Perhaps an invidious comparison, but the Australian Federal budget will be compared to ours on particular for lines associated with public sector pay, and for major projects, and for speed of economic expansion.
Workers have had mobility constraints for a year, and the $$ signals will count in their future skill and degree location plans.
I wouldnt believe much about the Australian budget spin coming from the federal governments spin doctors.
Even on the local levels , a project before last election for 'car parks' at train stations in Melbourne liberal electorates was 're-announced' this time as costs had risen substantially ( or were more realistically calculated), so some stations were dropped and others changed because the land was earmarked for housing!.
Had my first vaccination yesterday, some observations on the system as I experienced it.
I got notified on Monday evening via text and email that I had been booked for Tuesday late afternoon (one woman behind me in the queue had had just two hours notice of her vaccination, that is quite alarming!). The text message invited me to confirm the booking via a link.
First problem – the link required me to "reset" my password (never having logged in before). The password required characters, upper case & I think a special character. When this was done, it took me to a login page where I was prompted for username and password. Only because I am familiar with technology was I able to work out the ID number quoted in the text message must be username. For those who struggle with technology this would be a bit of a barrier, I bet the call centre gets calls about it all the time!
Second problem – At the moment, there are only two vaccination centres in Auckland, one in Mt. Wellington and one in Elliot street in the CBD on "level 4" of a building there. I chose the CDB location because I live near a railway station. However, the vaccination centre has no street signage in Elliot street indicating which entry to use or how to get to level 4. You have to wander around a bit to find where it is. Obviously, parking in the city is a nightmare if you don't have ready access to PT. If you are disabled getting to the vaccination centre would be a real struggle.
Once there, you have a filtering team who visually sight your phone booking to stop random walk ups.
Then you proceed to a second checkpoint where you are given a consent form to fill out which requires your NHI number. How many people know this? I know mine, but only because I have a big brain 🙂 They check your ID and booking, and bizarrely, ask if you know why you got a booking – no one around me had much of a clue on that one, but they manually wrote down the answers anyway. Who knows what for. Also, this second checkpoint makes the whole confirmation of booking rigmarole questionable, if they check you off in the system manually then why not simply offer a system where you can just turn up with your phone booking, they scan a barcode and away you go? Why the double handling? You are then handed a consent form to fill out.
Then you proceed to checkpoint three, where they check you consent form, explain consent AND MANUALLY RECORD AT LEAST YOUR MOBILE NUMBER INTO A LAPTOP FOR THE FOLLOW UP SHOT NOTIFICATION. I asked about this, since they clearly had my number for the booking. I was told that was the booking system, this is for the vaccination system. Now… words defeat me. Is the DHB really running two booking systems in parallel with no intersections & MANUAL data inputs? REALLY? The odds of error in transcribing information go up exponentially – how many thousands of times will mistakes be made when tired and harassed staff enter wrong numbers?
From there, it was smoothly done, as you would expect from the professionals who actually do (rather than administer) health. The whole experience took around 45 minutes.
My over all impression is it is system designed by health bureaucrats who have only ever designed booking systems to act as part of a suite of tools for rationing access to healthcare. It will be made to work by the informed, motivated and middle class. And the current setup, if my experience is any guide, has bugger all chance of scaling up for the mass rollout successfully.
Personally, I would have put the army in charge. hey took the MIQ system off our utterly useless DHBs and made it work. They are the last mission orientated branch of government. They would have simply said "mission: needles in arms. How do we do it quickly and effectively?" And gone on and done it.
Oh and the sooner the DHBs are gone, the better.
PS – I am so grateful the government has kept us safe and given me a free vaccine, Thank you NZ Government!
In a nutshell, they’re aware of the issues, many of which the general public has no inkling of, and have been working hard on it. This is not straightforward, not the least because of every DHB doing its own thing, as always, but there are significant improvements coming soon. Meanwhile, people can be vaccinated and the vaccination schedule is currently tracking as planned, ahead even. On a personal note, I think they’re doing a marvellous job.
"…Dr Bloomfield acknowledged the programme was huge and ambitious, with the aim of nearly 8,000,000 doses of vaccine to be given before the end of the year.
However, he told Checkpoint, "we are ahead of our scheduled delivery at the moment."
"At the moment" means he has a CYA (Cover Your Ass) way out if the whole thing collapses in a welter of hissing steam, twisted track and recriminations in July/August.
It is what it is and they’re making a big effort and cynicism and sarcasm are not going to change that. Please tell me the Lotto numbers for the next draw, thanks.
"at the moment' can also mean just that. He also said 'currently". What we don't know is the question to which he was giving an answer, as the 10 minute radio excerpt started with an introduction by the interviewer and then launched into a statement by the interviewee, Dr Bloomfield, without any preceding question or conversation starter.
Did the conversation start like this, “Dr Bloomfield, so how are things shaping up at the moment?”
'At the moment' was also used in the context of further 'ramp up of the vaccination programme and if used in that context is also a fair description of progress and intentions.
'At the moment' also gives a factual reference as the facts are known in current time whereas in the future is planned and hoped for but still unknown. It does give the idea that currently there is a plan which is even ahead of its projected path.
I'd not be worrying.
If there was no plan, if currently the projections were behind schedule, if Bloomfield had a history of failure or exaggeration, if indeed the facts were not known, then 'at the moment' I might be worried.
Sanctuary you are looking for all the worst case scenarios yet you have been vaccinated but not for stupidity.
Pfizer is under huge pressure to get vaccines to countries that actually need them because of massive death tolls and over run health systems in countries where variants are mutating and may render your vaccination useless.
Entitled spoiled brat. Every country is vying for enough vaccine just look across the ditch. They had the astra geneca vaccine ready to go and started their program it was cancelled due to 2 younger women suffered blood clots.Now Australia won't be starting vaccinating till December.
We are on a War footing with this Pandemic we all have to make sacrifices.
Sanctuary your abuse of Ashley Bloomfield reflects very badly on you.You are deliberately scaremongering .look at how popular Judith Collins is doing what your doing.
"Now Australia won't be starting vaccinating till December.".
What do you mean by this statement? At the moment Australia has carried out about 3.1 million vaccinations, which is a faster rate than we have achieved. That figure was for 17 May.
I was talking to a friend in Sydney yesterday and she had been vaccinated a couple of weeks ago. Where did you get the information you are quoting?
As this is my curret hobby horse, I am keen to know if these (the booking and vaccination systems described by Sanctuary), are designed in-house or sub contracted.
In a similar vein, the ransom ware issue at Waikato DHB. Is this dealt with in-house or will there be a bill to add insult to injury?
My guess is they are bespoke to each DHB, as would be the method of design delivery (that is, in-house or sub-contracted). The system should have been designed and implemented by the MOH as part of a national coordinated public health response, but we all the the MOH is an eviscerated policy shop these and lacks the capacity to do something like this – hence the government health reforms!
I am probably a bit better qualified than most to comment on this system, since it intersects with my professional skills. The system as I described would be a fine one for the flotsam and jetsam that might slip through the cracks and turn up, or as part of the manual backup for disaster recovery or for people without access to phones or email, etc. But it seems to me there is considerable scope for automation that would reduce error and speed up the process. For example, the text message could contain a QR code. Upon sighting your booking at the first check point you simply scan the code which updates the booking system & sends your phone an update text with another QR code. Once you've done the consent form and been vaccinated, a second scan of the second QR code would update the vaccination system. How hard would that be? A couple of days in a design workshop, roll it out now and iteratively improve it based on feedback/experience.
Some DHBs are using Excel spreadsheets for this. The privacy requirements in health add some complexity but as you say not enough to justify the level of faffing around on display now to the wider public.
Is the DHB really running two booking systems in parallel with no intersections & MANUAL data inputs? REALLY?
Welcome to Health IT. The two systems you mentioned are run by different parts of the system – one by your DHB and one by the Ministry vaccination people.
