s going to make no written change to the bill and just says that he won’t give the OK to read our mail – Do we really trust Key to keep his word that he won’t read our emails and how would we ever find out if he did? Sorry, I’d need that in WRITING!! This IS a merchant banker talking, don’t forget that!!
I thought he was just a money trader and general go to boy to do Merrill Lynch’s dirty work. With a smile.
Someone on radio said that so much political chatter is about performance instead of substantive matters. It is commentators treating politics as a sports game, and the politicians merely players. Shakespeare understood it (No fear Shakespeare site)
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Hamlet A5/Sc5/5.
MacBeth
Thanks Rogue That Hamlet I don’t know how he got into the comment.
These corporate shills have a lot to lose.
Remember CL challenged their lack of action in his report on Thursday.
Bill Ralston sold out long ago.
Ralston and Walden subscribe to the construct of an Auckland media/political “glitterati”. They cannot be accurately assessed or relied upon without prior disclosure of that comedic self-consciousness. Hitching up to Planet Key provides buoyancy for ascent to the surface of the little pond of Auckland and confirms “glitterati” membership.
Yes, more that just Walden and Ralston subscribe to this, every commentator seems to have jumped on the bandwagon Kerre Mc Ivor (who ever she is), Sean Plunkett, Armstrong, etc…it seems very few commentators will challenge John Key. Not one commentator has brought up John key’s major cock up in the interview, which is amazing. I’m sure your explanation has something to do with it, along with some really savvy media management by the National Party.
On August 17, 1975, U.S. Senator Frank Church appeared on NBC television’s Meet the Press to discuss the results of his full-scale investigation into America’s burgeoning intelligence capabilities. Senator Church revealed startling information and closed with a dire warning to every citizen of the United States:
“American intelligence gathering capability at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left. Such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. (This was before internet.) There would be no place to hide.”
“If this government ever became a tyrant, if a dictator took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how precisely it was done, is within reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology.”
“I don’t want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that (the NSA) and all the agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision so that we never cross that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.”
Only took three decades and a couple of collapsing skyscrapers to turn the good results of the Church Committee around. Pumping more money into the corporate/military/industrial/intelligence complex and then allowing a system where individual congressmen have to become more susceptible to money just to get re-elected finished it.
As has been said by several people previously…the US has suffered a slow motion corporate/internal coup d’état over the last 20 years. Five hundred senior officials, a few billionaires, and a couple of hundred corporate board members have more say over the USA today than 250M voters.
Has John Key’s government done anything to improve New Zealand’s environmental record?
I see nothing doing but maybe somebody can point to something which has improved the situation.
jk has stopped farting in public?
That doesn’t count if he then uses his mouth as an exit for the hot air instead.
My perfect scenario for Question Time in Parliament would be for the Opposition to ask jk a question, sit through the now standard garbage he spews and then on a point of order point out to him that he is WRONG and then sit down. What would his retaliation be? Everyone should just keep saying YOU ARE WRONG and only that. It’s when you go down the rabbit hole with him that you just lose the will to live. He does it all the time, without actually showing any solid proof to his challenge.
points of order aren’t allowed purely on the grounds of disagreeing with contentions made..
phillip ure..
Well they should be.
Rod Oram blasts the government with both barrels. Why aren’t we hearing this kind of coherent narrative from Labour?
Yep excellent piece Pete.
The SST also does a good job in its leader today of highlighting the fact that Key does not understand the GCSB Bill and screwed up (or IMO lied) in the John Campbell interview.
Even Colin Espiner, on the same page, says the GCSB Bill is bad law.
+1
Is No Minister really a left wing blog? Sure, it has contributions from Psycho Milt, but he’s being somewhat overwhelmed by the stupid Tories over there. May I suggest some of these as a replacement?
I had a look at it too (yesterday) J, and asked myself the same question! Short answer NO! or no longer.
Selwyn Manning asks some interesting questions about the consequences that the GCSB Bill may have for NZ’s relationship with China
Special Feature: For China Is The GCSB Bill One Insult Too Many?
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/08/18/special-feature-for-china-is-the-gcsb-bill-one-insult-too-many/
“Get off the Grass”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business-editors-picks/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501981&objectid=10912950
(bright light that Shaun Hendy).
Down the Publons on a wet Sunday
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10912868
“We’re caught in a trap…”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10913571
“…with Suspicious Minds”
Quoting Get off the Grass:
There’s no paradox at all – the economic fundamentals are wrong and so by getting them right we’ve been damaging our economy.
Reality doesn’t conform to their carefully crafted and mathematicised parallel universe of economics? Who wudda thunkit?
Economics is and always has been a pseudoscience. It uses mathematics the same way astrologers do. Yes, there are real stars and yes, there are real resources and money, but let’s start studying them in a real scientific manner. Astronomers have been at it for a long time. I invite economists to do the same, any century now – no pressure [gritted teeth].
+1 …I think astrology works better…it does not pretend to be a science…but open to interpretation and imagination.