As you say the potential for mistakes as well as wasted effort is huge. Multiply by the 3000 separate IT systems in the Northern region alone.
That’s a great write up. Not particularly surprising to those of us that have to engage with Health regularly, so many systems are broken now by neoliberalism and the Key government doubling down. Add in the stress of the pandemic year.
also concerns about how much simple fix solutions are being patched on top.
this btw is a big part of the horror at the left wing idea that a UBI should remove WINZ and replace disability income with MoH services.
Just to describe my COVID vaccine experience. Had mine last month – both at Burwood Hospital in Christchurch. Online booking system very easy to use, text and email confirmation of appointment. Lots of free parking, easy to find as signposts all around.
Had the jab 4 minutes after arrival, out of the building 25 minutes after (obligatory 20 minute wait in case of reaction). Staff were cheerful and professional.
Repeat jab – just the same.
My only problem: very sore arm for 24 hours! But, at least in Christchurch, the system worked perfectly.
"Personally, I would have put the army in charge…..
They would have simply said "mission: needles in arms. How do we do it quickly and effectively?" And gone on and done it".
Sanctuary
The army is a great idea. They could set up field hospitals in High School playing fields around the country, like they would do for disaster relief, able to get as many people through them as possible, as quickly as possible.
They have the tents, the medics, the experienced admin. for such undertakings, gained in relief missions in the Pacific.
And I am open to the idea that it is not a good sugggestion.
I would have thought a vaccine roll out mission would be less arduous than a disaster relief mission.
As South Auckland was the site of the last cluster, and as it has been deemed a particularly vulnerable area. I would start with an army field hospital erected on the grounds of Papatotoe High School, and keep it open and lit up 24/7 until community saturation is achieved, from there move it on to other South Auckland High Schools. Then start again for the second dose.vaccination.
If nothing else, such field hospitals set up around the motu on High School playing fields plugged into the schools power and lit up with lights at night, open 24/7 with military personal and vehicles, would be a dramatic visual reminder that this is a serious issue and that maybe we should all rock up at the local high school field hospital to get our jab.
This vaccine rollout is a little more than simply giving a few people one or two jabs. The Budget 2021 should have given you some idea of the scale & scope, but let’s put up a few tents with a few uniformed staff with a laptop and we’re done, yes!? If you wish to make a suggestion, please put some effort into it and try make it a good one. If you don’t believe in your own suggestion, why make it in the first place??
Thanks for that description of your experience. It explains a significant cause of the delays is bureaucracy gone mad. I guess it depends on the individual DHBs and it wouldn't surprise me if Auckland is the worst… too many cooks spoiling the broth.
I'm in the 'old age' category which is supposed to begin at the end of this month. What's the bet it doesn't get properly underway before the end of June by which time they will have (hopefully) ironed out the problems.
Yup and after all that myself and a colleague have been sent an email and text the next day saying we missed our appointment. So I called three times to be told firstly that yes I was there and my second appointment is logged in the system, and I will get an email during the week. After that week lapsed and no appointment arrived I called again to be asked was I certain I had attended the first and did a receive a reminder email for it and I need to call back… and on the third call after another two weeks because I was told to, because the person (s) in the first call had no answer for me, I was told to just go in with my card.
So much for the working booking system. I am wondering how many people are going to be out there with just one dose of the vaccine? Quite a few I think and there's absolutely no record of it.
Well it is working for me, I got my second appointment text message promptly yesterday, and I logged into the booking system and confirmed. But in my view this is at least as likely because I am technologically literate and motivated as anything.
1) Maybe those who designed the system attended our schools before we plummeted in international test rankings. 🙃
2) But if there were to be some problem, health specific or otherwise, somewhere, with one person out of hundreds of thousands, media companies would be fighting each other for the best headlines. The scandal, the shock, the disgust, the disdain, the calling for the Minister to resign, the Government to resign, Bloomfield to resign, the DHB to resign.
We're in a scared shitless environment where accountability rules and doing things for 'just in case' reasons is the rule.
National Party embedded journalist, Thomas Coughlan, duly pimps for his masters, painting them as astute and effective political craftspeople, brimming with competence and kindness.
He seems to say it was Chris Bishop who has saved us from Covid-19, and somehow Simeon Brown is the last line of defence between gangs and your children. He claims Nicola Willis and Erica Stanford are showing the government how compassion is really done.
Coughlan even applauds the National Party's energy in asking 20,000 questions of public servants every week as if it's s new thing, rather than wasting simply what it is, wasting precious resources. Remember in 2017 when Bill English said they were going to be the bestest opposition ever? Flooding ministries with redundant questions is what they did then. How did it help anyone?
Only, after all that, at the end of this puff piece, Thomas Coughlan admits that the only way for the National Party to improve its fortunes is to win Lotto in the form of an Orewa speech or finding Jacinda.
To me, equating Orewa with Ardern is a little bit revolting but par for the course for the National Party and its media handlers.
National no mates ,Collins latest comments are that no one is interested in politics now.
Then says Nationals support has gone up 1 1/2% yeah right what ever ,she doesn't understand she has lost 12% support.The fact is the rights over all support has gone down ACT down NZfirst down,JLR Billy TK party collapsed.National picked up less than Labour of these voters.
A very good piece by a Professor of Philosophy who argues that the use of words in a context (i.e. language) can be helpful or unhelpful in/for public debate and dealing with issues.
So the terms ‘racist’ and ‘racism’ come with a lot of baggage and should not be used lightly.
In my view, this critical thought can be applied to many words such as ‘war crime’ and the many ‘-isms’ that are peppered around in mainstream and, above all, social media.
Over priced rubbish emergency accommodation, a father who beats his child to death with his new lover, Winz paying 1300 a week for a room temporarily but not 350 a week for 6 month, Child services, Social Workers, etc all absent.
One dead child.
Maybe the only department that should suffer teh love of the Labour Party need for reconstruction and reshuffling is not the Health Department (try funding that one for a while and see if it changes anything) but Winz. Just close that inhuman hell hole down, fire anyone who work there – frankly they made enough money of pure misery and start from scratch and maybe find people who are not already dead inside by the daily onslaught of manmade misery.
For a long time I have been concerned about the death of children and the involvement government agencies have with the family.
Housing history is an indicator of how a parent is coping. Living in emergency housing is stressful and it is unsuitable for a struggling parent.
Work and Income need to take some responsibility as Work and Income put the child into emergency accommodation. Work and Income are not social workers BUT they are dealing with complex situations where there are vulnerable children who have a stressed parent/s.
The point is that once these people are in this type of accommodation it seems there is no one ready for them. Not Winz, not Child Youth Services, not social worker, not anything nothing nada. And it is always the weakest that pay.
I do not know how much more serious it can get than a 5 year old boy being murdered. The signs were there that the little boy was being maltreated. He was exposed to arguing, being left on his own, controlling signs from the father, a woman who Winz may not have allowed to be there. Meticulous follow through was not done by MSD.
The Privacy Act is part of the problem when it came to the welfare of the child.
Would it help to tie the child to both the parents Winz or IRD number (a suffix) and MSD could use it when a complaint was taken?
no, what would help is getting people into proper accomodation for at least a year up to two, so that they can sort their mental issues, employment issues, etc and that the kids can go to a preschool or a school where hopefully such issues would be picked up.
instead they got a room, for 1300 a week and a wet handshake. Never mind the dead kid.
Proper affordable and stable accommodation is the answer. It is the children who are falling through the gaps.
A person has a suffix on their bank account to manage their finances. A vulnerable child is being harmed psychologically, emotionally and physically and the state are not keeping track of the child when the state are aware of either or both parents being erratic or an assessment is not asking the right questions.
The fact that "neither the police nor the Social Development Ministry (MSD) is actively monitoring incidents of crime, violence or family harm in this type of housing, but do encourage people to come forward if they feel at risk.".. would suggest 'We' ,as a society, and a people obsessed with gathering and fussing over statistics around the "Property Ladder" and the "Economy" and so called "Productivity" are a long way from caring.
If its not measured does it even exist?
..oh, and I forgot ..we even measure "Well-Being". ffs.
Unfortunately "Community' is not such a strong concept these days with most renters moving basically every year, even home owners don't hang around long, and for those in areas full of emergency housing it becomes next level; meantime with the online world taking centre stage people no longer interact with others be it at the bank or the library or the supermarket; no night classes encouraging people of different socio economic groups to meet as equals, … just hundreds of facebook friends when we don't even know our neighbor.
I have a pet theory…back when I was small, cars broke down and overheated alot..and people would always help, because there was that sense that you never knew when you might need help yourself …..but these days ..cars are reliable…people all have cellphones..so its everyman for himself…self reliant self contained (and slightly paranoid) units…and that mentality permeates society..
Though in this instance it seems that the point of community intervention had already been passed. There was clearly no way for individuals to offer the smallest degree of help to that poor child without creating an even more fraught situation…meantime the people we pay to protect children seemed to be actively ignoring the situation.
On top of systematic failures no one notified oranga tamariki about the disfunction happening even though several people new it was happening. The owner presented a knife in another incident.
This sort of behaviour is widespread govt agencies don't have the capabilities on any level to deal with these situations to able to provide a safe upbringing for disadvantaged children.
Taxes need to go up to get enough money to provide housing to train specialist caregivers
It's always an band aid to fix a gaping wound.
No one wants to work in child protection because the wages are crap the work load is 3 times the safe amount to prevent worker burn out and good outcomes,
we can either raise taxes on those that can afford it.
we can stop giving money to those that don't need it (cough Bezos, cough Americas Cup etc) and use these few dollars as far as we can.
*we can do nothing, and every other week we find another dead child, or handicapped child (the one little urchin that i know here in Rotorua was beaten into deafness by her father) and bury them as the little unwanted babies they ended up. and every time we do this we short change our society of a potential genius that may would have been responsible for a cancer cure, or something. But hey, right. Money?
It was a national government that created the emergency/transitional housing disaster, but I agree Labour has taken the same unplanned and haphazzard approach to dealing with homelessness. It started when Paula Bennett was the minister responding to the swathes of people sleeping in cars by placing people in motels. The criticisms then started flowing but every response from this point on was simply to deal with those criticisms without considering what those responses were doing to families.
In one sense the problem has come full circle. For example, for many people sleeping in vehicle becomes the only option after other attempts to be somewhere have failed, such as sharing with family or kipping down in a garage. The stresses of overcrowding and not having anywhere to be – a place that a person can call a home, that is secure, warm, gives an opportunity to be alone within etc, are often what's experienced before taking to the streets or sleeping in vehicles.
Then the government's policies around emergency abd tranistional housing kick in which puts the person or family back into circumstances not dissimilar to the situation that created the need for government housing assistance in the first place.
The government needs to wake up and realise that a lot of emergency housing situations, particularly what's called transitional housing, resemble conditions that people need to escape, and are not better than where someone's come from.
You know what it is? A national disgrace, and both parties are at fault for doing nothing much then applying little strips of band aid onto gushing wounds. And society pays the price, and little kids.
The whole emergency/transitional housing "initiative" has been a complete failure. This should'd be surprising because every single step in that process has been completely unplanned and designed solely to avoid criticism and embarrament around the provious step. This all started with the public embarrassment the national government faced over families sleeping in vehicles. Their response: put people into motels at up $2k a week and make the person or family responsible for paying it back. Things went quickly downhill from there.
The message to government, now, should be that their response to homelessness is for many worse than what the response was meant to address.
I know, i have been yelling about this for a while. And while National charged the cost of it to the hapless recipients of this charity, the Labour government is taxing 25% of ones benefit to pay for this largesse. Its fucked up beyond believe, and for those that need help, well, i guess there is none.
Following on from my question the other day about why the CDC was telling people that once they’re fully vaccinated their life can go back to normal.
Yankees confirm 8th positive diagnosis of #covid19 this week, in a player who was fully vaccinated and previously had Covid during the offseason. Yankees: "All of the positives are breakthrough positives, occurring with individuals who were fully vaccinated." (h/t @JGolden5)
ITs testing time now. They have a large part of their population vaccinated and now they need the proof that it works as intended. The last final 'test phase' so to speak. I am a bit cynic that way.
Again, there are political reasons, and for what its worth, Biden on his last visit to a Ford Plant wore a Mask. Go figure.
Important parts of the process are being missed and will be missed until vaccination efficacy is known when it comes to prevention, transmission and fatalities.
What a great idea, why haven't people thought of this before?
How about this; Instead of wage freezes to pay for the covid recovery and fix the housing crisis, – we tax the rich more.
Yeah – I know the naysayers, will say that the rich people will just leave the country.
Really?
Try and find a low tax country that has a neo-lib economy with lax labour and health laws that isn't damaged by covid-19?
To remind them how fortunate they are to be in this country, the government could put a massive exit tax on rich emigres leaving the country. 'We don't care if you leave, just not with all your unearned income.'
If wealthy millionaires are that important to the country’s economy, ,Maybe the organisation of Patriotic Millionaires could be encouraged to come here to replace them?
But probably not, as they are more likely to be loyalto their country that let them become rich
Why can't tenants just grow some veggies to make ends meet, or poor people? Well because the owner can just rip up your award winning veggie garden while you are away without even having to advise one. Cause complaints, and well other bannable words. But then apologizing seems easier to be upfront and work with the Lady and her award winning veggie patch.
Pearce said ŌCHT applied to the council for funding to do the work, but the application process took time and was unsuccessful.
On April 18, the maintenance team advised the tenancy team the work would start in May 2021, but no-one told Wang.
“We should have told our tenant. We didn’t, and for that we are very sorry, and we unreservedly apologise.”
Pearce said ŌCHT was reviewing its approach to communicating with tenants about exterior works.
Once the grass is sowed, Wang will be left with a strip of dirt one metre out from the fence line to grow her vegetables in.
Neighbour Mark Long felt she had been treated unfairly.
He has never complained about the vegetable garden, but was aware that others had.
“I don’t see the reasoning behind it, but I’m not the authority,” he said.
Long was not aware if growing crops was outside the terms of their tenancy.
“The lady is very talented in the garden,” he said. “It’s wrong, she’s lived here 10 years.”
It would be nice if someone could donate portable garden beds. To deprive an 80 year old of her hobby is mean spirited. The small area not destroyed could be used to raise the plants to go into the portable garden beds.
I would like this case go to the Tenancy Tribunal. At one point she had permission from her landlord. Had a date been given that the garden was going to be ruined the outcome would have ensured that plants would have been harvested.
So what can and can't a shared area be used for?
Has it got to the point where everyone needs to have their backyard zoned?
"She received a letter in December 2019 from ŌCHT saying it planned to turn the garden into grass in the “next short while”. It let her keep one area until after the vegetables had been harvested, and"would turn that area into grass in April/May 2020, the letter said."
It seemed as there was a separate communication for her to replant because of delays, which she did but the original plan happened anyway.
This is the reality of renting in NZ – be you never so reasonable, someone can come in and wreck all your work and then use boss logic to "stand by the decision". Shame the lady can't run them through the courts.
it just shows the reality of what a 'tenant' can do or not. And hopefully it shuts those downs that always come up with, but the poor surely they can grow veggies like i do in my own garden. Right right?
Absolutely, Sabine. The ability to grow one's own veges demands some basic things. First, time as a tenant long enough to complete a cycle of ground preparation, seed planting, through to harvest. Time as a tenant long enough to consider it worthwhile to invest time and energy into 'building up the soil' with compost bins, soil enhancing crops to be dug in. It requires money for seed, fertiliser even if only lime, tools, watering gear. It requires good neighbours not to trample or steal crops. It requires some security of tenure.