….economics is similar …depends who does it and what their ideology is and then they get the maths hocus pocus equations to prove it..tweek it here….tweek it there…..and bingo the bankers and wealthy 5% come out on top
………And have any of these economic theories really worked for the majority of people in individual countries , let alone the world?…that is the acid test….’economics’ as a ‘science’ has been an abject failure
The same could be said of pre-Hubble telescope Cosmology, but that doesn’t mean said Cosmology was a waste of time.
All science progresses more by debunking failed dogma than by genius insights. It progresses nonetheless.
@ depends on whether the ‘scientist’ starts with an open mind or not….
…some ‘scientists’ have closed minds and will try and fit the facts/stats/equations to their own predilections and preferred ideologies …as is the case in economics and much less so in astronomy( hard science) …hence economics called a ‘pseudoscience'( accept that some economics is descriptive /phenomenological)
It depends on nothing of the sort. You aren’t taking peer review into account. Scientists must present their findings in public where their worst enemies can pull them to pieces. Looking for the mythical unbiased opinion is a mistake: everyone exhibits bias.
It can take decades for science to progress in any field: Economics is no different.
@ + 100 Poission and Rhinocrates….
Knucklehead ….who said I was looking for the mythical unbiased opinion?….it is a sliding scale
OAK, indeed, the joke about cosmology told by physicists is that cosmologists put error bars on the exponents. However, it seems economists don’t use error bars at all.
Sciences do progress, and it’s the scientific process not only of peer review but of correlation with other sciences that matters – every chemist is open to review by physicists, but economists still try to be a closed shop. Their fundamental paradigms are jealously guarded from scrutiny and review and are therefore arbitrary (a euphemism for self-gratifying bullshit).
Scientific disciplines advance at different rates in any case. In a couple of centuries, whatever replaces the current pseudoscience of economics may reach the equivalent of Newtonian physics (i.e.., where physics was in the seventeenth century), but it’s nowhere near that position yet.
their worst enemies can pull them to pieces.
Yes, and many self-professed experts in Klingon who like to dress up in costumes can pull each other to pieces too – and they do – but I challenge them to engage with real linguists.
No real science is an island, and I’ll take an economist seriously when they are routinely open to review by physicists, tribologists, and herpetologists. If you think that I’m being facetious, I’d like to point out that physics is telling us a lot about palaeontology through biomechanical analysis of skeletons. That’s how real science works, not a cargo cult.
Not facetious at all Rhino, in fact I broadly agree with you that economics can and should learn more from other disciplines, for precisely the reasons you outline.
Well fingers crossed then, if not for our generation, then the ones to come, because it’s a science we need.
Alchemy was a waste of time, chemistry isn’t.
@ well I dont know about alchemy being a waste of time…Jung seemed to get quite a lot out of it….depends on whether you take it literally or not…maybe it is a metaphor for components/development of the psyche?
In a literary sense, I think that both Jung and Freud have real value and I regard Freud’s essay on the uncanny as a masterpiece of literary and aesthetic criticism. However, “science” is a very precise term, denoting verifiability and consistency. A lot of art and literature is “true” in ways that sciences aren’t, but be that as it may, “economics” as it stands is not a science.
@ Rhinocrates
If you don’t view chemistry as a waste of time, then alchemy wasn’t either; because chemistry arose out of alchemy.
economic fundamentals are wrong
The equations used in economic models are not fundamental but phenomenological ie they relate to the process but not to the cause,hence you cannot ask to much of them anyway.
not fundamental but phenomenological
In other words: make-believe, the mere aping of forms and not amenable to empirical tests. Unfalsifiable. Bullshit, to put it bluntly.
Sorry, I have too much experience in both hard disciplines and the humanities to take all of their weasely pantomime seriously. Indeed, the intellectual pretence is offensive.
On phenomenology:
Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (German: [ˈhʊsɐl]; April 8, 1859 – April 27, 1938[3]) was a philosopher and mathematician and the founder of the 20th century philosophical school of phenomenology. He broke with the positivist orientation of the science and philosophy of his day, yet he elaborated critiques of historicism and of psychologism in logic. Not limited to empiricism, but believing that experience is the source of all knowledge, he worked on a method of phenomenological reduction by which a subject may come to know directly an essence.
Have to say I agree – again, straddling the hard professions and the humanities, I think that there can be parallel kinds of truth.
A couple of my degrees, my work and a lot of my publication would not be possible if I didn’t appreciate phenomenology – I’m just aware of the demarcations.
Sorry to be cryptic, but I value my privacy and don’t want to give too much away (someone has already found out who I am and I don’t want that repeated).
Short answer: “Yes.”
“Mum’s the Word”
Lee’s Post Keynesian Price Theory: Chapter 4
The poor economists, finding out that pricing of goods has absolutely nothing to do with margins.
fuel and electricty not as inelastic as once held by economic theorists, but then, they may be Living In The Past.
Yes business have a series of indicators which indicate how pricing should be achieved, based of course around the level of competition and one other important imperative,
The less competition the higher the price and that is always coupled with that other business tool known as ”coz we can” where in the absence of any real competition prices are fixed by either the individuals involved or by agreement of the Cartels,
The electricity industry is a great indicator of such Cartel price fixing where at a time small consumers have reduced demand for the product competition would indicate that prices would drop in an effort for the different players to attract more custom the opposite is the reality as Cartel price fixing keeps all the players profits rising…
What has happened to the little colourful square things that used to sit next to our ‘names’? Those made it easier to follow conversations.