This is all why community gardens and plots are so important. I lease one with a mate. Great craic as we work together, food enough to feed ourselves and give a third away, soil build up from couch infested grass cover to highly enriched ground that bears heavily, water laid on, security against theft and security against landlords ending tenancies or having to move from home.
My understanding of that was that another 'tenant(s)' complaining about access to a washing line.
My heart broke reading that story this morning.
Where I work unreasonable complaints from a small minority seem to carry inordinate weight. I heard a quote from Joseph Needham that authorities like OCHT could use for complaining NIMBYs- 'The dogs may bark the caravan moves on.'
A shortage of beds has forced 41 overnight surgeries to be cancelled at Christchurch Hospital.
The Canterbury District Health Board has confirmed that the pre-booked surgeries had to be rescheduled last week.
Acting executive director, planning, funding and decision support Ralph La Salle said the hospital was swamped with surgeries that did not require an overnight stay.
New York lawyer Steven Donziger represented indigenous people in Ecuador in a landmark case that won them a massive judgment against Chevron Texaco in 2011. Chevron was found responsible for decades of oil pollution in the Amazon.
However, with billions of dollars at their disposal and refusing to accept the verdict, Chevron has worked to have Donziger disbarred, his bank accounts frozen, a lien put on his apartment, exorbitant fines charged to him, and have him prohibited from earning money. As of August 6, 2019, based on criminal contempt charges, a court has seized his passport and put him on house arrest.
This frightening travesty of justice is happening only blocks away from the headquarters of the New York Times, which, as he mentions bitterly in this interview, has steadfastly ignored this case….
Always miss the obvious location , the industrial zone alongside the Steel Mill on the Waiuku tidal river. Has existing rail link and electric grid connections. Road connections are the best of all other options. Depths of channels even at low tide – from marine charts- show 12-14 m almost as far as Clarkes beach . The depth at the heads is 25-40m plus There is the shallow stretch a few km offshore but thats only for 2.5-3km between 12m depths. Most ports including Waitemata have dredged channels leading out to open ocean. Rotterdam thought of as a major deep water port has a dredged channel into North Sea of about 20km for large containerships and for larger oil and bulk carriers it extends to 80km off the coast to 20m plus depth
From a guy who can't manage a water company, or a transport entity, and your Council finances are chaotic, why would you think you can bully the Ports board any more effectively than you've failed to do over the last year?
What strange comments, totally devoid of meaning or relevance .
The weather has caused the shortage in dam storage, but its beside the point as the lowest levels reached are still in the 40% range. Its not a savings bank which is meant to be over 70% at all days , and last 2 years the rainy days didnt come- driest in over a century
The Council owns the shares for the Port company, theres is no bullying involved when you tell them to shape up.
The Waitemata will need a fair bit of work if it is to handle boats of any size – neither the channel nor the beacons are up to much. Last time we used it (in the dark on a little 200t trawler) we were out on the whaleback looking for piles with torches while the skipper was crouched over the sounder watching the water under his keel. He'd've liked a whole lot more.
Might be issues with weather too – the east coast ports don't present the same issues if there's a bit of a blow.
Slight issue that a bar builds up constantly. Not to mention the normal swell in the entrance. And that dredging will need to be constant, and will be closed due to weather, often.
.
The obvious location is around Orere point.
Plenty of water within a mile of the shore. Sheltered and close to transport links, major exporters and importers, and other shipping users..
However we will lose our “hubbing” to OZ, while everyone advocates for their own unsuitable and expensive option.
Of course the Manukau entrance requires dredging along with the final part of the channel to Glenbrook.
As Ive pointed out dredging for their access channels is what most ports have. Dutch have super dredgers 30K to 60k size can handle the soft muds and sands easily.
The design of the entrance channel can be shaped underwater to allow the very strong tidal flow to help keep the depth, which you probably would make maybe 25m at low tide , much deeper than necessary
Also the size of container ship we are talking about means the wave patterns are not of concern. Even Wellington port has much worse , which closes the entrance a handful of times per year.
Orere has no transport links, requires invasive reclamations in a sensitive area. Cant compare to the industrial zone and transport/power links already at Glenbrook
Saves a day travel time on a voyage to Sydney or Melbourne which is what giant container ships like
Average household income in Auckland is higher than the national average -2020- of $107,000. It wont display the detail but would be $125k per household?
Households pay rent, very rarely would individuals be able to afford it
Households pay rent, of course if Mum, dad, and the kids all work and contribute to that. Mind, i think putting under 13th to work might not be quite legal, and some women don’t work for a while once they have kids. Details. Details.
107.000 is that before or after tax? Never mind, taxable amount would be 26.230 so here you are left with 81.000 grand after tax. Mind, i have lived for over two decades in Auckland and the only people that earned that amount did not rent, they paid mortgages. But details, details. 🙂
31.200 annual rent (if no extra increases 600 * 52 weeks) and you are left with 49.800.
Now if you have a stay at home mum, and three kids, that is not that grand?
Now if you are on a median income in AKL so around 48.000 grand per year, you have 40.580 left after paying tax, then minus rent you will have 781 NZD per month for your 'household', if Mum does not work.
And how lovely of you to ignore households that are made up of single parents, single grandparents, carers of people with disabilities etc who are often the only earner and the only payer.
But i guess that is not you?
And i guess you heard of the Accommodation benefits? That little thing you and i finance to help individuals pay these extortion rents? You did hear about them?
Well said Sabine. FFS, rents are obscene, pure and simple.
A friend of mine noticed a squatter on his property (old racing ground, half covered in bush, plenty of room to hide), in an old caravan. He's well away from my mates house, and no bother so mate is letting him stay. But now it's something we're both noticing more & more, caravans & vans with ppl living in them. And this is in Dunedin, there's gotta be a tipping point surely?
On Tuesday the students tucked into a bacon, egg and kumara rosti burger, apple crisps, a mandarin, with 11-year-olds Lara Smith and Liam Hooker praising the meal.
“It's really good,” Lara said, “The best one yet.”
Of course in Japan schools have provided free lunch meals for their pupils, since forever.
Japanese free school lunches are so good, there are special school themed restaurants catering to paying adults who want to recapture their school meal memories.
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 19 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
Reacting to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s refusal to rule out introducing new taxes at the budget, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “Today’s refusal to rule out new taxes suggests the Government is nothing more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne Aila Images/Shutterstock Aged-care workers will receive a significant pay increase after the Fair Work Commission ruled they ...
He’s bringing ‘Sophie’ back, yeah. Goodshirt’s ‘Sophie’ music video is one of the most instantly recognisable New Zealand music videos of all time. Featuring a woman listening to the song on headphones while her entire house is burgled behind her, the video won the New Zealand music award for Best ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University A year ago, the AUKUS agreement was formally announced between Australian and UK Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden. The agreement mapped out the “optimal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Helwig, Associate Professor, Electro-Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern Queensland SmartS/Shutterstock Steam locomotives clattering along railway tracks. Paddle steamers churning down the Murray. Dreadnought battleships powered by steam engines. Many of us think the age of steam has ended. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carrie Leonetti, Associate Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Victims who experience family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand are treated differently, depending on which part of the justice system they turn to for help. But a new member’s bill ...
Perhaps an invidious comparison, but the Australian Federal budget will be compared to ours on particular for lines associated with public sector pay, and for major projects, and for speed of economic expansion.
Workers have had mobility constraints for a year, and the $$ signals will count in their future skill and degree location plans.
I wouldnt believe much about the Australian budget spin coming from the federal governments spin doctors.
Even on the local levels , a project before last election for 'car parks' at train stations in Melbourne liberal electorates was 're-announced' this time as costs had risen substantially ( or were more realistically calculated), so some stations were dropped and others changed because the land was earmarked for housing!.
The Defence budget had all sort of headlines about extra spending, but the Australian Strategic Policy Institute , who keep track of such things, said the amounts were only a miniscule increase above last years 2.04% GDP to 2.09%
This is a good little piece on why an elected Wellington Councillor set against Maori wards changed his mind:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-government/125137817/city-councillor-why-i-changed-my-mind-about-mori-representation
As of last night, Napier Council has yet again punted the idea down the road.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/hawkes-bay/125166968/hastings-district-council-vote-to-establish-mori-wards-in-2022
Whereas Hastings, just 15kms away, yesterday voted in favour of Maori wards:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/hawkes-bay/125166968/hastings-district-council-vote-to-establish-mori-wards-in-2022
Great to see Mahuta's legislative changes having a real effect so fast.
Hastings may be just down the road from Napier, but Hastings District covers all of Hawke's Bay proper and Napier is only the urban enclave .
Had my first vaccination yesterday, some observations on the system as I experienced it.
I got notified on Monday evening via text and email that I had been booked for Tuesday late afternoon (one woman behind me in the queue had had just two hours notice of her vaccination, that is quite alarming!). The text message invited me to confirm the booking via a link.
First problem – the link required me to "reset" my password (never having logged in before). The password required characters, upper case & I think a special character. When this was done, it took me to a login page where I was prompted for username and password. Only because I am familiar with technology was I able to work out the ID number quoted in the text message must be username. For those who struggle with technology this would be a bit of a barrier, I bet the call centre gets calls about it all the time!
Second problem – At the moment, there are only two vaccination centres in Auckland, one in Mt. Wellington and one in Elliot street in the CBD on "level 4" of a building there. I chose the CDB location because I live near a railway station. However, the vaccination centre has no street signage in Elliot street indicating which entry to use or how to get to level 4. You have to wander around a bit to find where it is. Obviously, parking in the city is a nightmare if you don't have ready access to PT. If you are disabled getting to the vaccination centre would be a real struggle.
Once there, you have a filtering team who visually sight your phone booking to stop random walk ups.
Then you proceed to a second checkpoint where you are given a consent form to fill out which requires your NHI number. How many people know this? I know mine, but only because I have a big brain 🙂 They check your ID and booking, and bizarrely, ask if you know why you got a booking – no one around me had much of a clue on that one, but they manually wrote down the answers anyway. Who knows what for. Also, this second checkpoint makes the whole confirmation of booking rigmarole questionable, if they check you off in the system manually then why not simply offer a system where you can just turn up with your phone booking, they scan a barcode and away you go? Why the double handling? You are then handed a consent form to fill out.
Then you proceed to checkpoint three, where they check you consent form, explain consent AND MANUALLY RECORD AT LEAST YOUR MOBILE NUMBER INTO A LAPTOP FOR THE FOLLOW UP SHOT NOTIFICATION. I asked about this, since they clearly had my number for the booking. I was told that was the booking system, this is for the vaccination system. Now… words defeat me. Is the DHB really running two booking systems in parallel with no intersections & MANUAL data inputs? REALLY? The odds of error in transcribing information go up exponentially – how many thousands of times will mistakes be made when tired and harassed staff enter wrong numbers?
From there, it was smoothly done, as you would expect from the professionals who actually do (rather than administer) health. The whole experience took around 45 minutes.
My over all impression is it is system designed by health bureaucrats who have only ever designed booking systems to act as part of a suite of tools for rationing access to healthcare. It will be made to work by the informed, motivated and middle class. And the current setup, if my experience is any guide, has bugger all chance of scaling up for the mass rollout successfully.
Personally, I would have put the army in charge. hey took the MIQ system off our utterly useless DHBs and made it work. They are the last mission orientated branch of government. They would have simply said "mission: needles in arms. How do we do it quickly and effectively?" And gone on and done it.
Oh and the sooner the DHBs are gone, the better.
PS – I am so grateful the government has kept us safe and given me a free vaccine, Thank you NZ Government!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018795974/dr-ashley-bloomfield-responds-to-critical-report-on-covid-19-vaccine-rollout
You should add commentary if you are going to put a link up.
Fair enough.
In a nutshell, they’re aware of the issues, many of which the general public has no inkling of, and have been working hard on it. This is not straightforward, not the least because of every DHB doing its own thing, as always, but there are significant improvements coming soon. Meanwhile, people can be vaccinated and the vaccination schedule is currently tracking as planned, ahead even. On a personal note, I think they’re doing a marvellous job.
A national booking system will be handy. Who knew that integrating separate components would make things harder and slower to deliver..
Thank you.
Bloomfield’s comment has the worrying out –
"…Dr Bloomfield acknowledged the programme was huge and ambitious, with the aim of nearly 8,000,000 doses of vaccine to be given before the end of the year.
However, he told Checkpoint, "we are ahead of our scheduled delivery at the moment."
"At the moment" means he has a CYA (Cover Your Ass) way out if the whole thing collapses in a welter of hissing steam, twisted track and recriminations in July/August.
It is what it is and they’re making a big effort and cynicism and sarcasm are not going to change that. Please tell me the Lotto numbers for the next draw, thanks.
"at the moment' can also mean just that. He also said 'currently". What we don't know is the question to which he was giving an answer, as the 10 minute radio excerpt started with an introduction by the interviewer and then launched into a statement by the interviewee, Dr Bloomfield, without any preceding question or conversation starter.
Did the conversation start like this, “Dr Bloomfield, so how are things shaping up at the moment?”
'At the moment' was also used in the context of further 'ramp up of the vaccination programme and if used in that context is also a fair description of progress and intentions.
'At the moment' also gives a factual reference as the facts are known in current time whereas in the future is planned and hoped for but still unknown. It does give the idea that currently there is a plan which is even ahead of its projected path.
I'd not be worrying.
If there was no plan, if currently the projections were behind schedule, if Bloomfield had a history of failure or exaggeration, if indeed the facts were not known, then 'at the moment' I might be worried.
Sanctuary you are looking for all the worst case scenarios yet you have been vaccinated but not for stupidity.
Pfizer is under huge pressure to get vaccines to countries that actually need them because of massive death tolls and over run health systems in countries where variants are mutating and may render your vaccination useless.
Entitled spoiled brat. Every country is vying for enough vaccine just look across the ditch. They had the astra geneca vaccine ready to go and started their program it was cancelled due to 2 younger women suffered blood clots.Now Australia won't be starting vaccinating till December.
We are on a War footing with this Pandemic we all have to make sacrifices.
Sanctuary your abuse of Ashley Bloomfield reflects very badly on you.You are deliberately scaremongering .look at how popular Judith Collins is doing what your doing.
Ummmm… OK.
No they were allpractical logistical concerns.
"Now Australia won't be starting vaccinating till December.".
What do you mean by this statement? At the moment Australia has carried out about 3.1 million vaccinations, which is a faster rate than we have achieved. That figure was for 17 May.
I was talking to a friend in Sydney yesterday and she had been vaccinated a couple of weeks ago. Where did you get the information you are quoting?
As this is my curret hobby horse, I am keen to know if these (the booking and vaccination systems described by Sanctuary), are designed in-house or sub contracted.
In a similar vein, the ransom ware issue at Waikato DHB. Is this dealt with in-house or will there be a bill to add insult to injury?
My guess is they are bespoke to each DHB, as would be the method of design delivery (that is, in-house or sub-contracted). The system should have been designed and implemented by the MOH as part of a national coordinated public health response, but we all the the MOH is an eviscerated policy shop these and lacks the capacity to do something like this – hence the government health reforms!
I am probably a bit better qualified than most to comment on this system, since it intersects with my professional skills. The system as I described would be a fine one for the flotsam and jetsam that might slip through the cracks and turn up, or as part of the manual backup for disaster recovery or for people without access to phones or email, etc. But it seems to me there is considerable scope for automation that would reduce error and speed up the process. For example, the text message could contain a QR code. Upon sighting your booking at the first check point you simply scan the code which updates the booking system & sends your phone an update text with another QR code. Once you've done the consent form and been vaccinated, a second scan of the second QR code would update the vaccination system. How hard would that be? A couple of days in a design workshop, roll it out now and iteratively improve it based on feedback/experience.