Distressed needing help on the street but ignored
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10913776
not sure if someone has already posted this. It seems if you are better dressed, people MIGHT think about helping you a bit faster.
I would have helped the old guy, because that’s what I do. I would have checked on the woman as well.
Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) polling at around 12% and the ruling Nea Dimokratia at 28%, give them another year or so and the fuckers could well hold the balance.
Recently, Golden Dawn has signaled it would like to go global, and has opened offices in Germany and Australia. A website has appeared claiming to be the hub for the group’s New York City office.
“Nightline’s” repeated email requests for interviews from Golden Dawn members were met with an angry “No.”
“You can blame your fellow mainstream media cohorts for that, who do nothing but shamelessly slander us,” one email response to “Nightline” said.
But as Georgousis’ film shows, Golden Dawn sees the blame for Greece’s woes spreading far beyond its shores. The party claims the economic crisis in Greece is not just caused by immigrants in Athens, but in Chicago and “especially New York,” Georgousis said.
“They keep posting articles that, ‘it’s the Jewish capital that has brought Greece to this point, which is located in New York,’” he said.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/greeces-hostile-golden-dawn-party-filmmaker-captures-unguarded/story?id=19948097
(check the comments – auto play video too)
“They keep posting articles that, ‘it’s the Jewish capital that has brought Greece to this point, which is located in New York,’” he said.
That must come as a surprise to the Israelis
Watched Susan Woods today – I think it will be the last time – she makes me cringe when she interviews foreign visitors (in this case from Iran) with a preconceived propaganda point of view trying hard to be a Christiane Amanpour. Please, please, please take Mrs Woods off politics programs, give her gardening or something else.
Indeed! “Suzie’s Garden Show”, then maybe slip her in as a Nactzi Baggie Marry replacement.
Cow really does fancy she’s an Amanpour. What a joke !
Misogynist
What a joke !
The government wants the GST on on-line purchases. The retailers association want it too.
Well I guess they could also chase the corporate tax avoidance rorts that are ripping us all off while they are at it. (That would be billions, and not just a few million).
“Well I guess they could also chase the corporate tax avoidance rorts that are ripping us all off while they are at it. (That would be billions, and not just a few million).”
Can you be specific about these rorts?
Zzzzz
@ logie97….agreed…..
Loretta Napoleoni’s book ‘Rogue Economics- Capitalism’s New Reality’ (2008)…. indicates what is wrong with present day economics
Yes – its 8pm on a Sunday night. But for those interested before it disappears behind NBR’s paywall – A MUST READ on the effects of the combine GCSB Bill and its companion TICS Bill.
An article on NBR today by Vikram Kumar, former SSC manager and CEO of InternetNZ, now CEO of Mega, giving more – very disturbing – insight into the effects of the TICS Bill.
I am out of my depth here on the tech aspects, but if what Kumar is saying is true, then it is very revealing.
“The government is planning to issue secret orders to service providers when the Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Bill (“TICS Bill”) becomes law to force them to create interception capability for surveillance agencies. This has been approved by cabinet and is therefore official Government policy.
What’s not clear is if the mechanism of a Ministerial directive will also be used to gag the service provider? Or is the secrecy merely a guise to allow compliant service providers to pretend they haven’t been forced to create a backdoor for the government?
Either way, the impact on New Zealand online service providers, and New Zealand as a country, could be truly devastating. …”
To read the whole article – and the comments and remarks by the NBR editor at the start of the article – the link is
http://t.co/kvhoyJCfse
From the 2012 technical paper:
A Ministerial directive will be used to secretly/confidentially impose an obligation to create interception capabilities by individually named service providers (referred to as “deem-in” but what I call a backdoor) “so as not to publicly announce a lack of capability in a particular service.”
“when X is “deemed” to be Y it is ordinarily conceded that X is not Y, and is known not to be Y”
Legal Fictions and Common Law Legal Theory Some Historical Reflections, Eben Moglen
Someone must have linked or commented on this –
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/revealed-govt-plans-secret-orders-so-service-providers-under-spy-bill-ck-144562
Wildfire !
And just before I hit submit I see Veutoviper has.
Pretty much all isps are refusing to do it.
It isn’t law yet.
i’ve only just discovered Richard Wilkinson’s (co-author of The Spirit Level) TED talk about why reducing income differentials in developed democracies really matters.
if you’ve not heard him talk, take a few minutes…. and note where NZ figures in most of the data he presents
Jesus wept.
http://tuliathompson.wordpress.com/2013/08/18/no-paula-bennett-tampons-and-pads-are-not-luxury-items-winz-and-institutionalised-sexism/
And it’s pretty hard to see how this could be an oversight, or some sort of mistake.
The list of proscribed ‘luxury items’ would have had to have been produced at some point. And it should have been checked pretty thoroughly after that.
sometimes, not just lacrimal fluid.