Some DHBs are using Excel spreadsheets for this. The privacy requirements in health add some complexity but as you say not enough to justify the level of faffing around on display now to the wider public.
Welcome to Health IT. The two systems you mentioned are run by different parts of the system – one by your DHB and one by the Ministry vaccination people.
As you say the potential for mistakes as well as wasted effort is huge. Multiply by the 3000 separate IT systems in the Northern region alone.
That’s a great write up. Not particularly surprising to those of us that have to engage with Health regularly, so many systems are broken now by neoliberalism and the Key government doubling down. Add in the stress of the pandemic year.
also concerns about how much simple fix solutions are being patched on top.
this btw is a big part of the horror at the left wing idea that a UBI should remove WINZ and replace disability income with MoH services.
My Wife has had both shots now no problems what so ever other than a sore bruise from the intra muscular jab.
Given the breakdown in Waikato DHB IT system I am glad they are keeping hard copy.
No doubt other questions will be for statistical reasons.
Hi – your experience sounds like a hassle.
Just to describe my COVID vaccine experience. Had mine last month – both at Burwood Hospital in Christchurch. Online booking system very easy to use, text and email confirmation of appointment. Lots of free parking, easy to find as signposts all around.
Had the jab 4 minutes after arrival, out of the building 25 minutes after (obligatory 20 minute wait in case of reaction). Staff were cheerful and professional.
Repeat jab – just the same.
My only problem: very sore arm for 24 hours! But, at least in Christchurch, the system worked perfectly.
The army is a great idea. They could set up field hospitals in High School playing fields around the country, like they would do for disaster relief, able to get as many people through them as possible, as quickly as possible.
They have the tents, the medics, the experienced admin. for such undertakings, gained in relief missions in the Pacific.
Let's do this.
The mission: Herd Immunity post haste.
Operation: Kiwi Freedom
The army would still need systems for tracking and inviting people.
I wouldn't think this would be problem.
NZDF admin. armed with field laptops have performed admirably in co-ordinating disaster relief operations in much more arduous situations.
Disaster relief is not the same as coordinating vaccination for millions of people. But keep believing whatever you want to.
It is not what I believe, it is a suggestion.
And I am open to the idea that it is not a good sugggestion.
I would have thought a vaccine roll out mission would be less arduous than a disaster relief mission.
As South Auckland was the site of the last cluster, and as it has been deemed a particularly vulnerable area. I would start with an army field hospital erected on the grounds of Papatotoe High School, and keep it open and lit up 24/7 until community saturation is achieved, from there move it on to other South Auckland High Schools. Then start again for the second dose.vaccination.
If nothing else, such field hospitals set up around the motu on High School playing fields plugged into the schools power and lit up with lights at night, open 24/7 with military personal and vehicles, would be a dramatic visual reminder that this is a serious issue and that maybe we should all rock up at the local high school field hospital to get our jab.
This vaccine rollout is a little more than simply giving a few people one or two jabs. The Budget 2021 should have given you some idea of the scale & scope, but let’s put up a few tents with a few uniformed staff with a laptop and we’re done, yes!? If you wish to make a suggestion, please put some effort into it and try make it a good one. If you don’t believe in your own suggestion, why make it in the first place??
Sanctuary @ 3.
Thanks for that description of your experience. It explains a significant cause of the delays is bureaucracy gone mad. I guess it depends on the individual DHBs and it wouldn't surprise me if Auckland is the worst… too many cooks spoiling the broth.
I'm in the 'old age' category which is supposed to begin at the end of this month. What's the bet it doesn't get properly underway before the end of June by which time they will have (hopefully) ironed out the problems.
Yup and after all that myself and a colleague have been sent an email and text the next day saying we missed our appointment. So I called three times to be told firstly that yes I was there and my second appointment is logged in the system, and I will get an email during the week. After that week lapsed and no appointment arrived I called again to be asked was I certain I had attended the first and did a receive a reminder email for it and I need to call back… and on the third call after another two weeks because I was told to, because the person (s) in the first call had no answer for me, I was told to just go in with my card.
So much for the working booking system. I am wondering how many people are going to be out there with just one dose of the vaccine? Quite a few I think and there's absolutely no record of it.
Well it is working for me, I got my second appointment text message promptly yesterday, and I logged into the booking system and confirmed. But in my view this is at least as likely because I am technologically literate and motivated as anything.
1) Maybe those who designed the system attended our schools before we plummeted in international test rankings. 🙃
2) But if there were to be some problem, health specific or otherwise, somewhere, with one person out of hundreds of thousands, media companies would be fighting each other for the best headlines. The scandal, the shock, the disgust, the disdain, the calling for the Minister to resign, the Government to resign, Bloomfield to resign, the DHB to resign.
We're in a scared shitless environment where accountability rules and doing things for 'just in case' reasons is the rule.
National Party embedded journalist, Thomas Coughlan, duly pimps for his masters, painting them as astute and effective political craftspeople, brimming with competence and kindness.
He seems to say it was Chris Bishop who has saved us from Covid-19, and somehow Simeon Brown is the last line of defence between gangs and your children. He claims Nicola Willis and Erica Stanford are showing the government how compassion is really done.
Coughlan even applauds the National Party's energy in asking 20,000 questions of public servants every week as if it's s new thing, rather than wasting simply what it is, wasting precious resources. Remember in 2017 when Bill English said they were going to be the bestest opposition ever? Flooding ministries with redundant questions is what they did then. How did it help anyone?
Only, after all that, at the end of this puff piece, Thomas Coughlan admits that the only way for the National Party to improve its fortunes is to win Lotto in the form of an Orewa speech or finding Jacinda.
To me, equating Orewa with Ardern is a little bit revolting but par for the course for the National Party and its media handlers.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300310699/live-judith-collins-on-the-state-of-the-national-party
National no mates ,Collins latest comments are that no one is interested in politics now.
Then says Nationals support has gone up 1 1/2% yeah right what ever ,she doesn't understand she has lost 12% support.The fact is the rights over all support has gone down ACT down NZfirst down,JLR Billy TK party collapsed.National picked up less than Labour of these voters.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/take-care-with-the-term-racist
A very good piece by a Professor of Philosophy who argues that the use of words in a context (i.e. language) can be helpful or unhelpful in/for public debate and dealing with issues.
In my view, this critical thought can be applied to many words such as ‘war crime’ and the many ‘-isms’ that are peppered around in mainstream and, above all, social media.
NZ at its finest.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/125098964/the-state-paid-1300-a-week-for-a-room-in-emergency-housing-where-a-boy-was-murdered-but-what-did-it-do-to-keep-him-safe
Over priced rubbish emergency accommodation, a father who beats his child to death with his new lover, Winz paying 1300 a week for a room temporarily but not 350 a week for 6 month, Child services, Social Workers, etc all absent.
One dead child.
Maybe the only department that should suffer teh love of the Labour Party need for reconstruction and reshuffling is not the Health Department (try funding that one for a while and see if it changes anything) but Winz. Just close that inhuman hell hole down, fire anyone who work there – frankly they made enough money of pure misery and start from scratch and maybe find people who are not already dead inside by the daily onslaught of manmade misery.
Just another dead child.
Do we care?
For a long time I have been concerned about the death of children and the involvement government agencies have with the family.
Housing history is an indicator of how a parent is coping. Living in emergency housing is stressful and it is unsuitable for a struggling parent.
Work and Income need to take some responsibility as Work and Income put the child into emergency accommodation. Work and Income are not social workers BUT they are dealing with complex situations where there are vulnerable children who have a stressed parent/s.
The point is that once these people are in this type of accommodation it seems there is no one ready for them. Not Winz, not Child Youth Services, not social worker, not anything nothing nada. And it is always the weakest that pay.
I do not know how much more serious it can get than a 5 year old boy being murdered. The signs were there that the little boy was being maltreated. He was exposed to arguing, being left on his own, controlling signs from the father, a woman who Winz may not have allowed to be there. Meticulous follow through was not done by MSD.
The Privacy Act is part of the problem when it came to the welfare of the child.
Would it help to tie the child to both the parents Winz or IRD number (a suffix) and MSD could use it when a complaint was taken?
no, what would help is getting people into proper accomodation for at least a year up to two, so that they can sort their mental issues, employment issues, etc and that the kids can go to a preschool or a school where hopefully such issues would be picked up.
instead they got a room, for 1300 a week and a wet handshake. Never mind the dead kid.
Proper affordable and stable accommodation is the answer. It is the children who are falling through the gaps.
A person has a suffix on their bank account to manage their finances. A vulnerable child is being harmed psychologically, emotionally and physically and the state are not keeping track of the child when the state are aware of either or both parents being erratic or an assessment is not asking the right questions.
The fact that "neither the police nor the Social Development Ministry (MSD) is actively monitoring incidents of crime, violence or family harm in this type of housing, but do encourage people to come forward if they feel at risk.".. would suggest 'We' ,as a society, and a people obsessed with gathering and fussing over statistics around the "Property Ladder" and the "Economy" and so called "Productivity" are a long way from caring.
If its not measured does it even exist?
..oh, and I forgot ..we even measure "Well-Being". ffs.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/101066981/nz-government-to-lead-world-in-measuring-success-with-wellbeing-measures
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/police-msd-collecting-no-data-on-crime-at-emergency-housing/A65IS67WBGZK4IF5RH4VCXNYYE/
Just not good enough that stats are not being kept.
The well being of children is also the responsibility of the community to intervene anonymously so the child’s care can be checked out.
Ideally …yes ..people should intervene.
Unfortunately "Community' is not such a strong concept these days with most renters moving basically every year, even home owners don't hang around long, and for those in areas full of emergency housing it becomes next level; meantime with the online world taking centre stage people no longer interact with others be it at the bank or the library or the supermarket; no night classes encouraging people of different socio economic groups to meet as equals, … just hundreds of facebook friends when we don't even know our neighbor.
I have a pet theory…back when I was small, cars broke down and overheated alot..and people would always help, because there was that sense that you never knew when you might need help yourself …..but these days ..cars are reliable…people all have cellphones..so its everyman for himself…self reliant self contained (and slightly paranoid) units…and that mentality permeates society..
Though in this instance it seems that the point of community intervention had already been passed. There was clearly no way for individuals to offer the smallest degree of help to that poor child without creating an even more fraught situation…meantime the people we pay to protect children seemed to be actively ignoring the situation.
On top of systematic failures no one notified oranga tamariki about the disfunction happening even though several people new it was happening. The owner presented a knife in another incident.
This sort of behaviour is widespread govt agencies don't have the capabilities on any level to deal with these situations to able to provide a safe upbringing for disadvantaged children.
Taxes need to go up to get enough money to provide housing to train specialist caregivers
It's always an band aid to fix a gaping wound.
No one wants to work in child protection because the wages are crap the work load is 3 times the safe amount to prevent worker burn out and good outcomes,
*we can do nothing, and every other week we find another dead child, or handicapped child (the one little urchin that i know here in Rotorua was beaten into deafness by her father) and bury them as the little unwanted babies they ended up. and every time we do this we short change our society of a potential genius that may would have been responsible for a cancer cure, or something. But hey, right. Money?
It was a national government that created the emergency/transitional housing disaster, but I agree Labour has taken the same unplanned and haphazzard approach to dealing with homelessness. It started when Paula Bennett was the minister responding to the swathes of people sleeping in cars by placing people in motels. The criticisms then started flowing but every response from this point on was simply to deal with those criticisms without considering what those responses were doing to families.
In one sense the problem has come full circle. For example, for many people sleeping in vehicle becomes the only option after other attempts to be somewhere have failed, such as sharing with family or kipping down in a garage. The stresses of overcrowding and not having anywhere to be – a place that a person can call a home, that is secure, warm, gives an opportunity to be alone within etc, are often what's experienced before taking to the streets or sleeping in vehicles.
Then the government's policies around emergency abd tranistional housing kick in which puts the person or family back into circumstances not dissimilar to the situation that created the need for government housing assistance in the first place.
The government needs to wake up and realise that a lot of emergency housing situations, particularly what's called transitional housing, resemble conditions that people need to escape, and are not better than where someone's come from.
This problem is government made and bipartisan .
You know what it is? A national disgrace, and both parties are at fault for doing nothing much then applying little strips of band aid onto gushing wounds. And society pays the price, and little kids.
The whole emergency/transitional housing "initiative" has been a complete failure. This should'd be surprising because every single step in that process has been completely unplanned and designed solely to avoid criticism and embarrament around the provious step. This all started with the public embarrassment the national government faced over families sleeping in vehicles. Their response: put people into motels at up $2k a week and make the person or family responsible for paying it back. Things went quickly downhill from there.
The message to government, now, should be that their response to homelessness is for many worse than what the response was meant to address.
I know, i have been yelling about this for a while. And while National charged the cost of it to the hapless recipients of this charity, the Labour government is taxing 25% of ones benefit to pay for this largesse. Its fucked up beyond believe, and for those that need help, well, i guess there is none.
Following on from my question the other day about why the CDC was telling people that once they’re fully vaccinated their life can go back to normal.
https://twitter.com/megtirrell/status/1392945389846863874?s=21
so much we still don’t know. I get the pressure to rush but can’t help but feel we’re missing important parts of the process.
ITs testing time now. They have a large part of their population vaccinated and now they need the proof that it works as intended. The last final 'test phase' so to speak. I am a bit cynic that way.
Again, there are political reasons, and for what its worth, Biden on his last visit to a Ford Plant wore a Mask. Go figure.
Important parts of the process are being missed and will be missed until vaccination efficacy is known when it comes to prevention, transmission and fatalities.
Like Sabine said a “final test phase.”
On news of some US millionaires protesting that themselves, and all other less selfless millionaires to be taxed more.
What a great idea, why haven't people thought of this before?
How about this; Instead of wage freezes to pay for the covid recovery and fix the housing crisis, – we tax the rich more.
Yeah – I know the naysayers, will say that the rich people will just leave the country.
Really?
Try and find a low tax country that has a neo-lib economy with lax labour and health laws that isn't damaged by covid-19?
To remind them how fortunate they are to be in this country, the government could put a massive exit tax on rich emigres leaving the country. 'We don't care if you leave, just not with all your unearned income.'
If wealthy millionaires are that important to the country’s economy, ,Maybe the organisation of Patriotic Millionaires could be encouraged to come here to replace them?
But probably not, as they are more likely to be loyalto their country that let them become rich
millionaires saying billionaires should pay more tax? Or local tories would still call it the politics of envy lol
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/125163632/christchurch-social-housing-tenants-awardwinning-vegetable-garden-ripped-up
Why can't tenants just grow some veggies to make ends meet, or poor people? Well because the owner can just rip up your award winning veggie garden while you are away without even having to advise one. Cause complaints, and well other bannable words. But then apologizing seems easier to be upfront and work with the Lady and her award winning veggie patch.
It would be nice if someone could donate portable garden beds. To deprive an 80 year old of her hobby is mean spirited. The small area not destroyed could be used to raise the plants to go into the portable garden beds.
Was wilful damage done to her garden?
it was scrapped of the face of the earth. She will be provided with a strip of a meter alongside a fence.
I would like this case go to the Tenancy Tribunal. At one point she had permission from her landlord. Had a date been given that the garden was going to be ruined the outcome would have ensured that plants would have been harvested.
So what can and can't a shared area be used for?
Has it got to the point where everyone needs to have their backyard zoned?
She was not told. Treetop, she came home and her garden was gone.
Yes, everything now needs to be zoned, written down, signed off, three copies, etc etc.
"She received a letter in December 2019 from ŌCHT saying it planned to turn the garden into grass in the “next short while”. It let her keep one area until after the vegetables had been harvested, and"would turn that area into grass in April/May 2020, the letter said."
It seemed as there was a separate communication for her to replant because of delays, which she did but the original plan happened anyway.
This is the reality of renting in NZ – be you never so reasonable, someone can come in and wreck all your work and then use boss logic to "stand by the decision". Shame the lady can't run them through the courts.
it just shows the reality of what a 'tenant' can do or not. And hopefully it shuts those downs that always come up with, but the poor surely they can grow veggies like i do in my own garden. Right right?
Absolutely, Sabine. The ability to grow one's own veges demands some basic things. First, time as a tenant long enough to complete a cycle of ground preparation, seed planting, through to harvest. Time as a tenant long enough to consider it worthwhile to invest time and energy into 'building up the soil' with compost bins, soil enhancing crops to be dug in. It requires money for seed, fertiliser even if only lime, tools, watering gear. It requires good neighbours not to trample or steal crops. It requires some security of tenure.
This is all why community gardens and plots are so important. I lease one with a mate. Great craic as we work together, food enough to feed ourselves and give a third away, soil build up from couch infested grass cover to highly enriched ground that bears heavily, water laid on, security against theft and security against landlords ending tenancies or having to move from home.
My understanding of that was that another 'tenant(s)' complaining about access to a washing line.
My heart broke reading that story this morning.
Where I work unreasonable complaints from a small minority seem to carry inordinate weight. I heard a quote from Joseph Needham that authorities like OCHT could use for complaining NIMBYs- 'The dogs may bark the caravan moves on.'
Unfortunately is anyone surprised by this? It is after all Christchurch and her garden was obviously not Anglo enough.
If there were concerns about the space the garden was taking why did the landlord not help by putting in some garden bordering. Arseholes
What sort of arsehole complains about a neighbour's vege grden.
that was my first question.
no matter what you do, don't get sick, and don't get sick enough to need surgery, here its christchurch, but it could be anywhere.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/41-surgeries-at-christchurch-hospital-cancelled-after-surge-of-acutely-unwell-people/2R4ZCG4OASMMTZJEPGSNLTERRY/
Steven Donziger
New York lawyer Steven Donziger represented indigenous people in Ecuador in a landmark case that won them a massive judgment against Chevron Texaco in 2011. Chevron was found responsible for decades of oil pollution in the Amazon.
However, with billions of dollars at their disposal and refusing to accept the verdict, Chevron has worked to have Donziger disbarred, his bank accounts frozen, a lien put on his apartment, exorbitant fines charged to him, and have him prohibited from earning money. As of August 6, 2019, based on criminal contempt charges, a court has seized his passport and put him on house arrest.
This frightening travesty of justice is happening only blocks away from the headquarters of the New York Times, which, as he mentions bitterly in this interview, has steadfastly ignored this case….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ntqSR6z814
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/18/nobel-laureates-condemn-judicial-harassment-of-environmental-lawyer
Talk of Auckland Port moving again.
Always miss the obvious location , the industrial zone alongside the Steel Mill on the Waiuku tidal river. Has existing rail link and electric grid connections. Road connections are the best of all other options. Depths of channels even at low tide – from marine charts- show 12-14 m almost as far as Clarkes beach . The depth at the heads is 25-40m plus There is the shallow stretch a few km offshore but thats only for 2.5-3km between 12m depths. Most ports including Waitemata have dredged channels leading out to open ocean. Rotterdam thought of as a major deep water port has a dredged channel into North Sea of about 20km for large containerships and for larger oil and bulk carriers it extends to 80km off the coast to 20m plus depth
Best of luck Mr Mayor.
From a guy who can't manage a water company, or a transport entity, and your Council finances are chaotic, why would you think you can bully the Ports board any more effectively than you've failed to do over the last year?
What strange comments, totally devoid of meaning or relevance .
The weather has caused the shortage in dam storage, but its beside the point as the lowest levels reached are still in the 40% range. Its not a savings bank which is meant to be over 70% at all days , and last 2 years the rainy days didnt come- driest in over a century
The Council owns the shares for the Port company, theres is no bullying involved when you tell them to shape up.
The Waitemata will need a fair bit of work if it is to handle boats of any size – neither the channel nor the beacons are up to much. Last time we used it (in the dark on a little 200t trawler) we were out on the whaleback looking for piles with torches while the skipper was crouched over the sounder watching the water under his keel. He'd've liked a whole lot more.
Might be issues with weather too – the east coast ports don't present the same issues if there's a bit of a blow.
Manukau
True – not my home port 😉
Slight issue that a bar builds up constantly. Not to mention the normal swell in the entrance. And that dredging will need to be constant, and will be closed due to weather, often.
.
The obvious location is around Orere point.
Plenty of water within a mile of the shore. Sheltered and close to transport links, major exporters and importers, and other shipping users..
However we will lose our “hubbing” to OZ, while everyone advocates for their own unsuitable and expensive option.
Of course the Manukau entrance requires dredging along with the final part of the channel to Glenbrook.
As Ive pointed out dredging for their access channels is what most ports have. Dutch have super dredgers 30K to 60k size can handle the soft muds and sands easily.
The design of the entrance channel can be shaped underwater to allow the very strong tidal flow to help keep the depth, which you probably would make maybe 25m at low tide , much deeper than necessary
Also the size of container ship we are talking about means the wave patterns are not of concern. Even Wellington port has much worse , which closes the entrance a handful of times per year.
Orere has no transport links, requires invasive reclamations in a sensitive area. Cant compare to the industrial zone and transport/power links already at Glenbrook
Saves a day travel time on a voyage to Sydney or Melbourne which is what giant container ships like
Well, surely everyone is able to afford 600 per week for a three bedroom a week. Right?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/auckland-rents-barfoot-thompson-data-shows-weekly-cost-exceeds-600/O2OICHODTJUMDNTKSR5UNRH6TE/
Average household income in Auckland is higher than the national average -2020- of $107,000. It wont display the detail but would be $125k per household?
Households pay rent, very rarely would individuals be able to afford it
Households pay rent, of course if Mum, dad, and the kids all work and contribute to that. Mind, i think putting under 13th to work might not be quite legal, and some women don’t work for a while once they have kids. Details. Details.
107.000 is that before or after tax? Never mind, taxable amount would be 26.230 so here you are left with 81.000 grand after tax. Mind, i have lived for over two decades in Auckland and the only people that earned that amount did not rent, they paid mortgages. But details, details. 🙂
31.200 annual rent (if no extra increases 600 * 52 weeks) and you are left with 49.800.
Now if you have a stay at home mum, and three kids, that is not that grand?
Now if you are on a median income in AKL so around 48.000 grand per year, you have 40.580 left after paying tax, then minus rent you will have 781 NZD per month for your 'household', if Mum does not work.
And how lovely of you to ignore households that are made up of single parents, single grandparents, carers of people with disabilities etc who are often the only earner and the only payer.
But i guess that is not you?
And i guess you heard of the Accommodation benefits? That little thing you and i finance to help individuals pay these extortion rents? You did hear about them?
You asked who can afford $600 pw. Dont blame me if it isnt the answer you wanted
Well said Sabine. FFS, rents are obscene, pure and simple.
A friend of mine noticed a squatter on his property (old racing ground, half covered in bush, plenty of room to hide), in an old caravan. He's well away from my mates house, and no bother so mate is letting him stay. But now it's something we're both noticing more & more, caravans & vans with ppl living in them. And this is in Dunedin, there's gotta be a tipping point surely?
The average may be $107,000 but the median is only $86,000
Yum, Yum.
About time.
Of course in Japan schools have provided free lunch meals for their pupils, since forever.
Japanese free school lunches are so good, there are special school themed restaurants catering to paying adults who want to recapture their school meal memories.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jyw1yaV4Hg&t=1s